The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-01
Kansas, FAKE SENSATION.

The newspaper fake artist has been
again at work in a way to attract at
tention to Kansas. This time he has
done nothing that will injure the good
name of the state. but he has set the
newspapers of the east to publishing
editorials about the up-to-d ate-ness of
Kansas women. The st. Louis Post
Dispatch of Monday contains the follow
ing editorial, which is only one of many
similar ones which are being published
in the east this week:
"a FEMININE VICTORY.
THE election of a majority of women
members of the Kansas school board is
victory of practical sense in practical
politics of which the women may we'll
feel proud.
THE issue was. free courtship. The
board last spring issued orders that wo-
men teachers should not receive atten-
tions from men matrimonially minded,
and should not marry during the school
year.
tResenting this unwarranted interior
ence with personal liberty the women OF
the state organized a cunning political
machine and showed the men under
when the elections came on. The secret
Of it was that they kept their plans to
themselves. The men did not dream of
the near presence of the enemy in force
and did not wake up until too late to
save themselves from practical extinc
ton.
Woman can learn to do anything
from darning socks to packing caucuses.
Wherever she is tried she succeeds. That
is the experience so far recorded, and
there is no reason to believe that if she
puts her mind to it she cannot become
just as efficient a boss as Matt Quay or
Dick Croker. Let US hope. however,
that she will exercise her power in the
public interest and not follow the foot
steps of those worthless
All of this started from a provision
said to have been inserted in a school
contract by a southern Kansas school
board some time ago, that the school
teacher should not give her time to go
ing with" young men during the school
term. An enterprising newspaper cor
respondent somewhere in that section
exaggerated 1t until it was made to APP
pear that such provisions were general
in contracts with Kansas school
ma'ams. In a short time the eastern
papers were publishing items about the
Kansas law which prohibited school
ma'ams from being courted
Now the newspaper artist has come to
the aid of the school ma ans. A few
days ago a story appeared simultan-
eously in a dozen or more metropolitan
papers stating that returns which had
lust been received by the Kansas super
intendent of public instruction showed
that a very large number of women had
been elected on the school boards this
year. Inquiry had developed the fact,
the story continued. that the women of
the state had risen en- masse, had cap
tured the annual school meetings, de-
posed all the men as members of the
boards and elected women IN their
places on the sole issue of allowing
school ma'ams to be courted. The wo-
men were able to thus organize, the
story said because the men were busy
in the harvest fields. Meanwhile the
women went from house to house and
laid their plans. while the unsuspecting
men were hard at work. and on school
election day the women had everything
their own way. After this victory the
women who are on the school boards
will allow the pretty school maans to
love and be loved the same as anybody
else.
Just why the newspapers of the east
should take up with story of this kind
is not clear. The suspicion arises that
it was because it was well written and
that it would attract attention-what in
newspaper parlance would be called "a
good story" regardless of its accuracy.
In this particular instance the fake
probably will do the state no particular
harm. but there have been instances
where such things have been positive
detriment to Kansas.