The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-06

manche and Ford also made notable
gains of more than 100 per cent.
''The population of that section IN
! 1900 was 47,7S4. In 1910, it was los, 641.
THAT sections gain in population.
startling as it is, does not compare
with the prodigious gain in assessed
| valuation during the decade, proving
| that industrial, agriculture, and gen.
eral development gain outstripped
even the population gain.
1.-THE assessed valuation of these
counties during the decade grew from
| $40 ,095, 651 to $205, 1857 1913.
This was a percentage gain in as
| sessed valuation of 1,078 per cent
| Instances of county gains that are
| especially notable are: Kiowa, froEl
| $3.50, O44 to SIS, 4S4,314; Rush, from 81, $685.
| sos to SIG. 351. 545; Pawnee, from 1885,
433 to $23, 754. 1868; Scott, from $549,6oS -
$5,913,542: Kearny, from s1le'2S0 to So
961 1862; Gray, from $715,1 1872 to $7,446,341;
Clark, from $1,110,S71 to 81, ,0SS;
| Meade from 1924, 523 to 1912, 1888.
1.-The "a counties referred to are:
Rush, Pawnee, Edwards, Kiowa. Co
manche, Ness. Hodgeman, Ford, Clart,
Lane, Gray, Meade, Scott. Finney. Has
kelI. Seward, Wichita, Kearny. Grant,
Stevens, Greeley, Hamilton, Stanton,
and Morton.
| "Finney county, in which is located
Garden City. which is asking for u
normal school, e1ined in assessed val
|
| 521 in 1910, or about 1,4S0 per cent"
| The roads and highways bill has
passed both branches of the legisla-
| ture and will soon be written in the
| book of laws as a long step toward
good roads in Kansas. Gray OF Phll-
| lips county probably deserves more
| credit than any man for the passage
| of this measure. Gray fathered the
bill in the house and watched it all
| through the session, caring for 1t night
| and day. When the bill reached the
floor of the house for amendment and
debate the man from Phillips fought
| all day long on the floor of the house
to get his measure through in its
original form. He met every. objec-
| ton and explained every question and
earned the verdict on roll call.
Ben Hur offered a counter attrac-
! ton to the tired legislators Saturday
night and there was scarcely
| quorum present at the night session
| house to order. Speaker Buchanan
| got peevis when he came to look
| look over the absentee list and sent
| out the sergeant and his as
sistants to gather in the truants There
was a call of the house on the first
bill up for passage. The house ad-
journed earlier than expected, but will
! have to pay the fiddler tonight when
| it faces q big calendar that must be
gone through before the Tuesday
morning session. The house ceases
| consideration of its own bills Monday
night and spends the rest of the ses-
sion on conference bills and senate
measures.
During the roll call on the bill to
appropriate $2,S0O for the state park
at Osawatomie the memory of John
Brown was assailed on the floor of the
! Kansas house, and the house refused
to expunge from the records the at
whose soul is marching on in song and
story Brown of Butler started trou-
| BILE when he explained his no vote on
the park bill by declaring that John
Brown was an anarchist. Davis of
Kiowa rushed to the defense of the
OsaWatomie martyr and painted
word picture of the grand part played
| in the history of this country by the
stern old lover of freedom who gave his
| life for the cause. Carney of Cloud,
| q Democrat. also pointed with pride
to the momentous part played by John
| Brown in the last phase of the slavery
question in the new world.
| The park bill was passed by good
majority, but the discussion IF John
Brown continued. Davis of KiOwa
moved that the aspersions cast upon
the hero of Harper's Ferry be ex-
| plunged from the records of the house,
i
| house voted down the motion. The
| members of the Kansas house seem to
be Indifferent to the glory of the most
| famous of all the men of Kansas.
| Veatch of Washington, an old Union
soldier, startled the house by the ex-
preston of the following sentiments:
| "Mr. Speaker. I am a Republican
and 1 was a soldier for four years in
| the Union army.
"I admire a trave man who with
| sword in hand will lead his men
| through shot and shell to the can
mons mouth, but I despise a sneak and
! a bushwhacker.
John Brown allowed his men to
| sharpen their swords and kill five I'M
armed men by cutting them to pieces
in the presence of their wives and
children, and therefore he was guilty
! of murder
Il will not by my vote appropriate a
single dollar to honor the memory of
a man whom I believe to be a MUIR
derer. 1 therefore vote no.
The explanation by Brown, of Butler,
when he voted no on the park appro-
priation and started the controversy,
was as follows:
IF John Brown had consummated
| his insurrection started at Harper
| Ferry, l probably would have been
murdered in my youth. John Brown
never was in a proper sense a citizen
| of Kansas, nor was he Osawatomie
Brown. that appellation in early years
having been applied to o. G. Brown,
| who founded the town of Oesawatomie
and gave it its name. He never en-
gagged in any legitimate business or en-
ployment while here. nor did he aid in
any way in the improvement or devel-
| opment of the country. With the in
stincts of an anarchist and the hand
of an assassin, his career in Kansas
was one of lawlessness and crime-the
one indelible blot on the otherwise fair
free state record. No Kansan desires
to appropriate money to perpetuate the
name of a Booth, a Guiteau or a Cool
gosz. Neither will 1 consent to exalt
by my vote the name of the first anar-
chist and rebel this country produced.
vote no."
The house ways and means commit
l a l,as IN 4