The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-19
JUST MOTORS ON.
Kansas Too Busy for Politics,
Herbert Says.
FOrefathers Saved Too Hard for
Own Comfort.
ONLY DUTCHMEN HIT.
Brown County Twister Didn't
Touch Plain Kansans.
Fall Election Last of Political
War Dances.

| Kansas City, Mo-, April 19.-Did that
Kansas tornado purposely pick out
Dutchmen? Has Kansas got to the
point where it is too busy motoring to
take up politics again. and even if it
did. would the standpatters wipe the
earth up with the insurgents? Has
it come to pass that the $4,000 majority
days are over and the crowd which
formerly danced every time the leaders
cracked the whip do no more than
throw it into the high and go on to
the next town?
Ewing Herbert. of Kansas. says this
is so. Sitting in the office of a Demo-
cratic lawyer, for which he had an
alibi ready, the sage of Hiawatha
told of coming to Kansas City in a
machine.
I'VE all motor in Kansas now" he
said. I'VE used to call it automobiling
but now it has got down to motoring.
In my county, Brown, every tenth man
has an automobile or is fixing to get
one. I saw a dealer unload a train
load, not a carload, line them UP on
the street and sell them as you sell
cattle at the yards. The old doctrine
of save here and get heaven here
after is warping in Kansas. We are
figuring on heaven. still, but we are
not saving so burned tight as we used
to. I recollect our Kansas forefathers
saved so hard here that to get to
lCdNSD lllGy SOl IlGAl OIi col Ills
Don't Monkey With Politics.
kansas is motoring, 1 tell you"
Herbert said when asked about state
politics. I'VE are too well off to mon
key with politics. Kansas used to go
to meeting Wednesday evenings and
twice on Sunday and to the political
meetings on the off nights. 1t had to
go there to learn what to say and how
to vote. Now Kansas buys the newspa-
perS and these post the kanSan. Be
fore he can get his mind set one way
by one paper he picks up another,
which starts him in the other direction.
That makes him think, and he thinks
he does not want to go to a party
caucus.
I'VE could elect a man on the Re
publican ticket in Kansas one day, and
if he made a Democratic speech at
Buffalo on the way to Washington.
Kansas would not be surprised. Last
fall the insurgents carried everything
before them. This spring the stand
patters could beat them two to one.
Pork is down, cattle are off feed is
lower and markets are dragging. The
standpatter is in the saddle and he adj
mits he is the responsible party. He is
the defendant and the correspondent.
Wouldn't Fight corporation.
"The last election was the last of
the Kansas political war dances. The
dancers who wore their moccasins out
and bagged their blankets at the
knees hopping around because two
parties. unnamed, one a nonresident
and the other local manager,
cracked their whips. Either the pop
pers flew off or something happened,
but nobody in Kansas will dance any
more. They would not even bunch up
to fight a corporation.
Nothing scares 'em. We had d
tornado last week. 1t was 300 yards
wide, nine miles long, started at En-
terprise, never did a cert's worth of
damage to common, ordinary, poor
trashy American, but everlastingly up
set every Dutchman's farm along the
trail.
"Kansas, since it took to motoring,
has found that the long distance tele-
phone and the railway went a long
way towards making Kansas a good
place in which to live. Senator Stone
can introduce all its resolutions about
the Mexican rebellion. and Champ
Clark can be speaker anG Herb Had
ley can run for president; I say that
the Missourians can cut these didos,
but Kansas is motoring. and it has the
coin to motor on"