The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-14
Home Town Folk Denounce
His Latest "Near Treason"
RotarianS of Salina Want Him
Removed From Office.
WILL PETITION GOVERNOR
Editorial on Liberty Loan Cam
paign Goes Too Far.
Even Old Lifelong Friends
Condemn Ex-senator.

Joseph L. Bristow'S home town. peo-
pie are after him. Members Of the
Rotary club of Salina are circulating
p itions urging Governor Capper to
remove the utilities commission head
from the service of the state. Bris-
lows latest EDITORIAL violent attack
of the governments campaign for the
sale of liberty bonds-has started
campaign in his home town for sum-
mary removal.
That Kansas and Salina look upon
Bristow as guilty of near reasonable
actions and utterances is emphatically
expressed in the attitude of the Salina
Rotary club. The greatest aid and
comfort which the former United
States senator has given the enemy
came thru the editorial attackine; the
method of floating the liberty loan
bonds. His attack of the patriotic
campaign for the sale of bonds came
just when Salina was pushing bond
ton in the town.
Scores Sign Petitions.
As a result of the Bristow attacl- on
the liberty loan campaign, scores of
Salina citizens-RepubIican Demo-
Gratis and SocialiSts-are signing the
petitions. Many of the signers are
former friends and ardent supporters
OF BrlstoW. Hundreds OF men and
women in Bristow's home town have
openly criticised his editorial and pub
lie utterances. At a big registration
day meeting resolutions openly criti-
clsing and condemning Bristow for his
stand We're proposed. They were side
tracked in the hope Bristow might
see the light and reform Now a new
storm has broken.
we members of the Rotary club
are out trying to do service and Mr.
Brlstow's actions have made our work
harder" declared Charles L. Schwartz.
secretary of the LEI n Tdv1
pany, who prepared the petitions I'm
day and half we sold $4,000 wort h
of bonds and we expect to keep on.
Such utterances as Mr.. Bristow's are
instinct handicap to us and not at
all representative of Salinas spirit or
the spirit of Kansas"
Resolutions Are Strong.
AT this time" the petition says,
I'VE cannot help but feel that the pub
lie utteranceS of an official clothed
with the high authority of Mr.. Bristow
are IN direct contradiction to the de-
mands now being made upon the
country at large for loyalty and earn
est support of our federal authorities
and the government, and we ask that
you respond tC the great majority of
the citizens of Kansas who believe in
giving the fullest measure of loyal
helpfulness to the cause of our ma
ton now at war, by removing from
public office this man, whose editor
ials for the past several months have
been productive of unrest against the
requirements of the government OF
promoting sedition and reasonable
opinions and expressions. or general
ing a spirit of 'slackerism' in our
young men, physically fit for service
and in older men with money that
should be lent to the government in
this extremity"
The editorial which aroused the Sa-
lima Rotarians was the last of the
series of Bristow editorials attacking
the national war program. The par
! ticular editorial attacked the methods
used in handling the bond issue.
The Editorial.
1T is, or certainly ought to be, hui
initiating to every true American tc
witness the frantic manner and cheaI
methods that are being used to induce
men and women to buy these bonds,
said Bristow in his editorial.
why they have not sold more read
lily we do not know. During the last
quarter of a century United States
bonds drawing per cent interest have
sold above par. Now it is with diff
Guilty that bonds drawing 8 y per cent
are sold at par. 1t may be that de.
mands for money are so great thai
there is not enough idle capital in the
country seeking investment at low
rates to absorb so large an amount OF
these bonds. If that is true then the
government ought to pay a higher rate
of interest. Such a policy would be
much more dignified and, we think
more patriotic than to resort to the
cheap fakir methods that are now
being used.
1.-The menacing autographed figure
/ of Uncle Sam everywhere pointing his
finger at you. ordering you to buy q
bond, the employment of a Wall stree
! stock gambler to send a woman with g
I flying machine over the country to at.
| tract attention as one would for e
three-ring circus, the hiring of second.
rate Chautauqua lecturers or enter.
| tanners to go about and tell of the
value of the bonds. all these certainly
do not comport with the dignity tina
ought to characterize the action of tn,
government of a nation of one hun.
/ dred million people in disposing of it.
securities. Such means are more fit.
| ting TO- the sale of town lots or ques
/ tionable mining stocks"