The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-17
Wichita Editor Makes Breezy.
Startling Statements.
Says Kansas Is Against Taft
Practically Without Dissent.
THAT WINONA SPEECH
Says That Presidents Utter
ance Alienated People of West.
And Kansas Barometer of Ma
tiOn," Asserts Allen.

The Kansas City Star, which seems
opposed to President Taft and to ia
vor free trade. publishes in its its issue
of last night the following breezy in
terview:
Fresh from the grass roots out there
in Kansas Henry Allen of Wichita.
at breakfast at the Hotel Baltimore,
told how the Sunf1ower state is feel
ing these days Lately immersed miles
deep in the atmosphere of the prairies,
he diagnosed the case of the people,
and told who's who and what's what
in the lard of morning. Attacking a
baked apple. he began:
L come from the state where every
nan does a little job of thinking of his
own Whether it is because we see
things more clearly than other people,
which I believe. or because we have
prejudices that blind our vision, ] am
not sure. but tomorrow if Theodore
Roosevelt should come back from his
African hunt. and say he is willing
to be a candidate for the presidency.
Kansas would be for him from Atchi-
son to Syracuse.
There is no use denying, no use
concealing- the fact that Kansas is
anti-Aldrich. anti-Cannon and anti
Taft, and practically without dissent.
Kansas is opposed to Aldrich and Can
mon, not because Kansas has studied
the tariff question more deeply than the
people of other states have studied it,
but because Kansas resents the assum-
ed superiority of men who assert that
they have the exclusive privilege of de-
fining what craftsmanship is and what
party regularity in the Republican
party is.
Kansas Has Her War Paint On.
And so Kansas has watched Mr..
Taft with a sort of lazy indifference
and observing with some astonshment
that he wasn't making much of a fig
ure in the last session of congress,
woke up and put on her war paint
when Taft delivered his Winona speech.
in which he practically declared that
the political wisdom in the Republican
party resided with Cannon and Aid
! rich, and when Mr.. Taft. good man
that he is, made that declaration, he
lost Kansas Kansas was gone
Mr.. Allen lifted an emphasizing fin
ger and tapped the table menacingly.
90 The political revolution in Iowa was
something, and the revolution in Wis
consin was something, but when Kan
sas decided to insurge it meant that
| s'OId Joe' Cannon would be swept from
| the speakers chair For Kansas IS
| foreshadowing the revolt of the nation
against that sort of politics. 1t means
| that the thing has become epidemic.
| The other states will not catch it in as
aggravated form as Kansas has, but
| they will catch it just the same. And
| it means the end of Cannon and the end
of Aldrich.
"'Public opinion in Kansas becomes
aggravated to a greater extent than
where everything is finished and paid
for and a few men are allowed to do all
the thinking for the whole people
From the very beginning Kansas has
had the quality of political independence
which keeps her awake touching all
public questions. She catches the dis
ease first
The Barometer of the Nation.
" For Kansas is the barometer of the
nation the reflector of the popular
emotion Kansas, because her public
nerves from the very organization of
the state have been exposed to the
open. has come to be an accurate ther-
mometer of what other states and other
get around to it, in the way of public
sentiment, probably in lesser degree.
but in an effective degree for all that
''Mr. Allen put down his coffee cup
with this final observation:
1--WE sometimes see mirage out
there he said 'Somtimes we have an
exaggerated notion of heights and dis
tances, but there must be funda-
mental. cause for every vision we have
1t is all tending toward the eternal
truth of things and the balance is all
right when made up.
Mr.. Allen is in Kansas City to see
about steel and cement for the new 10
story building for his newspaper, the
Wichita Beacon. The contract will be
awarded soon. 1t will be the only sky
scraper in Kansas. The cost, $500, 600.
Beacon contributing $4,000 site. 1t is
a community affair. There are 4S5
stockholders"