The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-11
WILL 1T Get OVER?
Taxpayers League Uprising a
Mysterious Force Here.
State Meeting Next Month in
Topeka Has Strength.
DEMOCRATS ALSO IN TROUBLE
Henderson Martin and Leigh
Hunt To Be Given Air.
Hodges Followers Seem To
Have Gone to Martin.
DEMOCRATS ALSO IN TROUBLE
BY A. L. sHULTz.

BY A. L. SHULTZ.
Something has gone wrong with the
will OF the pee-pul. THE boys 70
home" as IronjaW Brown puts 1t,
aden't behaving just right A strange
note of ,discord and discomfort has
come from the short grass country.
Picking up a few stray germs of the
strange malady some of the forward
looking communities are beginning to
cast alley apples in the direction of
Renublican leaders. 1t is a sort of
wave of unrest-one of many the state
has known in gladstone years OF tree
thought and action-which promises
no amusement for the gods and proph-
cts In high public position.
It is ten long, lonesome. dreary ana
more or less meaningless years since
the state has had an uprising II Is
fifteen years since Kansas kicked OIL
the bonds and shackles of the conVen-
ton and everyone did his own free and
independent guessing on everyone
from road overseer to president It IS
thirty years since the Farmers ALL
ance and the Pops took the state by
storm. Those were great days in Kan
sas. Now that the war is over ana
everything A fellow has to sell is back
to pre-war rates, history IS coming
cute, clever little idea-this new
hair raising bit of agitation that Is
putting the state on edge. The IaN-
navers' league is the name of the little
s.r1e1odra nrny" company. All of the
plavers are registered in the big BOOK
in the county treasurer's office. me
purpose of the transforming tour Is
10 kick a whole flock of forward look
ing people into the back alley. &C
cording to the lines of the play the
forward looking measures were dellT-
cred by the forward looking parties
by DELAYED freight and under a high
protective tariff with surcharges and
other special charges payable largely
in advance.
Right at this time rehearsals are
being held in some seventy-five coun-
ties for the first big opening of the
attraction in Topeka March 8. That
is the time when the state convention
Of the Taxpayers league will revive
pleasant memories of what happened
in '92 and several more recent occa-
sions There will be 700 members of
that cast. Some of the big speaking
parts arc going to league actors in
Douglas, Wyandotte, Franklin, Lyon,
Harvey Reno, Sedgwick, Clay and
similar counties.
Those were the choice places from
which the voice of the people came
during the Stubs regime. Those
were some of the early seats of upr1s-
ing when the Farmers Alliance and
Populists started. There was where
the Boss Ruster move first took root.
Some of these counties were singing
I'VE want Teddy long after the 1916
convention adjourned and Hughes had
Journeyed out to euthuse the west.
They have been marching single file
and six abreast for reform for forty
years.
Democrats Are With Us, Also.
Then there are the Democrats. Their
joy over the chagrin and embarrass-
ment of the Republicans is not the
finished product Is genuine joy is COM
monty known and accepted. 1t so hap
pens that the Democrats have some
trouble of their own this year.
BY a sort Of common consent it
looks as tho almost everyone who had
half suspicion that he might sneak
into the gOvernorship race when the
side curtains were down, has aban-
doned the idea. This particular deci-
sion seems to have been reached in a
fine patriotic party desire to give Hen
derson Martin and Leigh Hunt as
much afr and space as possible and see
who would live longest out of water.
just at this moment il would seem as
tho Martin and Hunt will have the
whole ring when the Democrats hold
their state convention and discuss the
gubernatorial situation.
At this time there is quite a bit of
feeling in the matter. Martins fol-
lowers have rounded up the old
Hodges faction and have made quite a
showing. The other night Grant
Harrington. former private secretary
to Governor Hodges. induced Martin
to come into Wyandotte, the home
county of Hunt. Since that time Bour-
bon factional relations are not as
smooth and serene as they might be.
There is a rather lurking suspicion
that the Sam Amidon and w. H.
Thompson crowd will likely lift a
few nuts and bolts from the Martin
machine in an effort to balance books
for similar favors extended Thomp-
son by the Hodges faction some years
ago. Quite in line with the same plan
Of operation j. 3. Billiard. former
mayor of Topeka, has some old books
regarding Hodges interference in the
mayoraity matter while Hodges was
governor and Martin was chairman
OF his public utilities commission
This man Hunt is a new party in
state politics. But he is picking up a
considerable amount of moral sup
port. Kansas Day troubles offered
nothing more interesting than the sit
uatiou which will confront the 100
delegates to the Democrat state con-
vent'on February 21-22.