The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-20
WHITE DOES IT.
EmpOria Editor Gives Kansas
Senate ''Clean Bill"
Special COmmendatOry Notice
for Senator Brewster.
HE'S BROAD AND FAIR.
Gives Him Credit for an EX-
ceIlent Utilities Bill.
Party Success Must Be Consider
ed Paramount.
HE'S BROAD AND FAIR.

William Allen White surely olo
make good his promise to apologize
to the honorable senate Of the state OF
Kansas and to Senator Brewster IN
particular In the Saturday issue OF
the Emporia Gazette, Mr.. White re-
fers in glowing terms of eulogy 10
the high personnel and honesty OF the
state senate as a whole, and In an
other editorial on the same page ue-
voted entirely to Brewster OF DOM
phan, the famous editor of the lnsur-
gent cause declares that the state mas
reason to be proud of his (Brewsters 81
service in the senate
The contrast between this last issue
of the Gazette and that issue OF some
days ago when the pork DarreI 6Nl-
torial was printed is remarkable. Ine
insurgent papers used the former eol-
toriaI as a telegraph report hot off the
bat. This last editorial, however, they
could not even use by mail. The back
down is complete, and indicates more
plainly than any mere charge or claim
of standpatters that 1eahy ana Wnlte
talked and acted foolishly when they
broke into print week ago. The fol-
lowing are the two editorials from the
Emporia Gazette Of Saturday:
Senator Brewster.
Whatever may be said of the at
titude of the state senate upon some
of the important measures of the last
platform of the Republican party, 1t
must be admitted that upon at least
one issue there is a genuine desire to
enact an efficient law. This is evil
denced by the act that the subcom-
mittee appointed by the judiciary and
railroad committees of the senate to
draft a public utilities bill. with great
care took all of the best provisions of
all of the laws that were introduced
and embodied them into one bill.
THE credit for the subcommittee
bill must be given largely to Senator
g. NJ Brewster, who in all of the leg
islation at this session of the senate
has shown a growing desire to be
broad and fair. The only thing in
the senator's record that can be criti-
cised. from progressive standpoint
Is his attitude upon the initiative and
referendum and his joining with his
fellow men bers to take the power
out of the hands of the lieutenant
governor to disturb the old commit
tees. In these matters the senator
undoubtedly acted from a conviction
of duty, but his friends regret that he
could not have acted with the same
breadth of vision on these matters as
on many others in which he has been
OF much benefit to the state as a rep
resentative in the senate. In draft
ing the utilities bill with Senators
>
shown himself to be an able lawyer
and keenly alive to the things that
will make the law success and even
tualIy of great benefit to the people of
Kansas.
Under this law the board is appoint
ed as nonpartisan and the governor and
the senate are directly responsible for
the acts of the commissioners selected
by the governor and confirmed by the
senate. The law gives the commission
r 9errf Ill
public utilities other than those con-
fined to cities and the mutual telephone
companies; and in the case of private-
ly owned public utilities located in cit
les it provides a careful syste- for ap-
peal to the state board for relief in ca SO
of oppression. It gives the board com
plete authority to fix rates and adjust
and enforce joint rates and interserVice
between public companies This is an
important provision in the conduct of
the telephone business. 1t also gives
the board complete control over the is
suance of securities and places the DOW
er to make valuations. More important
than any of these, perhaps, is the auth-
ority given the board by the law to
prohibit public utilities and common
carriers from manufacturing or dealing
in commodities which they TRANSPORT
The law also gives the board complete
control over the issuance of indebted
ness and liens.
i
from the subcommittee, may be said
to be as broad as the Wisconsin law or
the New York law and much more neat
ly and carefully drawn than either of
them If 1t is enacted by the senate
and house, as 1t should be- it will place
Kansas in the forefront of the six states
now taking an advance stand upon the
enlightened control of public utilities.
IF Senator Brewster accomplishes
no other thing than the drafting and
a. ~ k1,A..
custer bill during his term of office the
state will have reason to be proud of
his service in the most important
branch of the state legislature"
The State Senate.
During the history of Kansas at
various times various senates have sat
in Topeka; some good, some bad and
some Indifferent. But the Kansas
senate now in session, has a higher
majority OF personally honest men in
it. men of higher business and nor
fessional capacity, men of a more pen-
eral good standing in the communities
IN which they live, than any senate
that has assembled in Kansas in the
twenty years of the life of the ,sa
men for a dishonest proposition he
could buy fewer men in the Kansas
senate than in any senate that has
assembled in the memory of men ac-
tive in this generation It is 5ivided
into three groups-five Democrats
eighteen progressive Republicans and
sixteen conservative Republican, .
majority, but by no means ali of
whom are what has been called stand
patters. And so far as personal nro-
bity and personal honesty is Concerned
the line of cleavage does not run a1one
group lines. There are just as manV
personally honest conservatives as
personally honest progressives And
the Democrats are just as honest as
the Republicans. It is not a question
of honesty or dishonesty. 1t is a
question of personal temperament
The socalled standpatters are tenn