The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-30
OPEN GATE TO ADVANCEMENT
Congressman Find Way Open
Through Judgeship.
Some of Those Who Are in
Race This Year.

/
few years the warning has something
| besides mysticism and superstition to
commend it to the ears of wise and
thoughtful men.
For instance: A district judge called
Rees crossed the path of Congressman
| Calderhead ard the Nestor of the
Kansas delegation was returned to pri-
vate life.
The late Ed Madison was a district
| judge when he entered politics and he
never lost an election. When he cross
ed an Office seekers path that man
was in worse shape than if he had
looked at the moon over his left
shoulder, or heard a dog howl at night,
or been crossed OUT by a black cat.
He never had a chance. Ask half
district, and they will tell you that
the district judge jinx is a hard thing
| to go against.
Judge West of the supreme court
was district judge once, or he would
never have been able to break down
the barriers that surround the justices
who seek another term on a good rec
ord. Carrying that district judge mas
cot around with him, Judge West
made votes as fast as a machine makes
wire nails.
Another district judge who set the
woods afire recently is Judge Gordon
Finley of Dodge City. The fact that
Finley is young man and looks
younger than he really is might have
handicapped MIN in his race for the
congressional nomination in the Sew.
enth district last winter had he not
been a district judge. He was I'M
known in the political circles af the
Seventh district, too. But his race
for the nomination was as wonderful
as the record of the minor league
pitcher who shut out the big league
leaders his first game. Finley, using
his district judge prestige as wand,
struck the Seventh like Moses struck
, IL rGr II a
water.
There's another district judge out
west who has come to the front like
a six cylinder car among a lot of lone
lungers," and he is Judge Thompson
of Garden City, none less. Thompson
is after the Democratic nomination for
United States senator He carried a
strong Republican district last election
like the French carried Zurich, which
is to say by storm. The people who
do not concede that Thompson has a
chance in the August primary should
not forget the potency of that district
There are a couple of judges down
at Winfield, and one is a Republican
called Buchanan, and the other is
Democrat called Jackson. The first
is after a place on the supreme bench
and the last named wants to be COVER
nor. No one seems to be certain
whether these men were district or
police judges They might have !seen
trict judges, then look out! The old
chairs rockin' and there's nobody in
it. There will be trouble ahead for
some one, sure as the world. There's
magic in that district judge thing, and
that's a fact.
There was a district judge called
Lobdell out in the Seventh district
and the wise ones in Topeka were al
ways trying to get him to run for gov
ernor or congress or some big office, |
but he never would. He had the goose
that could lay golden eggs but he
never would set her. These Topeka
fellows knew that he could not lose. |
They wanted to put him in the ring
with Stubs. They wanted him to take |
Madison's place in congress. He had !
the district judge halter in his hand, \
and he could get any ones goat with |
it, but he bartered glory and political |
power for a cushion seat in the vaults |
of a bank and counts money, now, in
stead of votes.
Down in the big Third district there
is a little district judge scarcely larger
than a mans hand. But he Is liable
to turn into a cyclone cloud any min
ute and blow the water out of a well
or the gable off the house. His name
is Flannelley and he lives in indie
pendence. They want him to run
for congress. He never loses any
thing. He came out for Roosevelt
down in Montgomery county and all
the presidents horses and all the
presidents men could not put the |
president together again in a county |
that had been counted for him and
written in the books. Flannelley, |
with his district judge talisman in his
good right hand, cured the county at
one sitting and it took up its bed
and walked into the Roosevelt col
umn. FTannelley is now talked of as
a candidate for congress from the
third. If he runs that wise and clever
young congressman, Mr.. Campbell,
better get ready for the biggest fight
since that at Tours where the armies
fought for seven days and million
men or more were killed
We have with US today in the First
district a district judge called Stuart
who is after Congressman Anthonys
job. Anthony has always won before,
but he never bucked a district judge
fresh from the jinx shop. They used
to say the legislature was the place to
start out from to get into political of=
flee. But that was before the days of
the district judges and their activities.
The legislature is not one, two, three
any more.
Some one asked a wise politician
the other day how the district judges
come to cut so much ice in Kansas
all at once. He had an answer ready.
They never tried before he said,
'-Or they could have been cutting ice
all the time. Why not? They sit on
the bench for four years, and with all
the majesty of a Hindoo idol, they in
them. Forty. Each jury is composed
of twelve men. Twelve times forty is
four hundred and eighty. And five II
times that sum is over two thousand. Il
Now two thousand men sitting and Il
to a Judge on his throne
while he tells them they are intelligent
and devoted and patriotic, are bound :
to become interested in that judge
and to recognize that he is a pretty
smart man and a good judge of men.