The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-18

tematic manner and are required to give
/ the same close attention to the most
trivial matters that they do to Dig
/ things. 1 am having all the details OF
every state institution, the payrolls,
equipment, expenses, revenues, wear ana
1 tear, progress, all tabulated and ar
ranged in such fashion that it can be
comprehended in few minutes. or un-
derstood in detail by more careful
study, just as l have managed my own
business affairs.
'.As for the officeseekers, I don't mind
them at all. They don't bother me-. L
pick the best men know OF Tor the
places and then do not think or the
matter again. Every man has hearing
and is given consideration. 1 weigh the
man, his antecedents. his friends, the
style in which he has handled his own
business and then decide. That oone'
what more can do?
The governor has a style all his own
in receiving and disrnissing visitors.
After observing him for two months, at
the beginning when he was new on the
job and full of hopes of great things,
and during the utilities battle of three
weeks and afterwards in the hour OF
defeat and then again when the strain
of the legislation was over and reac-
tion might be expected. it is hard to see
one particle of difference in the manner
of this strenuous reformer who has
fought every minute since he entered
politics from the ranks some hVe years
ago and reached the governors chair in
this short time because he always
laughed when he was beaten and never
stopped fighting.
Moved by Plea for Pardon.
Yet if officeseekers have no ter
rors for the governor and he enjoys
having friends, enemies and strangers
come into his private office, there was
a visitor the other day who left him
said and sick at heart. mother came
and told him about her boy in the
penitentiary who was paying the pen
atty, she said, for crime he did not
commit. The governor was moved |
more deeply by this woman's tears
than by all the arguments of all the
lffice seekers in the state or even the |
notion made by Morgan of Reno, |
which cost him a great political bat |
tie
People who judge Stubbs from a |
distance or from the platform and |
form a dislike for him or diStrust of |
him, declaring that he is a four-f1ush |
reformer or that he smashed the old |
machine in order to build new and |
stronger machine for himself, judge |
hastily. They should come and see
him in his office Stubbs shows up at !
his best in his private office. He new
er sits at his desk when he talks with |
a visitor. More often it is the visitor |
who occupies the place at the desk.
He puts the caller at his ease in a mo- |
ment. gets right to the point of the |
matter, talks it over frankly, is hearty |
to the point of effusion and the man
is on his way to the door within two !
minutes after he entered, perfectly |
satisfied that he will receive a square |
deal.
II the caller happened to be an op-
position senator or representative dur
ing the utilities fight, Stubbs plunged |
directly into the subject without pre-
liminary word and told the caller why |
he favored the bill and asked him
frankly to help place it on the statute
books. 1t was always a straight out.
scrap in the open with
out frills or pretence. The governor
usually sat knee to knee with his Wis
itor with his face thrust up close and
talked in short sentences like pistol
shots. He simply checked the ques-
ton squarely up to the visitor and
bade him a friendly goodby. Moth
ing so simple, nothing so hard to do.
Stubbs does not play the part of a
governor with the people who meet
him in his private offices. He is the
real thing. No false dignity or quib-
bling or taking refuge behind his desk
or position. He is the executive head
Of the executive department of the
state and meets the people of that
state just like business man meets
his customers. They have made his
position possible; he has earned their
confidence. It's a business proposition.
But Stubbs is in such good health and
spirits all the time that he breaks
down all formalitieS and thus makes
hi5 caller feel at home and gets quick
y to the heart of any matter up for
All Treated Alike
If Stubbs is building up a machine
he is working a long ways under
ground. Half of his important ap-
pointees to Office have declined with
thanks or are considering the matter
1t is a hard matter to size up this
square deal governor. The newspaper
man is supposed to be on the inside
when it comes to diagnosis of pub
lie officials, but after watching Stubbs
receive a hundred different visitors
and delegations and hearing him cut
loose in party council and in private
talks with friends about matters near
to his heart. it Is still a matter of
guesswork when it comes to presenting
the real man to the public in type. He
is bigger at close range than at a dis
tance and he is a more pleasant, like
able man than his thin nose, and
rather scornful lips would indicate,
this much is certain. As regards his
his fourfiuShing. his incon-
all of which negative
qualities he has been accused of con-
cealing about his person, there is
nothing to say at this time They are
still too well concealed to be noticeable
from a close observation of the man
in action in his private office. He
talks reform in private as we'll as pub
lie. AS he talks Squarely and frankly,
so does he act squarely and frankly
with all manner of men who come to
him. 1t is certain that he did not
reach his high place by luck or an
accident. He is worker and he
works by method. He is big enough
for his job and he takes the Job
seriously for all his frank and hearty
greetings for every man and his
laughter in the face of defeat. Stubbs
as governor will make enemies and
has already made them-witness the
last legislature-but he is making
friends, too. He had thirty thousand !