The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-04
|AT The TOP NOTCH
Final Struggle Between Rail-
roads and the People Is On.
CenterS i'm Two Measures Before
the Legislature.
BATTLE A HARD ONE.
Powerful Lobby Has Been on
the Ground.
Stone Bill and Stubs Primary
Law Points Of Attack.
BATTLE A HARD ONE,

been, it will generally be conceded, the
| factor which has prevented justice TO
| the people in transportation problems.
The sentiment of Kansas that has been
so widely expressed in the election of
the members of the present legislature,
| through the newspapers and over the
| state generally, is the sentiment that
| the railroads so fer as possible must
be. prevented from exercising the in
fluence in politics which for years and
years has enabled them to dominate
legislation.
| The measure which has been promi-
nently before the house during the last
| week, and considered favorably In both
4 the house committee of the whole and
in the senate committee on railroads Is
| the antf-pass bill. This bill from pres
| ent indications will be real antl-pass
/ bill. and not one which will permit
railroads by a subterfuge to grant
passes to politicians and others for
purely political railroad influences.
The progress and development of the
antt-pass measure along these lines Is
the highly gratifying and satisfactory
situation as presented by the past
| weeks work. If the coming early days
| continue this good work up to the line
of actual legislation there will be re-
| joicing and satisfaction over the entire
state.
! Next in Importance in the line of pre-
venting nefarious railroad political in
huence is probably the primary cleo
measure is likely to occupy much of the
present week. What the people de-
| mand, if plainly expressed sentiment is
| to be considered, is a real primary law,
| as we'll as a real anti-pass law. Any
| thing spurious along either of these
| lines will be repudiated- The object of
primary law is to put the nomina-
tion for all offices in the hands of the
people themselves and not in the hands
of professional politicians to whom the
railroads look for their wire pulling.
lou -n-1
primary law in action. by reason of
this legisla ture, there will be real and
genuine satisfaction on the part of
Kansas toward its legislature of 1907.
There are no lengths to which the
railroad lobbyists will not go to defeat
the anti-pass law and the primary cleo
tion law.
One prominent state politician said
today: II venture to say that this fight
has cost the railroads upwards of $780,
900 in transportation and cash. Much
of this was sr-nt before election in
helping to secure the election of the
right men to the legislature2
The past week has been one of many
midnight conferences at the Copeland
some of them lasting till far toward
daylight.
The Elks' club is also a favorite place
for making converts, and for the super
lative degree, the member has been
road Club" otherwise known as the
Topeka club.
There is no evidence of members be-
ing bought out and out, by the transfer
of cash. Some members have received
so many favors at the hands of the
railroads that they are quite generally
recognized as part of the railroad lob
by itself.
w. R. Stubbs, the author of the pri-
mary election bill which bears his
name, declares that the present crisis
sion. He said:
.'AII the efforts of railroad attorneys
and railroad lobbyists are centered in
the defeat of the Stone anti-pass bill
and my primary election law If those
two bills become laws without material
amendment, it means that the fight is
won for I feel confident that all the
rest of the proposed laws regulating
railroads, such as the maximum freight
law, and the amendments in the rail-
road law will be enacted without much
difficulty. Right here is where the big
fight is going to take place, and if the
battle is won, it means that thousands
of dollars will be saved to the taxpay-
ers of Kansas every year, and that the
day of railroad influence in political
and state affairs will be just about
over.
"On the other hand, If the railroads
can defeat the primary law and the
anti-pas law, it will be very difficult
to secure the enactment of any of the
proposed measures for the good of the
people IN their strife with the rail
roads.
Concerning the proposed Creech pri-
mary law and the Holdren primary
law, 1 can simply say that they are
/ drafted on an entirely different theory
from the one which 1 have presented,
and will fail to accomplish the pur-
poses which should be attained
! politician from Mcpherson county
met a railroad attorney of well known
political prominence in the lobby of the
Copeland one day during the latter part
| of last week, and was overheard to say
to him:
for the anti-pass law?
| TT looks bad to me- replied the rail-
road attorney, cit looks like a band
wagon proposition"
The friends of the anti-pass and pri-
mary election laws believe that they
have enough votes in the house to in
sure the passage of both the Stone bill
and the Stubbs bill. The senate of
| course, is the stumbling block as it has
been in times past to certain anti-raiI-
road legislation, but ii is hoped that
the manifest popular demand for the
two laws will pull them through
The trouble will come on the primary
law, when the senate cuts the bill to
pieces with amendments. and the speak
I er of the house appoints his conference
| committee. Speaker Simmons is against
the primary law. and will likely pick
out a committee which will accept any
amendments proposed by the senate.
| IT is likely that the fight over the
ably drawn out. The three bills under