The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-15
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Western Kansas Representatives
Wideawake, Determined Men,
Have Decided Convictions About
Needs of State.
TALK OF IRRIGATION.
Garden City Conference Made
This Paramount Question.
Want a State immigration Bu-
reau Established.
TALK OF IRRIGATION,

Garden City, Dec 15.-At the confer
ence of representatives-elect from the
southwest counties of the state helo
here Wednesday 10 general expression
was voiced or agreement reacneo ou
any public question except regarding
matters that concerned the southwest
ern part of the state only the con-
ference was nonpartisan, there peln5
almost as many Democrats present as
Republicans. Some of the conferees
who claimed tc be in close touch Wlth
the sentiment of the new legislators de-
clared that Matson of SedgW1ck was
the choice of the majority for speaker
OF the next house, and they based their
prediction on the proposition that tha
Seventh district had nearly always III
the past stayed with the southwest
cities of Wichita and Hutchinson III
legislative matters for reasons OF
mutual interest But interviewed sepa-
rateIy the legislators did not talk
Matson.
It is a fact that of the score of mem
bers of the next house present ar the
meeting not a man present would eA-
press himself even privately under oath
of secrecy as to a choice. Judge BUCK
man of Winfield has many friends ana
admirers among the southwest mem
bers and Robert Stone of Shawnee IS
known to them by his works.
A
that they want a speaker who could
come the nearest to harmonizing the
factions of the party. That is the
qualification the next speaker must
have to appeal to them. The members
of the last house who were reelected
believed that Buckman had proved
these qualities to a marked degree, but
they did not pretend to know that his
opponents lacked the same genius for
promoting harmony.
Judged by the spirit of the southwest
conference the next speakership fight
promises to be evenly sustained. Toss
a coin to make choice.
One of the most important questions
discussed at the conference was that
relating to proposed amendment of the
irrigation laws. This is the great ques-
ton in the southwest. 1t was proposed
to the legislators by a committee Of
citizens interested that the law be
amended so that the period of irriga-
tion be extended to cover the entire
year. Also that no person or corpora
ton be allowed to use the underflow
That contracts for water rights be
treated by law the same as transfers
of property which is to say that the
contracts be required to be recorded in
the county records. That only do
mestic companies be allowed water
privileges. This last amendment was
proposed for the reason that when liti-
CATION arises between clC1ZenS ana cor
porations over the use of the water the
latter incorporate from another state
in order to gain access to the federal
courts. The citizens want all questions
relating to the water supply decided by
the state courts where the judges are
supposed to be in closer touch with
peculiar conditions.
The proposition to advocate the es-
tablishment of a state immigration
bureau was mentioned in the Garden
A.I- e. &o4~ ~
Wednesday. The southwestern mem
bers, prof1ting by the success of the
plan in Colorado, propose to push such
a measure in the next house. They
are also going to try to get together in
support of some certain experiment
station in the west with a view to MAX
ing it as large and complete as possi-
bic, preferably the station at Dodge
City, instead of scattering their efforts
to every town that has a state or gov
ernment office.
Whatever may develop later, it was
apparent that most of the members
present at the conference, Democrats
and Republicans. were strongly in
clined to support the so-called square
deal measures known to be advocated
by the administration. The utilities
bill had the o. K. Of nearly all the
members. and the election of United
States senator by direct vote and the
recall and other progressive 1egisla-
tion. The one subject upon which the
conferees kept close mouth was the
speakership. On all other matters
they would talk freely.
The progressive spirit of the western
towns of Kansas is remarkable. 1t
dominates private interest and politi-
cal preference entirely. This city,
where Ralph Faxon breaches the gos-
pei of good roads and soft water every
dav in the year, is a striking example.
The citizens of this town were deeply
interested in the conference, not the
political part of 1t, but its relation to
local matters that need attention.
Committees waited upor the legislators
and provided them with a world of in
formation on all the local subjects dis
cuSSed.
Boost is the motto of these western
towns. Boost all the time Nature has
been lavish in her gifts to them in
many essentials and miserly in others.
The people are working all the time
to make up the deficiency. They do
not complain or sit still but get up
on their toes and surge ahead in spite
of all obstacles. No visitor from
eastern Kansas can stay long in the
western part of the state without be-
coming impressed with the ceaseless
energy and cheerfulness Of the people
out there. The locality and climate,
as ingalls, has stated in his "Blue
Grass and Catfish Aristocracy' clas-
sizes, seems to affect the inhabitants.
In this case it must be the prairie and
the sunshine and the oxygen in the
air. Anyway, the people out there
take a more active interest in the
public welfare and more pride in their
towns and make greater sacrifices for
the general good than they do in the
east They are broader. and therefore
just that much better in that partic-
ular.
w. A. FEEDER of Barton county, Dem
ocrat and editor. was present at the
conference with plan to give state
aid to rural schools FEEDER was a
valuable member of the last house. He
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