Montana labor news., 1936-09-03
N0N-pARTI5AN
LEAGUE OPPOSES
LAND0N RECORD

Mai. George L. Berry, president
of Labor's Non-Partisan League, to-
day made public a report on the
Kansas situation under Governor
Landon, prepared by Leslie Doud,
President of the Kansas branch of
Labor's Non-Partisan League and
editor of the Kansas Labor Weekly
at Topeka. MI. Doud represented
Kansas at the national meeting Of
Labor's Non-Partisan League here
Monday. Following the meeting he
officially presented the report to
Major Berry.
1.-The report submitted to me by
Mr.. Doud, in whom l have COM
plete confidence" said Major
Berry, SHOW the habit of thinking
of Governor Landon. In making
our estimate of men, we need to
know, not only the record of per-
Torrance, but the habit of thinking.
Here we have a record of perfor-
nance, or failure of performance,
which reveals as clearly as any
thing could reveal it, the manner of
thinking of this nan who aspires to
be President.
'Mr. Doud makes amazing reve-
lations regarding the school stu
alton in Kansas, which are backed
by official reports. Surely here is
an index to a manner of thinking
and to an attitude toward questions
involving the welfare of the masses
of the people. Mr.. Doud's report is
worth the most serious considera-
ton of those who have national
welfare at heart in terms of human
welfare"
The report submitted by Mr..
Doud to Major Berry follows:
The Landon administration in
Kansas is controlled and dominated
by two outstanding interests-the
school book trust and the light and
power trust. OF the two the school
book trust is the most rotten, and
the stencil of it reaches to the high
heavens. The light and power trust
reachs into other business groups,
however, and is the direct alliance
between Landon and the 'big bust
ness of Kansas.
Dean Ackers, general manager of
the Kansas Power and Light Com
pany, is president of the state
Chamber of Commerce, and the di-
rect link between the United States
Chamber of Commerce and the
Landon state administration. Lam
don selected Ackers to head the
Kansas Emergency Relief Admins
tration, and through him has been
exercised a control over the expen-
diture of all relief funds in Kansas.
Thus, Landon has had his finger in
the expenditure of the Federal gov
ernment's money in Kansas, with
out which today Kansas would be
in the most desperate plight it has
ever known since the days of Sock
less Jerry Simpson. 1t would be
bleeding Kansas again.
By way of explanation, it should
be pointed out that Kansas in its
governmental affairs is probably
the most backward state in the
union. During the Landon admin
istration it has been at a complete
standstill; there has not been a
single piece of legislation put upon
its statute books during the Landon
administration which can be pointed
to today as progressive, and held up
to the country as an example after
which other states might pattern.
1t has been a "do-nothing'' admins
tration from beginning to end. The
balancing of the Kansas budget is
a myth; under the Landon admins
tration the state has done nothing
but sink into the mud and stay
there.
The Republican state platform of
1884, which was adopted in Topeka
on August %, 1884, and upon which
Landon ran for reelection, contains
a labor plank with six clauses, upon
which the party pledged itself to
enact enabling legislation in the
next two years. Not one of those
clauses has been enacted into legis-
lation or is on the states statute
books today. Not n pledge to la
Dor has been carried out.
Attention is called in particular
to the fact that in the enumeration
OF things done in the previous two
years, not one of them refers to or
relates to the labor interests and
the laboring people of the state.