The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-17

purpose of securing the passage OF TAX
measure that would be Just and fair
to all, and for the passage Of a law
that would prevent the juggling OF
public funds for private gain, but you
and other members of the Republican
party were too intent, playing the game
of politics, to consider the interests Of
the people, and the result was that the
legislature adjourned, leaving upon the
statute book tax law which has been
a blight to the fair name of the state Of
Kansas ever since it was adopted.
SMITHS REPLY.
In answering Waggener Senator Smith
says in part:
Hon. B. P. Waggener.
Dear Sir: In the letter which accom-
panies your somewhat lengthy reply to
my editorial Of last week. you complain
that I criticized you. l do not recall
any criticism of you IN that article ex-
cept the statement that you are
Democrat and railroad lobbyist You
certainly will not deny that you are and
have been for twenty years railroad
lobbyist and highly successful one.
But it is probable that l was unjust in
characterizing you as Democrat. When
recall the fact that Governor Stanley,
a Republican, appointed your son to
lucrative office, that later you worked
strenuously and successfully for the
election of Senator Long, a Republican,
and against Governor Stanley; that
Republican speaker of the lower house
appointed you chairman of the commit
tee on judiciary, the most important
committee of the house, passing by such
able and sterling Republicans as jerks
of Ottawa. Peck of Cloud and others;
that you and Mr.. Leland were pals in
the control of the house whether in the
defeat or passage of legislation, am
constrained to admit that 1 may have
done you an injustice and that you are
after all a Republican of a kind. The
hand is the hand of Esau but the voice
is the voice of Jacob True you fooled
the opposition into believing that you
were one of them but that has been your
business for many years. The under
ground history of state legislation has
recorded your efforts in the session of
1897 and the special session. of 1898, ses-
sions controlled~in both branches by the
party whose allegiance you ostensibiy
profess, and in the first of which you
prevented any railroad legislation and
in the second secured the passage of
that monstrosity the court OF visitation
, bill by methods that would have chal-
lenged the admiration of MachiavelI,
Sir Robert Walpole or Boss Tweed.
I'm the conduct Of the tax bill you
fooled Gov. Bailey, fooled me. and many
other Republicans for a while, till you
were forced to show your hand in open
opposition to it. You sat in the house os-
tensbly as a member from Atchison coun-
ty but in truth and in fact as the attor-
ney for the Missouri Pacific railroad, the
Western Union telegraph company the
| Pacific Express company, the Kansas City
Stock Yards company, together with many
other corporations whose interests were
and in addition you represented clients
who have more than a million dollars
| loaned in Kansas on which they pay no
taxes. 1t is therefore not to be wonder
| ed at that you opposed bill that would
have made your clients pay their taxes;
that YOU headed that powerful lobby that
secretly and insiduously paralyzed the eff
forts of the friends of equitable taxation.
| Corporations always know exactly what
they want and what they do not want and
| they select the best instruments to secure
their desires. The people, unfortunately,
are often slow to apprehend their. true
| interests, and So the tax bill which would
have increased the taxes of every corpora
| ton and money lender in Kansas, was
beaten.
You say the tax bin was condemned by
/ criticism with practically no defenders
save the commission, in the face Of pow
I it, after such a. campaign as has never
| been made against any bill. in this state,
it passed both houses and tut for the IN;
have become a law. The tax commission
has been vindicated. It's work has not
win be adopted in Kansas ernbodying the
main features of this bill. But what can
you say for yourself? You pretended at
the outset to be friendly to the bill. You
repeatedly, in private conversation and
publicly. complimented the commission
upon it's work, while at the same time
striving to defeat it, and serve your
clients whose interests were opposed to
it. There is that difference between you
and Mr.. Leland He fought the bill in the
open, publicly condemned it and every one
| knew where he STOOD Y on WORKED IN the
dark like a mole, and the practices and
skill of twenty years lobbying for cor
porations were successfully employed to
| you lard me with compliments as a
constitutional lawyer and ask me how
! the Francis bill interfered with the con-
/ stitutionaI duties of the state treasurer
| I assume that everyone knows what a
| treasurer is and what his duties are. 1t
would be as absurd to turn over to the
governor the law functions of the attor-
ney general, to transfer to the superinten.
dent of public instruction the duties or
state auditor as to turn over to the aud
itor the ordinary functions of state treas
urer understood and practiced by every
state treasurer in the 1orty-nVe common
wealths of our country
Whatever I did or forebore to do in
| connection with the Francis amendment
was done foreborne for the sake of the
| tax bill, and it was done. in the OPEN
There was no concealment, no subterfuge,
no skulking. Can you say as much for
when we worked for the passage of
| the tax bill in the house the Francis bill
was before the senate on it's merits. Tho
| enactment or defeat of tax legislation
that we did so because the Francis
amendment had been omitted from it is
Morton Albaugh. George Hayden and J.
NJ. Nation work with US for the passage
of the bill because the Francis amendment
was omitted from it? We worked for It
shoulder to shoulder. forgot all other diff
ferences and disagreements because the
party was pledged to tax reform and We
| felt that it's failure would be party mis-
fortune. The great mistake of that ses-
sion from a Republican standpoint was
two-faced politics and your corporate as
i sociationS the most important committee
in the house. a leading part in the joint
| committee and thereby opportunity to de-
feat the wishes of a majority of the Re
| publcans of both houses.
| Let me say that I do not think with
you that the general public regards us as
| of great Importance or is much interested
in this controversy. | am glad of the OPP
portunity you have given me to state the
facts, but I do not think that the public
is waiting with bated breath for your
communication. BY the numerous inter
views given out in Topeka and Kansas
City announcing the approa ching culmi-
/ nation of your thunderbolt it evident
ly fancied that for the next week the
public interest would be divided between
erFrra ching war between TaDau and