The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-20
ROSS BILL IS LOST
Measure to Perpetuate State
Superintendent Killed.
SOaped Track for a Law to Dis
qualify Candidates.
MUST HAVE TAUGHT 5 YEARS
Provision for Doubtful Qualifl-
cation Had a Joker.
Educational Committee Saw
Finger Prints on 1t All.

Efforts of w D. Ross, state super
intendent of public instruction 10
perpetuate himself in office, slipped
on an unexpectedly soaped track IN
the house educational committee y
bill which bore all the ear marks CT
q right smart effort to block the can
didacy of Miss Lizzie Wooster IN 1910
was killed by the house committee.
The house bill went to the hopper
nearly a month ago. 1t appeared IN
der the title of an act defining tle
qualifications of state superintendent
OF public instruction. Persons IN the
legislative Hobbies and members seen
ingly in touch with facts have an III
grown feeling that the title was ms
leading They have quietly intlmate9
that the bill should have been olIeIeu
under the title: IAN act to perpetu-
ate w d. Ross in office. eliminating
certain opposition and certain posslpie
candidates"
Teach Five Terms.
one of the little provisions WhlGh
entered the house blll-oIIlcldHS
known as House Bill No. 7O2, by May
hew of Atchison--required that can
didates for state superintendent OF
public instruction shall hold certain
certificates and shall have taught i've
continuous terms of school next pre-
ceding election TO office. nat ldSl
provision was the neat niue pun
ribboned joker which slipped INTO the
bill And in the legislative lopbleS
there is a more or less well defined
opinion that Superintendent Ross
knew something about it.
OF course, Mr.. Ross himself hadn
qualified under such a provision. ne
had grown up in the office under an
established promotion system Wnlch
called for the second in command 10
succeed to first power when the chleI
stepped aside. And Ross stepped IN
when the late E. T. Fairch1ld steppeu
ont. Ross rather liked the place. He
flopped and ducked and lodged from
the day the Stone resolution was IN
troduced in the 1912 Republican parry
council until political conditions aG-
iusted themselves and Ross was able
TO state out loud that he was ke-
publican. Not real positively, tho
until after two turbulent ana tulhult-
Gus campaigns.
Then Came a Woman.
Then Ross spread his plans to per-
petuate himself.in office. Miss Lizzie
Wooster Of Salina entered the prl-
maries against Ross. Had not a thlrd
candidate entered the fight, the Ross
plans might have slipped. Ross won a
minority nomination and succeeded
himself for third term.
In political circles, tho, there is
more or less of an impression that
the Wooster affair gave Ross a severe
shock. Possibly it was the e11ortS Oh
Ross Jealous friends, possibly 1t was
a devout desire inspired by deep
feeling for the good of the office that
brought about the writing of the May
hew bill. No one seemed TO thlnk
much of the matter at the time. Later
it occasioned considerable comment.
Yet the bill which would have made
Ross ineligible for the office in his
campaign of 1912, was most effec-
tive bar against the possibility OF
Miss Wooster's candidacy in 1918.
Had the bill found its way thru the
educational committee and passed the
two legislative bodies, it might have
occasioned a considerable miXup in
the fight for office next year.