The National tribune., 1910-08-04
UNCLE JOE IN KANSAS.

| HI Ills lOlS lie VI SIBltDuiO odllilS
for Republican principles. Speaker Can
non never appeared to better advan-
| ltage than in his recent excursion into
Kansas. Insurgency seemed to have
taken possession of the State. There 1t
has its strongest and most aggressive
Headers, and thence come the ,fiercest
and most persistent battle cries. 1t is
true that we are quite used to storm
and stress in Kansas. The State was
conceived in political commotion and
born amid the throes of a gigantic civil
war. 1t may be said to have never
been actually settled, for something or
| somebody has always been raging up
the Arkansas, from the fertile foothills
of the Ozarks to the semi-arid slopes
| of the great Rockies. There was this
great difference, however. Heretofore
when Kansas men lifted their voices
and cried aloud there was no mistaking
what they wanted. 1t might be i'm
practical, if not impossible; it might
even seem absurd. But the voice-lifters
and criers aloud had specific, well-de-
| fined ideas of what they wanted and
were ready to furnish working draw
ings and blueprints.
Such tangible presentations have been
tiresomely lacking in the insurgent
campaign. We have had galore the
thunder of the captains and the shout
ings, but no one could find out the OBJ
ject of the battle There were piercing
yells against "Cannonism,' but no two
of the yellers could be made to agree
as to what they. meant by Cannon
ISM" One was hot because he had not
received an important committee as
signment; a number were blaming the
Speaker for the non-passage of bills
which they had promised their con-
stituents to put thru, but never intend
ed to do so. A still larger number
Joined in the clamor of the Democratic
papers, the yellows and the muckrai-
ers, weakly hoping TO gain some per-
sonal advantage. There is an unusually
large proportion of emotional, uncertain
people in Kansas. liable to be set adrift
by any strong gust of hot air.
All this time it was plain to every
thinking man that Hon. Joseph G.. Cam
non was elected Speaker by the almost
unanimous vote of his party in the
House; that he was thus made the par
tvs responsible executive for perform
ing the duty with which the people had
charged it, and that he was performing
this duty ably, conscientiously and i'm
partially under the rules which a ma
jority of the House had adopted and
which a majority could change at any
time. In other words, Mr.. Cannon, one 4
of the very ablest men who ever held
the highly responsible position of
Speaker, was making good the pledges
and purposes for which the people had
voted so decisively at the Presidential
and Congressional elections.
Speaker Cannon went boldly into the
hotbed of irsurgentism to challenge
the leaders to a showdown before the
people. Let them face him before the
people and define their grievances.
What had been done that was un-
Republican? What that was not in
strict fulfillment of the promises and
pledges made when the party went be-
fore the people asking support?
Were they dissatisfied with the tariff?
All tariff schedules must be the result
cf compromises and concessions. Never
before had a tariff bill been so long and
exhaustiveiy considered. They had had
the fullest hearing ard had voted for
the bill.
1t was the same with the railroad,
postal savings banks and other impor-
tant bills.
Were the rules of the House unfair?
Then let them point out in what they
were unfair. and get a majority of their
TO agree with them, and they
would be changed.
The Speaker electrified his audiences
by the declaration that he was a Repub-
lican-not standpatter, nor an insur-
gent, nor a progressive, simply Re-
publican, who had ever marched for
ward with his party, keeping step with
every advance and doing his utmost to
keep up the glorious forward march
the party had consistently made since
its birth.
The manifest results of the Speakers
visit to Kansas are vastly kindiier
feeling toward him and a cooler, saner
atmosphere thruout the State.