The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-13


house two years ago. Some of the
western members talk of him for gov
ernor. Brewster was about the whole
works in the senate. Hodges, Reed,
| Ganse, Price were also senators Of
class. Robertson started guberna-
torial boom on his senate work.
The names mentioned above were
| those heard most often during the
session. They were not picked by one
man but forced recognition by doing
They should be heard from again in
connection with state affairs. Many
not mentioned here will doubtless
come back and make mark. The
Legislature is free for all and 1t
gives men two months to make good
under fire. Most of the members lose
money on the legislative game and are
therefore entitled to win back a bal
ance to their accounts in reputation
An apprentice works in the hope of a
future journeyman's wages. The man
who builds a cabin in the legislative
wilderness will often watch the world
wear a path to his door. Maybe not
but then it has often happened so be-
| fore.
The Democrats tried all through the
session to make campaign pop for
1911 and they had over fifty husky
statesmen there to l1nead the dough.
The attempt to investigate the state
majority. That will be a slogan next
year. The inheritance tax, an issue in
the last campaign, was amended in
such fashion that it is in worse shape
than before, if such thing were pos
sibIe. The governor would have We
toed it but for the fact that that ac-
ton would leave the old law in effect.
Jokers and riders went through with
many important bills.
The action of the governor in veto
ing the Orr bill taking the attorney
generals office out of the fee business
will be heard from in the next cam
paign. 1t was generally regarded as
a good measure, the only joker the ad-
rninistration could find was that it did
away with an incentive to enforce the
prohibitory law. But this very incen-
tive was under fire in the legislature
all through the session charged with
resulting in undue measures and I'M
due gains. The attorney general was
satisfied with the Orr bill. 1t raised
his salary and removed him from the
smoke of making money out of the
prohibitory law. The governor in his
message to the legislature recon-
rended the adjustment OF Iees LOT
county offices. 1t is strange that this
system would not work as well for state
offices.
]. w. Dolley believes that the Blue
Sky bill passed by the lest legisla-
IOTS Will drive the lake investment
company agents out of Kansas. The
threat of the law alone, and the power
that it gives the state bank commits
sioner, will he believes, put these blue
sky merchants. as he calls them, on
the run. But the commissioner Will not
neglect to employ the machinery of the
new law in the interest of prospective
| investors.
Robert Stone of Shawnee, during the
visit of the house members to the sem
ate the last night of the Legislature,
was called upon for a speech by the
gay and festive senators. Senator
Carey had been having fun with the
house members who talked that night
by asking them pointed questions in
tended to put them on the toboggan
slide. He asked Stone, rs it not a
fact that you keep the Topeka paving
bill before the legislature in the inter-
! est of Topeka boarding house keepers ~
| Carey's wit lay in the point that the
! paving bill claim caused deadlock in
the legislature two years ago.
No" replied Stone, I'VE use that
paving claim to beat the Hutchinson
state fair
Carey asked no more questions.
| When the house roll call was taken
on the Topeka paving claim Friday,
some of the members explained their
votes during which they intimated that
/
on the level. When Stones name was
called the Topeka man arose to ex-
| plain his vote He said: Certain
members have intimated by their ex
plantations that the claim is not just.
Yet no one will dispute that the paw
ing has been placed around the state
house square and paid for by the city
| of Topeka. No one claims that the
paving. Where is the point to these
explanations? What is crooked about
the claim? The paving was put in, and
| it has never been paid for by the state.
What is bogus about this claim? Why
these explanations" None of the
questions were answered.
The house employees gave Earl Ak
ers. of Stafford. chief clerk of the house,
a handsome gold mounted elk's tooth,
just to show him something of how
they appreciated his style of running
the house clerical business. The news
lpaper gang o. K. the judgment of the
employees on the ability and DISPOSE
ton of the chief clerk.
The 1911 legislature appropriated
nearly a million more than did the 1909
legislature but then it can be argued
that the state has increased in wealth
and population in that proportion dur
ing the last two years, and the in
crease is justified in the interest of the
state departments being kept on a
plane of efficiency.
Bank Commissioners Dolley has writ
ten John Dawson, the attorney gem
eral, to protest against the latter's
charge that the state banks render aid
and comfort to the enemies of the pro-
hibitory law by making collections of
liquor debts in the desert state of
Kansas. Mr. Dolley, having stood mp
for the banks and proclaimed their in
nocence. there is nothing more to do
except let the incipient controversy
drop. The two state officials have both
shown their zeal in behalf of the anti
liquor laws. the banks are not making
any complaint, and the rumsellers are
. on the run in Kansas since the legis-
lature made bootlegging a penitentiary