The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-15
POLITICAL GOSSIP
Judge Thompson Advocates
Many Progressive PIanks.
William Allen White Opens
Fire ON Senator Curtis.
SENATOR "HAS STOOD Still"
State Senator Hodges Replies
to A. Nj. Jackson.
EsBun' Adams Is Making Lively
Congressional Campaign.

| Judge william II. Thompson, of Car
den City. Democratic candidate for the
/ United States senate, is flooding the
state with a declaration of principles
wherein he declares for some 80 pro-
gressive measures Thompson is max
| ing an aggressive campaign for the
nomination and his new eight-page
folders are being sent to part workers
in every section of the state
| In his platform he declares for the
national party platform and ampl1fles
/ it's provisions in some % additional
Or ornises. Here are some of the things
for which Thompson declares himself
| and on which he is seeking the nom
nation: State and nationwide pri-
nlaries, election of president, United
States senators and federal judges by
| direct vote of the people, a limitation OF
campaign expenditures. prohibiting the
use of public. corporate or trust tuaos
for political purposes, t. initiative and
referendum, the recall, immediate re-
vision of the tariff downward, regula-
ton of public service corporations by
state and nation, equal suffrage, one
term of six years for president, work
mems compensation act. reduction of
fl eight and passenger rates, an amend
nlent to the Hepburn bill which will
remove discrimination against Kansas
&c bberS, increased power for the COM
merce commission, systematic re-
vision of thu banking laws, the taking
OF the judiciary from politics, extension
of rural route service, a national gradu-
ated income and Inheritance tax law
and repeal of the Kansas law, proven
ton of speculation in futures on the
board of trade and other measures in
accord with progressive views.
Thompson, as a district judge in the
short grass country, attained the cog
nomen of 'jackrabbit Justice Perhaps
it is significant that the Garden City
man chose to use the Iong-eareG friend
o. the Kansas prairies as a suggestion
for new party emblem with the
slogan, Run First and Crow After
wards"
William Allen White, leader in pro-
gressive movement in Kansas, is
busy man. Not only will White direct
the artillery maneuvers in the primaF
campaign, but on the Emporia man is
placed the burden of reading the rec
ord in the fight against United States
Senator Charles Curtis. The first
broadside-a two column review of the
Curtis record-has been fired.
1t is because Curtis has stood still,
White says, and because Kansas and
the nation have marched on to higher
ideals, broader view and a realization
of conditions, that the senior senator Is
no longer valuable in Washington. 1t
is because the name of Curtis is not
attached to what the Emporian terms
progressive legislation because the
Kansan has made no speeches that at
tracted nationwide attention that
White asks the recall of the Indian.
1t was the Curtis alignment with AID
rich, with PenrOse, with Guggenheim.
With Snoot, with Lorimer, White says,
that leaves a distasteful odor in the
nostrils of Kansans intent on framing
l. e-k rRcacxc
has been merely a bound boy at the
huskin'' White declares, awkward
amid the activities, silent among the
workers" After reviewing the changed
conditions in Kansas. White asks:
yet amid all this change, and growth
and development in the world and in
his state, Senator Curtis has stood
without taking part, without lending
a hand, without giving a word of en-
fragment. In his 20 years service
for the people of Kansas, while they
have been leaders in national thought.
no piece of legislation of national scope
bears Curtis name; no movement tow
ard any good thing in our politics, has
either his authorship or encourage
ment. He has been literally a bound
boy at the huskin-awkward amid the
activities, silent among the workers.
TN congress no great speech has
characterized his twenty years service.
No great measure nor any worthy
amendment to any great measure has
been Known as the Curtis amendment.
So far as Kansas is concerned. she
might as we'll not have been represent
ed at all as by Charles Curtis He has
added nothing to her name; has done
nothing for which the people are proud
The 500 900 or so that he has drawn as
salary might as we'll have been thrown
into the Kaw, except that it has
brought offices for his supporters and
has cluttered the mails up with letters
from Curtis to old soldiers claiming
credit for their pensions even when |
other members of congress secured |
them. The whole record of Curtis as
congressman and as senator has been
dull. worthless and uninteresting.
What has Curtis done? He has got |
jobs for the machine; he has written |
some form letters about departmental |
matters. He has made some speeches |
about the Indian appropriation bills |
He keeps a little book with the names /
of his acquaintance in every Kansas |
town in the book and just before enter |
ing the town, he memories the names |
afresh and is able to call men by their !
names. But what else has he done? |
In the big fight between the progress |
sives and the reactionaries in Kansas
where has Curtis stood? What does an /
examination of his record prove? It |
proves this: That whenever the great |
interests that control our politics. and |
thereby legalize their plundering need !
ed Aldrich and Smooth and Guggen-
helm, they had no trouble in getting /
Curtis in the same list. AS a senatorial |
candidate, he was supported in 1907 by |
every railroad attorney. every big lob |
byist for special privilege in Kansas, I
and his record shows that they knew |
their man. Whenever Wall street called |
the spirits from the vastly deep. Curtis |
came"
This singing denunciation of the I
service that Curtis performed for the /
people of Kansas is followed by col
umn in which the Emporian cites the |
record He quotes the Curtis votes on /
the various schedules in the tariff re-
vision bill and leaves the senior senator /
standing bound and gagged bv the Aid |