The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-27
Gov. Stubbs' Administration the
Point of Attack.
INCREASE IN TAXES
Independence Man Places Blame
at Governors Door.
Congressman Anthony and Cur
tbs Defend President Taft.

can county central committee of this
county N the Auditorium last night rol
the purpose Of inspiring enthusiasm
over the history and prospects OF the
Grand Old Republican party. thrce wei
known orators belabored the preseh'
state administration with all the cud-
gels Of eloquence and invective at their
command. And a crowd Of 1000 per
spring, steaming superhealed enthusl-
asts applauded and shrieked with de-
light as Thomas Wagstaff, Congress
man. Anthony and Senator Curtis pour
ed their grape and canister into the
camp of the enemy. A party of state
university students intoned their dirge-
like college yell and wound it up with
'Wagstaffi Wagataff! Wagstaf!" when
the eloquent alumnus of their school,
who is now d candidate for the guber-
material nomination was on the floor
From an anti-Stubbs. anti-McNeal
and anti-insurgent point Of view it was
81 very successful meeting. From ST.
monpure Republican point of view IL
might have been taken as eVldence that
. there is war in the camp OF the faith
full for, theoretically, it was Repuo-
lican gathering, not that Of one wing
of the party, although the orators point
ed out that the StubbS administration
was not really Republican after all
James Mullins. foreman of the Santa
Fe blacksmith shop, presided graceful.
ly over the assemblage.
So tired that the spring was all out
Thomas e. Wagstaff, candidate for gov
crnor, showed no fatigue in the VOICE
with which for the 105th time since he
opened the campaign at Independence
on May 10 hurled at his opponent, Wal
ter Roscoe StubbS, his exposition Of
a y tfnu and his pharCfS of drain
ing the treasury Of the state to pay
salaries of appointee who failed to full
fill the Stubbs prescription of "A dol
lars worth of work for dollar in
the state administration.
The Tax Question
1T want to talk to you tonight lit
tie bit about taxes" announced Mr..
Wagstaff after he had acknowledged mis-
$ntroduction and received a flattering
ovation which was repeated when he
called attention to the senatorial rec
crd Of Charles Curtis who was to sue
ceed him on the platform. This is an
Issue which was brought to the atten-
tion of the people of Kansas by the nom
partisan press of the state who nire
months ago pointed out that the first
year of the Stubs administration had
cost more money than had ever been
spent by Kansas governor before.
''In his first answer to the charge of
extravaganza of administration Cover
nor Stuobs fatty asserted that the ap-
propriatiors authorized under his ad-
ninistratlon ii1is n lSO9 were more than
million smaller than those of 1907 This
was his first guess. 1 will 60 on TO
show you how in his successive speech
es he has mix ed contradictions with nm
qualified assertions regarding his own
expenditures until his own report ia an
nnintelligible confusion. The first de-
bial Of Stubbs' claim of reduced appro-
sIrlatlons was the report Of State Aud
hor James M. Nation whose report
showed that in the year 1909 there has
Teen an increase in appropriations of
$1,500,oO0. Stuobs answered wito Ibe aS
sertion that his legislature had been nh
liged to make up a deficiency in the con
tirgent funds of the previous wear Irba
1ect was That there had been a balance
OF $1l9,OOO of unexpended money in the
state treasury when the Stubbs admin
istrstion assumed control.
His next defense was the Increased
appropriations to the educational in
stitutions and the appropriation for
Memorial hall. In saying that tbe
state taxes had been increased nv rea-
son of the appropriation for the Me-
mortal hall Governor Stubbs has haen
guilty either of the grossest Ignorance
or the most deplorable carelessness. fo-
100000 set aside to be expended Inon
Memorial hall came not from the taTss
levied on the property of the people of
Kansas, but out of the 1926 900 maid nv
the federal government on old war
claims. Not one cent of this was tax
money. On the other hand the people
of Kansas owe this magnificent nav
ment from the federal treasury to ths
splendid efforts of Congressman d r
Anthony. ably assisted by Senator
Charles Curtis and the other members
of the Kansas delegation in Washing
ton.
Recommended the Increase
TO do with the increased appropriations
and laid them upon the Legislature
which he said he had been powerless
to control. This in the face of the con-
stitutional amendment which gave to
the governor the express power and
right to cut the appropriation measures
OF the legislature when they exceeded
their proper bounds No. Stubbs rec
commended those increases in his own
messages. Why not fasten the respon-
sibility upon the governor himself when
the records show that he commanded
a f1ve-fold increase of the CONTINGENT
fund, finally securing one two and
half times greater than it had been un-
der any previous administration. BY
that act he set precedent for ex-
travagance to all future administra-
tions and crippled his own powers for
enforcing economies elsewhere. In
main figures / charge the Stubbs ad-
with the extravagant ex-
penditure of a million and a half dol
lars more in the year 1909 than was
spent by Governor Hoch in the last
year of his administration or in 1905
"wnliam Allen White. that famous
sneaker as we'll as writer of fiction,
who has referred to me as an unnat-
ural product of the public school sys-
tenn of Kansas has said that if 1 am
elected governor 1 will cripple the edu-
cational institutions of the state AS
a patriotic son OF Kansas. who has
enjoyed the privileges of her great