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Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS
Newspaper Page Text
3 THE ADVOCATE. CONCERNING KANSAS. ASHAMED OF KANSAS. (A PARODY.) Aboa Bon Morrill, banker, "from the West," Saw In hla room one night a spectral guest, Who sat within a blaze of sulphurous hue, His eyes alternate fiery red and blue, And wrote In letters dazzlini?ly bright Upon a tablet black as Pluto's night. Whom Morrill trembling asked, "Whatwrit est thou?" "The names of those," he answered, "we allow To rank the highest in hell's proud esteem." "And Is mine there?" be queried. "Nay, we deem None worthy here save those who steal a state, Who deal in bribes and perjury ; who prate Of Justice while they rob the poor they make, And ruin a commonwealth they could not take. No, my sweet sir, you are too goody good To train in such a devilish brotherhood I" "Yet, are they not my friends?" the banker ."Manama. with those I see must stand beside; Write me, good friend, upon thy roll of fame As one ashamed of Kansas, Know my name?" The demon bowed and laughed upon his way, And told the joke a thousand times that day; Returning, bore a book wherein displayed The names of men whom paltry passion swayed. v Who wrecked the cause they championed by a word As false as foolish, traitorous as absurd, Which, like the savage missile, wildly th own, Hissed harmless o'er the foe and smote their own. To one the slogan of a winning fight. Pelting the speaker's hosts In headlong flight. 80 bowing low, "This is my Burchard book." The flond announced it with across-eyed look. He flung it open on the banker's bed, And lo 1 Ben Morrill's name stood at the head 1 II. M. Gekene. NOTES. Dr. Wetmore, of Emporia, has bean elected by the board of charities as Superintendent of the insane asylum at Oaawatomie. A. G. Stacy, who was secretary cf the last republican senate, has engaged to take editorial charge of the Parsons In dependent, a Populist paper. Twenty-five of the Sanders men con victed at Leavenworth for obstructing , the' mails, are in the Topeka jail serving a thirty days' sentence, which will ex pire this week. Although Congressman Funaton's star is on the wane he may yet fill another public office. He has been nominated for road overseer in Carlisle township, Allen county, where he lives. City Attorney Tillotson, of Topeka, ia getting a touch of high life. He is under arrest for libel, the charge having been brought by a juror in the famous sewer case, whom Tillotson had said was bribed. The Kansas City Times says: "The republican papers ought to get together and adopt a line of policy on Bill Hack ney. boms roast ana revue mm, ana say they are glad he ia gone, while others get on their knees and beg him to come back. The Hutchison Gazette ia pretty cer tain that there is a scheme on foot to effect a fusion by withdrawing Morrill and Blue so that republicans can vote for Ovarmyer and Lowe. That is poesi ble,butit wouldn't be a good plan to build too much on it. The Topeka Press In Line. The Topeka Daily Press has hauled down the democratic ticket from the head of iU columns, and placed the Peo ple's party ticket instead. In explana tion of this move the Press said in its last Sunday edition: "The republican party in Kansas to-day stands for the corporations against the masses. It stands for the rioh against the poor. It stands up for Kansas when it possesses the offices and is ashamed of Kansas when it has been driven from power by the just indignation of the people whose rights it has outraged and whose interests it has ignored. This party is now attempting to regain Ufa power of which it has been justly de- pivsd. Tfcs methcdi it la uzhg ' c:j hoodwink and to prey upon the people. "The election cf Major MDrrilltoba chief exeoutive of the state and his as sociate upon the republican ticket means the return to power of the old regime whose corruption, peculation and dishonesty in office have bean the dis grace of the. fair state of Kansas. The over throw of the old rotten regime was due to a wise combination of the better ele ments of the state. The return of this crowd to power can only be brought about by the disintegration of these ele ments. To effect this result corporation influence, personal greed for office and the cupidity of those who esteem self aggrandisement an object to be attained, higher than the interest of the state and above the welfare of the people, have been brought into powerful play to separate the masses of the people in the interests of the election of the republi can ticket. "Whether or not the wisest counsels have prevailed among the elements op posed to the republican party is not now a question to be discussad. The simple problem is, shall the republican party return to power by reason of the dis integration of the voters opposed to it. For our part we say, no I Every fiber of our nature and every prejudice of our being are opposed to the return of the republican party to power, and for this reason the Press adopts the only course by which the republican party can be defeated. It does this conscious of the fact and honest in its belief that a great majority of the democratio voters of the state of Kansas coincide in its conclu eion and will indorse its action by their votes upon election day. "For this reason and in order to attain the object desired, the Press places ft$ the top of its columns the entire Popu list ticket, with faith in its triumph at the polls and with the assurance that its election will subserve the best interests of the state of Kansas." .a 1:5 Taxes on Pullman Cars. Several healthy lies have recently been set afloat by republican papers re garding the lowering of taxes on Pull man cars by the Populist board of rail way assessors; and the collection of old taxes. In order to make these lies 'ap pear more plausible W. F. Bightmire published a statement, which in spite cf the falseness on the face of it, has been given wide circulation. It was a libelous thrust at the governor and at torney genera), whom it charges with favoring the Pullman company in the matter of taxes. In answer to a request Attorney General Little made the fol lowing reply: ' "In 1885 the state board of railway assessors tor Kansas assessed the coaches or rolling stock of the Pullman car company, the same as other railway property in Kansas. The Pullman com pany claimed that it was an Illinois cor poration and that the stock of the com pany was assessed in Illinois and that the company could not be compelled to pay taxes on its property in this state. The company therefore commenced .an action in the United States circuit court agaiat the officers of sixty-five counties to enjoin the collection of the taxes levied upon the Pullman cars. The fed eral court here decided that Kansas had aright to assess and collect taxes on Pullman property. The Pall man com pany appealed this case to the supreme court of the United States and the de cision of the circuit court vzs affirmed. After the supreme court cf tha United ni.i.. 1 c.1 .1 it- '..- .i 11. o:sks n?.a i.irz'i 1 t.i'.;v:iiwKW circuit court, the Pullman company then began to settle with the different coun ties and to pay the taxes due each. There was some question about the SO per cent penalty, and one case has been continued since that time in the federal court here. In 1892 the comp any settled with forty of the counties. In 1893 the company settled with eighteen of the counties. In 1891, prior to April, the company settled with seven counties, and on the 18 th day of April, 1894, the company settled with the last county, whiohwas Sheridan county, and paid to that county $1158, the full amount due, so when this last settlement was made with Sheridan county last April there was not a single dollar due from the Pullman company to any county in the state. "I find in Attorney General Ives' re port the following statement concerning this case: 'During my term of office, the supreme court of the United States has passed upon the right of the state of Kansas to tax property belonging to the Pullman Palace Car company, and hold that the state had a right to levy and collect such taxes.' The Pullman Palace Car company acquiesced in this decision and last spring made a return of property, and as I am creditably in formed has adjusted satisfactory the de linquent taxes in almost all the counties of the state wherein they were due. My attention had never been called to this case and I had no knowledge that such a case was pending. Rightmire says he called my attention to this case. This is absolutely false. I never talked with Bightmire about this case in my life, and the statement made by him that I told him that it was none of his business and that we were running the state and would run it in our way, is absolutely false and Bightmire knows it. Tha truth is, that just as soon as the United States court decided the case the com pany began to settle with the counties, and on the 8 th day of last June, when Bightmire wrote this letter there was not a farthing due from the Pullman Palace Car company to any county in the state and Bightmire could have easily acquired this information if he had had an honest desire to do so. "This old case No. 6118 is still ponding on the docket of the United States court here, but at the next term the company will dismiss the case and judg ment will be rendered against it for costs, and I was assured by Mr. Dallas, of the firm of Bossington, Smith & Dal las, that the court costs will all be paid by the Pullman company. Just why it was that Bightmire wrote such an in famous letter, when in a few momenta he could have discovered the whole truth, one can only imagine. Very truly yours, J ohn T. Little, Attorney General. A Republican Effort An effort was made to give Mr. Kirk Patrick's campaign in the Third district a good start by firing off several big guns at Fredonia last Saturday. The politi cians from nine counties and some from outside the district were there, and to gether with the unregenerated of Wil son they made up a respectable sized audience. Major Morrill, B. W. Blue, Bernard Kelly and ex-Senator Ingalla were the four speakers who dispensed as many kinds of doctrine to the tired audience. Morrill blamed the democratio adminis tration for the hard times, and tried to explain that the republican platform was jast what the silver advocates of Kansas wanted. Then he looked very wise and said "the republican platform demands tht there ch&ll be a maintenance cf tha parity of values of the two metals,'' and emphasized the fact that one kind of our present money is just as good as an other. He did not state plainly that all our money is fiat but his audience doubt less understood that The remainder of the major's speech was about obeying law. Ex-Senator Ingalla talked about hi3 retirement, and roasted the democrats mercilessly. Ha said: "The Populists have fallen from grace, but democrats furnish an illustration of original sin and total depravity." Bernard Kelly talked about pensions, and poor, old Blue was compelled to wrestle with the tariff question. This was intended as a means of keeping him from getting on to ther money- question and putting his foot in it But he did wander away from the tariff long enough to say he was al ways a bi-metallist and that the state platform was just the thing. Tneydo say his speech was quite a departure from the Kansas City one. ANOTHER CHAPTER Containing Declarations and Confessions of Men Who Progress. The Advocate has published letters of W.P. Hackney, T. L. Bond, Dr. T. J. Bude and David Martin, all republicans, each giving his reasons for refusing to support the republican ticket this cam paign, and has also mentioned the con version of J. B. Hindmas, republican, of Olathe, and Grant W. and W.P.Har rington, democrats, publishers of the Hiawatha Democrat We now have the confession of F. W. Frasius, a Cloud county ex-democrat, and those of E. B. Whaley of Topeka and M. A. Wilson of Atwood, both ex-republicans. Mr. Whaley was recently a member of the republican state committee: p. w. FRASIUS. Editob Clyde Voicb: Permit me through your columns to give my rea sons why I refuse to losger affiliate with the democratic paity under its present leadership. Coming into power two years ago, it was in a position to give the country wholesome legislation; but it has violated every pledge it gave and every promise it made in the platform which secured for it the grand victory of 1892. In its platform the democratio narty "recommended the prohibitory 10-percent tax on state bank issues repealed." But the democratio congress killed, without debate, a bill introduced for this purpose. The platform "denounced republican protection as a fraud." But after the jugglers in congrea complete the tariff bill, it will require a powerful lens to discover where democratio revenue be gins or republican protection ceases. The platform demanded "the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country, and the coinage of both gold and silver without discrim inating against either metal." Never theless, the democratio congress dis criminated against silver by the uncon ditional repeal of the Sherman law, and the president, by vetoing the seigniorage bill, finally completed its overthrow. The'platform denounced "the trusts and combinations which are designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of the joint products of capi tal and labor." And yet a democratio oongresa permits the agents and repre sentatives of trusts to dictate the sched ules and shape tariff legislation. Having repudiated its platform, I can not see how the narty, with its record of broken promises, and with the presi dent's settled fiaancial policy becoming the policy of the party, can again go btforsthapsopb end expect them to