The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-02
HIS PARTING SHOT
f. DumOnt Smith Fires One at
Old Associates.
Defense of the New Square Deal
Movement.
PEOPLE FOR PRIMARY
Politicians Who Oppose 1t Will
Get Run Over.
Tells the Inside Facts About
Dog Story.

As a parting shot against his old
confreres, before starting on his
junket to China. Senator Fred Dumont
Smith of Kinsley has written a Square
Deal' editorial for his paper. the
Kinsley Mercury. The editorial sounds
like the pleadings of a converted sin
ner with some of his old pals, in order
to get them to forsake their evil ways
and come into the fold. He addresses
them as my old machine friends" :"
and this is what he says:
1t is just a little funny to hear old
hide bound machine workers COM
planning of the Square Dealers because
they are organizing a machine.
Just when did it become a crime in
Kansas to be a member of any sort or
been dominated by one or the other of
two machines. the Leland-Albaugh
machine or the Burton-Mulvane ma
chine. We have never heard OF either
of these machines giving much .heed
to the people of the state. Their pr1-
mary, secondary and ultimate purpose
was to secure offices for the members
and they were alternately and some
times simultaneously successful. The
party was rent asunder and brought
near to defeat repeatedly by their
wholly selfish struggles for the patron
age of the state. They existed so!eIy
for and lived solely upon pie. They
were ironclad, close hide-bound soc1e-
ties. No one from the outside couid
into them. Men who QeSlreQ
office never thought of appealing TO
the people They went either to one
machine or the other and succeeded or
failed. as one machine or the otner
prevailed in the state conventions.
Such machines are possible only WIN
convention nominations.
That the Square. Dealers do not con-
plate such machine is shown by the
fact that their cardinal principle IS
the abolition of conventions which
a
Again there is no man of any sense
in Kansas who believes for moment
that the last legislature would nave
done much of its great work II IL had
not been for the insistent demand of
the people incited and given voice
by the Square Dealers. Maybe the
Square Dealers are selfish, pro bly,
most of them are. They want offices
too. but Lords Sake, let not US ma
chine fellows be hypocritical and de-
no7lnce them for wanting the ofhces.
What have we been wanting and get
ting by machine methods for two gen
erations? Offices.
Instead of looking for motives let
us look for results. And My Old Ma
chine Friends, let me whisper to you.
The people are not much concerned
with motives They take a man for
what he does. Not what he thinks
down at the bottom. If the Square
Dealers give the people the things
they want the Square Dealers Will be
I.
them by crying machine" You will
have to get busy and give the people
what they want too, or else your ma
chine will go down before the Square
Dealers in spite of your superior or
ganization and political acumen.
If the old machines get in the way
of a direct primary law. they VIII get
a licking they will remember as long
as they remember anything. The peo-
pie OF Kansas want self government
and they are going to have it in their
political affairs, and they will not be
critical as to how they get it, or who
gives it to them.
But. here is the thing. they will re-
member the people who restore to
them the self government the conven-
ton system has taken from them.
Doesn't Like the Pup Story.
Senator Smith also writes an editor
iaI "denouncing" the story which was
printed to the effect that he paid Jim
Chappelle $50 for boarding his dog in
a private room during the session of
the legislature. The following is Mr..
Smiths comment on the story:
1t is a pity to spoil such good story
but it is travelling too fast and too far.
AS Mark Twain said about the report
of his death, it is somewhat exagger-
ated We did not pay $400 for the pup.
He didn't have room to himself We
didn't pay anything for his board.
The rest of the story is true, the ex-
istence and ownership of the pup.
1t Is 1a1r TO say lOT the pup lIldI lie
is modest and blushed clear to his
collar when he heard the story. He
is in nowise responsible for this story
and desires us to contradict it in the
most emphatic way.
We did not pay much for the pup
but he is worth all of his putative price
because he knows more than many
members of the legislature. has more
truthfuIness than the author of the
story, more brains than the young man
who wrote 1t and less credulity than
the editors who believed it.
So here lies the dog story. Requies-
cat Topeka papers please copy.