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

month, less political assessments, ana
cannot pay him enough to live on
comfortably. befitting his position.
Our state, prosperous, growing, ex-
panding, improving. we are holding
down the state taxes, the county
taxes, and the city taxes; and withal,
with a state full of wealth, about
which we boast, are impoverishing
our state institutions, making our
roads a disgrace, and holding our
selves up to ridicule before enlight-
ened communities which are spend
ing their money for the people, as
they are for themselves. and giving to
the state, the county and the city, the
same comforts in life which they Sc
cure for themselves by spending
their money.
Waste is to be discouraged. Eff
cheney is the thing. But we cannot
have efficiency without paying for II.
What would you think of Governor
Capper, personally a most generous
man, liberal with his employees and
giving his family the comforts to
which they are entitled. with parsi-
monious policies only for the slater
What would you think of Governor
Capper if he had an old out of date
printing office unequipped for doing
business on present day requirements?
What would you think of him if he
lived in an old frame house instead of
the handsome home he now occupies
and can afford? What would you
think of him if he constructed an
expensive foundation for needed
building for his publications. and let
the foundations disintegrate and
crumble away for years because ne
was too misery to use the money he
had, to put up the superstructure
And yet, this is the states policy
which has prevented the university
from putting up a needed building;
has deprived the Norton institution
for tuberculosis of equipment for
housing the patients; it has debarred
the children at the home at Atchtson
for soldiers orphans from beds upon
which to sleep, and the governor has
been placed in the humiliating atti-
tude of asking private families in the
state to take care of our wards.
Look at the spectacle of Governor
Stubbs who vetoed a needed appro-
priation for our university to make a
taxes, now sending his children to
Princetoni
Our road situation is disgraceful.
Heavy rains somewhat continued put
them out of business; even those that
have been classed among our best.
Witness the roads about Topeka in the
near environments a year ago.
California with all her gold and sill :
yer. oranges and lemons and grape
fruit combined, bringing less annually
than the wheat crop of Kau3as, gives
to it, rural districts, and thereby the
thoroughfares between the towns,
roadweys which. barring the curbing
and cutters. are as good to drive over
as our city pavements. She gets these
roadways by expanding money for
them! Californians- are not afraid of
few bonds, several million dollars
worth. One exceptional county spent
three million dollars for roads. She
got the roads The state is receiving
in repairs anG oil and gasoline for
the new cars that the good roads
bring into the state, enough money
to pay the interest on all those bonds.
Counties in Florida, with nine
tenths of the state undeveloped, are
building new roads, bonding them
selves $780, 900. $500. 900, 100000 and
100000 to get them. But they get
them, and they improve the adjacent
property many fold beyond the cost.
Kansas is prone to think invidious
things of Arkansas; but in a visit some
time ago to that state, the writer was
ashamed to see that Kansas. in some
respects, is behind Arkansas. The
state which we think of as the home
of the shiftless Arkansaw Traveller is
doing things that should make Kan
sas sit up and take notice. Little
Rock. another state capital. has insti-
buttons which Topeka would be proud
to have. Little Rock, in little old
Arkansas, has beat US to them!
Does the reader realize that Kansas,
with the high rank it claims and in
deed has, in spite of itself. deserving
the high position in the sisterhood of
the Union, even with its shortcomings.
is one of the few states in this great
country which has no city of 100000
population; with her fertility, her in
dustry, her resources, her opportuni-
ties and geographical center, still Kan
sas does not grow in number of people.
That is, not as she should; not as 9TH
err states and communities grow.
Topeka and Wichita. at least, should
contain an even hundred thousand
within a few years. if both live up to
their opportunities; and other cities
and the state grow in proportion.
People go through Kansas. Not
enough of them stop, either to reside
or to remain over night. They go on
to other states of less opportunities
but better roads and better hotels.
Travelling men as a rule do not like
Kansas cities. They come to Topeka
in the morning, and return to Kansas