The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-15
GOVERNOR ALLEN

other constitutional change would
provide for a new system of classlfica-
ton of property for taxation. Owner
ship of Kansas farms by returned SOL
diers is strongly urged.
One of the policies strongly urged
is a general reform in the county gov
eminent system by providing for APP
pointment rather than election of
number of court house officials.
Earnest endorsement is given the
program of the Kansas Good Roads
association for state aid in permanent
highway building. No specific men
ton is made of the proposed 60 mill
lion dollar bond issue.
New revenues would be provided by
the governor thru the passage of
law for state income tax system.
Support of welfare measures is given
in a demand for better working con-
ditions for women and a suggestion
for changes in the provisions of the
present workmep's compensation act.
The employment of idle labor on high
ways and on public works is urged.
Reforms in Counties.
The demand for reforms in the court
house is supplemented with request
for revision of the election laws and
an enactment which will provide for
shorter state and county ballot. The
legislature is asked to take the office
of state superintendent Of public in
struction out of politics. State inspec-
ton of mineral mines is asked and the
legislature is also called upon to pro-
vide for a strong geological depart
ment. Endorsement is given the plan
for establishment of state reserve
banks to keep Kansas money at home
Niggardly appropriations are dis
couraged. Governor Allen sees only
false economy in denying to state in
situations and departments the money
they need for carrying on their work
Efficiency is crippled, he urges, thru
fail. or misdirected economy projects.
Needed buildings at state institutions
should be provided, the governor as
serts, and the state should help to alb
sOrb the over-supply of labor by pro-
Viding adequate public works
The new governors message was
read in both the house and senate.
Many of the provisions were applaud
eu by members and visitors in the
galleries.
Governor Allen did not appear per
sonally before the legislature.
Governor Aliens Message.
In his message outlining his twenty
four policies. the governor said:
To the Members of the Legislature:
| realize that there is i'll the mind of
every member of the legislature deep
appreciation of the peculiar hour in which
the problems which confront us are new
that the spirit with which answer
the command of public service IS new
The nation has just emerged from sac
rificlal offering to the highest dreams that
mankind may dream. The gift of men and
rIateraI wealth which we have made and
without which the victory could not have
been won has brought US to a fundamental
government in the way of individual serv-
fee and individual responsibility. Our ma
lures have decp"ned and widened as we
have met the demands.
Kansas Met Her Obligations.
Kansas has paid her share of the mighty
obligation ana we have come to this session
with the hope that all we do here shall be
worthy Of those who have suffered and
those who have died that the OF
civilization might go forward. 1t is moi
with any complaCency or self pride as d
state that attention is called to the prompt
aud conclusive manner in which every de-
nand upon the patriotism of our people has
= democracy has been passing thru its SUI
prcme test and while the fighting is over
aud the need for further sacrifice of life
seems ended. the test is not vet fully met
There yet remains the problem of de-
mobilizng the Capitalization of the ma
tionhi government Individual and state
functions which have been generously sur
rendered to the strong Capitalization neces-
sarE to fight the war must now come back
To Their natural status. Duties surrendered
10 naturalization must come back to the
State and community life. bringing various
questions which have been absent from OuI
attention. 1t Is apparent to all. of course
that the sooner the state returns to its
normal method of business. empha sizing
the work of its home institutions and re-
Stunning the status quo ante. the better il
There yet remains in every state and IT
the nation. its problems of reconstruction
and readiustment which demand the broad
est consideration and the wisest settlement
There yet rests upon us Il demand for large
vision and the courage to go forward in {
program of construction 1T an hour wheI
the natural tendency would be to react ant
retrench.
The Need For Home Owning
In my Judgment. the most rapidly grow
ing question in Kansas today is tina
which concerns the increase in tenant oc
cupatiOn of farm lands.
All countries have had their day Will
this menace: The eastern states hav
struggled with it for years. In Illinois
II has grown so alarmingly that something
like sixty per cent of the best> land o
that state is now owned by men who hole
it for speculative purposes for what /
will yield to them in rentals. For s,
many years in Kansas we were free from
the evil that we had grown into the cas-,
be exempt 1t has been the boast of al
citizens who euiogize the state that w
are "A commonwealth of home owners
Therefore 1t comes as something of al
alarming surprise to note that since ISIS
the percentage of farms operated by ten
ants has been increasing rapidly in thi
state rs i'll any state in the Union an
much more rapidly than in many of GU
sister states. Today in some of the coun
ties comprising the eastern half of tn
state. practically 30 per cent of the farm
centGgc of Kansas farms operated by own
ers in proportion 10 the whole was ~
In thirty years this decreased to G5.2; dur
lnE tne past ten years II Is apparent, s
far MS figures are available, that the far
Their decrease has brought the situatio
almost to point where half the farms G
this state are operated by tenants.
As our lands have increased in valu,
the tendency to speculate in them has in
creased and today an alarminGly large eX
tent of farm area is owned by men who
while realizing that the percentage c
profit from holding the land may not b
in itself remunerative from the standpoint
OF immediate return capital invested
still hold it for the unearned incremen
Land Speculation Is Alarming.
1t is regrettabe, too, that the best Ian
of the state is the land upon which tn
SPECTATOR first fixes his eye and the in
crease in tenant farming in the easter
half of Kansas is fully double in pe1
ccntage the increase in the western hal
of the state. But the speculative activit
which is notable in the eastern hal
Of the state has also spreaS to the ives.
ern half and today the increase in Ian
tenantry ali over the state is greater tina
it has been at any time in our history
think Ii will h.. oil. -,