Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-30
CAPPER OF KANSAS.
BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.
Especial Correspondent of The Argus

Washington, D. c., Oct ga year from
today a presidential campaign which will
choose an executive for the most powerful OF
nations to function during one of the most
important periods in existence, will be nearing
its conclusion. Today, however. there is al
most no. information upon which TO base a
conclusion as to who will be the standard bear
er for one party or the other.
Possible candidates are being called forth
into the open as race horses might be led from
their stables, and are being given workouts
under the stop-watch to determine their prob
able speed should they be entered in the great
handicap. Among those that now being
looked over is Senator Arthur Capper OF
Kansas
Senator Capper is urged as the candidate
Of the great corn and wheat belt. He is urged
as the man from Topeka, the very heart of
duces the food of the nation. He is urged as
the idol Of every farmer between the Allie
ghenies and the Rockies, the man who ap-
preciates their needs and who will build upon
those needs as the basis for American we'll
being.
So II we give heed to this call from the corn
belt. It Is well that the public there and else
where should get a bit of picture of this
man who is a possible standard bearer.
Senator Capper appeared the other night
before the National Press club in Washington,
and recited a piece entitled There's Where
the West Begins D." He said that the people
could not make a speech. His theory is that
they were tired of speech makers in public
Office The senator's method of address is not
oratorical. 1t is conversational and inclined
to be confidential. He may not be good
speaker but he is a good talker.
He is about five feet six inches in height
and would tip the scales at something like
1870 pounds. He once half pound over
week reporter ald lived for six months in a
Washington boarding house He is thin and
why and active-a man who carries the bur
den of extra weight and who keeps NJ
through a constant use of all his faculties
This United States senator is a graduate
newspaper reporter. He was born in Kansas
in the little town of Garnett in 1865, which
means that he is now "a. He grew up in this
little prairie town which then had but three
four hundred population. He got his edu-
cation in the public schools, and did not carry
it beyond high school from which he grad
uated at the age of IS.
While going through high school he had
worked evenings and Saturdays sticking type
for the county weekly, and had learned TO be
a pretty fair printer. So when he graduated
from high school he took what for him was
great plunge into the outside world and went
over to Topeka, the state capital, where he
got job setting type on the Topeka Capital.
From typesetter he became reporter. city edi
tor, editor. managing editor, business manager
and eventually owner
In the meantime Arthur Capper had accum-
ulated weekly newspaper which now has
zine with three-quarters of million crcu-
lation, and five farm journals. The combined
circulation of all these publications is more
than 100000. Their owner is the operator Of
the largest printing house west of the Mis-
sissippi river. The advocates of Capper a
presidential candidate insists that this list of
publications, located in the productive heart
Of the nation, gives him hold upon the people,
particularly the farmers, which adds greatly
to his strength a candidate.
The senator's f1nesse as a politician may
be shown by one incident in his yearly pro-
gram at Topeka. On the 14th Of July each
year, this being his birthday. he issues, through
his publications, an invitation to every child
in Kansas to come to a party as his guest
and drink pink lemonade, eat stick candy and
ice cream. Fifteen or twenty thousand chill
dren usually come. These parties are so sue
cessful as to throw down the gauntlet to the
hundreds of politicians in the cities who are
accustomed to stage such functions in the in
terest of their political campaigns. Also it
causes one to think of what might happen If
this man should become president and widen
his sphere.
Senator Capper has long made a speciality
Of children. He has none of his own but holds
an interest in each child in Kansas. He it was
who organized. the first pig club in the United
States. Now he has more than $500 loaned
out to members of his pig clubs in Kansas.
He loans from $50 to 800 apiece TO ten boys
in each county in the state to be expended in
raising prize pigs. So good has been the idea
that the federal government has adopted and
broadcasted it. What he does for the boys
and pigs. he does for the girls and chickens.
Thus has his intimate hold upon the people of
his part of the country developed.
Capper. say his friends. is a vote getter
They say that vote getting is the most impor-
tant thing in running for Office, and that Cap
per has demonstrated his ability to get them.
To be sure in 1912, when he first ran for gov
ernor, he got caught in the Taft-RooseveIt
jam and was defeated. He lost by but AZ votes
however, which was considered a fine run un-
h. Ahn 1fr act ~
the election and two years later won by $4,000
majority