The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-07
THE OTHER SIDE
Round Table Discussion of
Game of Politics.
Tragedy.
GOVERNORS WHO SIT ALONE
They Always Do After Success
SOr Is Elected.
Congressman FOrgOtten-Re-
publics That Are UngratefuI.
GOVERNORS WHO SIT ALONE

| The other side of politics was dis
cussed today by the group at the Crem-
] erie Round Table, 1t was the tragic
and pathetic side brought out so dis
| tinctly at the last election, that was
| talked about by some of the best known
lawyers and politicians of the state,
| who lunch at this table daily.
| A lawyer who has teen intimately
acquainted with all the governors of
| the state for the last fifteen years,
started the discussion. This lawyer
reads philosophy as much as he does
| law. He spoke of t tragedy and
| pathos of the last month in Office of the
governor.
1.-The gang" said he, has deserted
him. He sits alone. The men who
formerly sought him and begged for
pie. swarm about the abode of the gov
ernor-elect."
This lawyer went on to talk about
different governors, and gave ilIustra-
lions of his point. He said it was true
of Hoch. and yet Hoch got more out of
the governors office than anyone else;
but his last month there was one of
sorrow.
1t was more especially true of Bailey
who was defeated for denomination.
Bailey, eloquent, generous, brilliant.
and of a happy disposition, felt more
keenly than any man. the thrusts of
| the world, and the blows that follow
defeat in politics.
Then, there was John A. Martin; his
last month as governor was thick with
gloom. Poor old man Leedy, elevated
| from a farm to the governors office in
day by the waves of populism, left
the place a sad and disappointed man.
Talk drifted to the case of congress-
men.
1T is worse in the case of congress-
men, said a lawyer; "a man moves
from Kansas to Washington, sits in
marble halls amid potted palms, has
negro to wait on him, a SilVer-plated
tub. and everything within call. The
folks at home yank him back in two
years or FOUR
Kansas has been harder on her ex-
congressman than she has on her
gressmen of yesterday? They have
been forgotten.
There seems to be an unwritten rule
that the Kansas public shall throw an
eX-congressman on the political junk
heap. 1t has rarely failed, but there
a~e exceptions and one of the most
notable of these was related by the
man at the table.
He was little man who had been
appointed to some certain state board.
He jumped from his secretaryship to
congress, served one term, and was
defeated for reelection. He married
a wealthy Washington widow while in
Office and beat the political game
still lives in Washington"
The men at the round table" talk
ed on, and told story after story
about how political ambition always
has a sting and the sting comes when
the winner loses all.
The governor sitting in his Office
after November is like a pitcher
broken at the we'll And the crowd
that used to throng his rooms, and
pat him on the back, and say he was
a great statesman, and tell him how
they loved him like a brother, have
NO n m a ma TOit n
They were a crowd of pessimists,
these politicians at the table today,
and yet all of them are successful poll
ticians: but they couldn't see the
glory of the political game.
For instance, one of the number
had just been elected to office. He
asked a friend present about a young
man living in that friends neighbor-
my office. What kind of a boy is he ?''
The man addressed said in reply,
THAT is a good boy. He is a bright,
clever young fellow. What do you
into politics; you don't want him; get
somebody else"
And so they went on with their
stories about governors who sit alone
with bumblebee stings, and the con-
greSsmen who are forgotten on the
junk heap, and the unfortunate sena-
tors of the Jim Lane succession, and
the inauguration of new officers that
the oldtimers leave the radiators for
the coal stoves.
The trouble with politics according
to these old players in the game is
that too often the man who leaves of
flee has forgotten how the public jerk
ed him out of a corn field, or from be-
hind the counter of a little country
store, or from under the leaky roof
of his one horse law office in the
clutches of a hungry landlord and sat
him down in the midst of a fat office
and honors.
The only thing he can remember is
that this public has just thrown him
out of Office, and he is sore at the
world, disappointed with life, and more
or less unfit to work at something else
or conduct a business.
According to the roundtabIe the
quicker a man gets out of politics, the
better for him. He is better off still
if he is beaten before he gets into the
game.
These old timers may have gone to
the extreme in their gloomy view of
the great American game, but the
newspap per man who heard them talk
has seen enough of the game from be-
hind the scenes to believe the greater
part of all the disparaging things they
said about the politician, and the sting
that comes to him soon or late. but