The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-19

ago declared against human slavery
And one will not return to Kansas am
sooner than the other.
There is another reform that has
come to Kansas that is going to stay
That is the primary election law The
reason that it's going to stay is be.
cause it's fundamentally and absolutely
right"
Mr.. Madison closed his address wifi
plea for fairness to the railroads
which pushed out into Kansas in adj
vance of civilization, and asked that
they be shown appreciation for their
help in opening up the country
Atwood to Republicans.
John H Atwood opened his speech
j, with a humorous description of the
present political situation in Kansas.
This Kansas now is a veritable Re
publican paradise, he said. 1.-The Re-
publicans have always fought and
f1ourished in Kansas. Click and Leedy
put them out for couple of years,
but that did not stop the Kansas Re
publicans from fighting. why look at
Joe Bristow, who has SHE'D his castor
that I, a poor, beaten, whipped Demo-
| crat, should be here in company with
| these Republicans flushed with victory.
! Daniel Boone wasn't in it as an In
dian fighter, compared with Stubbs
Stubs goes around burning the vii
lagos of good Republican Indians and
! he does it cheerfully, too. There is
| considerable turmoil, even in the
ranks of the Republicans, in Kansas.
| That is pleasing to observe, but then
| comes the realization that 1t don't do
the Democrats any good. They're
getting more and more Republicans
all the time.
There was a machine once here in
Kansas. But these insurgents poured
water in the machines gasoline and
poured sand in the bearings. Now the
machine exists no more"
VIM. Allen Whites Address.
w. A. White, speaking on THE Old
Insurgents said:
the semi-centennial anniversary of the
adoption of the Wyandotte constitution
of the state of Kansas. That constitu
ton is the fundamental law Of our state.
II is not a sacred document It is hui
man and faulty, and now more or less
out of date. and it has been considerably
amended for its betterment. But when
t. was adopted that constitution stood
slavery in the west. It was a free
state constitution. 1t marked the close
of SO years of compromise on the Ques-
ton of slavery and brought on the If
cred here to honor the memory Of the
men who through the long dark years
of the contest struggled to make Kan
sas a free state They did not believe
in freedom as a political precept.
"They fought slavery a great
moral wrong, with no thought Of party
solidarity. They battled for the eternal
right as their cor sciences saw the right.
Trey left party. left friends, left home
ard ties of blood they risked their
personal liberty and disdained to save
their own lives, for the blessed priv1-
lege of fighting in this great combat.
They we're the old Kansas insurgents.
1t is difficult for us to realize today,
what odds they fought against. For
the forces of conservatism, were en-
trenched. Those Who stood pat on
yy, hn
rights of property. in human beings,
had with them the constitution of the
United States, the armies of the Uni
ted States the courts of the United
States They had with them the re-
spectacle majority of the people of the
United Stetes-the upper classes of our
society. p f+A
"The old insurgents were unconstitu-
tional They were in rebellion against |
the arms of their country. They were
disturbers of the public peace. They
were disreputab {aw-breaking ia
natics who had only Gods sheer justice |
They were denounced as Missionaries.
They were abused as enemies to the
flag they loved. They were outeasts
from the parties. They were hanged
as traitors. Presidents sneered at
them: courts banned them, and the
Snug forces they were fighting laughed
the old insurgents to scorn. but they
fought on. They were told that gov
fused to compromise. They were told
that the constitution of the United
States was against them. and 1t was. |
but they did not WELD or falter. They !
were defeated at the polls; they were
whipped in many border battle They
saw their cause go down to defeat time |
and again, but they did not desert it; |
for their faith in the ultimate triumph |
of justice was supreme And so they |
won by their faith-won for Kansas |
and humanity.
The Tail Hold.
Nov these things are recited here to |
point a moral and adorn a narrative. II |
seemed in the flfties in Kansas as If /
the established order had the world by |
the tail with downhill pull. But there |
is Just one trouble with tail holts: The |
tail sometimes pulls out. The thing |
which latter-day scientists designate as /
an immortal cinch may lose its immor-
loses her hairpins. The cinch Of today
is liable to become the thing We try
to explain tomorrow. For is 1t not |
written that nothing fails like success.
Fifty years ago the sacred institution
of private property in human beings
time as chesty as a traction engine.
Then the corridors Of time came upI
kerf1op and sent the sacred institution
of private property III human beings
scooting through oblivion like a buck
shot out of a bean shooter. Today the
sacred institution Of private property
in the vested right to gouge the Ameri-
can people in trusts and rebates and |
tariffs may do well to pick
a convenient star to grab as it passes
into the dazzling petroleum. For the
is going to flop during the
next ten years. There is something
dynamic In faith. The old insurgents
had faith, the others had the works,