Cañon City record., 1910-03-03
A DAY IN KANSAS.

A DAY IN KANSAS.
Well, you leave Mississippi in the
night, and wake up next morning in
Kansas and the change in the country
is marvellous.
You make jump from the poverty
ridden slave-tenanted cotton section
into the country of prosperity, clean,
well improved, well kept, profitable
farms of Kansas. each worked by it's
owner, free-born American citizen
a sovereign. in fact
No where in the world has man
reached that high state of freedom, of
individual sovereignty, in fact. as in
Kansas, and it shows in the farms.
Bach farm is principality by itself
and the owner. the man Sho works it,
is its king, with more rights and less
danger than any king in Europe.
AS you ride through Kansas and
look at the moving picture out the car
window, one long array of rich, well
kept farms, fine homes good churches,
great. fine school houses, latest style
automobiles, prosperous little cities
and all you wonder wherein the
difference lies.
In Mississippi they tell you that
land that produces a half bale to a
bale and half of cotton-from $3.50
to s112.50 to the acre sells for from
$40 to $50 per acre. In Kansas land
that produces so bushels of corn at
soc the bushel or so bushels of wheat
at s1.OO the bushel. sells at from 800
to 5000 the acre, and out here near
Canon City our orchards are selling
at $1,000 the acre-and you wonder
what makes the difference. 1t GER
tainly is not all in the climate.
I spent a half day in Topeka. Kan
sas, and like the town. have always
liked Kansas. II l didn't like Colorado
so well I should go back to Kansas.
In many ways it is the best state in
the Union. 1t is certainly the best
state in the Union.
They appreciate the newspaper man
in Kansas. A Kansas newspaper man
makes nearly as much money as a
Kansas farmer, and that's a good deal.
in these days of high prices, but chief
above that, the newspaper man cuts
some ice in matters of state.
In Colorado you know the corpora
tons and the Interests" rule the
state. Down in Kansas it's the news
paper men-the newspaper men and
the farmers. but the newspaper man
educates the farmer so he practically
runs things. And he runs them we'll,
too.
The governor, both senators. every
and half the state Of
ficers OF Kansas are newspaper men.
Nearly all the postmasters are news
paper men. In fact | have seen only a
few Kansas newspaper men who are
not holding good offices and they are
so much money they don't
want to be bothered with holding Of
fee and have no taste that way. 1t
would keep them at home too much
and interfere with their travels. There
is Ed Howe. william Allen White,
Arthur Capper, ]. f. Junkin and
Henry Allen-they don't hold office.
They could if they wanted to all right,
but they are too busy-and too pros
porous.
About the best governed of all the
states is Kansas. 1t has no large city
to dominate it. It has no large cor
porations that rule 1t. Kansas comes
nearer being an ideal democracy than
any other state in the Union. The
primary system is more nearly per-
fected in Kansas than elsewhere,
Kansas gets some fool laws and she
has some freak statesmen, but the
people of Kansas want them, so that's
their right.
But in the main her laws are right
and in the main her statesmen are
capable and of the right sort The
rights of the man are nowhere better
projected and l know of no state
where the opportunity for the aver
age individual to develop to his fullest
capacity Is so good as in Kansas.
In Kansas they appreciate good
papers and they don't want too many.
Business men in Kansas appreciate
the fact that one or two papers in a
Town are better than three or four.
It's business policy. It's the best
state in the Union for the papers that
,-o ,,,atI aetobIishad and it's the