The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-13
$500: a KANsAs 1AFoII.r1-11s

wan AGDs "A KANSAS LAEOIifIEII'Es
When Robert NJ La Toilette finally
decided to become a United states SEN
ator instead of continuing as governor
Of Wisconsin, there was a free-for-all
guessing match as 70 whether he would
observe senatorial courtesy and remain
in the background for a time. or would
at once come to the front as his prom
inence as a national figure would war
rant
There IS an unwritten law that no
senator shall make a speech during his
first year in the senate. He is supposed
to be seen and not heard-and he
mustn't be seen too much Any attempt
to break over this rule is frowned down
by the older senators who run that
body
Senator La Toilette gave no intima-
ton Of his intentions when he took his
seat a few weeks ago. Perhaps he had
no intentions. He conducted himself in
a modest and unassuming. manner. He
made no attempt to help run things"
But before he had been in the senate
six weeks the Curtis Indian bill came
over from the house. where it had al
ready passed. La Toilette did not like
the looks of it. He iathered a CIV
facts and figures and attacked the bill
in the senate committee. but the COM
n1ittee recommended it over his pro-
test
Then La Toilette broke over customs
and usages. He believed there was a
tremendous graft in the bill. and he
attacked it so forcibly and convincingly
A. ,e to
at could not do other than sustain him.
1t turned down its committee report
and knocked out the coal land lease pro-
visions.
The bill then had to go to conference.
and the house conferees, backed by a
powerful lobby. insisted that the land
should be leased. La Toilette attacked
the report of the conference committee,
defeated it, and again the bill went to
conference. Senator La Toilette then
went to President Roosevelt and laid
the matter before him, and It is said
the president had determined to veto
the bill If it came to him with the lease
provision in. That was unnecessary,
however, for the house and senate both
finally capitulated to La Toilette. and
the senator from Wisconsin, in less
than two months from the time he had
entered the senate, had became leader.
Had 1t not been for Senator L Fol-
lette that alleged coal land graft. in
volving hundreds of millions Of dollars,
would have gone through without
protest. La Toilette broke over sena-
torial rules. but his very evident sin
certify, his unanswerable argument, and
the apparent business of his cause won
him his victory.
That is the kind of a man Kansas
needs to send to the senate to retrieve
the disgrace brought upon her by Bur-
ton. Why should not Kansas elect
senator next winter who can take his
place beside La Toilette; a senator who
is not only not suspected of being own
ed by the railroads. ut whose OppOsi-
ton to graft and corporation domino
ton is well known; a senator who al
ready has a national reputation for in
tegrity and honesty; a senator who will
be as great a power in Washington
from the start as La Follette-if not
greater-and who will be feared by ev-
cry CRATER in the government; a SEN
ator who has made a deep study of ma
tional questions and who already has
wide acquaintance with Washington
men and affairs. Kansas has such a
man