Barton County democrat. [volume], February 26, 1909, Image 1

About Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915

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Wheat
at SLQU and Corn af RityXents a Bushel Spels Prosperity With Capital Letters
"But There Already Has Been Over
- 1,603 InMiced. . -
'MANY TO GETtBE JiATCHEl
- The introduction of bills in
both .Houses ceased at six o'clock
Tuesday evening. This is a lit
tle bit earlier than they generally
- cat off this introduction of bills,
but there are so many of them
now that will never see daylight,
" Jhat it was thought useless to
take any more time on new bills.,
" The number introduced by both'
houses totals 1C03, of which 644
are Senate Bills and .959 - House
Bills. A great majority of bills
are killed in various committees.
The Committee that has the most
work, Ways and Means and Judic
lary, kill about sixty per cent of
the bills that are referred to
them. This still leaves a large
number to be acted upon by the
Committee of the Whole.
- The two contests in the Sen
ate have been settled, in tb
- case of Getty vs. Milton, Milton,
the Democrat, retains his seat.
x) In the case of Caldwell vs. Moore
"Caldwell,' the Republican, is seat
ed. This latter case might be
written up with the title. The'
' Story of the Indelible Lead Pen
cil., .On the face-of the returns,
..Mr. Moore had a majority of
t 22.The contestants agreed Xo.
' submit to a recount ' of ballots1
and when, they Tiad counted the
thirteen hundred and some ballot
.- 'in that. district, there wert 185
. -ballots upon .which the attorney
- could .not' agree. This still leif-
. Mr. Moore a majority of 14 votes
but when they came to go over
' the, objected-to ballots, and com- I
thvw mem u me smci
at the law, it was -'found that
. ballot after ballot cast for Moore
jn Bell" which is a railroad
town, had been marked with an
indelible lead pencil. There was
no denying the intent of the vot-
.er .for to vote for Mr. Moore.
' that as his ballot wasmarked witt
indelible lead pencil when noth
ing .but black should be used,
and when they finally , got
through, Caldwell had 7 majority
1 The bill to raise the salary of
Secreetary Coburn, $2500. to $5,
O00has been passed by the Senat
and' will doubtless receive favor
,,The various good roads laws
have -passed the House. The firs
able action in the House.
cne for action was one creating
. the office of County Engineer 'of
Highways. The bill as original
ly drawn, contained the compul
sory provision for the appoint
ment by the County Commission
ers of a County. Engineer in all
counties having a population of
more than, ten thousand. ' This
' matter was thoroughly thrashed
out. When the bill passed had
been amended so as to raise the
. minimum population to twenty
thousand. , Counties under that
minimuai may have a road engin-
eer if the County Commission
en deem it wise but there is no
compulsion. The bill provides
'for the placing of the construc
tion of Kansas roads in the
lands, of experts and raises near
Vifour million dollars per year
for that purpose. This money is J
raised by a poll tax of three dol
lars on each male citizen between
' twentyone.and fifty-five years
of age and a levy of a tax of one
mill on allthe property in the
State. This levy is made by tne
townships themselves. The town
ship board is made Commission
ers of roads and highways in
their respective townships and
they have to appoint a road over
seer for each road district in the
township who shall serve for a
term of two years. The' said
Commissioners have control and
general supervision of all roads
and highways in their respective
townships. For. the purpose of
carrying out the provisions of
the law,- the" conimissioners of
each township shall recommend
to the "county coinmissioners a
vy of not more iaau o"e awi
all the property in such town--Sp
and seventy-five per cent
oi au moiics wuvr - -taxable
property in each road
district including cities of the
third class, all btn used to im-
prov ethe roads in such district.
Each township is divided into
at least four districts and the' ov
erseer appointed by the town
Ship commissioners may have
charge, of all four districts or
they may appoint an additional
overseer for each of the districts.
In counties having a County En
gineer, said officer snail te the
county surveyor if he is' quali
fied by training and experience
for the position and he shall have
charge of the road work in the,
county, receiving for his ser
vices the sum of four dollars per
day with a ecrtain maximum for
the year which in Barton Coun
ty would be more .than $700. ' I
felt rather elated over securing
the raise in the minimum popu
lation required for "county engi
neer so that in our county it
is optional whether we have the
engineer . or ..not. . The bill re
ceived my vote on final pass
age and I believe it is an exceller
road law.
The next bill to be taken up
was the Automobile bill. "Tins
provided a tax on automobiles
costing $2500 or less, of $5.00 per
year and over $2500 , $10.00 per
year. The fee is known as regis
tration fee and is to. be paid to
the state engineer of roads , and
public highways. Out of this
fund the expense of this new of
fice of State Engineer will be
collected will'be retained by him
him : for a contingent fund ; and
paid. 5 per cent of the fund
tne balance distributed to the
counties from which it came be
ing pro rata .according to--the.
total amount received ftom auto
i'owners 'in? such counties.5 "Whil
I favor the proposition of laxa
'ion or licensing-autos, yet it
looks V little hit like class legis-
taitoif and thevopinion "of -somen
lawyers is that it may be uncon
stitutional, I didn't vote for
this bill, for several reasons :
'"First: It implied the creat
ing of an additional officer, to
wit: State. Engineer of Public
Roads" and Highways.' .-' . '
Secoud : I leieve that the
total amount of . money collected
as a license should be retained
by th various counties in which
it is collected.
. Third : If, by chance, this law
should be declared unconstitu
tional, the tax payers of the
state will be called upon to pay.
tax for the support of an ad
ditional officer of which a coun
ty like burs will 'receive practi
cally no benefit.
. If a bill could be drafted
providing for a tax on autos
and leaving the entire amount
Df money collected with the
several counties, I would be glad
to support it but I uon't be-
that the auto owners of
barton County should pay any
part of the expense of an offi
cer who will be useless to that
, ounty and only be useful to
the Eastern third of this State.
The third good roads law 1o be
taken up was one providing for
the appointment Of a State En
gineer. The bill as drafted pro
vided that he should have his
office in the State House and
should be appointed by the Gov
ernor. The Bill, as it passed the
House provided that his office
should be at the Agriculutral Col
lege at Manhattan and that his
appointment should be made by
the Regents of the Agricultural
College. This looks to me like
a pretty good proposition becana
at the Agricultural College he
will come in contact with hun
dreds of young men from the
tarms of Kansas and as a provis
ion was added as an amendment,
that when not engaged in his of
ficial dutie b he should be giy
n instruction in road building
and structural bridge engineering
and when called on by the coun
ty institutes of the different
counties, he shall do likewise. It
shall be the duty of the State En
gineer to, upon application of
the county engineer or of the
board of county commissioners,
to furnish plans and specifica
tions for bridge or rock or ce
ment, culverts under $3,000 in
cost and he-shall give such oth
er information and advise con
cerning road building and bridge
work as from time to time he
may be cllead on.
T bill in the main is a good
one and I believe that it is a
BEND,
business nrnnn.itin ..
. i3i'..-?-u"lK? KeformHory. the
. -uuv-i a -.opuuEUUHJ Jie&d
out u involved the creation of
new office and knowing full
me sciiriHipnTii ni mo
Deo-i
pie oi my county and h'at those
sentiments were against the cre
ation of a state engineer or any.
other new office, 1 vo'ed apa nst
the bill. . .
"The. 4th good roads bill to
be taken up was one which pro
vided for the building of roads
other than dirt roads aod this is
a god bill which covers the en ire
state but no tax levy can be
made under the bill until the sev
eral counties of the State by ma
jority vote shall be declared road
districts. . The County Commis
sioners may, by declamation, sub
mit to the legal voters of their
respective counties at the next,
general election a proposition
to adopt or reject the provis-,
ions of this law but said tax levy
should not be more than one mill
on the dollar for a period of
not less than five years. It will
therefor be. seen that this maU
ter cannot be adopted in our'
county until said levy has been'
submitted to a vote of the peo
ple. . - . -
Then the bill provides in de
tail how the work shall be car
ried on and what provisions are
necessary to do the work. It is
an excellent bill intended to per-'
mit counties in the East end of
the State where much road work
is necesary. to secure hard roads
1 supported that bit because jtin
no way affected our county un
less the majority of . .the people
of the county desire it and I nav'
always believed that if a ma
jority of. the people of any coun
ty favor a proposiiton that their
wishes-should be respected.
On Tuesday evening we had uf
a bill granting women the right
to vote for presidential electors.
Much work has been done in be
half of this bill by the women wl
are pushing the suffrage move
ment and they confidenlty ex
pected, that the bill would pass
the House. A similar one d'd
at the -previous session but af
ter some discussion the bill was
defeated by the lack of a con
stitutional majority voting for it.
The AntiL-obby "bill Has final
ly passed both Houses 'and is
tow and the lobbyists are busy
registering in the Secretary of
State's office. The bill which
was finaly passed was the Sen
ate Bill and in the language of
Morgan of Reno is called a very
'Ladylike" Bill. Personally I
have never been approached by
any man, woman or child since
1 have been in.Topeka, soliciting
my vote or influence on any mea.
ire general in its character and
I believe thai the i-ry against the
lobyist is to a certain extent
overdone, notwithstanding the
fact that Wm. Allen White in a
recent editorial accused the mem
bers of feasting at the Topeka
Club and having been influenc
ed by the lobbyists thereby. I
know that . personally, I nor a
very large number of membres
have never seen the inside of a
Topeka Club and I don't know
that Lever saw the outside of
the building but as the Govern
or in his message had urged the
passage of a bill and as I believe
in upholding him whenever it is
possible and consisent to do so,
I voted for the bill.
Much criticsm has been heap
ed upon tihe Legslaturei by peo
ple who have only a bir'ds-eye
view of the work of either body
and who had not followed in any
thorough manner the press re
ports of the work done. When
ever a bill is proposed which cre
ates a new office it seems that
it is heralded .from thev house
tops but whneever a bill is pro
posed or passes which cnts off x
penses, it is passed up with a
three line notice. If all of the
new offices asked for by the var
ious bills introduced would be
come a law there expenses would
be more than offset by the pas
sage of a bil which went through
th eHouse and is now in the Sen
thre. However, the passing of
this bill is no argument for crea
ting new. positions and on the
strength of it I do not propose
to vote for new positions but I
simply cite this instance to
6how that -some good is . being
done. The bill in question pro
vides that the Board of Control
FBIDAI, FEBRUARY 26, 109
I . : .
-I
wieutiary and the State Board
Control, each of which is
composed of three members, shall
uo. merged into one Board to
be known as the State Board of
Control and to be composed of
three members only. This cut
off six offices and although the
new Board will receive $3,000 a
year salary instead of $2,500,
very conservative estimate plac
es; the saving :0 the S;ate by
this move at $15,000 per year.
the Bill was opj oscd some on
the gorund that it Man 'oo la; ge
a" task for three men but with
the experience 0i the past to
KUide us, was a good one as it
passed the House and 1 am glad
to say I voted for the bill.
The Prohibi'ion proposition ha.
finally been settled and the bill
Pased by both houses forbidi the
sale or barter of the prohibito- j
ry; article by any one. I don't
consider that the bill is a good
One. ' because, somp nrovia'nn
whereby alcohol or liquor for me
dicical or scientific purposes
should be provided for. For one,
ven knowing the senitmenf in
my-County as well as I do, I am
sick and tired ofthe prohibitory
liqror question and voted for thi
bill. -1 did so because I believe
that as long as the sale is prohib-itory-by
the constitution, that
the. law 8hould.be observed .and
in the language of the Chairman
of ;the 'Temperance Committee,
when he said that this bill is so
drastic' that i will be obnox
ious tfll the people of the Sta'c.I
.voted for the bill. I believe that
the quicker that' we , absolutely
cut out .and prevent the sale of
beer or whiskey and the tighter
we draw (bis line." tbp quicker we
will get'an opportunity to chang
the system. The neople ot Kar
sas are law abiding people and
believe in the enforcement of
the law on .the statute book.
Nothing can prove tb;i anv more
than the. result of Hoch-Harris
campaign. While 1 am personal
ly opposed to thr prohib'tory law
it is a constitn'ion' provision
of ours and sbo 'Id be observpd
and should bo srreng'hcped po
that it can b? olsrvnd to the
very letter of thi law or repealed
The next b;g proposition up
was the Bankin? bill. Thrs b'll
makes no very great change" in
the banking law of the s'ate.
It is simply t cover gnera! pn
visions concerning onr banks. TL
one particular change it makes
is that it reduces the actual cash
resarve required' to be carried
by state banks to hp fcamc jv--entage,
that th? natural banks
are required 'o cary. Under tr
old law. nn.Mo"8! hanks had
a little bit 'the edge" over tho
state banks. This ivos thpm
the same footing. The House be
gan t nday afternon the consine
ation of thp bank guaranty
bill and it will likely be complet
ed some time today.
The bill that the Jnaf has
passed will be somewhat amend
d in the Ho 'se and will then
have to go to conference. This
question will be taken up m t he
corespondence a litle later. .
The Public Utilities Bill and
the majority of the tax meas
ures especially that one' whicb
makes the Tax Commic.s'on elec
tive. It knocks out the County as
8e8sor, comes up some time nxt
week. Th- Tax Commitee had
recommended the bill carrying
this provision but before . the
recomendation was reported to
the House, the Committee was
prevailed upon to rescind its ac
tion but because some of the
felows were absent from the
meeting and the absentees, it so
happened, were the ones who wfl
strongest in support of the prop
osition to make the Commision
elective and knock out the coun
ty assessor. Their absence was
caused by their comittee work
and as soon as we found what
had ben done, we hastily pre
pared a minority report and will
have the question up in the Hons
this coming week. The minority
report was signed by Judge
Buckman of Cowley, Mercer of
Chase and myself and we wiu, un
donbtealy, have a pretty little
scrap when- the question comes
np.
So far I have not missed a roll
call or been absent from the ses
sions of the House for as much
as ten minutes but next week the
Grand Lodge of the A. 0. U. W.
will meet in Salina and as an of
ficer of the Grand Lodge, I will
be compelled to attend. This
will cause anabsence from'my du
ties here for about three days
and barring sickness, this is the
only time I expect to lose from
the session. This is a little bet
ter record than the average mem
ber from Barton County or any
other County has made in this
connection.
W. P. FEDER
Officers Make A Raid. -
Sheriff Mike Dailev and Mar-
shalls Frank Wilson snd Frank
Hitchcock raided the Tiod tea"
6tand at the souhteast corner of
the square Wednesday evening,
and arrested the DroDrietors.
Bert Dawson and Cliff Gardner,
and a man by tne name of Stan
fey who is aaidto have been
working for the house. All
gave bond for their appearance
at the March term of the dis
trict court and were released for
were released. Quite an amount
of "two per cent" waa found.
as well as some stuff that was de
cidedly stronger. There has
been a good deal of complaint
against this place for some time,
and the officers haie been keep
ing a pretty close watch over
it, and it is said that they had
a good bit of evidence before the
warrant was ever issued and be
fore the raid was made. .
Gus Werhahn was in from Clar
ence toniwshp Wednesday.
County Supt, Opie was visit
ing the schools at Pawnee Rock
Tuesday.
A baby girl was born to Mr.
and- Mrs. Thomas Ely Wedesday
morning.
Cal. Talbot returned, Saturday
evening from a business trip to
Kansas t..y.
' Will Rush left Wednesday
morning for Carthage, Mo., on
on a business trip.
lifiss Nellie Johnson visited
with relatives at Hargraves, Kust
county, over Sunday.
Mrs. Zella Hailett returned
Wednesday from a visit with
relaitves in Rush county.
Mrs. Otis Evers returned th
first of the week from a visit
with relatives at Jetmore.
D. C. Luse was on the sick hy
'1m first of the weekwith an olit
fashioned case of the grippe.
Miss Juanita O'Brien visited
with Mrs. Ed Doherty at El
linwood the first of this week.
Marion Hansen left Wednesday
for Macksville. called there by
the serious illness of his broth
er Lee.
John Neidens and Fred Marg-
heim, of Wheatland township,
were here on business Wednesdaj
afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. David Himrod
have moved into one of the cot
tages recently erected north of
G. W. Moore's in the 2nd ward.
Henry Held, of northeast of
town, went to Speareville Wed
nesday to look at the country
around there with a view of in-
ves ting.
Kev. L. C. Schnacke, for many
years the pastor of the Congrega
tional church in this city, will oc
cupy the pulpit in that church
next Sunday morning and-evening.-
C. D. Cave, who is teaching
at Dist. '6 this year, was -in
town Wednesday visiting with
friends. Bus school is tempo
rarily closed on account of the
whooping cough.
Farmers in California are
Kings. Why! Because the cli
mate and soil conditions are so
nearly perfect for the agricultur
al snd stock .raising pursuits.
Tulare County is one of the best
counties in the Btate. Why!
Write to me and 111 tell you.
GUY N. CLARK,
Tulare, California.
NUMBi, 50
For the Farmer
M. R. Landauer Dead
M. R. Landauer, one of the old
est ana best known, respected,'
merchants of Lamed, died in Bar
ber's drug store at Lamed last
Friday of a paraletic stroke. He
was standing leaning on the soda
fountain, when he sudd?nly fell
to the floor and died immediate
ly. Some months ago he suffer
ed a stroke of paralvsis. from
which he had never fully reco er
ed, and the s-cond stroke killed
bim. Mr. Landauer has been a
merchant at Lamed for thirty
years, and for the last twenty
years has been the senior part-
uer oi tne nrra oi Landauer &
Schnack, until about two years
ago when the firm divided, and
ne nas since operated the store
alone. Mr. Landauer had many
friends here who regret to hear
of his death.
Obituary
Hannah C. Kinney was born
at Newman, Douglas County. Ill
inois, Sept. 2nd, 1849, and died
at Macksville, Kansas Feb. 21st,
being 59 years, 5 months and
19 days old at time of her
death. She was married to Rich
ard Shute at Newman, Illinois,
wflen about 18 years of age. She
and her husband came to Staf
ford county, Kansas in 1877 and
have lived there continuously
until about three years ago mey
moved to Great Bend. " Her
husband died here and she moveo
to Macksville in order to be
near her children.
one visited with her sister at
Leavenworth for five weeks this
winter and shortly after re
turning home she was taken sick
but was not considered danger
ously 11 until the day of her
death. - .
She never fully reveovered
from the shock, of the sudden
death of her husband. She
leaves to mourn her loss, two
sons, William and R. H. Shute
both of Macksville and three
sisters, Mrs. ydia M. Hazel of
Leavenworth, Kansas, Mrs. W
R. Bunting, of Great Bend and
Mrs. S. W. Jobes of Cherokee,
Okla., and one brother, Marion
tvinneyi of Wellsville, Kansas.
Mrs. Shute had been a member
if the M. E. Churchfor forty
years. We extend our sympa
thy to the relatives and friends
' nour of bereavement.
Funeral services were held at
he Macksville M. E. Cnurch on
Feb. 23 and she was buried be
side her husband in the Lincoln
cemetery in Lincoln township.
E. M. Bortz left Wednesday
for St. John.
Mr. and Mrs. W. P. White en-
at a six o clock dinner Wednes
day evening.
Franz Haberman, of Walnut
townsnip, was looking after bus
iness matters here Wednesday.
Miss Lillian Brinkman re
turned Tuesday from a visit of
several weeks in California and
Texas.
Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, of
the south side, returned irom
a visit with friends at Belpre
and Kinsley.
Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Ewing, of
the west side, left Wednesday ev
ening for a visit with Mrs. Sw
ing's sister, at Carmen, una.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Estey havt
returned to their home in laii-
fornia. after a visit with the Mos
es, Tiltonind Townsley families.
Mrs. Georee Stewart has re
turned from Joplin, where she
attended the funeral of her moth
er, Mrs. Rosalia Scheilenbach.
Mrs. Schelienbach was 86 years
oid at the time of her death.
Miss Winifred McGreevey of
Indiana, who has been visiting
with the family of Louis Wood
burn, of South Bend, is visit
ing wthi her uncle, W. J. Mc
Greevey and family in wis
city this week.
Jacob Dumler was here from
jetmore the first of the wees:
visitine with John Boger of Hois-
ington. Mr. Boger returned hom
with him and is looking after
a farm he owns near Jetmore. ,
' tY: i? l
ff s t- H i & z-u u fr- u C"