The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-06-12

LOOK and WEEP
List of Capper Appointments
ArOuses Feelings of Gloom.
All the Jobs Are Given to Old
Time Enemies.
FEW ARE UNPROvIDED FOR
Only Stubs and DOlley Remain
on Waiting List.
COdding Is Slated for BOtkin's
Place at Lansing.
FEW ARE UNPROvIDED FOR

When William Allen White recently
declared there was little hope for the
Progressive party since most of its
members had been appointed to office,
he had doubtless fortified himself with
a list of the Capper appointees. With
a place being prepared for J. x Cod
ding, it seems that all but Walter
Roscoe Stubs and Josephus Nathan
iel Dolley have been cared for by the
new state administration.
Careful study of the Capper ap-
pointment list has not occaSioned
rousing enthusiasm on the part of the
old line Republicans The men who
led the Republican league fight in
1912 and who have fought on every
battle field in Kansas since the days
of POpuliSm, do not launch wild dem
the pay rolls the names of their old
time enemies. AS they look over the
records, they fail to find the names of
their close friends and followers. In
their stead are names of the men who
have been on the opposite side of
every party split in the last decade.
1t is a peculiar document-that list
of Capper appointees. On the list OF
appointees are numerous names OF
the men who followed the progressive
cause in 1912 and either joined or
started theProgreSSive party as a third
party organization. On the other hand.
there is not on the Capper list the
name of a man or woman who took an
fight or stood out openly for the Taft
organization that finished third best
with $4,000 votes in Kansas in 1912.
Listed as Regulars.
Of course the names of Hoch and
Kink1e are among Cal,perS appointeeS
and are generally listed with the regu-
lars. But neither of the men took a
really definite stand in 1912. On the
other hand, they were Hodges ap-
pointees and their appointment by a
Republican governor did not in every
instance occasion songs of rejoicing.
Charles M. Harger is listed as reg
ular. Harger was Hodges appointee
and may be permitted to remain on
the corrections board until he an
nounces his congressional candidacy in
the Fifth district. But Harger did not
carry the 1912 battle cry into foreign
lands and he gave the cause little more
than moral support.
On the other hand, look at this.
The appointment of Joseph L. Bris-
tow to the Craftsmanship of the public
utilities commission was one of the
greatest shocks to the old guard in the
party. Bristow was hand in hand
with the men who defeated the Stone
resolution in the 1912 party council
and when the crash came, BriStow
was in the camp OF Stubs and White
and Murdoch and Allen and Jackson.
Not until as late as January 5, 1914,
did the retired United States senator
definitely decide that he was a Re-
publican and that his endorsement of
the Roosevelt movement was only to
give to the Republican party a just
chastisement for childish disobedience.
They Look and Groan.
Yet Bristow is not the only appoint
ment that rankleS in the hearts of the
staid and conservative old Republi-
cans. Hardly. They look at the nam
ing of Joe Mercer and groan. Not
that Mercer is not a competent and
efficient live stock commissioner. But
it is MERGERS brand of politics which
makes the old guard feel bad. Mercer
was rantankerous, rip snorting, trou
BILE breeding Progressive in 1912 and
didn't change his convictions in the
1914 fight. He was against Curtis and
for Henry J. Allen and he didn't dis
play very deep desire to keep secret
his convictions. Now Mercer is a