The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-04
Mayor Billiard Not Worried by
Political Situation.
Doesn't Expect State Temper
ance Union Endorsement.
WILL OPEN ON JAN. 1
His Campaign for Governor
Inaugurated Then.
Mayor Billiard Says: 81 Am for
Temperance"

A Topeka correspondent for papers IN
Kansas City and St. Louis writes under
a Topeka date line that Kansas is IN
the throes of a great fight on prohibit
ton and that the candidacy of j. B.
Billiard, Topeka's mayor, is worrying
the leaders of the two old parties; that
the Democrats fear that Billiard VIII
be nominated at the primaries and the
progressive Republicans fear that he
will get thousands of Republican votes
at the election if he is his party candl-
date. Billiard himself says little ana
that to the point.
The state Temperance union viii meet
at Topeka Tuesday to start the cam
paign against Billiards. gubernatorial
aspirations and the ACCOMPLISHMENTS gen
orally.
Billiard himself remains calm and un-
ruffied amid all the talk and agitation
for and against his candidacy. Asked
TODAY about the temperance convention
to he held here this week. the mayor
gave out a characteristic interview.
Does Not Expect Endorsement.
II do not suppose he said, that
this convention will endorse my csi ..--
dacy for governor. And yet l, too, am
for temperance, and L believe that my
advocacy OF this mode OF llVlng Is
more practical and efficient than Lhd1
advanced
pie I cannot conceive or any clll1el u
this state being in favor OF drunken
ness and laWlessneSs- -
Il want the people of this state to pc
4en4perate-to practice the best lelu-
1,erance of self control. Feopte cstH i
he Ieeislated into heaven or into peilS
good. The prohibition forces nave IN, Cne
narrow idea and the wrong ahele. -
omen saloon, regulated and cohtrollee
Nv law is not SO great an enemy u
fhe youth of the state as the p resene
system of pussyfooung and laNless ness
and the mystery ana ollheultS La
about getting a drink -.
u would rather my boys would grow
nm in n town with the open Saiooh anu
learn to practice self restraint tnah 70
nave them guarded and leglslated IN
for themselves be defenseless ana un-
rreDared against the temptations ina
viii always assail in this world untl
the second ComtnE-
omen Campaign January 1.
ST know full we'll that the prohibit
ton people have taken pains TO ulseol
and Tnisrepresent me for months pe-
fore the public, but cannot help that-
NV views are my own and VIII cleaNe
to them. / hold them above loNe u
Office or power or wealth.. am HOH
est ANYWAY I shall open my cSlIi-
rSaien headquarters about the first OF
the year and prosecute my campaign
as best I can I shall depend upon
the mails for two or three moIths-
Next year will be a Democratic year
The people of Kansas are sick OF the
Governor Stubbs brand of political
buncomb and they are sick OF the
broken promises of the regular Repub-
leans shall do my best to WIN
shall make the campaign honestly oe-
ceiving no person and soliciting VOTES
under no false pretenses- believe IN
a campaign of education to eradicate |
the LIQUOR evil, and not a campaign Oh
LEGISLATION and consequent laWbreaklhS
and duDlicity The political reformers
of the Republican party have made
prohibition a political issue in the state
and they wave the bloody shirt IKE
the Southerners used to do
''I believe in law enforcement ana
have Dracticed that creed since have
been MAYOR of Topeka, but i also be-
Heve in the people being again allowed
to vote on what shall be the law OF the
state And let the majority rule
It have received, unsolicited, offers
of s11pport from every county in the
state, and appreciate this most deep |
~ I shall do my best to win. That's
And the little man who holds down
the MAYORS chair in Topeka turned |
back to his work at his desk. The |
interview is typical of the man. He
says little and does much. He has
people guessin as to his strength in
the coming campaign, just as ne has
always had them guessing before his
two successful Topeka campaigns He !
never lodges the issue, nor seeks
trouble, nor blows a horn in the big
brass band. He believes in personal |
liberty and takes the scriptures for
truth when they say that each man is
the master of his own destiny. He
believes in education as better than
legislation. It is now conceded on
every hand that he is a formidable |
candidate for governor.
Mr.. StahI's View.
Frank Stahl. the prohibition en-
thusiast. takes the opposite view when
he discusses the coming prohibition |
convention in Topeka as follows:
Kansas, in all her history has
never failed to win when the clash of |
arms came. 1t is not the first time |
her border has been crossed by foes
that we're bent on her destruction. Yet
she has never faced a foe that was
more determined, more dangerous and /
more interruptions as to the meth DDS /
employed than the brewers of Amer /
lea The world is watching Kansas /
It is up to you Tt was only when /
men slept that the enemy sowed /
tares'
What a Woman Can Do" would /
make an appropriate title for a book I
describing the work one woman is do |
ing at the Headquarters of the State
Tenn perance Union.
Miss Lillian A. King. the painstak-
ing and Woodworking secretary, has at
her fingers ends every detail of this /
elaborate machinery for the hunting
down of violatOrs, the places where
meetings are to be held throughout the /
state, the financial record of all con-
tributors to the union and all of the /
secret evidence obtained by Superin- |
tendent gtah1 and his assistants.
The State Temperance union is a great |
promoter of temperance and morality |
and secret service bureau combined. /
When the evidence of violations is OBJ I
tanned it is turned over to the officers
of the law.