The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-07
A1EssnN FOR LONG.


If Senator Chester I. Long will
calmly and dispassionately analyze
some of the results of the recent cleo
ton in that portion of the state inn
mediately surrounding his own home,
the eastern half or two-thi-ds of the
Seventh district, he will perhaps dis
cover that there are a large and rap
idly increasing number of the kind of
"Populists'' that he pronounced Sen
ator LaFollette to be.
The locality designated is where
1.-THE Long machine" has been reign
ing for years. The people of that To-
cality have heretofore stood by Sena-
tor Long. Mr.. Long and his friends
have dominated the politics of that
section and have usually named the
Republican legislative nominees. The
people have had confidence in Sen
ator Long. and anything he desired Of
them he received-untiI recently.
Since Senator Long has apparently al
lied himself with the element that is
fighting LaFoliette-the senator might
object to the charge that he is allied
with the corporations-the people. the
rank and file. have deserted him.
There will be something like thirty
two Democrats in the coming 1egis-
iature. and Senator Longs congress
sional district furnishes one-third OF
them Potent Fact Numer One.
Nearly all of these Democrats come
from that part of the district where
Senator Long and his supporters are
in control. In the eastern two-thirds
of the Seventh district, including as
far west as Ness, Hodgeman. Ford
and Clark counties. there are eighteen
representatives. Just half of them are
Democra ts-and that in a region that
is overwhelmingly Republican. a re
gion that gave E. H Madison some
thing like $500 majority for con-
gresham. Potent Fact Number Two
If Senator Long continues his pres
ent attitude he can conjecture from
this result in his own locality what
will happen two years hence over the
state at large to those legislative can
didates who are known to be favor.
able to his reelection to the senate.
The State Journal has in the past
been a warm admirer of Senator Long.
1t was disappointed when he failed to
be one of the foremost in starting the
fight for rate regulation Instead he
remained an unknown quantity. This
might have been condoned had it not
been for the attitude he afterwards as
sumed and the spirit he manifested to-
wards Senator LaFonette and his
measures.
Senator Long made the great politi-
cal mistake of his career in lining up
with the Aldrich crowd and in making
the attacks he has on LaFollette in
the recent campaign The senator
may call L.aFollette a "Populist" and
all the other harsh names in his
political vocabulary, but the fact re-
mains that Kansas worshiDs at the
shrine of LaFollette, and what the
rank and file of the people of Kansas
desire more than anything else in
politics just now is the election of a
United States senator who will be a
LaFollette sort of a man, a man who
will not only vote right, but one who
will make an aggressive fight for what
is right
The conclusion that one must draw
from the legislative election in Senator
Longs country is that the Long ma
chine" has lost its grip on the people. |
In the counties referred to the Re
publicans elected representatives in
Kingman. Barber. one in Reno, stat
ford, Barton. Rush, Comancne, Clark
and Ford. The Republicans were de-
feated in Harper Pratt, one in Reno.
Rice. Pawnee. Edwards, Kiowa.
Hodgeman, and Ness.
Senator Longs attitude in the pres
ent congress and in the following ses-
sion viii be watched with interest by
his Kansas constituents
Dodge city having coppered a con-