The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-30

untouched by Popuiism. So intense it
was that it Slapped the foundations not
only of the political, but also the COM
mercial life of the state, produced new
newspapers in every county, with long
lists of devoted subscribers trading only
with merchants who advertised therein;
so intense that neighborhoods conspired
to stay away from country school house
! Republican meetings, while whole town
ships to a man, woman and child de-
voted days to listening to orators i'm
ported from the south preaching the
New Doctrine; so intense that it invad-
ed the merchantile field, started general
stores, insurance companies, banks and
even projected railroads; so intense that
it overturned Kansan the state had
ldollzed-a man apparently as perma
nent in Kansas as Blaine in Maine or
Sherman in Ohio-swept out the con-
gressmen, captured the state house and
took possession of most of the county
buildings in the state.
1t was day when statesmen strad-
died. politicians wobbled and hitherto
unsupported partisans were caught in
deep and troubled thought. 1t was a
crusade, a revolution and a stampede
astride runaway cyclone. with whip
and spur.
And in the path of its fearful, its
devastating, desolating and dislocating
progress, in a day when the air was
full of Alliance associations forming,
and sub-treasury warehouse societies
organizing, and initiative and referen-
dunn groups gathering, in that path and
on that day, the Kansas Day club rep
resentative of the loyal Republicans of
| Kansas, took it's stand and started in
with a counter-acting rotary motion of
/ its own-to untWist that cyclone.
What was the faith of those at the
first gathering of this club? What con-
viction gave them courage?
This, that the Republican party had
not lived its day. Why? Because the
two great considerations in any gov
eminent are the moral and material
well-being of its citizens, and the party
which conserves both and as long as it
conserves both, cannot die.
The Republican party accomplished
the greatest single act of morality in
the history of the nation in its youth
the abolition of slavery. And it has
stood by that cardinal principle-the
liberty of the individual since. For no
where since the war is the Republican
party on record against free schools,
free speech, and to all citizens, white
or black, full franchise and a fair
count.
| Even the Alliance men conceded that
But what of the material WeIlbeing of
the citizen? Had the Republican party
grown to forget the interest of the in
dividual. The Alliance man said the
Republican party had. The loyal Re
publican said the Republican party had
not
They keep the books down in Wash
ington, ledgers of the generation. These
books tell. Consider these two items.
Item one: From the landing of the
Pilgrims until 1860, including Y years
of Democratic policies, the wealth of the
United States had grown TO be sixteen
| billion dollars.
Item 2: From 1860 to 1900. under Re
| publican policies, the wealth had grown
| to be ninety-four billion dollars.
Think-seventy-e eight billion increase
for forty years. against sixteen billions
| for 24O FEARS.
The loyal Republican of 1890. rooted
in the belief that his party had con-
served and was conserving the ma
| terial and moral wel1-being of the ma
ton, stood fast. Without this faith the
Kansas Day club could not have been
/ born, or being born, survived
Never was faith more completely re-
| Warded-
The old conflicts, the old wounds. the
old antagonists have receded far back
| into the past: the sociaphagus states