The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-15
POLITICAL GOSSIP
Pork Barrel Scare May Come
Early This Session.
Hutchinson, COncOrdia and
Pittsburg Want Things.
SAME AS LAST SESSION
But What About Reduction OF
State Taxes.
Platform Pledges Versus the
Big Barrel.
SAME AS LAST SESSION

scare in the Kansas legislature this
winter? Some of the same pet meas
ures that were found in the barrel tWo
years ago are still on display ane
before the end of the first lap OF the
4 session there may be as mucn
! foundation for a pork barrel cry as
/ there was in the 1911 session.
Two years ago Senator Tom Potter
came to the senate chamber one morn
| ing holding his nostrils. He had Just
received a letter from William Allen
/ White and he knew that something
| was wrong. So Potter was interview
| ed and declared that for two weeks
| he had smelled a pork barrel In tne
senate chamber and declared that
| Senator Emerson Carey's fair Dill was
right in the center of the heap or un-
righteous things that the ind1vlouai
| members were preparing to drag nome
as a peace offering to their indignant
! constituents.
| So this year some of the old pack
ages are back in the new pork barreA
| if there ever was such a thing. The
western counties will ask for state
fair appropriation and Hutchinson has
again offered to have the show located
in that town and volunteered to invest
the 100000 or 100000 that the state
might offer for high class agricul-
Then there is the Pittsburg normal
school divorce bill, which was left in
the pork barrel since the last session.
The PittSburg school is by legislative
enactment married to the Empor1a nor
NAL and there have been So many do
mestic uprisings that the Plttsourg
people declare family life is unbear-
able So the legislature will be asked
to grant a divorce to the Pittsburg
school and restore her to her maiden
name in a stipulation carrying with 1T
an annual alimony-
Up in Cloud county they seek
separate, new and distinct state nor
NAL school and want a substantial ap-
preparation therefor. And SO, in the
minds of the legislators who can scent
a pork barrel many miles away, there
is no reason why the Fifth district
shouldn't be included in the compact
to take home as much as possible from
the barrel.
OF course the budgets of the various
institutions and schools will of neces-
sity be included in this list of items
before plans can be completed for nail
ing down the lid with enough votes
to put through the entire list of legis-
1a+ive ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Almost every
member of the state legislature who
represents a district wherein is loca-
ted a state educational penal or chari-
table institution views with more or
less alarm and personal concern the
pIan to reduce state taxes by cutting
a hole in the appropriation bills.
Out at Larned. for instance, there is
q nice new $4,000 asylum just located.
Money is needed for buildings, equip
ment and employees and the necessity
for real cash will be argued to the
western Kansas members long before
the session adjourns.
And at Newton has just been loca-
ted that new $50,000 tuberculosis sani-
tarium. So Newton wants new build
ings, equipment and employees. And to
get all these things the Newton,
I.arned. Concordia, Pittsburg, Hutch
with the friends of institutions in
other towns for a mutual purpose of
performing a public benefit. 1t is when
this mutual compact is organized,
chartered and ready for business that
Kansas will hear the biennial pork
barrel cry.
In the meantime that promise to re- |
duce state taxes is causing serious |
alarm among the senate and house |
members who have no state institu- |
tions or prospective institutions to re- |
member with a nice fat appropriation. |
One of the important measures 10 |
be introduced early in the present ses-
sion of the legislature is a proposed |
law permitting the use of convict la.
Men who have studied the question |
declare that in two years the state
will build 400 miles Of the very best
highways at comparatively small
cost, but of a value of $2,000,0O0 to
the state.
1t is proposed under the new law to
extend the road from the various
state institutions-from LeaVenworth
to Olathe, from Topeka to Emporia,
to Newton, to Hutchinson, to Larned;
then again from Olathe to Osawato-
nie to Parsons, to Winfield. And in
this way the foundation would be laid
for a statewide good roads movement
IN Kansas.
From this main highway, the coun-
lies might build branch roads, using
the state would use inmates of the
Lansing penitentiary for the general
highway construction. That is not all
The bill will probably propose a COM
oetency to the conVicts who work on
his road and will provide that such
shall be remitted by the state or coun-
v to the family of the prisoner.
The measure seems quite likely to
De introduced early in the session. 1t
will come from the Democratic fol-
overs in the senate and while no an
to that effect has been
made, it is not itnDrahahle that the
oill may receive the administration
Now that the formal organization
# both branches OF the Kansas lcgis- ,
ature is safely out Of the way. the ,
immediate friends nf the adutinstra-
ior are making plans for the early
Introduction of the bills looking to the !
ulfilIment of the Democratic plat
lres will probably be introduced in !