The Goodland republic., 1907-02-15
FOB All EFFECTIVE PRIMARY
OR PEOPLE WILL TURN PARTY
DOWN.
Allen White says Kansas
Legislature Must Give the People
an Effective Law.

Emporia. Kan, Feb. 11--Under the
heading Look Ahead" ". A White
says editorialIy in the Gazette this
afternoon:
''The trouble with a man who runs
a machine. either political OF other
wise, is that the tendency always is
for him to become a part OF the ma
chine. all iron, steel and brass and to
forget that there is a world Of reason
and emotions beyond the mechanism
he is working. The men running the
political machine OF Kansas, creased
with railroad money, are in grave
danger OF becoming 50 much a part OF
the machine that like the BourbOns
Of France they will learn nothing and
can forget nothing. The recent cleo
ton in Kansas contained a solemn
warning The people Of Kansas show
ed plainly that they are independ-
ent voters, and that they viii vote
against railroad domination, wherever
il occurs. That election also showed
that the republicans of Kansas are
independent, and that they can't be
fooled.
The Primary Law Demanded.
'sThe people Of Kansas are in favor
OF doing away with the trading sys-
TEN OF politics that is inevitable when
caucuses and conventions are held to
nominate candidates. The people de-
sire a primary law which viii do away
with nominating conventions entirely
and give every republican and every
democrat in Kansas one vote and no
more in the nomination OF every can
II II
from township trustee TO United States
senator The people know that when
nominations are made in conventions
they are made as the results Of trades
and that in trading the machine poll
ticians, with railroad money and rail-
road favOrs at their command, can
trade the people out OF their rights
and give the advantage on every ticket
to the railroads. The convention sys-
tenn, whether the delegates are in
structed or not, puts a bar across the
path OF government by the people and
makes government by the professional
politicians possible Kansas is in the
hands OF the railroads, not because the
people are not honest, nor because
they are careless, but because the
railroads have paid traders, at the
state capital and at many county seats
IL
nominees for important Offices are
traded away by the people for favors
TO the politicians.
A Fake Primary Bill.
''The people Of Kansas know this.
They know who the traders are. They
know that under the convention sys-
tenn the real rulers OF Kansas are not
the proper government Of so-called
al -E
the people know that the real rulers
Of Kansas are the political traders,
Dave Mulvane, Tom Kelly, Mort Al
baugh and the professional politicians.
The people cant be fooled by a fake
primary bill that gives the politicians
a chance to trade the people in con-
ventiOn out Of their political rights
and the astounding thing is that the
machine men who grow owl-eyed in
horror at the danger to the republi-
can party do not see that the passage
Of a fake primary law seals the doom
OF the party in Kansas two years from
now.
''The people may be patient; they
have been patient in the past, but
when it comes to insulting them by
offering them a bill like the Ho1dren
bill and calling it a primary law, the
Kansas people will do to the railroad
ridden legislators and the railroad rid
den Organization what they did to Ed
HOch last year, but they won't stop at
a warning, they viii apply the CAD.
The Square Dealers Of Kansas.
I'VE have banished the mobiles and
the barOns in this country. We have
wiped out caste, but until we estab-
Hsh political equality, so that every
man shall have exactly the same voice.
in the nomination Of his party's can
didates that every other man has the
rule Of special privilege in this. state
will not be broken. That is the end
and aim in life Of those pioneers Of
the main line OF the fight-knOwn
in Kansas as the Square Dealers,
known in New Jersey as the New Idea
men, known in Wisconsin as the Half
Breeds known in Washington as
that animal at the end Of the avenue
"And in view Of last years election
returns, it is pretty evident that the
rank and file Of Kansas republicans
know the situation and can't be fool
ed, and as Bryan looms big on the
horizon It behooves the bosses at To-
peka to heed the people this year
rather than to abuse them next year.
For the republican party in this state
belongs to the people and not to the
politicians. And the people may give
it a dose OF purgative for its own good
If the politicians tie the party up too
tight to the hierarchy Of lower Broad