The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-24
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.)
Emporia, Kan, Oct. Is

ton AlDaugh, chairman OF the state
committee. AS time is counted in a
political campaign, it was the eve of
an important state election The fight
had been a bitter one; the result had
been in doubt. "Wells I said to Mort,
ION the dead level. how does she
look?'' Unless Bill White breaks
loose between now and election day.
it sewed up. I'm sitting on his coat
tails. If the garment holds, we'll
win That was back in the days
when Bill was regular. He was a cog
term obtained at that period, would
have been classified as a reactionary.
It was before the Emporia editor be-
came the accepted prophet of the new
day-before he had subscribed to any
of the panaceas of government or had
become the interpreter of every
beautiful prospect unfolded to the
sovereign voters of his state But
then, as now, nobody could forecast
the exact moment at which he would
break loose and shoot the works. He
was the dynamite of a campaign, and
everybody in and out of politics loved
him and deplored him.
I have referred hitherto to William
Allen White and E. w. Howe as two
country editors, who had been per-
haps, the most potent factors in shap-
ing the drifting sands of middle west
ern thought in the quarter of a cen
fury last past. There probably never
were two men who failed so utterly
to agree on the essentials of social
and economic progress. Howe be-
lieves all of the vital problems can
be solved by the exercise of the simple
virtues of industry, thrift and COM
mon decency White thinks the bene-
factions of civilizations can be best
and most equitably conferred by sta
49, L. dc
Howe wants his fellow citizens to do
it themselves. White thinks the COM
mon veal leans heavily on legislative
enactment, and is responsive to it.
White has the Kansas habit of mixing
in politics. He ramifies all the way
from school board elections to ma
tiona1 campaigns. Probably Howe
never heard a political speech in his
life, altho he engages in violent argu-
ment with his friend Nand neighbour
w. J. Bryan, on the occasion of his
annual sojourn in Miami, Fla. But he
doesn't know the name of the COM
mitteeman from his precinct and he
goes to bed at the usual hour Oh
election night. Both remarkable writ
ing men. the differences which lie be-
tween them extend to method and
style. White is Enthusiastically osten-
master wordsmanIdeft, clever, glee
full. Howe is homely, simple and di-
rect. Between the banks of thought
he writes serenely on, with never the
ripple of quip, whim-wham or jest to
disturb the surface of the waters.
Like the Atchison Globe. the En-
poria Gazette, under the editorial guild
ance of White, has been a country
newspaper apart. Printed in a smaller
town, it has never had the benefit of
the fine reportorial staff which Howe
developed on the Globe. White has
given the Gazette less painstaking at
tentfon than Howe gave the Globe. He
has been concerned in many things
and the Gazette often ran itself for
months at a time. But the paper has
always reflected the personality of its
editor. White has had the faculty of
imparting to the boys and girls who
made up the staff of the Gazette his
own sure touch and his own view
point of life, and they have faithfully
reflected it. And SO the Gazette,
whether it's editor is at home or
abroad, from it's editorial columns to
the most trivial three-line local item
is the voice and spirit and the hand of
White. White wants the Government
to do it. But pending the DELAY in Sc
curing needed and required legislation.
he is willing to take part of the bur-
den on his shoulders and contribute
little more than his share. There
is nothing vicarious in his fierce and
picturesque partisanship of the under
dog. He is, perhaps. the most helpful
man in Kansas His ssympathies, his
counsel, his purse and his influence
have always been at the command of
any human being who needed them.
know of no man who has gone out
OF the beaten path of life to do so
many kindly, gracious things The
rescue of Walt Mason was perhaps his
most able feat of Seamanship and the
most successful OF his salvaging~ ex-
petitions. Since Mason has himself
written the story for magazine friends
or long standing, he will not object if
L refer to 1t here. Fifteen years or SO
ago Mason drifted into the office of
the Gazette, a derelict on the tide of
life, and asked for work In the event
that there was no work for him. he
begged the privilege of sleeping in the
pressroom overnight Mason had
slipped the dregs of life and in early
age was apparently down and
out The Gazette was fuII-handed.
another reporter was excess baggage
and a strain on the overhead. But
White put Mason t. work and then
stood guard over him for ten years.
Not once did he relax his vigil or cease
mis- effort to introduce Mason to an
audience larger than the clientele of
the Gazette. And Mason. a man of
marked talent, emerged from Whites
voluntary guardianship reincarnated
and remade and now is almost as IA
nous as his sponsor.
White is rotund, joyful citizen.
Whom everybody IN Emporia and Kan
sas calls BILL" He knows evaryhodv
IN his town and congressional district |
ana labors continually under the hal
,uclnation that everybody else wants to |
knew them. Senator Charles Curtis
hoIds the kansas record for persistent |
l 1i13 II INC hand-shaking; but !
Bill White can introduce a stranger or |
casual visitor to more people of |
whom they never before heard and
Wnom they never expect to see again. |
W mite has turned fifty and is two or |
three years further along the brow of |
the hill in the direction of the twilight. |
His waving hair is thinning and is !
tiecked with gray. But his face is as
youthful as 1t was the day 1 first met |
him in the local room of the kansas |
City Star, now more than twenty-five |
years ago. He was a country-town |