The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-12

Francis c. Price, of Clark county.
who is expected by friends to enter
the Republican race for governor, sue
ceedtng Governor Allen, has been in
public life in 1887, when he was
a member of the legislature, repre-
senting Clark county in the house. In
1889 he was a member of the state
senate, representing district embrace
ing a number of counties. He resign
ed in the midst of this term to accept
the appointment of judge of the dis
trict court rendered to him by Gov
ernor Humphrey. After a service of
some years on the bench, he retired to
resume the practice of law. In 1909,
he re-appeared in the state senate,
serving continuously since by re-elec-
tions. Since the session of 1909 Judge
Price has been chairman of the COM
mittee of judiciary, and this winter
he is in addition president pro tempore
of the senate. A man of ability and
education, one learned in law and let
ters, he would grade any position
within the gift of the people. His
temperament is executive, legislative.
and judicial in distinguished degree.
and SO he could qualify in any great
capacity of government service, state
or federal. If by chance he might be
called to the supreme court of the
United States. he could meet the re-
sponsibility with dignity and the re-
ouired ability. Such a man is "FranR'
Price.
Come From the Frontier.
And he has developed these qualities
on the Kansas frontier For Clark
county lies in the "shortgrass coun-
try" on the southern border of the
state, and more than two-thirds of the
way across it. He settled in the
county more than a third of cen-
tury ago, and, sharing the hardships
of his fellow settlers, he has witness
a he nf the county from
a settlement of preemptions and sod
houses to one of finished farmsteads,
fenced ranches, schoolhouses, and
churches A homesteader himself
originally. he has grown up with the
settlers of town and country there and
has been one of them. BY his rela-
lions of neighbor. or of legal advis-
err. he possesses the friendship of his
fellow citizens in a marked degree;
no man in the county, or in his SEN
atorial district is more beloved, more
respected.
Judge Price. having by industry and
frugality accumulated competency
and possessing a taste for public az
fairs now modestly confesses that he
would like to be governor of the state.
However, he is not ready to declare a
candidacy in the face of a possible
contest in the southwest, and so he is
Sitting around, waiting. as the old
Populists of twenty-five or thirty years
ago used to say. But his friends con-
tinue to urge him to declare himself
and so claim the right of old political
friendship. especially in the southwest
early in the campaign, which is al
ready setting in. altho the primary
elections will not occur until August,
1922.
There Is touch of romance in
Judge Prices political career. if such
1iC
life. For two sessions of the legisla-
ture had given the young lawyer a
taste of the game of politics, and he
had begun to set his future ambition
for a career in congress, even a seat
in the United States-senate, when by
a scratch of pen he signed away his
opportunity, so. changing the current
of his life, and opening the door for
another man. The other man was
Chester I. Long.
When Judge Price resigned from
the state senate, he left behind a va
cancy of two. years to be filled. and,
at the election of 1890, Chester I.
Long was chosen A fusion of the
Farmers Alliance and the Democrats
chose los of the 125 members of the
house of representatives, but the Re
publicans saved Long, who Joined a
hold-over Republican senate which
contained only one opposition member
anu CNCA elioS oCIldbO4 wv al Se1l
roll of Leavenworth) would have
nothing to do with the fusion house.
1t was the winter of 1891, the ses-
sion in which the distinguished United
States Senator John ]. ingalls, fell be-
fore the Populist tidal wave. And,
thruout. it was a sensational session,
tthe two houses firing broadsides of
contempt back and forth. 1t was the
house of which the late Sam Wood,
! altho not a member, was the whip"
| He it was, who wrote, for the senate
/ to digest and rage over, the couplet:
''Hayseeds firm
"Sandburrs stick"
| The next session of the legislature,
| that of 1893, was the stormy one in
which the senate was Populist and
the house so nearly SO that the two
| sides got into war and siege, which
| only a resort to the supreme court
| settled In the meantime, the Pop
| ulists possessing the state treasury
! the Republican house was held to-
gether by private subscriptions of the
| wherewith to pay it's members, and
| 10! Chester I. Long was member OF
the white Wings committee OF
safety
So it come that, by the reputation
gained by Mr.. Long in the winter OF
| 1891, he was nominated for con