The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-15
Wagstaff Replies Again to Gov
ernOr Stubbs.
Who, He Says, Deyotes Only
One-F0urth Time to Office.
HE QUOTES FIGURES.
Purpose to Prove Extravagance
Of Departments.
declares This Long Letter Last
OF Writing Contest.

Thomas e. Wagstaff. candidate for
governor, makes answer to the state
ment issued by Governor Stubbs on
June D. In which all the main issues of
the campaign are threshed out. Mr..
Wagstan did not deign to reply %
Leahy's preface to the Stubs letter in
which 1t was charged that F. Dumont
smith wrote the former Wagstaff letter
IN Dave Mulvane's office, but Secretary
Kramer did this several DAYS ago The
letter follows:
My Dear Goyernor-I have read with
much interest your reply given out
June 8 to my open letter of Nav 81
Your letter is worthy of the closest at
tention by the voters of Kansas: not
SO much for what it says as what it
omlts to say; not SO much for what it
denies as what it admits.
In my letter 1 made various state
ments to most of which you paid no
attention. 1 am bound to assume and
the people of Kansas are bound to as
sumo that by your silence you admit
every statement of mine, not denied.
You, therefore. admit as charged by
my former letter, that on September
| 27 1909, when you stated that the leg
| islature of 1909 had appropriated $SS9.-
600 less than the legislature of 1907.
when as a matter of fact it had ap-
propriated $651 900 more, you misstatc1
| the facts by $1,540,000. One of two
| things must be true; you were either
| seeking to deceive the voters of Kan
sas, or you were woefully ignorant of
| tie states business. Again you admit
! that when on Jan. 16. 1910, you an
nounced that the first year of your ad-
ministration had cost 100000 less than
the last year of Hoch's administration,
when as a matter of fact it had cost
$322,000 more, you misstated the facts
by the trif1ing sum of SS22,000
Once more l say that you were either
| seeking to deceive your constituents or
| you We're ignorant of state affairs
submit that if ever in any speech or
signed statement of mine, 1 had made
| anything like so gross an error as
these two, your organs would have
made the state ring with 1t, and l am
frank to admit that such ignorance or
49nendacity on my part would have fair
n justified you and your followers in
conden1ning me as utterly unfit to hold
the office. of governor. Any man VINO
as a candidate for that exalted office.
and especially after years experience
as a. business governor" boldly falsi-
fies the records as you have done IN
these two instances, stamps himself as
too ignorant or too careless of the
truth to fill any public office.
The Penitentiary Matter.
1 charged that under your manage
ment it costs as much to maintain $50
criminals in the penitentiary as 1t did
1850 under the administration of Gov
ernor Hoch. You replied, This is a
perfectly natural consequence, which
stands"
Was this intended for a joke? Is it
true as you assert, that it takes as
many guards and turnkeys to care for
$50 convicts as it does for 1850? APP
parently it does under your admins
tration, but 1 am bound to believe that
the guards and turnkeys are more or q
political asset than a measure or
safety In the most disingenuous man
ner you attempt to insinuate that L ad-
vocate the Importation of disease and
crime ino Kansas in order to increase
the number of boarders at the peniten-
tiary. When and where did / ever adj
| vocate that? You know I never did.
You are putting words into my mouth
which I never uttered in order to be-
cloud the real issue: your lack of busi-
ness management of the penitentiary.
1t is an extraordinary fact that un-
der your administration while so much
solicftude is shown for convicts. and
you congratulate the people of Kansas
that its criminals are better housed
and fed, the old soldiers in the Soldiers
Home at Dodge City, the men to whom
| Won and 1 owe a debt we can never
pay, are not as well fed and not 1S
well cared for under your administra-
ton as under Hoch's. You have in
creased the per capita expense of caT~
ing for the convicts 20 per cent, whils
you have decreased the per capita cost
of caring for the old soldier, his wifs
, and children. This is an achievement
| in economy that will hardly appeal tn
| the old soldiers of Kansas, or to tha
loyal people of the state who believe
that they are entitled to q trife more
, consideration than the convictS in tha
penitentiary.
Respects to Board of Control.
I called your attention to the fact
that the board of control law, which
Won helped draw and which was one
; of YOUR pet measures. specifically re-
oufred that the members of that board
, should give their entire time to the
service of the state; and that two
members of this board had taken re-
. spectively one 124 days, and the other
t125 days of the time which belonged
: to the state, and devoted it to their
! own private business, incidentally
charging their travelling expenses to
the state. What is your reply to that?
That Mr.. Bowman is a hard working
!, iemDIoyee and that Mr.. Schemerhorn
: is a man of large business experience,
= | I am to understand that if a state en-
pIoyee has large business experience,
: he need not devote 1t to the state
. which pays him, but may devote it to
| his own business, where he gained the
r. experience; and that if an employee
:. lis hard working. it makes no difference
?. | whether he works for himself or for
a the state?
: This is a curious standard of official
q honesty and devotion to public duty,
. and il goes well with your oft repeated
. statement, that you would demand a
dollars worth of work for dollar in
g pay.
Personal Criticism of Governor.
g 1t might be well in this connection
: to call attention to your own case.
e The state of Kansas furnishes you q
e splendid mansion, rent free, and ST.
600 a year for its maintenance, and