The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-07-17
THE CORE OF THE ISSUE.

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THE CORE OF THE ISSUE.
The issue between the people of
Kansas and the machine headed by
Senator Long is not a factional one.
For factionalism concerts offices.
There is no question in this fight about
the minor Offices. 1t is conceded that
If Long wins he will continue to rule
Kansas by the same cheap third rate
politicians who rule it now under his
regime. Mr.. Bristow has no machine
He has no outriders. He has no or
ganization. He has promised no Of
fees, and will promise none. Patron
age does not interest him. He is in
terested in certain principles and
their triumph. He and those who be-
lieve in him are seeking something
bigger than any office or than the con-
troll of any office. They are seeking
to enforce ideas. Theirs is a cam
paign on moral issues.
At the core of the matter, this cam
paign is for the political and industrial
freedom of Kansas. With the ma
chine in control, men will be in con-
troll in the offices of Kansas and the
free spirit of the people will be bound
and tied. Kansas is a free state by
nature. Kansas has ideals. Kansas
aspires. But under the domination Of
this machine her aspirations are
thwarted, her moral growth is
checked, and the best of Kansas
stands unrepresented in this nation.
She stands represented by a man who
on thirty-five votes took the material
side of every question and admits it.
He pleads party regularity. He pleads
that others are as bad as he; he pleads
everything on earth, but never once
does he set up moral defense of any
Of these votes, and in all the hundreds
of other votes he has cast he has new
er cast any appreciate per cent of
these votes on purely moral issues.
And this is essentially moral is
sue. Long represents all that is sor-
did all that is Grass, all that is ma
terial in this state, and he takes to
the national capital nothing essential
ly Kansan.
The state of old John Brown should
be represented by man of moral i'm
pulse and not by the head of ma
chine. This state, the child of Ply.
mouth Rock, should break away from
the machine. In this primary the peo-
pie have an opportunity to choose
their own leader They have the OBJ
to lift the Kansas average.
They have an opportunity to stand for
a man who does not stand for Wall
street. 1t is not any one vote of Longs
nor any of ten votes that are objec-
tionable. Each is capable of explana-
ton. 1t is the whole of them-the
mass of them, the accumulated evil
dence of the whole thirty-five votes,
that make the case against him. No
man who was not dominated through
and through by love for the power
Of dishonest wealth could have cast
all of those votes.
And it is the whole lot and not one
DR. two or three or even a dozen that
must be explained. 1t is the tendency
Of his heart-of the very soul of him
hat made him choose time after time,
year after year, for sixteen years, to
vote for the material thing and not
for the moral side of these issues, i'm
and without question. Doubt.
ess in every single case a few honest
men were with him. However, the
group of honest men differed each
time. But he went right straight
through the list, voting for the ma
thine, for Wall street, without varia-
ion or shadow of turning.
He is alien to Kansas. He is as far
from the dauntless spirit Of
I'D John Brown, and the men who
made Kansas free, as Pontius PLATE
s from the Apostle Paul. Long has
lot even the hypocrisy OF Judas Isca-
lot. He is frankly and candidly for
he main chancellor this smooth
hing, for the material proposition.
On the other hand, Bristow's whole
lame and fame were acquired fight
ng evil in high places. He is bold.
lie is effective-even as Long is. but
3ristow's courage is for the right.
.ong's is for the wrong. Bristow has
Jared stand for the right, and fall for
IFS courage, just as Long has stood
" evil and prospered.
Kansas must choose between these
hen. Yet Longs machine, with all its
over, with all its money, is trying to
orce the state to enslave herself to
he machine again.
Is thy servant a dog that he should
o this thing?