The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-12
POLITICAL GOSSIP
A Price Always Paid for POlitf-
cal Prestige.
Public Interests Always Suffer
at Hands of Ambition.
TRANSMIGRATIONIDEA
Men of Other Times Who Live
Men of Other Times Who Live
Again Today.
Vanity, All Is Vanity, and HUI
mility Is Unknown.

| AAOy were SraIIerS, AFTER all OL1y
Instead of trading the interests of the
public for money, they snapped it for
their personal popularity and political
prestige. 1t came over me like revela-
ton, and much experience has confirm
ed the observation.''-Co of a
street railway president in Saturday
Evening Post.
This conclusion reached by a man
who had grown old in dealing with men
is a thrust at human nature and there
fore strikes home in the majority of
cases.
There is a world of philosophy in the
trite paragraph above and every word
bristles with truth. 1t applies in Kan
sas as well as elsewhere. 1t opens a
new book of discussion; new field
of speculation.
The American public likes to be hum
plugged and there are many ways OF
accomplishing that end.
In Kansas the old machine played
to the hands of the railroads and had
wires connected with all conventions.
The machine was thrown onto the scrap
heap and a new movement went march
ing on to the place of spells.
The old ways were denounced as those
that were dark and vain. The new way
was the only way to political salvation
Honesty,
methods were to mark the progress of
the new way. But to perpetuate re-
FERNS The people must be kept stirred
up. The worst of the old vices cor
rected, (the railroads and the conven5
t1ons) there must be new virtues added
ir order to dazzle the public that had
gathered for the big show.
The Kansas reformers of today were
equal to the task. They dug up the
bones of Populism that had lain long
iii the tomb of the past and ratified
them in the light of this day.
Kansas beheld miracle OF resurrec-
lions. For Jerry Simpson. there was
Victor Murdoch; for Leedy. there was
Walter Roscoe Stubs: for Breidenthal
there was Joseph N. Dolley; for PETER
there was Senator Bristow; for Annie
Diggs, there was William Allen White;
for Mary Ellen Lease lnere was rieu
S Jackson. ~
And the people who had buried those
Populists on oblivion's shore and Tor
gotten their theories, accepted the same
ideas from other minds. 1t was
Young has aptly styled the new order
of things in Kansas
The ,Populists Were unfortunate in
wearing whfskers1 and not wearing
socks and their doctrines were rejected.
Then finally the national reform move
ment, started by Roosevelt, penetrated
to Kansas and much good was accom-
plished in the matter of the above mem
the railroads. The reformers reaped !
where they had sown. They liked the
job. They kept on sowing and they're
still reaping. They have set the song
of the Harvest Home" to music. and
the song will never. end-that is as long |
as the people dance and pay the fiddler. |
1t is a law as old as the hills that |
those who dance must pay. The first
sight draft arrived with the 1903 tax
levy-nearly a million. The guaranty
law is creaking in every misf1t joint
The odor of political schemes clings to
the garments of these reformers and
cannot longer be denied. Man is mortal.
The flesh is weak. Patriotism nearly
always gets mixed up with ambition.
After a reformer has saved the state he
generally saves himSelf-and his friends
and the plain citizen who pays the
fiddler can scarce tell the new politician
in power from the old when he looks up
at the heights of greatness. The old
timers juggled patriotism for riches;
the newcomers juggled patriotism for
power. Neither can be called grafters
sx-president of the street railway COM
pany is too severe, They are all of
them just plain, selfish men. serving
their own ends while they serve the
off they will be found to be all politi-
clans. They wear different numbers,
answer to different names and pursue
different methods but the ends they
aim at are the same. The reformer will
go as far to gain permanent power for
himself and friends as the old gang
vent for the accessories of power.
They advertise their panaceas in the ,
market place, they cry their wares and /
BEAT the big drum to sound their
greatness to the multitude. They ad-
yertise their virtues and their reforms
beyond their merits. They spring new !
and cure alls. Their pandora
,Ox is ineXhauStible and their juggler
weary of advancing the cause of the Ic
'nly true reform. But they overdo it t
III. Their zeal smacks of selfshness
md their ambitions carry them far be- f
Tond their first modest aims and re- [
uirements and in the end the state has a
aimed but little by its change of mas
ers.
Not satisfied with having saved the y
tate from the 2hilistines, they have, q
ike David, sinned against their own
nipple creed that first gave them vic
DRY. David repented his sin and
Iumbled himself. But these reformers
how no signs of writing a psalm of
humility. They claim the earth and n
he fullnes thereof. Their wise men
nd prophetic speakers and writer's
# psalms, when called to account for
ertain discrepancies in predictions
nd results, point back to the iniquit- ,
es of the Philistines and eXalt them :
elves still more.
But all this is not going to satisfy 5
he people. The days OF the machine :
we're bad days. it is true, but so were :
he times of Populism bad times. A :
alton or a party exalteth itself before !
he fall There is now heard talk of
new deal as well as square deal :
or the corners of the latter have be- !
ONE rounded, even as a circle.
BY their works shall We know them,
nd not by their boasting and their
aunts.
1t is just as bad, when results are l
onsidered, to trade the public's in I
erests for personal popularity and Q
e. L ID,