The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-28
ALL co into FIGHT
Kansas Political Parties in Last
Call for Votes.
Efforts Concentrated in the
GubernatOrial Contest.
DISC0HTENT is ONLY HOPE
Democratic Chances Are Based
on Hard Times.
Only Seven More Working Days
of Campaign.
BY A. L. SHULTz.


the finish of the 1922 state wide cam
paign-in many respects one of the
most unusual in Kansas in the gen.
GRAFTON. Both Republicans and Demo-
Gratis will throw every ounce of
energy available into the campaign
next week. Every spark of fight and
fire will be drawn for the finish in
the battle which is conferred around
the governorship.
In the lethargy of the last few
weeks the Democrats have read ia
vorable signs. They have read signs
before. They have read correctly,
tho, but twice in more than a score
OF years. and this fall the Repub-
lican organize ton relies on the strong
normal majority of 10000 to win
the election. There is a general feel
ting that the ticket will be cut below
the normal showing and when the
war of ballots starts a week from
Tuesday the big guns will be trained
on w. Y. Morgan's candidacy for
governor.
Dope sheets this year are confus-
ing and conflict at every cross roads.
No two observers have seen conditions
exactly alike. Fact is there are SEEM
ingly few of the committee members
and local workers out in the state
who have been able to give either
headquarters a real accurate state
ment as to conditions The voters
have simply refused to talk and in
the absence of anything resembling
an accurate poll. one guess is almost
as good as another.
A Chance on Discomfort.
On the. basis of normal party |
strength the Democrat chance isn't d |
good gambling proposition. 1t isn't an |
easy thing to upset the 1920 MAORI |
ties OF 10000 to $4,000 without the |
use of dynamite. And to date the |
Democrats haven't done much EFF |
fective blasting. Their chance to win |
apparently lies in a discomfort which /
has swept thru the farm districts by |
virtue of bad markets, short crops |
and inability to borrow money readily |
or to promptly move stock and grain |
to market centers. Around the feel |
ing of discomfort the Democrat ora |
tors have thrown the cloak of high |
taxes as the real bugaboo.
Labor unions and the trade publ |
cations which have Joined in the fight |
on Morgan have aided nightly in |
seeking to arouse the farm resentment !
in TRADES against the high taxes. Two |
years go the farm voters refused to |
join with organized labor in a fight
on Governor Allen and the industrial
court law. So this year an effort is
being made to perfect the combination
in a demand for state tax reduction.
The fact that there has been a ma
terial tax reduction this year has
seemingly blocked the move in many
communities.
from the various counties estimates at
this time are best based, it seems on
normal conditions. Two years ago
with the hard fight on Governor Allen
he defeated Jonathan NJ. Davis, the
present nominee, by 1885, 900, while
most of the Republican ticket went
thru with majorities of 10000 to
100000.
Big Task for Davis.
Using the 1920 returns as a basis
Davis must this year poll all the votes
he received in his fight on Governor
Allen and add slightly more than
52.5O0 Allen votes to his own string
in order to win. That means that he
must make a net gain of an average |.
of 500 votes in each of the 105 coun-
ties in Kansas Some idea of the
magnitude of this task is availa BILE in
the 1920 returns which showed that
in twenty-nine counties fewer than
1000 votes were cast for governor, Ii
while in fourteen counties fewer than
900 votes were cast In five coun-
ties the total vote was less than 500
the average net gain which Davis
must make in each county to win.
Only once in quarter of a century
has Democrat been elected governor
George II. Hodges won by the bare
margin of twenty-nine votes over Ar
thur Capper at the end of one of the
most bitter fights the state has known.
That Morgan. however. will run be-
hind the showing by Allen in 1920
doubtless many thousand votes be-
hind-is generally conceded. But it
takes lot of high powered arithmetic
TO figure Democrat victory with a
nominal majority of 10000 looking
the minority party in the face. 1t
means, in short, that the Democrats
must stay solidly with their own ticket
and 900 Republicans-nearly $50 in
every county-must go over to the
Bourbon column.
Fight For Congress.
In only two of the eight congress
sional districts does the fighting seem
close and results uncertain. With the
election ten days away it looks as tho
almost anything may happen in the
Third and Eighth. Republicans have
claimed gains in these districts in the
last two weeks. But the Democrats
are also making eXtrayagant claims.
Down in the Third the entire Sproul
organization is built around the fol-
lowing which for years held the dis
trict for Phil P. Campbell before
Sproul beat him in the August prf-
maries The sproul campaign has
aroused all manner of enmities and
factional disturbances. On the other
hand the radical appeals of Charles
Stephens has driven the conservatives
to Spronl and that is the bed rock
foundation on which he has a chance
TO win-that and the normal 10000
Republican majority in the district
The states big labor vote is in the
Third. If Sproul should succeed in
splitting it with Stephens and should I
hold the conservatives. he would seem
out of the woods in good shape. But
the radicals haven't been carrying Re Il
publican flags this year, and the labor
union forces haven't worn Sproul
buttons or shouted in his meetings
since the primaries.
Wichita and Sedgwick county will
decide the bitter Bird-Ayres
riekf in the Eirhfh Wichita is the