The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-05
ToPEKA's NfAIIGNERs.


Hutchinson's newspa pers, or one O.
them at any rate the Gazette, has beer
free to print letters alleged to have
been sent to it by unnamed people ir
Elk and the sunflower Protection
club of Elmdale. both of which towns
are in Chase county, in which the
ridicuIously unfounded charges are
made that Topeka is in the throes OF
a smallpox epidemic.
! Will the Hutchinson Gazette. or the
| other Hutchinson newspaper be fair
enough to print the sworn statements
of the mayor and city commissioners
of Topeka to the effect that there is
no smallpox epidemic in this city, nor
anything that approaches one; and
that the threatened epidemic of two
months ago has been stamped out
completely? VIII the Hutchinson
Gazette, or the Hutchinson News be
fair enough to print the statement of
DR.. Crumbine, the secretary of the
state board of health. that Topeka is
practically free from smallpox, there
being only two houses in the whole
city under quarantine, and only a
handful of cases on the road to recov-
cry in the pest house?
Probably not. And there's a reason.
1t would be of advantage to the
Hutchinson fair if reports could be
scattered around the state, no matter
how false they might be, that small
pox was raging in Topeka That might
keep some people away from the To-
peka fair. The Hutchinson newspa-
pers will take the word of people in
Chase county concerning conditions
that prevail in Topeka rather than the
word of Topeka's city officials or the
secretary of the state board of health.
And Dr. Crumbine can scarcely be ac-
cused of being prejudiced in favor of
Topeka on any proposition.
1t is just a trffle suspicious that
the unnamed people at Elk and the
Sunflower Protection club of Elmdale,
of whom not so many people in the
state can have heard heretofore, but
which nevertheless professed to speak
for the people of Kansas, should take
their complaint to the Hutchinson
Why weren't these com |
plants made to the state board of
health? No one is so foolish as to be- |
Iieve that Topeka controls the state |
board of health, or that this board |
would be party to concealing a /
smallpox epidemic in Topeka if ope |
existed. Or if the unnamed people at
Elk and the Sunflower club wanted to |
get action in the newspapers why did |
they send their communications to |
Hutchinson newspapers? Why not to
the newspapers of Wichita, or to the |
newspapers of Kansas City. which |
have larger circulations in Kansas /
than the Hutchinson newspapers?
These malicious maligners, the un-
named people of Elk and the Sun
flower Protection club of Elmdale. or
the persons who are masquerading
under such designations seem to have
been quite as discerning as they are
mendacious. They probably figured it
out that the Hutchinson newspapers
we're the only papers that would print
against Topeka, without even taking
the trouble TO investigate or verify it.
And why? Well because Hutchinson
has a fair following the Topeka fair.
People interested in fairs who might
stay away from Topeka or be scared
away by foul means. might possibly
attend the Hutchinson fair.
The columns of the State Journal
remain open to any one in or out of
Topeka who will designate any case
Of smallpox in Topeka that is not reg
stored with the city authorities and
which has not been made public in the
aewspa pers of this city.