USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
A strike of the convicts at the penitentiary in 1901 resulted in the killing of two of them and the punishment of the ringleaders. There was also a revolt at the United States prison at Fort Leavenworth, in which twenty-seven convicts escaped. Eighteen of these were killed or captured within a few days.
After retiring from the Governor's office, Mr. Stanley returned to Wichita and resumed his law practice. This profession he continued to follow until his death, which occurred October 13, 1910.
Vol. 11-17
CHAPTER LXII
WILLIS J. BAILEY
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
Willis J. Bailey, was born in Carroll County, Ill., October 12, 1854. He received his education in the common schools, at Mount Carroll High School, and at the University of Illinois. He graduated from this latter institution in 1879. His intention had been to study law, but his life as a Kansas farmer never gave him the necessary time. However, his alma mater conferred the degree of LL. D. on him in 1904. In 1879, Mr. Bailey eame to Kansas in company with his father. They located in Nemaha County.
Mr. Bailey saw the richness of the soil, and the vast opportunities the future held for Kansas land. So he resolved to possess as much of it as possible. He first bought eight hundred acres, to which he has since added much. The land increased in value with marvelous rapidity, and this, together with stock-raising, made him one of the wealthy men of Kansas. The town of Baileyville was founded on a corner of the Bailey farm, and the surrounding country became thickly settled. Large rich farms in a fine state of cultivation mark that portion of the country.
Mr. Bailey is an earnest Republican. In 1888 he was elected to the Legislature, and in 1890 he was re-elected. He was President of the Republican State League in 1893, but was defeated as the Republican candidate for Congress from the First District, in 1896. In June, 1898, he was nominated for Congressman-at-large by the Republican State Convention at Hutchinson, and elected. At the end of his term he went baek to the farm, where he remained until he was nominated for Governor of Kansas, in 1902. He was elected, and began his term in January, 1903.
It was urged against him in the campaign, both in jest and seriously, that he was unmarried. But this cause of criticism he soon removed. While Governor, he married Mrs. Ida B. Weed.
The Legislature of 1903 elected Chester I. Long United States Senator. Acts were passed providing for tuition fees at State Institutions, con- tinuing the bounty on sugar beets, prohibiting the use of the slot-machine as a gambling deviee, placing suburban electric railways under control of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. appropriating $100,000 for the Louisiana Exposition, and other important acts.
Ileavy floods in the spring of 1903 did much damage to Kansas. The
850
851
KANSAS AND KANSANS
greatest losses were sustained at. Topeka. Lawrence, and Kansas City. Much property was destroyed, and many people were drowned. So serious was the situation that Governor Bailey called a special session of the Legislature to deal with it. Attempts to make direct appropriations for the relief of the flood sufferers failed, but means enabling them to help themselves were found. And $33,000 was raised for their relief by Kansas people.
In the second year of Governor Bailey's term, Joseph R. Burton, United States Senator from Kansas was tried on a bribery charge and
Gov. WILLIS J. BAILEY
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
convicted. He was sentenced to a fine of $2,500 and six months' impris- onment. Many people believed his prosecution malicious, and that he had not violated any law. either moral or statutory.
In 1904, Kansas towns again suffered from floods, though not so severely as in the previous year.
Beginning Monday, May 30, 1904, a three-days' celebration of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the organization of the Kansas Terri- tory under the Kansas-Nebraska Act was held at Topeka.
852
KANSAS AND KANSANS
Kansas was well represented at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and "Kansas Day" there was fittingly celebrated.
The State Capitol of Kansas was finally completed in 1903. It had been thirty-three years in building.
At the close of his term as Governor, Mr. Bailey removed to Atchison, and in 1907 became vice president and manager of the Exchange National Bank of that city.
Though often urged to become a candidate for high offices by the Republican party, since his retirement, Mr. Bailey has never been active in the political field. He was elected a director of the Kansas City Fed- eral Reserve Bank in July, 1914.
CHAPTER LXIII
EDWARD W. HOCH
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLEY ROSS
Edward W. Hoch, seventeenth Governor of Kansas, was born at Dan- ville, Kentucky, March 17, 1849. He attended the common schools of that place, after which he entered the Central University of Danville. However, he did not remain until his graduation, but left school to enter a newspaper office. He spent three years learning to be a printer, after which he came to Kansas. In Marion County, he pre-empted 160 acres of land and became a farmer.
He soon gave up farming for the life of a country editor. He had many a hard struggle to keep his enterprise afloat, and it seemed at times that the paper was foredoomed to failure. In addition to the usual trials of the country editor, Hoch suffered much loss through the grass- hoppers in 1874. It took him till 1876 to fully recover and pay up all his debts.
On May twenty-third of that year he was united in marriage with Miss Sarahı L. Dickerson of Marion. They have four children, two sons and two daughters.
Hoch was a staunch Republican ; his paper strongly advocated Repub- lican principles. He was recognized by the Republican leaders as a man to be considered in settling party matters. He was elected to the Legis- lature in 1888 and again in 1892. This latter term was during the "Legislative War," and Mr. Hoch worked hard to gain recognition for the Republican House.
In 1894 he was urged to become a candidate for Governor. He did not do so, but in 1904 he was nominated and elected by the Republican party. He was re-elected in 1905.
The feature of the Legislature of 1905 was the contest of the State of Kansas with the Standard Oil Company. The oil resources of Kansas reached an advanced stage of development prior to this time. Oil fields in Neosho, Wilson, Montgomery, Chautauqua, Franklin and Miami coun- ties were brought up to a production of over 3,000,000 barrels a year. It was a new industry in Kansas, and there were no laws governing the oil business. The oil producers felt the need of such laws, and determined to secure their enactment if possible. On the twelfth of January, a meet- ing was held in the office of H. E. West, at Peru, Kansas. William E. Connelley was directed to draft a call for a state meeting of the pro-
853
854
KANSAS AND KANSANS
ducers. Pursuant to this call they assembled at Topeka, and on the 19th of January, Connelley formulated the following resolutions, which were adopted by this meeting, and which organized the Kansas Oil Producers Association. They also outlined the laws believed necessary for the eon- servation and future development of the oil business.
Resolved. That it is the sense of this association that the State of Kansas ought to ereet and maintain a refinery for oil, of the capacity of at least 5,000 barrels daily.
Gov. EDWARD W. HOCH [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
Resolved, That it is the sense of this association that a law should be enacted by the present legislature making all pipe-lines now built and those to be constructed in the future for the transportation of oil com- mon earriers, subject to all the laws, duties and obligations of the same, and that said lines be regulated in all matters by some competent author- ity, to be designated by the legislature.
Resolved, That it is the sense of this association that the legislature ought to protect the industries of this state by a law providing heavy penalties for its violation, and which should prohibit any dealer, owner or manufacturer from selling his products at a lower price in one portion of the state than in another portion thereof, all items of cost considered,
855
KANSAS AND KANSANS
thereby ereating a monopoly and destroying competition in manufacture, trade, and eommeree.
Resolved, That it is the sense of this association that the present legislature should by law provide for transportation rates and charges by railroads and pipe-lines that will enable the producers of oil in this state to sell their product or any portion thereof at a fair profit for fuel and other purposes.
Resolved, That it is the sense of this association that the present legis- lature should provide a competent board of inspection, to be supported hy reasonable fees collected for services performed, to protect the resonrees of the state by the proper aetion coneerning dry, abandoned. imperfeet, exhausted or dangerous oil or gas-wells. Also for the inspec- tion and proper grading of the erude oil produced in the state, and having authority to aet upon the appeal of producers or purehasers in ease of dispute.
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Kansas oil produeers, in eonven- tion assembled, that the aetion of Governor Hoeh in recommending such legislation as will protect the Kansas produeers of erude petroleum and the refiners of the same from the erushing and throttling grasp of monopolistie influenees is most heartily and sineerely eommended as the aet of a man to whom the interests and welfare of the people of this state are very dear; and we furthermore thank him from our innermost hearts for his manly actions and his mode of eneouragement to the oil produeers of the state.
Resolved, That the thanks of this association be tendered all the mem- hers of the present legislature for the manifest disposition shown to preserve and foster the oil industries of Kansas.
Governor Hoch aided in securing the enactment of the seven laws demanded. That providing for the erection of a State refinery was deelared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The other laws have stood the test of time, and have demonstrated the wisdom of their enaet- ment. The Anti-Discrimination law has proven one of the most beneficial ever enacted. It immediately reduced the price of kerosene in the terri- tory west of Manhattan from an average of twenty-one eents a gallon to an average of twelve eents a gallon. On the one item of oil it has saved annually to the people of Kansas at least six hundred thousand dollars. It is a general law, and applies to paeking-house products, flour, and all other manufactured artieles. It is a conservative estimate to say that the Anti-Discrimination law has saved the people of Kansas annually one million dollars since its enactment.
Other important acts of this Legislature provided for the uniformity of railroad freight rates, the regulating of the working-hours of railroad employes, and the prohibition of special privileges. A child-labor law was passed and an act was also passed providing juvenile courts. Provision was made for a State Printing Plant. The D. A. R. were given an appro- priation to mark the old Santa Fe Trail.
From September 26 to 29. the Pike Centennial was celebrated iu Ropublie County, and by the school children generally, over the state.
The Legislature of 1907 elected Charles Curtis United States Senator. An act was passed by this Legislature reducing the railroad fare from three to two cents per mile, and an anti-pass law was enacted. A tax law
856
KANSAS AND KANSANS
providing for the assessment and taxation of property at its real value, was passed.
In 1908 Governor Hoch called a special session of the Legislature at which he urged the enactment of a primary election law, giving the people a chance to express their choice for United States Senator. This act was passed, along with several others.
Since he retired from the Governor's office, Mr. Hoch has done much in the lecture field. His eloquence has made him a favorite on the lecture platform. His son has active management of his paper. The family resides at Marion. He is now a member of the Board of Administration, in charge of the educational institutions of the State.
CHAPTER LXIV
WALTER ROSCOE STUBBS
BY MRS. EDITII CONNELLEY ROSS
Walter Roseoe Stubbs, the eighteenth governor of Kansas, was born November 7, 1858, near Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana. He is of Quaker parentage, and boasts as his proudest heritage, the qualities and traits of that people. When he was still a child his parents removed to Iowa. From there they came to Kansas and settled at Hesper, Douglas County.
Stubbs was educated in the Douglas County public schools. For a time he attended the Kansas University, but did not graduate. As his parents were not wealthy, he was compelled to work. He engaged in many occupations, among them, clerking, farming, and driving a mule team. This latter labor suggested opportunities to him. So, before his twenty-first year, he had secured a pair of mules. With these he took a contract for grading a bit of railroad. With the assistance of another team he completed the work and made a small profit. This was the beginning of his eontraeting business. He came to be one of the best known railroad contractors in the West.
Mr. Stubbs did not enter the political arena until after his fortieth year. In 1902 he was nominated by the Republicans of Douglas County for representative in the Legislature. Though he had not solicited this office, he was elected, and he endeavored to fill it faithfully. He was re-elected in 1904. In that year he was also Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee.
Economy in the management of the State's finances was one of his special issues. As speaker of the Ilouse he appointed a committee to investigate the matter of an excessive number of employes of the Legis- lature. The result of this was the reduction of three hundred and twenty people-in 1903-to less than seventy people in 1905.
In 1906 he was elected to the Legislature for the third time. He was nominated for Governor by the Republican party in 1908, and was the first Kansas Governor to receive his nomination direet from the people at a state-wide primary.
The Legislature of 1909 eleeted Joseph L. Bristow United States Sen- ator from Kansas. Governor Stubbs urged the formation of a Public Utilities Commission. Also the need of better roads in Kansas.
An aet was passed by this Legislature establishing a standard of
857
858
KANSAS AND KANSANS
weights and measures for staple products, and people appointed to examine and correet scales and measures. Several aets restricting insurance companies were passed. A child labor bill to protect chil- dren under fourteen years of age was passed, the use of intoxicating liquors on trains passing through Kansas was forbidden, precautions were taken against floods. An appropriation of $200.000 was made to erect a building at Topeka, as a Memorial to the soldiers and sail-
Gov. WALTER R. STUBBS [Copyright by Squier, Photographer, Lawrence]
ors of the Civil War. The building was to house the G. A. R. and the Kansas State Historical Society.
Liberal provision was made for the maintenance of State Insti- tutions.
The Legislature of 1911 passed many progressive acts, protecting the interests of the citizens of Kansas. Among them, the most dis- cussed was Senator Dolley's "blue sky" law-a law providing for the regulation and supervision of investment companies. This made the establishment and operation of a "wild eat" company an impossi- bility in Kansas.
859
KANSAS AND KANSANS
In addition to a large appropriation for the use of State Institu- tions, $100,000 was appropriated by this Legislature for the estab- lishment of a new State Insane Asylum.
Some little trouble was experienced in Southeastern Kansas in the enforcement of the Prohibitory law. There was talk of a special ses- sion to consider steps to combat a plague which killed many horses. However, the situation proved not to be serious enough to necessitate this measure, and nothing was done about it.
After leaving the office of Governor, Mr. Stubbs returned to his home at Lawrence, Kansas. Here he is the owner of a beautiful estate known as "Wind Hill." He is now engaged in the business of rais- ing cattle, and has large ranches in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. He is one of the most enterprising citizens of Kansas.
CHAPTER LXV
GEORGE H. HODGES
The administration of Governor George H. Hodges achieved much for Kansas. Governor Hodges had had much experience in dealing with public institutions of the State. He had served in the Senate with distinction, and was thoroughly familiar with the needs of Kan- sas and her institutions. He gave the state a genuine, thorough business administration. In the Senate Journal of 1913, at page 847, will be found a review of the administration of Governor Hodges. A careful study of that document will show that much was done for the good of Kansas during his official term.
In the ceremonies of surrendering his office and the installation of his successor, Governor Hodges reviewed the work of his administra- tion. It is the best account of what he accomplished to be found, as follows :
We close our administration today with the consciousness that every obligation, pledged or implied, has been complied with. Of the four- teen platform pledges possible to fulfill, thirteen have been written into the statute books of this state. We have given Kansas the full measure of our limited ability. The public has but scant concern for the retiring public official. His efforts are ended. But they view new officials with an honest measure of expectation. I do not believe it is in bad taste to recount a few of the records of Democratic accomplish- ment.
We believed, and the public in general thought, that this state was upon a cash basis. We found one-fourth of the 1913 taxes, amount- ing to $832,000, drawn in advance, and practically all spent, in the liquidation of bills contracted in 1912.
A penitentiary burned to the ground, was committed to our keeping -- encumbered with an indebtedness of $19,000. We leave it rebuilded, and in the best physical condition and the best moral condition known in its history.
The finest penal twine plant in the world has been built, and for the first time in the history of the state an adequate supply of filtered water is now furnished the prison.
We leave the beautiful Memorial hall finished, while it was bequeathed to us an enclosed building with a $10,400 indebtedness against it.
860
861
KANSAS AND KANSANS
We have a state textbook plant that solves the school book question for all time to eome.
Both the tuberculosis sanitarium at Norton and the insane asylum at Larned are completed. Sewers, power plants, water supplies, are provided, that will be adequate for the growth of that institution for twenty years to come. The orphan's home at Atchison, the institution for the feeble-minded at Winfield, the state hospital at Osawatomie, have all been provided with adequate water supplies. Silos of 3,000
Gov. GEORGE H. HODGES [Photograph by Willard, Topeka]
tons' eapaeity have been builded during the past two years at the state institutions.
Wonderful improvements have been made at the Osawatomie hos- pital. Food and supplies were being stored in rat-infested vermin-rid- den rooms. They are now taken care of in a magnificent fireproof building. A cold storage plant of more than adequate size has been built. Splinter floors and roaeh-infested wainseoting have been replaced with tiled floors and tiled wainscotings, and the institution is now in splendid physical condition, which should be a pride to the people of the state.
Our great educational institutions, instead of pulling against each
862
KANSAS AND KANSANS
other, are now articulating and working harmoniously one with the other, under a single board. The wonderful improvement made in these institutions is the result of the one board experiment, so-called, and it proved beyond the peradventure of a doubt, that in limited numbers accountability and responsibility defined.
The change in the oil inspection department has netted the state an additional revenue of $35,500 more a year than ever before.
The grain department has been an asset to the state rather than a liability.
We have paid a bond of $211,000 during our administration.
I believe there is directly attributable to the efficiency of the fire marshal's department, almost a million dollars less fire loss a year than in the past.
The obnoxious direct inheritance tax laws were repealed and in lieu thereof a corporation tax law was passed, which has netted the state almost $200,000 the first year of its activity.
The women of Kansas have been recognized by this administration for the first time in the history of the state, and while there was but one position of responsibility held by a woman when I became execu- tive, there are now twenty-three who are a part of this administration; and the board that I deem the most important in the state has as one of its members a woman. We have women superintendents at the schools for the deaf, the blind, the orphan asylum, the girls' industrial school, and women also fill other positions of responsibility. These women appointees have lived up to the full measure of their responsibility.
There has been no department of state that we are responsible for but that has filled every expectation. You will pardon my calling atten- tion to the wonderful record of the bank commissioner's department. There have been eight bank failures and in only one instance was it necessary to appoint a receiver, the cost of such receivership amount- ing to less than a thousand dollars. The other seven banks that failed were reorganized and put in a going condition at less than an average cost of $225 to each bank. Not a depositor has lost a penny, nor has a dollar been taken from the depositors' guaranty fund to replace any loss. We but ask a comparison in this department, as well as in all others, with former administrations.
We said in the campaign that the departments under our control would be administered economieally and with the lowest possible expense. A comparison of the maintenance of all the state institutions-other than educationally-will show a deerease as compared with the expend- itures of two years ago.
State institutions have been builded that were necessary. Water supplies have been provided. Irrigation plants have been completed. The operations of farming have been increased a hundred per cent, and the decided increase in the number of scholars in our schools have neees- sitated a greater expenditure than heretofore for educational purposes.
The expense of condneting the department directly under my charge -the executive office and resident-has been $18,000 less during my
863
KANSAS AND KANSANS
tenure of office than the amount spent the last two years by my pred- ecessor.
It might not be amiss to speak a word about the greatest social prob- lem that confronts the state, namely, the penitentiary. It has been the interpretation of the pardon board, pardon clerk and myself that when a prisoner serves his minimum sentence he should be paroled if he has a clear prison record. The governor's function in board paroles is merely elerical. He should be relieved of that burden and the action of the board should be final.
The board has paroled a few over 400 during the past two years. In other words, that many prisoners have served their minimum term and have been released. The executive has paroled up to and inelud- ing December 1, 204. There are men who have not served their mini- mum. In every case the pardon board has investigated thoroughly and in a painstaking manner, the record of these men, and they have recommended them for exeentive clemeney. The chairman of the board advises me that seventy of these men have been paroled because they were in an advanced stage of consumption, paralyzed or crippled. A number of these meu were paroled that they might die outside of the prison walls. Of the 200 given executive elemency, but twenty-seven have violated their paroles. The balance of these men are by their hon- est efforts winning their way back into society, providing for their wives and families, and becoming constructive citizens. I feel that giving these men a chance to become self supporting is one of the most pleasing duties of an executive.
It is true that divers and sundry rumors have been set afloat in opposing papers saying that we had been overstepping the bounds of reason in the matter of paroles, but we do not feel that we have.
A commission has been appointed, and their recommendations are filed in the office of the governor-elect for the further improvements of the Kansas penitentiary, and I feel that it is highly important that the men who are confined behind the prison walls should be housed in such a manner that when they have served their minimum sentence they will not leave the prison infected with tuberculosis, as quite a per- centage of the men now are.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.