The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-17

reaches the municipal authorities they
can say with literal truth, tMesdames,
you have been misinformed and mis-
| led. The city of Topeka is not collect
ing fines from joints and dives. This
is prohibition town and If the re-
sorts you mention exist it is without
| the official cognizance of mayor or
council
IF the club women are going into
municipal reform seriously they ought
at least to know what the evils are
\ they have started to fight and some
thing about the real condition of the
to clean. They ought to know that re-
form work, practical and effectual,
means something more than fine
phrases and ringing paragraphs in
When they reveal their ignorance of
real conditions as they have in this
protest they can't blame anybody for
refusing to take them seriously. They
may be sure of one thing. the Powers
That Be will only laugh at them. But
if they understood the real situation,
which they might easily do If they
paid any attention to local politics and
were not blinded by narrow prejudices
they would be at least partly prepared
for effective struggle with the
forces of municipal corruption and
graft. They wouldn't be so easily de-
ceived in the public statements of can
didates for office and would under
stand better how it may sometimes
happen that a dry candidate for
nomination will get the votes of the
saloon element in the primary instead
of an open and avowed wet candidate
who is not afraid to say that he is for
the licensing and regulation of sa-
looms. 1t may occur to them that it is
that declaration for the licensing and
regulation of saloons that brings
down upon him the opposition of the
saloon element as we'll as of the dyed
in-the-wool prohibitionists. club wo-
men, ministerial union and others.
Far be it from me, as said before.
to knock the club women. They have
enlisted in righteous cause-but
they have shown at the outset that
they would fight. Maybe, though, they
suspect what the role of a real,
genuine reformer means and don't
care to undertake it. Maybe they can
satisfy their consciences with a pro-
test which won't do anybody any
harm and won't make them personally
unpopular. Nobody minds reform:
especially in club women. from whom
vagaries of that sort are rather ex-
pected, if it doesn't reform. Protests
are harmless; resolutions don't alarm
anybody. 1t is when reformers begin
to accomplish something. when they
show that they know the situation, I'M
derstand the evils that they are fight
out the corruptionists and grafters
that the latter become alarmed and
fight back and the amateur reformer
becomes the real thing and joins the
company of the select, ostra cized Few,
mostly dead. except LaFollette and
one or two others.
But down in my heart I think the
clu women are on the square in this
movement, only they don't know what
they are up against. They are evident
ly una ware of the identity of the real
Powers That Be-not, necessarily the
Powers That Are Supposed to Be and
who hold the officeS-in Topeka and of
how the graft is worked and the thing
managed. They assuredly don't under
stand the local political game and if
they did it is doubtful if they would be
willing to try to buck it. You see real
reform work entails a good many
things that the most ardently Advanced
woman would criticize as unfeminine.
She might even find. if she went into it
far enough, that she was in danger of
losing friends and hurting her husbands
1siness. She could be a real reformer
then. of course with the crown of
thorns upon her brow, but what's the
use when a ladylike protest couched in
dignif1ed language, will make much
noise in the newspapers and not get
anybody 'mad'?"
-he Kansas university CKappa)
chapter of the Kappa Alpha Theta
sorority issued invitations yesterday
for it's annual party, to take place jan
uary %.
Mr. Guilford Dudley. Mr. Tom King,
Mr. Harry Donaldson and Mr.. Ned Will
der of Kansas City were among the out
OF town guests at the Cotillion club
dance in Leavenworth last night. The
receiving party included Mrs. D. r. An