The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-31
Bull Moose Didn't Show Up at
Kansas Day Banquet.
A Few-AIl CandidateS-BrOke
Bread With Republicans.
BIGGEST CROWDS IN YEARS
Enthusiastic 500 Sat Down to
the Annual Affair.
Clever Speeches Delivered by
Well Known Orators.

Nearly 500 men and women from
every section of the state attended the
annual banquet of the Kansas Day
club in Masonic Temple. 1t was one
of the largest crowds in attendance at
a Republican dinner in Topeka in
years
For hours the crowd absorbed oratory
of native sons and distinguished Wis
itors. Visiting party workers brought
an abundance of enthusiasm to the
dinner and the banquet was in many
way one of the most successful since
the organization of the club.
Republicans who came to Topeka
expecting to meet the returning Bun
Moose pilgrims of 1912 and 1914, were
a bit disappointed. The faces at the
BANQUET were the familiar faces of
former years-the years when the
progressive rank and file of the party
stayed at home. To be sure FREQ
Knapp, late secretary OF the Progress
sive state committee, was present.
Knapp came back to the party as a
candidate for state auditor. Joseph
Napoleon Dolley was also present.
That was about all. Neither Allen nor
Murdoch, nor White, nor Stubs. nor
ingalls,. nor any of the really big men
in the Progressive cause, were at the
banquet tables. Nor did they send re-
grets.
Possibly the absence of the crusad-
ers of former campaigns made the
old crowd at the banquet feel more at
home. If they really regretted the alb
sence of Allen MurdockWh lbs
associations, they made no evidences
to that effect. Never in the history
of the club was there more steam and
zip and enthusiasm at the Republican
dinner
Safely Back in Party.
From the minute Walter l.. P.
Payne of Burlingame started to talk,
until Senator Theodore E. Burton of
Ohio, had concluded his speech, there
was a spirit and enthusiasm among
the banqueters that have been missing
for several years. The men from the
country districts had brought the mes
sage that the voters were safely back
In the party and the absence of the
few remaining leaders of the old hope
did not disturb the appetites of the
men and women at the long tables.
The banqueters responded to the pa
triotic music of the orchestra and
threatened to break the dishes when
the orators talked of national Re
publican victory in the coming cleo
ton.
President Payne in his speech
knocked the useless boards and COM
missions.
what we need" said Payne, "is
a more wholesome respect for that
which makes for good citizenship.
Then will we have less of investigation
and resolution in our legislatures and
officers who perform their sworn duty.
We are so burdened with useless
boards and commissions and inspectors
that with ever increasing rate of tax
alton upon an increased valuation
that it is eating into the vitals of the
taxpayer Permit me to predict that
if the remedy does not come forth and
give relief, we will find upon our
hands a storm center"
Cavaness on kansas"
Herbert Cavaness of Chanute re-
sponded to the toast of honor, kan
sas." His speech was one of the fea-
lures of the evening.
kansas was not born to languish
in the monotony of placid mediocrity,
said the Chanute editor. "She has not
risen to a place in the sun to atrophy
in the sterility of SNUG self-compla-
cency. The yellow streak of the quit
ter is an alien to her flesh. The past
flaming as it did across the page OF
American history, is a memory in
comparable. The present, surfeited
with prosperity, pregnant with prog
ress. is the admiration of the think
ing world.
But mere retrospective glorying in
dictates senility. Lazy contentment
with conditions as they are marks the
beginning of civic as we'll as individual
torpidity and decay. The things at this
hour which most concern every either
of this state are not the tragic days Of
old John Brown and the bloody Guam.
trill, but how to excel the past No
great wheat way and silo and derrick
skyline, but how to improve the pres.
ent. Cheers for yesterday and today
but what of the future-the dream