The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-03
California Backward Compared
to Kansas,
Says w. e. COnneIIey, Here
From Coast Trip.
FAKE LAND EXPLORERS
Selling Poor Farming Country
for $500 per Acre.
Thinks Roosevelt Will Carry
Western States.


Utopia, but compared to Kansas it is
backward state.''
This statement was made TODAY nv,
W. E. Connelley of SIG Lincoln street.
the Kansas historian, who returned
TINS week from a three months BUSH
ness trip on the Pacific coast.
He told of slack farming in Cali
Iornla' OF false advertising of poyr
land; and of much drunkenness. He
dlSo po!o now 1t was a rich mans land
and while the principal papers were
for Taft the body of the people would
carry the state for Roosevelt, accord
ing to what he had heard. He also
SAID that the Japanese were controlI-
ing the fruit raising and spoke of a
Jap who had made a million in pota-
toes.
Back from the main line of the
ralIroad there is little progress in Cal
ifornia,'' continued Mr.. ConneIIev.
There appears to be no good farming
or fruit raising. In Kansas even miles
from the railroad, the farms look
prosperous and the farm houses have
q home like look, but it is not so in
California.
ITO be more specific, 1 would say
mat outside of Los Angeles, San Diego,
san francisco, Sacramento and Stock
ton, California is not advancing.
Thermometer 129 at Midnight,
For instance, you see the Imperial
valley advertised and exploited I
| believe it is the hottest place in the
world One midnight the thermome-
tef registered 1923 A friend of mine
said he started to take a short walk
one day and had to lie under culvert
to keep from dying with the heat Ii
IS advertised that cantaloupes grow
plentiful there but didn't see any
Land explOiterS will charge $500
an acre for land Of the poorest sort
I could buy better land for $40 an acr e
IN Arkansas. The idea is that you
pay so much down and the balance on
time-and the Unreasonable the orig
lnal owner of the land plants it in any
KIND of fruit trees you wish and cares
for it, all for the $500. But by the
time you get it paid for and keep up
the interest there isn't much profit.
The California land sellers are fooIing
the people.
California is a tourists state. for
the rlch, but not for the poor No at
man. In the train there is no ac-
commodation extended to the day
coach passengers. They are simply
herded into the day coaches. They are
generally roughly dressed and do con-
siderable drinking of Intoxicating
liquor on the trains.
In the towns there is much drunk
enness. No wonder-in Montague, a
town of 270 people in northern Cali
fornia, there are seven saloons. or
about one saloon to every forty per-
sons-and another one is expected to
open soon.
No Better Country Than Kansas.
Il was glad to get back into Kansas
there is no better country than Kansas
Kansas, with its prohibition and with its
sane papers The coast paper subscrib-
eTs seem to demand papers with freak
headS-type an inch two high over a
small paragraph. However, I could find
the Topeka papers in the cities and was
glad to get hold of them. Papers pub
lished in a sensible way
The Los Angeles Times is for Taft, but
from what I heard Taft will not be in it
at the election 1t looks like Roosevelt
will carry the whole state. 1 didn't
hear of any one being for Taft in all Cali
fornia. However, there it Appeared +o me
the fight would be between Roosevelt and
Wilson. This is also true. believe in the
southern part of Oregon-the only part OF
Speaking about Oregon that state is
good apple state. That is they are ahe..d
OF US in selecting, packing and shipping
fruit. For instance either through the
state laws or rules of the fruit growers
association of the state, a fine is imposed
if wormy apple is shipped out of Ore
gon. The apples must also be without
blemish and all of the same size in the
same box, before the fruit can be sent
out.
Japanese Potato Millionaire.
Along the coast the japanese seem TO
control the fruit industry. 1 heard of
Japanese at Stockton who made his mill
lion in fruit-and in potatoes. I under
stood that he had more than 5000 acres
in potatoes.
No, I didn't hear of any japanese war
talk nor of Chinese trouble. BY the wav
didn't see a Chinaman with a queue IL
seems that the yellow men have all cut
off their tpig-tails
Before 1 forget must tell you saw
Dave Barton, former Topeka man. IN
Los Angeles. He is with the bonus de-
partment of the Santa Fe. In fact 1 saw
Kansas men everywhere, and was re-
minded of the late Eugene Wares state
ment in his Hello Kansas
% Let any one travel anywhere and hi
will run onto a Kansas man. Does ans
thing happen anywhere on earth that a
Kansas man is not in it somewhere? Does
a band wagon run over anybody and kill
somebody and is a Kansas man present?
Yes, he is present but he is not on tie
ground, he is in the band wagon. Docs
the elephant step the Kansas man2
No; the elephant is not built right. He
can not step on the Kansas man for the
Kansas man is on the elephants neck,
and is travelling over earth with the
show