The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-09-12
POLITICAL GOSSIP
j. d. Botkin Gives Out q State
ment.
Going to Win GovPrnorship in
Fair Fight, He Says.
is WELL GOVERNED.
Says Kansas Has in Main Had
Good Executives.
Makes an Appeal to Mr.. Leland's
Friends.

J. d. Botkin, Democratic candidate
for governor. through the state Gem
trail committee today gave out the first
public statement he has made in the
present campaign. "Mr. Botkin Will
force the fighting all along the line
from this time until the election"
Henderson S. Martin, chairman of the
Democratic committee said.
am going to win this fight for
governor" Mr.. Botkin said, but I am
going to do it by fighting fair. I be-
lleve every citizen in this state who
has known me during my long resi-
dence here will accord me the credit
of square, dealing with the people. I
have no patience with the politician
who pettifogs or the hypocrite who
harangues. 1 stand before the people
of Kansas on the record have made
and the life I have lived as citizen
for more than third Of a century.
and 1 am willing for those who have
known me best to say whether it has
been useful and beneficial. AS gov
ernor of Kansas I will exert my best
efforts in the service of all the people,
and give to the state an administration
that will be clean and honest, and in
keeping with the high ideals of its
splendid citizenship.
II have no quarrel with Brother
Stubs. We ought to be patient with
him. This reform business is a new
thing to him. He's only been working
at it few years. The stranger unac-
Quainted with Kansas political condi-
tions, after hearing the speeches Mr..
Stubs is making in this campaign,
would guess that he is seeking to
build up a new party and construct
around himself a new machine. The
stranger, however, would soon learn
that the machine which Mr.. Stubs is
mi friiO ~ iYNor 80
reform is one which will enable him to
put mortgage on the governors Of
fee for four years and insure him a
seat in the United States senate for
the six years following. Reform the
other fellows out of office and give us
their jobs, seems to be Mr.. Stubs
battlecry.
1.-THE TRADE Mr.. Stubbs has been
making against railroads and corpor-
atoms during the past year or two
from whose Golfers he has amaSed a
great fortune, is a question OF. con-
science which he alone must Justify.
I have no desire to discuss the esti-
mate the world has placed on the in
CRATE, nor do I care to analyze its
verdict on the man who turns upon
his benefactor for popular acclaim or
personal power. esA
Stubs Exposure of Corruption.
But there is this about Brother
Stubbs. His Indictment of the Re-
publican party in Kansas and the men
who have shaped it's destiny, is COM
plete in every detail. For a man who
fioated to the surface only five years
ago, without knowledge of govern
ment, without experience in even To-
cal affairs, and during all the years of
his busy, money-making life without
thought or care about what happened
in county, state or nation, which he
boldly confesseS, he is making remark
able progress in wedding our refuse
and purifying his party. We Demo-
Gratis in Kansas know that the Repub-
lican party was anything but reform
movement, but we did not know until
Stubs came out of obscurity to save
the day that RepubIicanism in Kansas
stood for all that is rotten, venal and
corrupt. 1 confess that it is refresh
ing to listen to Stubs speeches. But
for his timely entry into politics from
the great reform school of railroad
contracting, we Democrats would
have been compelled to shoulder the
brunt of all this Republican skinning.
Much as the Democrats of Kansas
desire the defeat of the Republican
party because we believe it would re-
suit in good to the state and its peo-
pie, we want that verdict rendered at
the polls on the issues presented, and
not upon the denunciation of the promi-
nent men of the state, without regard
to party, who have contributed greatly
to it's growth and advancement. I
agree with Mr.. Stubbs that the Re
publican partys record in Kansas is
tainted with many misdeeds and ques-
tionable acts, but 1 believe it but JUS
tice TO saw that the great majority of
it's membership are honest men. Graft
ers and boodlers have"hourished under
the protecting wing of this party, as
they have under other parties, but 1
cannot endorse the wholesale tndict-
ment of the public men of this state by
Mr. Stubs, many of whom, though
they be Republicans, have rendered the
state honest and conspicuous service.
Commends Republican Governors.
I'm the main, Kansas has been we'll
governed. Running down the long list
of men who have held high position in
this state from Governor Samuel j.