The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-21
WHISPERS IN TWO STATES.

OOC CTuII1 pine Is a new SIdr risen
in Kansas for the illumination of a
world" said the st. Louis Globe
Democrat recently. I'm the multitude
of lights set in the vast expanse of the
Kansas heavens. there may be no
longer room for new shining. but 1t
can be said for Crumbine that he at
least wrinkles He wrinkles with
balefuI light just now in saying that,
if the Populistic whisker ever again
becomes the Kansas fashion, 1t will
be the breeding place of germs and
bacteria which will threaten depopu-
lation of the state. AS secretary of
the Kansas state board of health, and
a physician in good standing. Crum-
bine has forced public attention upon
the peril. His theory is that. amid the
tangled roots of the voluminous cap
Hilary integuments of Kansas popu-
ism, where neither water nor soap
does penetrate. millions of disease
breeding germs multiply and replenish
the earth. Remove the cause, says
Crum bine. and the effect will disap-
pear. Shave off the whiskers of pop
ulism, says he, and there will be left a
land of plenty and a people who will
live long in that land.
There was, it is true. great mortal
ity in Kansas in the years when pop
ulism was in the ascendant. Men died
to politics then who had never died
before. and many of them are dead
yet. We have no vital statistics show
ing whether physical mortality was
greater or less In those years than in
the years preceding and following. If
the statistics could be produced show
ing striking increase in mortality in
Kansas after the presidential election
of 1892. it still might be unfair to at
tribute that fact to the whiskers of
populism. More people were dying in
those years from shortage than from
surplus. Indigestion was almost ex-
tirpated, but the people who were
cured of 1t died, in too many cases,
like those whose vermiform appen-
dices have been successfully taken
out by a skillful surgical operation
We can not let pass unchallenged the
charge brought against the Kansas
Populist of having increased mortal
1ty in that state during the years of
their activity, while the record shows
that under a Democratic administra-
ton then in power the only disease
which was steadily yielding to treat
ment was dyspepsia.
state Senator Brady of Lawrence
is a strong ally and supporter of
Crumbine in his professional assault
upon the Populist beard. Senator
Brady, however, does not put his OPP
position on scientific grounds. He
wants lawn mower run over the
state, not for the sake of the public
health, but for the sake of the Kan
sas reputation. He has heard that, In
nearly all parts of the east, there is
a conviction that the Populist boards
of Kansas darken the heavens as did
the grasshopper clouds of old He in
sists that both Missouri and Arkansas
can show more expansive boards than
can be found in Kansas. The point
is, however. that the secretary of the
Kansas board of health is after the
whiskers of that state only.
The sovereignty of Kansas can not
bring him one step across the border
OF imperial Missouri. set upon depriv-
ing Missourians of the crops they have
raised. Some great crops do, indeed,
grow along that part Of the border
from which William j. Stone was sent
to congress in the sos. Many of them
still wave luxuriantly in the breezes,
even after that district is now repre-
scented at Washington by a Republi-
can. But these are immune from any
Kansas edict or inquisition. All they
want is to be let alone. Kansas must
let them alone. They may breed
germs, but they are Missouri germs
and not subject to the Jurisdiction of
Kansas. Let Kansas do her own
shaving, and leave the whiskers of
Missouri to the wisdom of this SOW
ereign state.''