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

willingness to invest in and encourage !
and patronize manufacturing enter |
prises suited to Kansas conditions. Let
our slogan be: Kansas goods for KAN |
sas people.
Honest Rcceiyerships for Utilities
In the last year the payment of fees
aggregating nearly o-le-third or NIL
lion dollars to the receivers and attor-
news in the Kansas Natural gas case,
directed public attention anew to
form of graft too long tolerated. with
the sanction of courts, enormous sums
of money out of all proportion TO the
services rendered, were paid to score
of lawyers. Stripped of all legal pre-
tense and high sounding, mealy-
mouthed verbiage, it was a plain case
of robbing the people in the name OF
the law, for in the end the people Will
pay every cent of the tribute. l con-
slider highway robbery more respecta-
BILE and less diShonorable.
am in favor of placing in the
hands of the public utilities commits
sion the power of appointing fecelV-
ers for all public utilities which De-
come insolvent or which fail to rem
der the service for which they were
created-just as the appointing OF re-
ceivers for insolvent banks is now IN
the hands of the state bank comrnls-
sioner. The receiver appointed should
be a person thoroly competent, and
limited to a sum in keeping with that
paid by similar companies in the or
binary conduct of their business. L
shall urge the legislature to enact such
| law as the only means of putting an
end to a species of plumber that mas
become a scandal to the courts and
the state, resulting not only in a wick
ed waste of money, but what Is worse,
in lowering the tone of public morals.
1t is always the indirect results of
Zorro ir1h hi cyh n1o a a
nicious in their influence Upon the
community.
Keep Up Fight for Prohibition.
Kansas may, with all modesty, /
think, lay claim to elements of lead
ership in many political reforms and
| in many humanitarian movements, but
nothing that Kansas has done, not
even the heroic part she played in the
great struggle for human liberty in
the SOS, has added so greatly to the
sum total of human happiness as her
vigorous espousal of the cause of pro-
hibition of the liquor traffic. In the
long struggle for prohibition extending
over generation, Kansas has been
the leader, the inspiration, the bea-
con of hope. In the campaign of 1915,
| when prohibition was an issue i'll
| twelve states and one territory, Kan
sas played most important part. And
now when nationwide prohibition is
this iniquituus traffic is making it's
last stand, Kansas must do still more
to hasten the day when the sale and
| manufacture of intoxicants shall for
ever be prohibited and the nation be
pu-ged of this plague and sore. Amer
lea is ready for it.
| I believe that within the next four
| years we shall see sober nation with
out GROCERY, brewery or a dis
tillery within it's borders. Until that
Ia Ia do L
test INCREASINGLY against the nefari-
Gus partnership of the federal gov
errment with the infamous traffic. It
is intolerable that the United States
government should arbitrarily over
ride and defy the sovereignty of the
commonwealth which have prohibi-
ton laws. The federal government ig-
nores the laws of our state and for a
consideration grants licenses to men
to conduct in Kansas a business which
our state statutes have outIaved. In
directly, it is aiding and abetting viola
tons of our state laws-conniving
with bootleggers and outlaws in de-
feating the will of our own people
Moreover, the government says in eff
feet to Kansas. mo matter what your
people may think of this evil; no mat
ter how you may 1egisIate against it.
you shall not prohibit shipment OF
the stuff into your borders, ard Wash
ington will license bootleggers to sell
ment manifests more concern to OBJ
serve comfy between itself and other
nations than between itself and the
several states. L appeal to YOU, my
friends, individually to take up this
protest against setting our laws al
naught.
Predicts National Suffrage.
Kansas people may assist, too, ir
another great reform that is makine
rapid Roadway in the nation, and that
is national suffrage for women Our
influence should be exerted to bring
about equal suffrage in every state ir
the union: the highest considerations
of the public welfare demand it Ir
Kansas, as in other states, woman's
influence has been the side of leg.
1slat1on for clean government. She
has exercised her right of franchise
, with intelligence and independence
and it is inconceivable that the natior
should much longer deny her what i.
unquestionabl her right.
Support League for Peace.
1t is impossible for us to realize the
appalling suffering and sorrow tina
has come upon Europe. AS the records
of battles grow longer, as the carnage
increases, day after day and month
after month, our sensibilities become
blunted. Still, my friends even if i
were possib bic for us to close our eye
{ entirely to Europe's woe and to harder
our hearts against it's supreme diStreS:
and need-war is a very real thing tt
: us. AS long as war exists; as long a.
nations deliberately plan for this bar
: barous method of settling their dis
putes, as long as. men put their trus
in might instead of right, so long viii
the danger of war brood like a fou