The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-02
Senator Fagerberg Doesn't Like
Hodges Plan.
He Fears 1t Will Be Menace to
Small Merchant.
JUDGE AYRES OF WICHITA
He Denies the Allegation That
He's Not a Game Loser.
Gossip of the Coming Harmony
Convention.

Oscar Fagerberg of Oldsberg. state
senator from the Twenty-first district
during the 1909-11 sessions, has taken
fall out of the Hodges plan for
commission for state legislature and
recently addressed his views to the
Kansas governor. 1t is because Eager
| berg-a prosperous hardware mer-
chant-fears that the banker, the
| lawyer and the newspaper editor may
gobble up all of the places in the leg
| islature that the Pottawatomie coun-
ty man holds the new reform in grave
doubt and suspicion
During the legislative session of two
years ago, Fagerberg's heart went out
to the downtrodden country merchant
/ He told the state senate that the man
who owned the corner grocery and the
| dry goods and millinery emporium
were the victims of a designing public
which did not always pay it's bills; and
added that in addition to this situation
the wholesale houses had tried to par
| alize trade by asking the passage of
the bulk sales bill. Fagerberg fought
that bill as a tiger would protect it's
midday meal. But he had to fight
the bankers. editors and lawyers who
composed a majority of the state sem
ate. That fight gave Fagerberg an
idea. He left Topeka convinced that
too much voting power had been
vested in the bankers, lawyers and
:
ers. merchants. hotel keepers and dem
lists. In Governor Hodges new re-
form, Fagerberg sees even more
dangerous condition than has faced
Kansas under the old system.
Writing his ideas of the new
thought in legislative management,
Senator Fagerberg pleads for the re-
tention of the old form in this lam
guage:
"I know Governor Hodges quite
we'll and have stated that if we must
have Democrat for governor know
! of no one I would rather have. But
| I consider his proposed plan for a
| comission form of legislature entirely
| impracticable for the following rea-
sons which I have not yet seen brought
/ out:
| 1--WE have eight congressman and
| two United States senator's and il is
a fact that a majority of them are al
ways lawyers or newspaper editors
! In tho state senate of 19O9-11 the law
yers, bankers and newspaper men had
a majority and the same misrepre-
sentation holds good with federal and
state appointments, and the agricul-
turists, live stock men. retail mer-
chants, grain and live stock shippers.
/ mechanics, laborers, etc, comes nearer
getting their interests defended in the
Kansas house of representatives than
anywhere else.
'I don't claim that this condition is
| brought about by men of certain oc-
cupatiOnS Scheming to control the law
making bodies, it is likely to be caused
because men in occupations mention
ed get their names before the public
and we are inclined to prefer to vote
for man whose name we have heard
of, also because men in other occupa-
tions are not sufficiently inclined to
run for office. At any rate men in
two or three occupations cannot con-
troll the house of representatives. If
my observations have been correct.
and therefore the people of Kansas
will never give up that branch of our
Is,-r alriv 1ar
of members and small districts elect
ing them may be the reason why all
interests are best represented in the
house.
"I am certainly not finding fault with
lawyers, editors and bankers, in fact
I know several men in these occupa-
tions whom consider among the most
capa BILE and honest men in the state,
but I also know that no man can un-
derstand the intricate details of any
occupation like the man who works at
it for a living.
For these reasons a commission
form of government or lawmakers,
can be satisfactory unless the law re-
quire that the members of such COM
mission must represent all interests in
proper proportion, or at least all inter
ests would have to be represented in
the manner of the presidents cabinet.
but that cannot be controlled If the
people are to nominate and elect them
and We will hardly consent to have our
lawmakers appointed
mo, we may be a little wild on new
things at this time, but the people of
Kansas will not give up the house of
representatives. On the other hand it
is possible that the state senate may
be converted into a smaller body, with
longer sessions, and work somewhat
like a commission; but never abolish
the house of representatives. 1t is the
peoples bulwark
OSCAR FAGERBERG.
James NJ. Simpson of Mcpherson
county may not be in attendance at
the harmony meeting in Topeka Tues