The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-04
FRON OTHER PENS
THE KIDNAPPING HYsTER1A.

The KIDNAPPING HYSIERlA.
Though the Boyles have been con-
victed and sent to the penitentiary for
long terms, the keen memory of their
crime still possesses the popular mind.
The public is apparently suffering
with hySteria caused by the kidnap-
ping of Billy Whitla. If boy fails
to come home at bedtime his fond
mother thinks Immediately of the
Sharon lad and reports the disappear
ance to the police as a kidnapping
case. If boy or girl runs away or dis
appears under any of the hundreds
of circumstances familiar to the news
paper reading public their parents are
convinced that abductors have been
busy again.
The public is likely to cry wolf so
often that when the real wolf appears
no one is likely to take the cry Sc
riouSly. People would do we'll to re-
cover from their hysteria and recog-
nize the fact that real cases of kid
mapping are rare, and when they do
occur the perpetrators of the crime
seldom succeed wholly in their base
undertaking. Kidnapping is properly
recognized as a serious crime and it
profits no one to try to exaggerate ev
cry ordinary disappearance into an
Observation-Disclosures Plain Dealer.
IMPORTANCE OF THE VETO.
One thing in the way of a veto is
the feeling that the legislators are the
agents of the people and act for them,
and consequently they should not be
obStructed in their work, and as long
as an executive officer recognizes this
theory he is on the safe side.
That is not the true doctrine. The
veto is given because the people have
more confidence in the executive than
in the legislative branch. This may be
bold assertion. but it will stand ana
lysis. 1t recognizes that responsibility
is a great aid to the judgment, and
that this responsibility is conferred
upon the governor, while it is dissipa-
ted among $50 legislators.
Under the vicious lobby rule the peo-
PIE must look to the veto for safeguard
should use it persistently and fearless
ly, in all cases where the taxes are
sQuandered in any of the dozen popu-
lar ways. There is so much outside of
all politics and inside of real civic duty
that demands the veto that it needs to
be applied vigorously to remind the
legislature that there is a power be-
yond them which supervises their acts,
in the presence of all the people.-Ohio
State Journal.
o.
BROAD IS THE ROAD.
The tramp who goes afoot and the
millionaire who rides in an automobile
are equally interested in the great
American problem of good roads. Ma
cadam makes walking hard for the
hobo. and when he comes to a stretch
of it he generally takes to the adjoin-
ing fields. Dirt roads and touring
cars are not suited to each other. The
great consideration Is q dustlesS road,
soft and elastic to the foot, but hard
and unyielding to the heavy vehicle
in fact, a sort OF paradox and anom-
ally of a road. That is the dream, and
the man who makes it a reality will
be one of the greatest benefactors of
| the world
The problem would perhaps be
more easily solved, and at less expense
| if the country roads in the United
States were not SO wide. In the mid
| die and western states their average
width is Sc feet. two-thirds of it given
| over to weeds, which furnish a per-
petual supply of seeds to the adjoin-
| ing farms. A road of that width costs
nearly twice as much for building
and maintenance as would a highway
| 80 feet wide, upon which all the ex-
pense and work could be concentra-
| ted. Germany, where the travel is
vastly greater than in this country,
| gets along finely with highways aver
| aging only 80 feet in width.-Boston
\ Globe.