The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-08

H. w. Avery in the Clay-Dickinson
district. d. A. Valentine in his Clay
Center Times waged a most bitter
fight against Mr.. Williams. which was
characterized by Gov. Hoch's paper,
the Marion Record. as IAN outrage"
Mr.. Williams was one of Gov. Hoch's
private secretaries. Notwithstanding
this, however, Mr.. Williams carried
every ward in Clay Center, and lost
the county by the narrow margin of
78 votes.
William Allen White, in the Empor-
ia Gazette, comments as follows on
the unctuous subject of how it happen
ed:
The People Rule.
Eighteen months ago when Senator
Long sent the telegram which gave
Curtis the senatorial nomination. a
harmony program was fixed up. 1t
was good party program-for the
politicians. Grant Hornaday was to
be governor. Long was to be re-elect-
ed, the congressional delegation re-
turned, and then Curtis at the end of
his term was to be reelected. There
was to be no more fight; scrappers
were to be relegated to the rear, and
Kansas was to be controlled by
machine which would dispense pa
tronage, bribe politicians with jobs
instead of money, and the people were
taxes
Then the primary law passed. Grant
Hornaday oozed out of the situation.
Bailey came up, took a look and
backed out; then Leland, who has
more courage than all of them, walk
ed up, and put on the harness. Long
came home to defend his record, and
after the trend of public sentiment be-
came plain Curtis announced that he
would take no part in the contest"
And Shawnee county went for Stubbs
and Bristow. The gentlemen's agree
ment is now thing of the past. The
people have proved that they can rule.
Yet four months ago in the last Re-
publican convention the machine won,
and Stubbs and Bristow were dis
gracefully beaten. If they were can
didates today they would be disgrace
fully beaten in a convention. The
state convention endorsed Long in
March. If it met under old conditions
it would endorse him today.
He has thc most splendid organiza-
tion ever manned in Kansas. He had
all the campaign fund he needed to
spend He had men to run at his beck
and call. But Bristow, without friends.
without headquarters, who could or
der no one around, without even
skeleton organization, won this fight.
He spent less on his whole campaign
than his opponent spent on postage
The same thing that is true of Bristow
and Long is true in a degree about
Stubbs and Leland.
The machine played politics. They
tried to line up class votes. 1ney en-
deavored to corral the labor vote as
SUCH the old soldier vote as such, the
negro vote as such. the whisky vote as
such, and the railroad vote as such.
But when the vote was counted, every
railroad town in. Kansas voted Tor
Bristow, and most OF them voted 1or
Stubbs. In Emporia where, under the
old system. in which the bosses could
see the tickets the railroad men We're
voting, the railroad men always lined
up for the machine. But under the
primary the railroad men who cheered
Long at the Empor.a meeting voted
and carried their ward for Bristow.
Not a dollar was spent for cigars, not
hack was hired in this town for
Stubbs and Bristow, and it was the
same all over Kansas. 1t was a poor
mans primary. The machine had the
money. but it didn't have the moral
sense to see that politics doesn't count
in a primary. and that class votes don't
get into the primary box, but instead
just common. ordinary folks get their
views in without reference to class or
clan.
The heavy vote polled at this pri-
mary proves it's popularity with the
people. And the fact that the people
voted with sense and justice, and were
not confused upon big, moral issues,
shows that Kansas has earned her right
to political and industrial freedom.
The primary now prevails all over the
Mississippi valley, and it will stay as
long as universal suffrage. 1t is a step
in the political evolution of the Ameri-
can people. 1t puts the politician and
the public service corporation out OF
political business Eventually it will
put the United States senate and the
American courts out of the hands OF
law w-defying wealth. and into the hands
of the masses. 1t is not revolution. 1t
is evolution. But it will fail II selnsh-
ness and greed, and partisan bigotry
get into it. The primary will succeed
only as men vote for the good of their
neighbors, only as they are broad
minded, self-sacrifcing and brave. For
except the Lord keep the city, the |
watchman waketh but in vain"
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