Evening star., 1923-07-09
ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

TOPEKA, Kan, July 9.-Its more
than a quarter of a century SINCE
William Allen White asked whats s
the matter with Kansas" and an
awered his own question with the
immortal epigram that Kansas start
ed in to raise hell and suffered from
Harding reached Kansas a couple of
weeks ago different cause for the
states troubles was assigned to him.
He was told that "the matter with
Kansas is excessive railroad freight
rates.
He was assured that wheat is be-
ing grown and harvested in this rural
paradise at an actual loss. He was
informed that the farmers dollar is
only IS cents efficient He was no
titled that, no matter at what rate
the prosperity wave is rolling over
the rest of the country, it has not
struck the farming west And when
the President wanted to know the
why and wherefore of this anomalous
state of affairs, the song and the
chorus and the entire refrain dinned
tncessantiy into his ears was high
freight rates"
Nothing Else Matters.
That's all that interests Kansas
and the other agricultural regions
these days. They listen intently. if
not patiently, while minor themes
are being Strummed upon. But un-
less men discuss the causes of S0-cent
wheat or 6-cent hogs-i. e., excessive
freights-it is impossible to enlist
hansans real attention, to say moth
ing of firing their enthusiasms.
day or two after President Hard
ing addressed a great concourse of
Kansas farmers at Hutchinson. GEN.
ter of the wheat belt, a dirt farmer
constituent constituent who sits in the state state
Capper the following letter:
"Honorabel Arthur Capper,
Topeka, Kansas.
MY dear friend:
There is a few things that needs
correctin' before the Presidential
wheat growers. The way the wheat
prices is going will ruen the west
ern farmers. and il there isent any
Releaf for them they will be ruened.
faction In the west. But l have
faith in the President that he Is big
enough to handle the situation, and
beleave he will TO the satisfaction
of the Peopel.
Respectfully yours, etc"
Points Out Real Trouble.
The spelling is the farmers, al
though Capper blames it on an un-
ruly typewriter. Had the Senator 8
correspondent composed an essay in
Chesterfeldian English, he could not
have more succinctly or more poig-
nantly epitomized Kansas tale OF
woe and the conditions into which
Mr.. Harding ran at Hutchinson.
The farmers accorded the Presi-
dent an unquestionably cordial re-
ception. They did not cheer them
selves hoarse in acclaiming him, be-
cause Mr.. Harding is not rabble-
rouser. He had come among them
with a prepared address on agri-
cultural problems. attuned not only
TO the needs of rural Kansas, but to
those of farmers everywhere. The
President refrained from Roosevelt
tian hip-hip-hurrah methods. in
dulged in no soothing promises. and
confined himself to an account of
the administrators past efforts to
help the farmer out of his troubles.
There was little in such a program
to incite the Hutchinson audience into
demonstrative plaudits, and none was
Forthcoming. What he did accom-
plish was to fill the farmer with a
renewed feeling of confidence that the
President of the United States is alive
to farm needs and imbued with a
genuine desire to minister to them.
That thought finds expression in the
letter of Senator Capper's constituent,
coupled with another impression Mr..
Harding left behind him-that he is
big enough to handle the situation"
Harding Must Meet Test.
Undoubtedly the President will
have to prove that he measures up
to that expectation IL the republican
party is to bank on carrying Kansas
in 1924. Harding and Coolidge swept
the state in 1920 by 10000 majority.
But dirt-farmer Jonathan NJ. Davis,
democrat, was elected governor in
1922 by 10000. 1t is true that Davis
Ill. - L4 Ia@
mainly on the issue of the industrial
relations court-recenuy struck in
the solar plexus by the United States
Supreme Court.
But by general consent his victory
was due in no small measure to state
wide discomfort with the conditions
upon which Kansas is exclusively de-
pendent-prosperity, or the reverse,
on millions of acres of wheatfields,
corn lands and cattle ranches. Party
the agricultural west There is an
old guard nucleus in both the re-
publican and democratic organizations
that continue to observe blind al
legiance to the ancient shibboleths 8
and worship the party standards of
woman out here today wears with
any reliable definiteness the label of
any party.
Vote by Pocket Nerve.
People are thinking and voting ex-
clusively in terms of their pocket
nerve. That is the paramount tissue.
The price of wheat, the price of hogs,
the price of corn, the rate of interest
the freight to Kansas City or Chi
cago stockyards-those are the
things that count, and the only
things. When statesmen or poll
ticians talk anything else, they're
speaking something tantamount to
4 foreign language, for which, at
present, there is no understanding.
President Harding dwelt persua-
siveiy. at Hutchinson, upon the boons
which the war finance corporation
has conferred upon the farmers; re-
counted the s400,000,000 of rural
credits 1t had extended; held out the
prospect of more credits. The farm
ers listened to this recital with mixed
emotions. More credits mean new
borrowings, more interest to be paid.
still deeper plunge into the abyss of
Indebtedness.
To community already up to its
ears in debt, unable in thousands of
cases to meet interest payments or
mortgages falling due, threatened
right and left by bank creditors with
foreclosures, talk of relief in mere
terms of more credits is not the most
soothing panacea in the world. 1t
doesn't seem to get the farmer any
where. There's no promise of relief
from the monster oppression-high gh
freight rates-tn federal financial
aid. 1t falls to raise the farmers
hope that his wheat. which is 40 OF
90 cents a bushel less in price than
a year ago, and his hogs, which are
3 cents a pound below 1922 figures
will soon be back to normalcy."
Wants Price Slump Ended.
The farmer doesn't discern in the
pledge of more, credits any prospect
that farm-property values are going
m sion nlun pinR down the fohoppa n
With the steady decline in prices fol
he land 1,alue of fa hax