The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-01
HAVEN'T GIVEN UP
VIM. Allen White Says Utility
Bill May Yet Win.
No Reason Why the Fight
Should Be Abandoned.
UP TO THE PEOPLE.
Says StubbS and BristOw Will
Visit Districts of Members.
Issue Is National Rather Than
State Wide.
UP TO THE PEOPLE.


the utilities bill in Kansas believe that
there is still chance to pass the meas
ure. A careful canvass of the lower
j house yesterday indicated a majority
as the Democrats realized that by
voting almost solidly against the meas
ure they have given Stubbs an issue
against them in the coming campaign,
and their alliance with the machine
Republicans is so plain, and the evil
dences of lobby control of that faction
are so unmistakable that both parties
to the alliance are getting uneasy.
Sunday seems to have been a day of
repentance. The Long machine men
are uncomfortable in their Democratic
alliance, and the Democrats are alarm
ed at the obviousness of their alliance
with the lobby and the Long machine
So there is hope, and the fight has be-
gun again.
White Says There Is Hope
w. A. White will say in today's Ga
zette:
''There is no reason why the fight for
the utilities law should be abandoned.
Indeed it will not be abandoned until
it is enacted and there is more reason
to believe that it will be enacted at this
session, than there was to believe that
the primary law would be enacted when
it was passed, or the two cent fare law
or the antf-pass law or the maximum
freight law, when they were passed.
Victory always in these fights is
snatched from defeat And it must be
so in this session, or the machine and
the Democrats will give Stubbs a club
better even than the primary to wipe
them off the political map in Kansas
What Hughes did in the utilities law
and the gambling law, by going down
into the districts of members who
voted wrong and branding them before
their home people. Stubbs will do, and
the men who killed the utilities bill
nv hkJ i'm to izn
'They know Stubbs is a fighter. and
they know that he will put the brand
on mercilessly and hence there is a
general feeling that the honest mem
bers who voted against the utilities bill
should be given a chance to redeem
themselves.
"And moreover Stubbs will not be
alone. He will have Bristow with him.
When Bristow left here last week, he
and Stubbs had a conference lasting
until midnight and it was decided to
spend the summer and winter on this
measure before the people If it failed,
and there will be no nincing of words
For the utilities bill is the foundation
of we'll thought out plan for the
economic freedom of Kansas-a plan
which has been tried successfully in
other states. and which Kansas must
have or surrender to the rule of cor
porations.
Great Problem in Kansas.
1.-The great problem in Kansas is
transportation. Today when Kansas
masses a maximum rate law she is
guessing. The railroads have the in
formation as to the cost of the roads,
and while their paid lobbyists and at
torneys in talking at banquets and
other gatherings proclaiming loudly
against the foolishnesS of getting the
physical valuation of railroads, and
declaring that it has nothing to do
with the making of rates, whenever
the state does make q rate, these men
that, the railroads cost so much per
mile, that their physical valuation is
thus and so, and that the rate in ques-
ton is so low that they cannot pay in
terest upon a fair capitalization, and
meet their just debts in the way of
bonds.
IF the railroad attorneys would
talk in court as they talk at public
gatherings there might be no need of
physical valuation. But in court they
bring their physical valuation with
them, and the Republican party in
Kansas is pledged to get at that
physical valuation and to know the
value of every cut, every fill, every
grade every rail. every terminal,
every round house every car, and
every switch and side track in Kan
sas. These matters are of record in
the offices of the Kansas roads.
1.-THE roads are public carriers sub
ject according to the United States
supreme court to public regulation
and to make that regulation the peo-
pie have a right to know what the
roads are worth. Moreover in Neb-
raska, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Min
nesota, Mississippi, Virginia, Mich
igan, North Carolina, Oregon, Wash
ington Texas, Montana, Oklahoma
and Florida, the law empowers the
commissioners to go after this in
formation and in many of these states
large appropriations are made for
that purpose.
kansas cannot make reasonable
rates until she gets at the facts. and
the railroads have the facts. and it
takes a law to make them give them
up. for the railroads know that when
the people have the facts this rail- |
road fight is about ended. This is the |
core of the fight for the utilities bill. |
Enlarged Commission Needed.
''The enlarged commission, pro- !
yided for by the bill, is needed to do the |
additional work required by the bill, |
and this commission can pick up the |
telephones and the telegraph com |
panies and express companies and in |
terurban roads. and gas and oil lines |
as they go along. The great fight is |
the transportation fight The reason |
why the lobby does not want the |
utilities bill passed is that it will give !
ness men on the railroad commission |
who viii put a vigor into that board |
that will make it worth millions to /
the people of Kansas during the next |
ten years
ssFEor together with the physical |
proposition to control the issue of
stocks and bonds. That will prevent
future over apitaliZation-a Republi- |
can doctrine endorsed by the national
platform, and recommended by both
Roosevelt and Taft is not radical. |