The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-15
POLITICAL GOSSIP
BsR. Waggener Announces Re-
tirement From Politics.
VIII Not Ask to Be Returned to
Senate.
HTT An DEEnD MERC
HIT AT REFORMERS.
Charges Stubs Actuating Mo-
tive Is Desire for Office.
Holds Him Up as Example Of
Political Insincerity.

Bale p. waggener, the well known
Missouri Pacific attorney, and state
senator from the Atchison-Jackson dis
trict, in a letter to the Holton Signal.
Frank Jarrelrs paper, announces that
ne will not be candidate for re-
election to the state senate, and that
ne will never be a candidate for any
other political office as long as he lives.
He devotes most of the letter to
fSskinning" w. r. Stubs. Stubs has
always been the bette noir of the Aach-
tson man, and he never loses an OPP
portunity to hit him a crack.
The following is Mr.. Waggeners
letter:
Atchison, Kan, May II.
am in receipt of many letters from
citizens Of your county-some urging
me to become a candidate for re-elec-
Etion to the senate, and some making
inquiry as to whether I intend to be-
come a candidate or not. have been
tAbsent from the state for some time,
land avail myself of this, my first OPP
sPortunity, to say to the good citizens
Of your county, through the columns
of your paper, that I am not a can
[didate for reelection, and will not be.
my reasons for reaching this conclu-
'sion are two-fold. viz:
First. Atchison county now has the
senator, and Jackson county is enti-
stled to the senator for the next term.
Second. am tired Of politics. I am
Through with the game. There is
nothing in it but NORWOOD and gall.
lwhen I went to the senate I did so
with the firm conviction that I might
fbe able to secure the passage of some
Claws which would advance the mater
E4al interests of my state. I was handi-
scapped by the fact that 1 was an
bemploye of a railroad company. Every
measure advocated was looked upon
with suspicion, and criticised as be-
EAng in the interest of corporations,
and I was repeatedly charged with
representing railroad companies on the
floor Of the senate, and not my con-
stituents. yet not one Of my associate
senators can truthfully say that, dur
ting the entire time I was in the SEN
ate, I attempted to influence him in
any way except through my open
avowals and utterances on the floor of
the senate.
The people who sent me to the SEN
ate, SO far as I am advised, have
never criticized or questioned any of
composed of as fine a body of men as
ever sat in a legislative body, yet ma
jority of them were ridiculed all over
the state, and their every action con-
demned. because they refused to be-
come the suppliant tools of one, Stubs,
who, during the two sessions of the
legislature, was playing the game of
politics, pretending that he was a rep
resentative of the people.
had an opportunity to observe
and know that never before in the
history of the state has there been de-
veloped so much political hypocrisy as
during the sessions of 1905 and 1907,
and the special session of 1908. Not
a single law was passed of any direct
benefit to the people. The primary
law will prove the greatest disappoint-
ment and the most expensive
monstrosity ever forced upon the
people, under the pretense of reform,
and those who secured its passage
will not dare go on the stump and
attempt to justify tor, if they do,
they will be rebuked for their
hypocrisy. The laws which were
passed, and attempted to be passed,
were more extreme and disastrous
than in the widest day of Populism.
LAS result, thousands of good citi-
gems are out of employment, wander
ing through the streets of our cities,
and upon the byways and highways of
tour state, seeking employment. On
every sidetrack of the railroads in
the state are thousands of empty and
idle cars Manufacturing establish
ments are running on short time, or
have been closed down entirely. For
four years the state has been kept in
constant tumult and turmoil. 1t was
first the "bossbusters," then the