The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-12
Pretty Certain to Be a Candi-
date for Speaker.
Burton Machine Puts Stop on
His Ambitions.
WANTED TO BE SENATOR
ID. w. MuIvane Said He Could
Not DO That.
Must Stand for the Lower House
Only.

The probability that T. A. McNeal
will stand as a candidate for the Leg
islature from the city district of To-
peka. and also if he is elected. as he
undoubtedly will be if. he runs. that he
will make the race for speaker of the
house. means that there will be some-
thing doing in those lines in the next
legislative campaign. Things are always
lively when Tom McNeal is around,
and the erudite editor of the Mail and
Breeze will doubtless make his COM
petitor know that he is in the race all
right, all right.
1t was Mr.. McNeaps original ambi-
ton to be state senator from Shawnee
county, and he was trimming his sails
for that job. He has been a plain.
plug representative of the people in the
lower house before-he served a term
from Barber county. the home of Ches-
ter l. Long and Jerry Simpson. years
ago-and he did not find a return to
that body very attractive. Besides, he
has been saying some pretty rough
things about the lower house during
the last few months. and he was
doubtful about its being any great
honor to be a representative. Some of
the other fellows might talk about him
that way.
So Mr.. McNeal wanted to be a SEN
ator and with the senators stand. But
the Burton machine in Shawnee county
had decreed otherwise. 1t wants a sem
ator that it is sure will be for the re-
election of Joseph r. Burton to the
United States senate in 1907. The state
senator who is elected next year will
hold over and have a vote for senator
at that time, and Mr.. McNeal is not
altogether Burton sort of a man. He
might not line up for Burton in 1907.
The machine is sure of ChaneV.
The Burton machine in Shawnee
county. of which d. w. Mulvane is the
master mechanic. has decreed that
John II. CLANCY shall be reelected to
the senate as the most available can
didate for it's purposes, but Mr.. Nc
Meals candidacy might have proved
fatal TO that decree. though it had at
first feared he had too greatly weak
ened himself 1t was therefore neces-
sarY to shut off his candidacy, but at
the same time the Burton people did
not wish to incur his enmitv. The en-
nifty of man who can write the way
Tom McNeal can is not a good thing
to have around the house when one is
running for office.
The plan was accordingly proposed
that Mr.. McNeal should run for the low
er house to succeed A. F. Williams, who
will not be a candidate for reelection.
In order to make it attractive, it was
also proposed that Mr.. McNeal be the
anti-Leland candidate for speaker, and
can doubtless be elected to the house
without much difficulty, and he would
put up good fight for speaker. People
like the newspaper reporters, who have
to work around the Legislature, will be
glad to see Mr.. McNeal a member
But there are other difficulties ahead
of the Burton machine. ]. B. Belts is
already member of the lower house and
he has an ambition to be advanced TO
the senate He belongs to the Burton
camp, and some way will have to be
found to appease him. Then c. p Boil
mar is talking about running for sena-
tor also and it will be a pretty difficult
matter to switch him off if he makes
up his mind to run and his platform will
be that of antagonism to the Curtis
Burton machine.
And this is not all either. If Mr.. Nc
Neal is not a candidate for the senate
it is not at all improbable that John B.
Sims will be. Like Mr.. Belts, Mr.. Sims
has served a term in the lower house.
He represents the couatry district of
Shawnee county. but at the same time
he has a great many friends in the city
of Topeka, and the Burton machine
could scarcely get him to keep out ex-
cept by making him believe that he
could not win. Mr.. Sims is Curtis
man but is unalterably opposed to Bur-
ton and he is therefore very distasteful
to D. w. Mulvane-