The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-11-02
f. D. Morse, Former Sixth Dis
trict Man, Visits Topeka.
Discovers That Politics Have
Played Queer Franks.
HE LIKES JOHNSTON.
Says State House Messenger
Should Be Higher Up.
Now Running a. Newspaper at
Santa Rosa, N. NJ.

f. D. Morse now of Santa Rosa, n.
M, but formerly a politician and law
yer of considerable prominence in the
Sixth district, has come back to Kan
sas after an absence of Is years. and
his comments on the various turns in
affairs taken during his absence bear
some resemblance to the impressions
of Mr. Rip Van Wrinkle after his ex-
tended absence from accustomed
haunts.
Mr. Morse was in Topeka yesterday
on his way to Smith county where ne
expects to renew old acquaintanees.
He called at the State Journal Office,
and said:
Politics have been playing strange
pranks here in Kansas since / left. I
don't suppose my leaving had any
thing to do with it, but the way things
have lined uD has been quite different
from what we might have anticipated
at that time.
'I went to the state house and I
found Joe Burrow in as secretary Of
state. I found Cy Anderson holding
down a fat job as secretary Of the
board of railroad commissioners. I
found that Haskell had landed as war
den of the penitentiary. John O.
Royce is bank commissioner, the best
political appointment in the state.
Now I'm not saying anything against
these men. but I want to state that
the smartest Sixth district man in the
lot, Jim Johnston, is holding down the
most humble job of all. Johnston IS
a state house messenger, a little old
500 job. &hnstOn knows enough to
hold any Office in the state house. and
the only reason he did not get ahead
! further is that he didn't have push
Johnston was too modest and unas-
-, 4 Ii
own horn, and the result was that no
one blew it for him, and he seems to
have been lost in the shuttle.
Johnston was county treasurer out IN
my county at one time, and he was the
best we ever had. He had great political
strength, simply on his personal popu-
larity. People would quit work and go
to the polls just to vote for Jim Johnston
If he had hired the right kind of an ad-
VertiSing manager, he might have been
sitting at the TOP of the heap now, in
stead of being merely a state house mes
senger. Johnston would be n credit TO
Kansas as secretary of state. or bank
commissioner, or any of the other offices
when I lived in Smith county I was
in the law business. I moved from there
to TregO county in 1855, and stayed in
Trego county about three years, until
everything dried Up and blew away.
There were no people left, and cOnse-
cuently the law business was rather
4 shaky. I owned considerable land, but
4 when they got to piling up taxes of
I about 500 on quarter section. when
I GOu4uH L pG SuiQ AOI any price el all L uts-
/ cided that I had about all I wanted
/ let the land go, and moved out to Ration,
! where I went into the newspaper bust
ness. I ran the Ration Ranger for a
number of years, and finally sold out at
/ a good profit. Then I went to Santa
4 Rosa. where I bought the Santa Rosa
/ Sun There were only about 1900 people
/ in the town. and half of them can't read
/ English; consequently the circulation of
/ the Sun was not very large. But
! changed the Sun from Democratic to Re
/ publican in politics. got the county print
/ ing and land office business, and in about
/ three. months had the bushes so that il
! paid me a little
Not very long ago had a letter from
! a man who offered me S75 for a quit
/ claim deed to one of those old quarters
/ owned in Treeo county. II said that he
! had a tax title to the land. and wanted
/ to clear everything up so that he could
! give a warranty deed. accepted his
! offer, because the SO was Just so much
clear gain to me 1 wish had some OF
/ that land now
J Mr.. and Mrs. Morse will put in some
/ time in Smith county visiting their reia-
( tives before returning to Santa Rosa