The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-13
POLITICAL GOSSIP.
CONTINUED from Page One.)

ton; that he discovered Taft; induced
the president to accept him his
logical successor, and then proceeded
to bring the whole country to his way
of thinking.
These assertions by the senator's
friends in connection with his own
speech at the state convention. where
in he showed what tremendous influ-
ence he had with his colleagues in the
senate, indicate that Mr.. Long is a
man OF overwhelming influence In the
nation. 1t Is unfortunate that the SEN
ator has not used his great power and
prestige to do few important things
for the people of Kansas. He has been
in congress for about fourteen years.
During all Of that time Kansas wheat
growers have been paying the trans
portat1on companies for hauling their
wheat to Kansas City whether it was
taken there or not. To illustrator
For years the rate on wheat from
Wellington, Wichita, Great Bend,
other towns in the wheat growing belt
to Galveston has been the rate from
Kansas City to Galveston plus the
local rate from these points to Kansas
CITY. Wheat shipped from any of
these towns to Galveston is never
hauled to Kansas City, but goes direct
to Galveston from the point of Ship
ment: Yet the people have been COM
PEELED to pay for hauling that wheat
to Kansas City. If Kansas wheat
growers had been given the Kansas
City to Galveston rate, which from
every point Of justice and equity they
ought to have had, the price of wheat
would have been from to 10 cents
a bushel higher since a deep water
harbor wah established at Galveston.
since Senator Long first entered con-
gress the wheat growers of Kansas
have paid millions of dollars to the
transportation companies for a ser
vice that was never rendered and for
which the railroads gave them abso-
Iutely nothing in return.
During the fourteen years Of Sena-
tor Longs service he has never made
the slightest effort to remedy this
evil and relieve the farmers of Kan
sas from paying this Ubiquitous and
unjust tribute to the railroads. He
people from this injustice. but has
voted against measures that sought
to bring them relief.
1.-THE senator claims to be the in
vincible champion of Roosevelt, yet
he has opposed the measures in con-
gress which the president wants en-
acted. The president in his messages
and public speeches has many times
declared in favor of limiting the
amount of the stocks and bonds that
railroads and public service corpora
tons may issue, but Senator Long has
invariably voted against these meas
ures that sought to place such re-
strictions The president has also de-
clared in favor of giving the Inter
state Commerce commission authority
and means to ascertain the actual
value of railways. Yet Senator Long
has voted against every proposition of
this kind that has been before the
senate.
'The senator in his speeches and
interviews seems to be very much for
the president, but very much against
him when it comes to supporting in
the senate the things which the presi-
dent stands for. It is one thing to
praise Roosevelt for political purposes
and another thing to support his
measures in congress in an effective
way.
The decision of the Populists in their
mass convention Thursday to place a
full state, congressional and national
ticket in the field and make an active
campaign for the election of all officers
meant that there was considerable work
ahead for the chairman, and on this
ground Chairman George w. Hanna
rendered his resignation, and H. B.
Hewitt of Stafford county was elected
to succeed him.
Chairman Hanna has been the back
bone of Populsm in Kansas for many
years. He is a man of great ability,
and one of the most affable. tactful
men In the state of Kansas. When the
Clay county Populists voted to go out
the Democrats Mr.. Hanna was left out
on a limb. He is an admirer of Roose-
welt. and will object to the plan of be-
ing swallowed by Democracy. In his
speech to the Populists yesterday, Mr..
Hanna said:
IT believe that the last message of
President Roosevelt was the greatest
message ever written by any president
of the United States in the history of
this country"
Mr.. Hanna said that he could not con-
tinue to act as chairman of the COM
mittee because of the fact that all his
spare time is taken up in fighting the
battle for municipal ownership In Clay
Center, Of which city he is mayor, elect
| ed by common consent of Republicans,
Democrats and Populists.
| H B. Hewitt. the new chairman of