The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-08

of Kansas will be sorely disappointed
if a good start in that direction is not
made by the legislature converting to-
morrow.
That Constitutional Convention.
1t may be that some of the reforms
most needed in state and county and
city government will require changes
in the state constitution, but this
should not deter US. The time possibly
is close at hand when the needs of this
progressive people will make advisable
a constitutional convention for gen.
eral revision of the organic laws of the
state. The chief objection to such
convention that has been urged in the
past no longer exists; prohibition or
the liquor traffic is a fundamental of
Kansas government which nothing can
overthrow. 1t will always remain an
integral part of the Kansas law and of
the Kansas religion. But Kansas does
not and Kansas never will consider the
liquor question settled until Kansas
prohibition has driven the last saloon
from the nation. And that won't be
long.
Build Up Common Schools.
Kansas needs better and greater
school facilities, especially in the rural
districts. Much as we boast of our
prosperity and our progressive spirit,
we are not keeping pace here with
many sister states. Too many OF our
boys and girls leave the common
school with only a smattering of the
rudiments of education. 1 believe
wrh all thinking men that the COM
90 ION schools of America are the very
basis of our national existence. Mod
ern civilization has made life strenu-
Gus and complex. Competition is
keener and fiercer. The youth who
enters upon it without adequate train
ing, vocational as well as Intellectual
will find life hard indeed. 1 don't
want this to happen to any Kansas
boy.
Free School Textbooks.
I want to see in Kansas more de-
mocracy in education; more of the
training of hand and mind and heart
that will equip the average boy and
girl for the everyday work of human
life 1 want TO see free textbooks for
every boy and girl in the schools of
| Kansas I believe in the higher edu-
/ cation: Kansas must keep her uni
versity and other state schools in the
front rank; their rapidly increasing
student body is a credit to the state;
we should be sadly remiss in our duty
if we hampered or retarded their
growth or impaired their efficiency.
But first of all our common school
system must be made adequate to the
proper training for life of every youth
( of school age in Kansas. 1t is the
states most important duty. Our
whole future hangs upon it. And it
/ is a fundamental principle of democ-
| racy. Take care of the youth. of the
/ land and the geniuses will take care of
/ themselves The world need scholars
! and philosophers and scientists and
/ poets and artists-Kansas will produce
! her share of them all-but more than
that the world needs millions of alert,
! wide-awake, clear-thinking, right-liv-
mon life and do the worlds work and
keep civilization from degenerating
/ Kansas must produce these useful citi-
zens first. The common school is our
nursery for citizens. 1t makes or it
breaks the future of our boys and girls.
Kansas Needs Good Roads.
Next to the improvement of the
! common schools the greatest need of
rural Kansas is better public highways.
! Good roads are not merely a product
! of civilization they are civilizers. The
! community content to live in the mud
! is sure to be content with other civic
| evils We are ready for a compre-
! hensive and practical system of road
| making and maintenance in Kansas.
/ This calls for a complete revision of
our antiquated methods of road taxes
| and upkeep. Our present plan is
| enormously wasteful. In the day when
a days journey was few miles, roads
| may have been a local question. To-
| day they are more than that. Motor
/ transportation of products is a rapidly
coming development, and no state
| needs it more than Kansas which suf-
fers great losses annually from car
! shortage. This phase of road-making
| applies chiefly to trunk line roads and
roads to market towns In the main
a better system of dragging roads will
| work wonders. We are spending mill
lions on Kansas roads uselessly In
! this respect we are good roads spend
/ thrifts. We should learn how to use
the money before greatly increasing
this amount.
Industrial Developments
Kansas is and always will be an
! agricultural state; but this need not
interfere in the least with the develop
! ment within our borders of industries
which will supply our own people, at
least, with many of the commodities
of ordinary use. 1t is bad economy
and poor business for us to ship our
raw products five hundred OF a thou
| sand miles to be converted into finish
ed products to be shipped back to US.
Kansas needs more manufactures: to
! give employment to our labor: to
! create a home market for our farm
ers; to increase our wealth and to HELM
support public work. There is prob
ably little that the state can do Off
cially at the present time to promote
our industrial development; what your
representatives here in Topeka can do
should be done: but the initiative must
come from the people of the state.
manifested in livelier interest and a