The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-27
WOMAN is IN RACE
Mrs. M. j. GrinStead of Liberal
Out for Legislature.
"Lady From Seward County,
May Be Heard This Winter.
FIRST IN HISTORY OF KANSAS
If Mrs. GrinStead Wins She
Will Hold Unique Record.
Her Opponent against Every
Fad That Comes Up"

Kansas legislative visitors next win
ter may hear the speaker of the
house recognize 1.-The lady from Sc
ward county"-for Seward county has
started on the road to the election of
a female law maker. Mrs. Minnie j.
Ginstead, we'll known Liberal wo-
man, is a candidate for the Repub-
lican legislative nomination. To date
she had no opposition for the nomina-
ton. Should she be elected, she
would be the first woman to serve in
a Kansas legislative body.
Formal announcement of Mrs. Grin
stead's candidacy has been published
and the Liberal woman is now an ac-
Gye candidate. Her candidacy, as
viewed from this distance, will prob
ably be the occasion for opening an
old fashioned brand of trouble in the
Seward county election. For Mrs.
Grinstead is the champion and walk
ing delegate for Seward county in most
the reforms that are launched in the
short grass country. The mere fact
that the woman lives in the town of
Liberal, doesn't mean for a slight mo-
unent that she has not well defined
and establish ed ideas on every pub
lie and especially moral question. She
has.
She Has Following.
Therefore and since Seward county
is one of the really close counties in
has for it's purpose the sending of Mrs.
Grinstead to Topeka to make laws,
will warrant careful observation.
Judged by the returns of 1916, Mrs.
Grinstead will start the race with
majority of about thirty or forty in
her favor. She will also have credit
ed on her side of the sheet, a number
of years of activity in the women's
club affairs of Seward county, a series
of campaigns for suffrage and an ar
dent, faithful never dying opposition
to Demon Booze.
That the issues in Seward county
might be clean cut next fall. it is
quite probable the Democrats may re-
nominate Al F. Farmer for the legiS
lature. Farmer running in opposition
to Mrs. Grinstead will give the Seward
county citizen a chance to vote his
sentiments. Farmer is a real estate
merchant. When he came to Topeka
in 1917, tho, it was quite apparent
someone had told him a lot of things
about a legislative session.
Against the Fads.
I'm against every fad and ism that
comes up" was Farmers stand. And
Farmers word was as safe as
bumper wheat crop with the war on.
During that session of last year,
Farmer voted NO on every occasion
except one. That one affirmative vote
was in support of a bill which his
friend Sparks of Cherokee had offered
and which provided for the segregation
of colored school children in cities of
the second class. On the board of
administration bill, the near beer bill,
the anti cigarette bill, the bone dry
measure and several hundred other
bills which smacked and shattered
somewhat of new ideas of government,
Farmer of Seward was the rock of
Gibraltar. He was at least the nomi-
nal and scattered opposition to all the
bills that tended to make over the idea
of freedom so generously mentioned
in the constitution.
On Kansas Day Program.
Now Mrs. Grinstsad, with a record
of years in the reform work of her
county, is a candidate to succeed
Farmer in the legislature and put
Seward county right on all great
moral questions. She is the wife of
v. H. Grinstead, Liberal lawyer, and
at the Kansas Day club banquet in
Topeka last winter, Mrs. Grinstead
was one of the two women on the
speaking program. She responded to
the toast, The Message of Kansas to
the World"
Altho the suffrage amendment was
approved in the election of 1912,
Kansas has never sent q woman to the
legislature. Several women were can
didates in 1914 and 1916, but in the
main were defeated in their own
partY