The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-10

might be less danger of troSble for
him, but the other state officers would |
not stand for that, but insisted on put
ting the regular state officers in their |
statutory order, but the justices of the
court and the railroad COM
missioners were placed last. The order
was fixed follows:
Governor.
Lieutenant governor.
Secretary of state
auditor.
Treasurer.
Superintendent of public instruction.
superintendent of Insurance.
Congressman at large.
Two supreme court justices for six
years.
Supreme court justice for four years.
Three railroad commissioners.
State committee.
Delegates to the national convention.
After this report was adopted the
platform was reported by the commit
tee on resolutions
Following the reading of the platform
T. A. McNeal, whom Chairman StubbS
mad called to the chair temporarily,
asked for nominations for governor and
Fred Dumont Smith arose on the plat
form and made his formal speech, plac-
name was applauded. Smith made the
speech at Mr.. Hoch's request.
MIR. SMITHS SPEECH.
Mr.. Smith spoke as follows:
IN the presence of this magnificent
body of representative Republicans,
fresh from the battlefelds of the par
ty, it would be idle to ignore the fact
that there has been a fight. Some of
the scars are yet visible, some of the
wounds, 1t may be, are yet bleeding,
but time will heal the one and efface
the other. And the purpose and object
of this great convention is not merely
to record the result of that battle, to
voice and announce the common pur-
poses and plans of our party, but above
and beyond that to declare that the
war has ended, that here and now
peace shall begin.
I'VE are not met here as victors and
vanquished, the one eager to trample
upon q beaten enemy, the other forced
to bend the knee and pass beneath the
yoke. We are met here as friends, fell
low Republicans with common ideals
and hopes and aspirations, and every
note of undue exultation and every
note OF unnecessary humiliation, is L
diScord in the Republican chorus.
ION the threshold of this building all
acrimony should be dropped, all bitter
ness forgotten, mindful only of our re-
SponS1bllity as representatives of that
great party that is the only hope and
salvation of our country. This conven-
tion marks and records the most pro-
found and wonderful revolution in pub
lie affairs ever witnessed in Kansas or
elsewhere. This imperial common
wealth. by turns the pride and the jest
of the other 44-the breeding ground
and the nursery of every political mi
crobe the world has known, vibrating
always from farce to tragedy, but al
ways holding the center of the stage,
had apparently subsided to the dead
level of common place, and then as al
ways the unexpected happened. We
knew that there was a vast and grow
ing feeling of unrest within the party,
of dissatisfaction with existing condi-
tiens, but we thought it could be paci-
fed. we believed it could be stifed and
smothered. We forgot that Kansas
Republicans know neither gag nor
ShackleS.
THAT unrest grew to a movement,
swelled to an outburst, became a polit-
ing force old landmarks were submerg-
ed, old leaders swept away, and every
citadel of organized power and patron
age fell in ruins
THAT movement came from every
part and section of the state. 1t came
from the marts of trade and commerce,
from the forum and the pulpit, from
the printing office and the farm. 1t
came from the corn-fed dwellers along
the Solomon and the Kaw. 1t came
from the sweating, grin1y toilers who
delve and burrow in the southeast. 1t
came from the warning, scalp-dancing
tribes of Wyandotte, and it came from
the spurred and belted riders along the
western border,
1T came as the winds come, when
forests are rended;
| Came as the waves comes, when
navies are stranded.
even the gloomy political Businesses
of Doniphan, rock-ribbed and ancient
as the hills, felt the thrill and crepita-
ton of that tremendous movement.
And yet, snd yet, that movement vast
and spontaneous as it was would nave
been a failure, would have been as futile
as a Fenian rebellion, as idle and nope
less as a reform movement in Missouri,
/ had it not been for the character ana
personality of one man.
"A st11te and experienced politicians
have prepared a platform for this con-
vention have spread forth the usual
hv paper promises to catch votes, but /
saw 10 you that Ed. Hoch is all the
platform this party needs. He repres-
| ents in himself every ideal and aspira-
ton of that remarkable uprising. l am
not here to pronounce his eulogy or re-
cite his biography. Neither are needed
in this convention. His life is an open
book that every Kansan has read. his
| character, his record. his party devo-
| ton and service are as we'll known II
Kansas as the Decalogue and the
Golden Rule. He represents in himself
| every ideal of the young in politics anc
every hope of the old. He enbodies
| the standard of civic righteousness, the
! obligations of neighbOr and friend ano
| the sanctity of home and fireside. The
women of Kansas are for him. and his
success, like that of another leader be-
loved by the nation, marks the triumph
| of ideals in public affairs Political
pessimsm is in some sort fashion. II
is popular to decry politics and bewai
the approaching dissolution of the re-
public, but l say to you that the re-
public is in no danger and Kansas is
| safe when our voters at the polls car
vote a ticket headed by Theodore
Roosevelt and Ed Hoch-
.sIn all my life I have had no proude1
moment than this that permits me to
place in nomination as your candidate
| for governor, E. W. Hoch of Marion.
| AS soon as Smith had concluded f.
Il. Marlin of Hutchinson jumped Ut
and seconded the nomination on be
1 half of Reno county This was not or
the programme, as o. c. Billings OF