The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-17

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thousands, even to a few millions, for
roads. and it will be the best invest
ment she ever made. 1t will not only
lput us on a par with other states,
but ahead of them. Not one dollar for
graft, but a liberal expenditure out of
our means for efficiency and necessity
and comfort.
To be practical: The state should
probably appropriate ten or fifteen
million dollars; the counties an equal
amount, and the adjoining and ada
cent benefiting farms and lands, one
half as much as each. That proper
ton seems to be the most satisfactory
where good roads have been built
That is, of a total amount necessary
to be spent for good roads connecting
all the important towns in every
county. and in addition, to insure ra-
dating roads from each important
center of population, the state should
appropriate 40 per cent; the counties
for the roads within their own boun-
diaries, 40 per cent: and the benefited
districts, 90 per cent.
| California, which is a typical state
of good roads, has made them good
Her natural roads are no better than
ours. Her soil has to be coaxed. Ours
is fertile by nature. There is much
waste land in California: little in ours.
They have a great climate there, to
be sure, but do you know they count
on many visitors only three months
in the year? We could pick at least
four months in Kansas: May and
June, September and october, and
with good hotels and good roads, make
| Kansas the most attractive place out
of doors for our own people and for
visitors. who would come our way.
Nothing can excel in many of the
other months of the year the climate
of Kansas. AS for the occasional Sc
we're weather, it kills the germs, which
live all the year round in California.
The little cold which we have adds
zest to life, and the heat which comes
to US in the summer makes US better
appreciate the cold and the mildness
of the other seasons, and promotes
our corn. We should not expect a
good corn country and an ideal sum-
mer resort all in one.
We would not exchange the wheat
and corn and alfalfa OF Kansas for the
oranges and lemons and grapefruit OF
California; nor our weather for theirs,
for our climate lends the variety
which gives the spice to life and our
weather is not always of that mildness
which makes for monotony.
/
state and my own people are under
stood to be made solely for home con-
sumption, strictly confidential, all in
the family: not to be told on the out
side They are made with the best
intentions, and as sorrowfully as the
parent applies the rod to the child,
but in the interest of the child's and
the states future.
Let us be up and doing, and get this
notion of eterpally keeping down the
takes out of our heads. 1T is not SO
much what our expenses are, as what
we get for the expenditures.
If Governor Capper be renominated
and reelected this year, let us get
back of him and tell him that what
this state wants is to rank up with
it's pretensions, its means and its OPP
portunities! To let him know that
he will be credited in his administra-
ton, just as he is in his great publish
ing business, with the results pro-
duced, not with the smallness of his
expenses. Let him send a message tic
the legislature which will get broader
views into the treatment of this state
upbuild and enhance its institutions
and its transportation facilities, and
meanwhile to give a governor of Kan
sas to aid him, representatives and
senators in the next legislature who
shall be broad enough and liberal
enough to put Kansas upon the map
just where she belongs, in the heart
of things, and with our wealth in
vested to enable us and all others as
they go through life in Kansas to live
by good highways and good roads.
Let US loosen our purse-strings, ere
we pocket our pride before the fall
below our sister states now climbing
the heights of progress and prefer
ment F. p. NJ.
RHARF n n AFnlHAE