The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-03-30
THE OTHER SIDE.
Hon. A. |. Knox Replies to
Chas. A. StarkS' Demand
That He Retire From
AIdermaniC Race In
The 9th Ward.

Lord Bryon once said that he awoke
one morning and found himself IA
nous. / had occasion last Saturday
morning to experience something of
the same feeling. Taking up the Kan
sas City Sun, found my name spread
across the page in large type. Be-
meath it was the name of Mr.. Chas.
A. Starks, poet, publicist, philosopher
and literateur. l had not read far
to be able to discover that Mr.. Starks
was addressing public a personal COM
munication to me; so l am now con-
strained to reply to Mr.. Starks and
tell him why AM THAT l AM.
Now Mr.. Starks, l do not recognize
your right to pose as censor OF pub
lie conduct, nor to assume the role of
personal advisor to myself, nor in any
way pass Judgment on my public acts,
| am aware, that | might with per-
feet propriety, ignore you altogether.
But, since in your self-imposed ca
pacity of local representative and
spokesman of the Negro race, you
imagine you have a racial grievance,
l shall regard your remarks with SUI
ficient seriousness as to reply to
them.
In the very beginning, Mr.. Starks,
YOU show a peculiar bias for the man
you set up as the exemplar OF falr-
ness and justice. You do not hesitate
to characterize my campaign as rep
rehensible, but you fail to show or
point out just wherein the reprehen-
sibility figures. Why it should be
considered a virtue for Mr.. Hueston
to run for Alderman, but reprehen-
sible on my part is proposition that
my poor mind cannot comprehend
While you were disposing of so many
local public matters both moral and
political, you might have been little
more lucid on that point You say
that my candidacy is essentially lot
L. A. X. l was not aware that you
possess sufficient clairvoyant power
to be able to read my mind. There-
fore l ask, how do you know that my
motives are essentially selfish? Where
in and whereby do you obtain such
positive assurance on that head! DO
YOU mean to draw picture, MT.
Starks, for Mr.. Hueston, as the EN-
bodiment of all that is sanity and un-
selfish, and of myself as all that is
sinful and selfish? The public will
hardly follow, you there, Mr.. Starks.
Mr.. Hueston himself who is already
suffering from the over-zealousness
of some of his fool friends, would not
saw as much. The public knows that
to be an Alderman from the Eighth
Ward is an honor. The office carries
prestige and emoluments, and there
is nothing sanity or hypocritical IN
the candidacy of either Mr.. Hueston
or myself. We both would ike the
honor, we believe would come to u.s.
by being thus able to serve this COM
munity, and neither deserves to be
cindemned because his ambition
moves him to seek the honor.
You stated, Mr.. Starks, that last
week you pointed out the honorable
course that any other Negro aspirant
should take. Very kind of you to do
that. but were you aware that the
General Assembly of this state had
gotten ahead of you and had already
laid down the proper procedure for
any aspirant to take to obtain nomi'
nation. Why, oh why, did not those
legislators consult you before laying
down the lawsL Section 5S43-Elec'
tion Laws of the State of missouri
1916) gives us the procedure by
which may be nominated for office.
beg most humbly to call your atten
tion to the fact that there are TWo
WAYS in which that may be done
The one way is by convention oi
delegates duly certified for that pur
nose. The other is by petition con
tanning the names of 1 per cent oi
the legal voters of the last general
election. No petition may contain
fewer than fifty names nor more thar
one thousand. The legal voters in the
9Th Ward at the last general election
numbered 4,109. One per cent OF tha'
number is AZ. My petition contained
about rs legal voters and it was by
.,o.o TX man that I Wgs nominated