The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-12

this time as are the Reed followers in
Missouri. Both have ingrown grouches
that assay $40 pay dirt to the ton. q
League Trouble Comes Up.
Then there is the league trouble. the
dissatisfa ction regarding many acts of
the Wilson administration, the price
fixing and sundry local disturbances
added to make round sum total. Ali
promise to yield Republican votes in
Novcmber.
But the real concrete foundation for
the entire theory. that Harding stock
Is going up in Oklahoma was Okla
hema's reception OF Harding. The
crowds which welcomed the candidate
in Ponca City, Perry and Guthrie was
surprisingly large-especially in
state where a Republican presidential
candidate usually fears to go.
Z The. real show, tho. was in Okla
homa City Saturday night That was
the real feature of the Harding inva-
sion of the middle west and southwest.
Big Crowds Hear Harding.
1t is probable that the demonstra-
ton which was staged for Senator
Harding Saturday afternoon and Sat
urday night was greater than. any
show for speaker or candldate OF any
party in any midwest state in twenty
years. That is big. broad statement
But it is doubtless true.
Crowds which greeted the candi-
date when he reached the city were
surprisingly large. The noise and snap
and ginger of the. welcome rather
startled even the OklahomaI1s them
selves. Then came the old fashioned
torch light parade-thousands of
flares instead of the old style kerosene
torches-the bands, the banners,
placards and thousands of marchers-
followed by the monster meeting at
the fair grounds.
Review Political History.
Remember away back in the old
days of free silver and the gold stand
ard and protection and the full dinner
pail? Recall the bitter, bull dog fight
ing spirit of 1895? Did you march up
Main street of your home town with
the FIambeau club? Did you carry a
leaky old torch or a banner and did
you yell for Mckinley or for Bryan
Were you a member of the Rough
Rider club in 1900? Maybe you re-
member back to the Farmers Alliance
and Jerry Simpson and Mary Ellen
Lease and the schoolhouse meetings on
the prairies?
Unless you sensed that fighting
spirit of twenty to thirty years ago, the
Oklahoma City outburst is something
new. 1t was a resurrection of the up
rising that set the west afire in those
days. And Jake Hamon, national
committeeman, who planned and or
gained the whole thing, was the hap
piest man in Oklahoma Saturday night.
decided spirit of detection was the
price which Oklahoma Democracy paid
for lannon's big and unexpected show.
Came in From All Sections.
Nearly "a hours before the Harding
speech delegations began arriving in
Oklahoma City for the meeting. All
day Saturday Oklahoma City was
mad house. Business was mixed with
politics until everyone was impatiently
awaiting the arrival of the Harding
special-which really arrived right on
time. Then the candidate was paraded
thru three miles of crowded streets.
And this was the Republican presiden-
tial candidate who was being presented
to Democratic Oklahoma and in the
very capital city. He was being
cheeredr by a crowd three times as
large as the. one which greeted Cover
nor Cox eight days earlier when he
came on banner day of the state
fair. -, T.
- A Giant Climax. ~
The Harding parade and the Hard
ing speech were combined in a giant
climax-for, the benefit of a clearly
disturbed and distressed opposition.
crops and it's crowds of singing, cheer
ing, fighting men and women was fifty
minutes in passing the Skirvin hotel.
That night the crowd at the fair
grounds = probably $4,000 - couldn' !
get close enough toshear the speech.
"Irdont know what it means" said
Dave Mulvane after the parade. y
only know that if the Democrats put
on such a show in Kansas, would be