The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-26
WRITES OF STUBS
David Leahy's Story Of the
Governor.
How He Was Forced Into
Politics.
HE HAD A MILLION.
Returned to Lawrence With
Than Much Money.
How He Has Brought Reforms
to the State.

The following. written by David D.
Leahy, secretary to Governor Stubs.
was published in the Thanksgiving
Monitor:
Originally the progressive move
ment'' in Kansas was spiritual. It was
of urban birth and not a product of
the farm as so many suppose. Its
relationship to Insurgency is almost
entirely adaptive
Some seven or eight years ago
when the more desperate struggle OF
heavily mortgaged people for exist
ence had ceased-matured and sub
stantial citizens of the larger towns in
Kansas began to think of higher things
than the problems of business and |
they assembled in the class rooms OF
their churches Sabbath afternoons for |
the study of Scripture. Pretty soon |
the grocer asked his negligent neigh |
Dor, the butcher, to go to the mems
meeting" with him, and now and then |
the lawyer put on his tall hat and
dropped in with his friend the doctor !
This spiritual movement soon be- |
came interdenominational and the
opera house was rented. Then the men
began discussing another gospel-the |
gospel of civic righteousness. But the
religious atmosphere was maintained
in invocations and benedictions. It
dawned upon newspaper reporters that
there was excellent early copy for
Monday morning papers in these dis
cusSions, and it was not long until they
became the talk of the town.
As the city elections approached the
mems meetings began to demand can
| didates of character for public office.
They even appealed to the women, who
had previously been given the fran
chise, to come out and vote for their
children and their homes The move
ment of political thought in this direc-
ton caused political leaders to wake
up and take notice.
| 1t has been said that these meetings
| were interdenominational they were
also non-partizan. In them Democrats
( and Republicans talked alike and they
! learned to talk alike outside of the
meetings. It had been a Republican
| legend in Kansas that Democrats
would vote for yellow dog if he were
on their ticket. This historic error
was soon upset when, at the election
! OF 1904, Roosevelt carried Kansas by
a plurality of 124, 000-or 10000 more
| than any other presidential candidate
| had ever received.
| Walter Roscoe Stubs, the present
i governor of Kansas, had come home
to Lawrence with more than $1,000
900 in money. He had gone to work
on the railroad dump with two mules
26 years before. He said he had
enough or at least as much as an
average man ought to have, and in
tended to give the balance of his life
to the moral up1ift of humanity. He
wrote out a good check for the 7. NJ.
G. A. of his home town, built a mis-
sion house in India at his own expense,
supplied it with teachers and made it
a great success. He got behind the
state university and everything else
having to do with human uplift.
The mems meeting said he would be
a great man to send to the legislature
: and they drafted him against his will
He was 46 years of age and had never
been in a township caucus or in a
county or state convention. He be-
1onged to a Republican family-the
wholesome Quaker family of Farmer
!; John Stubbs-and the Republicans
nominated and elected him. Although
of Topeka, he never had been in the
state house until he went there to at
tend the session of the legislature. And
then, for the first time, the rottenness
of politics was revealed to him. The
party bosses in control had employed
400 political strikers to serve legis-
lative body of 1875 members.
This shocked the business instinct of
Stubs and although he had never
made public speech, he so ably ex-
posed this outrageous extravaganza
that he electrified the state. The mems
meetings everywhere applauded his &C.
ton and the beginning of the end of
boss rule in Kansas was at hand.
The machine" which haQ Deen run
ming things, snorted and groaned and
leaders began to fall like the leaves
of the autumn forest. Party lines be-
gan to dissolve and the sheep began to
, separate from the goats. The men s
1 meetings had found leader who did
not drink smoke chew, swear, play
cards, trim, or liza man with a pow
: erful conscience, who had but little re-
spect for party traditions and no pa
thence whatever with mere passive hon
' | in YO11h1
The man who was then governor OF
Kansas was controlled by the ma
chine and all his power was thrown
against the new force. Stubs met this
power in an unique way. He sat down
f by a long distance telephone for three
= days and nights talking with the PEG
u pie of Kansas and at the end of thai
8 time he had a grass roots rebellion
: started in the Republican party that
e forced the governor, who was can
=, didate for denomination, to with
- draw from the race. The progress1ve'
1t now went into the saddle and took com
IS plete control of the bride, the WhlI
# and spurs of the party.
e Since then Progress has been writ
n ten in every statute: We now nav
statewide primary elections and tn
If people choose their United States sen
h ators by direct selection. Government
by commission has been given to cite
II with power Of recalling unfalthfuI pup
y lie servants. The railroads have beel
1t forced to carry passengers IN the STAT
d at 2 cents a mile. The Standard OF
1t companv had to quit discriminating be
ID tween points in the state and the rail
ID roads had to make reasonable freigh
rates. A stringent law was passed reg
ulating lobbyists before the legislator
and joy was carried into every nous
,e in the state with the passage of a lay
r. prohibiting the sale of alcoholic liquor
" for any purpose. The charitable insti
s. tutions were taken out of the hands o
IN the politicians and put on a civil ser
lie vice basis Scandals in state printin
IN were stopped and 100000 saved to tn
IN people in four years.
y. Public employment was SO reforIne