The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-09
POLITICAL GOSSIP
Five Governors Came From
johnson County.
st. John, Stubs, Hodges, Brady
and Hadley.
A RECORD FOR THE COUNTRY
Seventh District Democratic
Politics in Turmoil.
Too Much Success and Too
Many Leaders for Office.

! In a period of less than s5 years.
johnson county has furnished five
governors-three of whom have been
elected to the chief executives chair
in Kansas and two have won the
gubernatorial election in other
states 1t is a record which no other
Kansas county can claim and Is per-
haps a record for any county in the
United States for a similar period of
time.
johnson county furnished her first
governor in 1879. That was the year
that John P. ST. John was elected by
the Democrats. st. John. by champion
ing the prohibition issue. was reelected
to office in 1881. st. John was at the
time of his election a resident OF the
town of Olathe. And from Olathe have
come three governors.
Walter Roscoe Stubbs, the present
governor of Kansas and who is to re-
tire from office next month, was Oorn
on a farm in Johnson county. Strange
as it may seem both Stubbs and MS
successor are almost natives OF tne
same county. Hodges was not born in
johnson county, but his parents moved
/ there when the present governor-elect
was less than a year old. The county
has always been Hodges home, while
( Stubbs was elected from Douglas coun-
ty.
Then there was James Henry Brady,
graduate of the Olathe high school
and for many years a resident of John
son county. He left Kansas several
years ago and located in Idaho. In the
1909 election he was elected to the gov
ernorship of his state and became the
third Johnson county governor prod
uct.
Herbert Hadley, governor of Mis-
souri, was born in Johnson county and
attended the public schools in Olathe.
In 1907 he was elected governor of Mis-
souri,. He was the first Republican gov
ernor of Missouri in 30 years and at
the time of his inauguration, his entire
official family in the Missouri state
house was Democratic.
/ George H. Hodges, the new governor,
/ and the fifth johnson county product,
has a record almost parallel with that
! of Hadley. AS Hadley was the first
| Republican governor of Missouri in
| period of 35 years, so Hodges is the
| first Democratic governor of Kansas
in more than 80 years. Just as Had
ley was surrounded in the Missouri
state house by Democrats, so Hodges
in taking his oath of office next month,
will find himself surrounded by a Re-
publican administration except in the
governors own office and in the legis-
lature.
Sheriff K. c. Beck of Reno county
will probably be among the candidates
who are anxious to succeed Jack"
Harrison as United States marshal.
Out in Reno county there is but little
Democratic harmony and the fight for
places at the pie counter has appar-
emily sidetracked the well known
Kansas sheriff's ambitions.
1t is rumored, for instance, that
Congressman Neeley was a receptive
candidate for United States senator in
event Thompson was eliminated by the
legislature. But Neeley is now in
Washington. Then Sam Graybili,
Democratic committee. is in line for
some nice soft job and it is rumored
that Neeley will be pushed into the
senatorial fight against Bristow two
years hence. AS Thompson is also
from the Seventh district, the rush for
places at the public feed trough IS
just bit congested at this time; and
the other seven districts in the state
are awaiting the almost certain pro-
cess Of elimination.
Representative J. N. Herr of Kiowa
county, will suggest a few repairs on
the present marriage laws when he
comes to the legislature next month.
Herr would inject section in the
present Kansas statutes which will bar
the intermarriage Of blacks and
whites. He wants no Jack Johnson
Lucille Cameron affairs in this state
and he will hasten to block all such
disgraceful procedures.
Two years ago Herr offered a bill
similar to the one he proposes to
champion this winter. When the
measure came up for consideration in
committee of the whole, Robert Stone
of Shawnee fought the measure in a
manner that forced a party issue on
the bill and it was defeated. Now,
with a Democratic majority In both
houses Herr will again introduce his
bill and is confident that it will be
enacted into a law.
Senator Bale P. Waggener Of Atch-
ison proposes to introduce a bill this
winter creating the Office Of state
revenue agent Tt will be the duty of
the revenue agent, under Waggener's
bill, to investigate all cases Of personal
property tax lodging beginning with
the year 1909 and continuing until
such time as the office might be abol-
ished by legislative enactment On
information secured by the revenue
agent, prosecutions for perjury or tax
lodging might be based by the public
prosecutors in the various counties;
and the agent would be vested with
power to inquire into the business and
financial transactions of any person
suspected of evading just taxation.
Nr;.o TOoS8-0w.e VrrrrF,ow.