Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-06-22


wv hadn't believed that ALI Lam
L \ don meant what he said.
Whatever they thought, Gov. Lam
don moved into the old, yellowed stone
State house, cleaned of the big desk,
propped open the door of the big
Office and hung out the ready for
business" sign.
He sent out a call for the smartest
bunch of specialists that he could
find in the State, lawyers, business
men, leaders of the Legislature, labor
leaders. He called on experts of ma
tional and international reputation
when he needed them.
Gentlemen. We are ready to go to
work"
The oil man from Independence,
the friendly visitor of the grass roots,
let it be known that the Republican
State platform meant exactly what
it said, that he had weighed every
word in his speeches. From that
time he was to be frankly critical
of those politicians who make plat
forms with their tongues in their
cheeks" 1t was forecast of his
Lincoln, Nebr., speech, more than
three years later, February 90, 1896:
IF We Republicans would keep faith
with the people, our platform must
say exactly what We mean-and we
must mean exactly what our platform
says"
Experts Given Assignments.
The Legislature assembled, the ex-
pertS were given the assignments
that were to occupy them many
weeks, the job seekers damned the
outer office. And so the State moved
into the program that was to be
the Kansas answer to the changing
times and the Kansas expression on
the subject of good government-this
in 1888, the year that was to intro
duce the secret formulas of the ma
tional witch doctors.
The Kansas program was real, q
program that was certain to pinch
lot Of feet. Landon believed then
and later that in Republican form
OF government practical politics is the
only route to good government. 1t is
not possible unless you can keep the
people with you.
The next three years, surprising
Landon as much as anybody, were to
prove that good business can be good
politics. The years are briefly told,
because of the smoothneSS with which
the program became the law and
methods OF Kansas. There was back
stage drama, of course, but as far as
the public could see drastic program
coasted through the evenly divided
Legislature on creased wheels. There
was a Republican majority of only
two in each house, majority that
meant nothing whatever in a State
with the Kansas tradition of party
lrregularity and factional discord.
Pressure on the Legislature was out
of the question. Nobody in 1888 could
have dramatized the Landon program
before the people; it was too undra-
matte.
Best Qualified Get Jobs.
Landon's policy was clear. In i'm
portant jobs, requiring technical
knowledge, or in jobs involving the
care of the needy, politics was to have
no part whatever In the general run
of jobs that could be filled as capably
from one party as from two, the Gov
ernor's political supporters were to
have preference. But If the better
qualified man was Democrat-well,
the job went to the better qualified
man.
LandOn left in charge of relief a
Woodring appointee. From the Uni
verSity of Kansas he drafted an expert
accountant and lawyer to reorganize
the Blue Sky Department. Another
similarly qualified man came from the
Kansas State College to handle the
new problems arising from the cash
basis and related laws. He let the
howl. He put in charge of
the highway department a business
man who knew nothing about politics
and hired deputy warden in charge
of personnel at the penitentiary, a
man from Joliet. ILL.,, recommended
as the outstanding available man in
the country. To organize and head
his new income tax department he
brought an expert from the Internal
Revenue Department at Washington.
There was no provision for civil
service in the Kansas laws, but
Gov. Landon saw the dangers of
He kept close watch on
the type of men who were getting
jobs. He shifted men into work
to fit their abilities with methods that
produced surprising quality of SerY-
ice from the type of men available
for the lower-paid jobs.
Need Better Civil Service.
Three years later, in his Kansas day
speech, before the Nation, January,
1896, he was to say: I'VE must
build new and better civil service
that will fill Government positions
with trained, truthworthy and ca
pable employees and offer to our youth
a career in public service based on
merit and qualifications for the job.
The political spoils system and the
spoilsmen responsible for it must go
in the interest of economy and eff
cheney"
When Landon became Governor of
Kansas, in January. 1888, three
months before the Inauguration of
President Roosevelt. he trimmed the
Kansas sails for the economic storm.
With methods Numerically opposed
to those of Roosevelt, he started with
fundamentals - the expenses. The
people of Kansas must be in a posi-
ton to carry the load. Whether the
checks were to be written from Sa-
lima, Topeka or Washington meant
exactly nothing. In any case, the
same taxpayers paid the bill.
AS the national administration was
to do some months later, Gov. Landon