The Daily Free Press and the Times from Independence, Kansas • 1

THE TIM INDEPENDENCE. KANSAS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 11. 1907. NO. 23 VOL.

XIV Clean Up Sale of MILLINERY We have finished our Annual Inventory, and we find that we have too many Trimmed Hats left over. We now propose to redttce this stock without any regard for cost whatever. We will not Carry Any Over. All Must be Sold. More About Our Wagon Roads.

Since publishing that article In re-lation to road matters In last week's Issue, I have seen reason to believe that the ice is finally going to be broken and a start made toward macadamizing the roads leading out from Independence. There are nine Buch roads, seven of them lying In Independence township and two in Drum Creek. I have talked during the week with members of the new township board which will enter upon Its duties next week in both these townships who were in favor of making a start, no matter how small, on this work during the present year. The weather of the present week has been about as bad as it could be for ordinary roads and all those leading into the city are mighty "heavy" at this writing. Probably more people come in by way of the Tenth street road over Uoek Creek than any other way, and the plan talked of is to begin at the end of the paving on that street and put on crushed rock as far as the means at hand will permit this season even if it is no farther than to the cement plant switch.

On the Drum creek road leading east along the river bank, work will begin, if it is undertaken, at the wagon bridge and extend as far east as there is money to do it. Let no more than ten rods of good macadam roads be built In these two places this year, and there need be no anxiety about the future. All that is needed is a beginning as it was with street paving in this city. Once show the people who drive into this city what a difference it will make by an object lesson ever so small, and they will never let the work rest until all the main roads are built of rock. There is no lack of raw material, and if the county will buy a rock crusher, the people who have to travel on these roads will certainly be willing to turn out with their teams and haul the rock at a very reasonable price.

ly diverted from the work by the fellow who asks to have his little private axe ground. But if that time is ever to come, the, men who hold such exalted positions as those of judges of the supremo court of that state will have to set a better example than they are doing now. Our Blundering (lovernor. "Our per capita wealth is over ninety dollars nearly three times the average in the United States and nowhere is wealth more equally distributed." From Governor lloch's message. The public official who could sit down and pen such a statement as that, let alone send it to the legislature as part of an official message, ought to be sent to school to take a kindergarten course in economics.

The manwlio can in fifteen words show that he does not discriminate between wealth, bank deposits and money in circulation, but has them hopelessly jumbled in his mind, is just as poorly equipped for 'governor of the great state of Kansas as the tens of thousands of members of his oiyn party who voted against him hist fall thought him. In the first place, it is the bank deposits of Kansas and not its total wealth that average ninety dollars to each inhabitant. The wealth of this country averages $1,200 per capita. When Hoch puts this average wealth for the nation at only about one-third of ninety dollars or a little more than thirty dollars-he has it about four thousand per cent, too small. What he was trying to compare was evidently the bank deposits of Kansas with the total money circulation of the United States.

But bank deposits and actual gold, silver and greenbancks in circulation are entirely different things, and no more comparable than wheat in the bin with loaves of bread in bakers' shops. The banks keep from fifteen to forty per cent, of their deposits on hand in actual money, while there is considerable money in circulation outside of what is in the bank vaults. The two aggregates bear no definite or certain proportion to each other let alone being identical, as economists of the Hoch and Yoe school so often cheerfully assume. worth $1.00 go in 1.50 go in 1.75 go in 2.00 go in Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats Hats .50 go in worth worth "worth worth worth worth worth worth worth worth this sale for .50 this sale for 69 this sale for .79 this sale for 89 this sale for 98 this sale for 1.12 this sale for 1.29 this sale for 1.45 this sale for 1.69 this sale for 1.89 this sale for 2.25 respondingly cheap. 3.00 go in 50 go in 3 4 00 go in .00 go in Better ones cor i 33 Come early, the selection will be better.

The Wright Store, rv i 23 ury uuous. oais. uiib. millinery. Don't let this occasion pass without striving to do something.

We can afford better roads, we need them, and there is no reason whv we should not provide ourselves with them. VMOMftH isu avis As Others See Us. Under the head, "A Glimpse of Kansas," J. B. Martin, editor of the Farm Loans A Grab the First Thins.

When the legislature of Kansa9 met In regular session last Tuesday, and began to do business for the people of the state, it is interesting to note what was considered the most important matter before them and given the first place. You might imagine that it would be a bill for reducing railroad fares, cutting off railway passes, the enactment of a primary election law, an inheritance tax, or some one of the many acts in the interest of all the people that were promised by these raemqers while they were asking for votes last fall. Not at all. The first proposal to receive favorable consideration was one to increase the salaries of the Supreme court, judges from $3,000 a year to It may be that the state Is not payiog these judges as large salaries as they ought to get, but even so there would seem to be no reason why the legislature should fall over itself in an effort to increase tjhe expense of running the government, vand the taxes we all have to pay, the very first thing and even to do it under suspension of the rules and without allowing a day for discussion and consideration, Just why all this haste may not he evident to the unsophisticated, but it is an open secret all the same. There were four judges of the Supreme court elected last fall.

They will not take the oath of office until next week. The constitution provides that the salaries of judges shall not be increased nor disminished during the terms for which they shall have been elected. So it is plain that unless an act raising the salaries of the judges can be passsed, approved and published before next Monday, it will not affect the compensation of the judges elected last fall. All this haste, therefore, is in the interest of these four men. They have pulled the wires and urged their friends in the legislature to do something for them, and hence this salary-raising bill is preferred before all others.

A considerable majority of the members of the house were ready to be thus generous with the state's funds and help the sufi'eriner officeholders, before doing anything for the people, but the measure lacked the necessary two-thirds to declare an emergency and pass it under suspension of the rules, and so had to go over and take its regular course. This attempt to rush a salary grab through before the members were warm in their seats or a single committee had been appointed to which the proposed measure could be referred for consideration, is typical of the way in which legislation is procured at Topeka. It used to be the when I sat among the lawmakers that whenever any stranger introduced himself and began to argue in favor of some measure that was to come before us for consideration, that my first thought was, "what axe have you to grind." While I am as far from being of a suspicious disposition as a man can well be, it was so universally true that the fellows who laid in wait to corner tbe members and urge the passage of pending bills were personally interested in those acts and expected to profit by them in some way, that one would have been more than ordinarily obtuse not to have seen that most of the people who hung around the capital were grafters. Private welfare is placed before the public welfare all the while at a legislative session, not because the members prefer to cater to private interests rather than labor for the public good, but because, night and day, the pleas of men who think they will be profited by changes in the laws are being constantly dinged in their ears. The lobbyist who seeks to have his path to fortune smoothed by public donation in some form or other, is the bane of the honest legislator.

I found almost no one exempt from the desire to get easy money from the public till. I have even known of cases where a justice of the supreme court went on the floor to lobby for increased pay for a stenographer who was a relative of bis. And all these four newly elected judges must have been doing very active lobbying since the members jegan to arrive at Topeka to have secured a majority for their proposed salary 'grab by he second day of the session. The worst of the matter is, even if the most stringent laws against lobbying are passed, I can imagine no way in which these grabs can be prevented, so long as men in official station hold their private interests. paramount to the public welfare.

Perhaps the time will come when the lawmaker will not be impressed with the idea that government is one great grab, and when lie can devote his afforts to laws in the interests of the whole people without being incessant I have funds to loan on improved farm property at the very lowest rates; privilege given to pay part or all of principal at any interest payment; interest and principal payable here. No delay, money ready when papers are signed, Get my terms and rates before making loans. GEO. T. GUERNSEY, At Commercial National Independence Kansas.

3 in Crushed Under Load of Rock. The funeral of an Italian boy, Samuel DeData, between seventeen and eighteen years of age, who was killed at the Western cement plant Sunday morning, was held Monday forenoon at 8 o'clock from St. Andrew's church. The young man was working in the quarry. He was in a car being backed under the dump, getting ready to perform some simple duty essential to the proper loading of the car, and should have gotten out at a certaii time.

Some part of the machinery of the steam shovel went wrong and the entire load of rock was dumped in upon the boy. He was killed in-stanly, the upper part of his skull being almost torn from his head. The accident was due to no fault of Engineer Mylor, operating the shovel but the Italians jumped at the conclusion that it was deliberate murder and went after the unfortunate man the purpose of doing him great bodily injury. There is little doubt that he would have been killed had the maddened throng gotten bold of hira at that moment. He was hustled aboard a switch engine and backed out of reach.

Then the interpreter took the men in hand and explained- the circumstances of the affair to them, and did his to impress them with the fact that it was an accident. Gradually the nest of human hornets quieted down, but there is still some apprehension of trouble. The manager of the plant is conducting an investigation to see just where the blame for the accident lies. DeData arrived from Italy only a few months ago. This is the irst fatal accident to occur at the plant of the Western States company.

Early in the history of the factory an Italian was found dead in the shale pit, almost covered with shale but no one knows whether that was accident or murder. Star. Homer, Illinois, Enterprise, who recently visited this city to attend the wedding of a niece, says: Fine weather with neither snow, rain or a cold wave prevailed during our holiday visit in southern Kansas. On Christmas it was warm enough there to leave doors open most of the day. The gas and oil district in southeastern Kansas is still flourishing.

Industries of nearly every kind are in operation and more being established on account of the cheap fuel natural gas. Although this gas is being piped out of the district into adjoining States and to distant cities those who ought to know say the flow is still as strong as ever. While other parts of the country are suffering the effects of coal famines the people in the Kansas gas district are enjoying the comforts of gas heat at nominal cost. They turn a little key and have perpetual heat and light and without smoke or dirt of any kind. It is a most interesting sight for a stranger, to note the various industries on account of the advantage of cheap fuel at any one of several cities in the Kansas gas and oil district.

At Independence, a small town a few years ago, now a city of over 14,000 population, thousands of people are employed at its immense cement factories (two in operation and two more soon to be constructed) that cost millions of dollars, three great glass factories, a big rubber plant, paper mill, cracker factory, machine shops, tile and paving brick plant, two Ice factories, all run by gas, saying nothing of the oil industries. Independence is destined to become the greatest cement producing city on the globe because it has an inexhaustible supply of the natural material and is in the center of the gas district. It also has the only rubber plant, an immense institution, that produces rubber from certain qualities of natural oil. These and still other industries make prosperous times there and bring great improvements to the city, such as fine business houses and residences, paved streets, new $100,000 water plant, new library, new hospital, new opera house, the fifth and sixth new school-buildings, new interarban railway with main power house and car barn under construction, etc. With a fairly good farming country surrounding these Kansas cities, of which Independence is only one of many, the people are of course prosperous and contented.

Montgomery county has a popu- lation almost equal to ours 00,000. dependence Men Strike it Rich. M. F. Wood is in receipt of a letter from his brother, Clarence W.

Wood, well known to Montgomery county people, telling of the good fortune which he has met with in his pursuit of gold in California. Six years ago Mr. Wood, in company with four Steifer brothers, went to California in quest of gold. Their claims adjoin the Magalia mine, first opened in 1855, from which over $300 000 was taken out in 3ixty days. It was said to be the richest mine in California.

The Steifer brothers are P. B. Steifer, M. V. Steifer, S.

M. Steifer and M. C. Steifer, who until going to California conducted a business college here, being located over the Palace clothing store. Mr.

Wood lived at Cherryvale, and taught school there and at Coffeyville. The mine where these men discov ruin themselves and their neighbors, as these have done. The attention of the company has been repeatedly called to the condition of these wells, but as the lease under which they were drilled has a clause providing that the gas from them shall not be piped out of the county, it may be that it is a matter of indifference to the coinpauy what becomes of them. Uncle Sam's Balance Sheet. The American government's income is described by the Baltimore Sun in this way: "The revenue of received by the government in the last "fiscal year was $03,285,000 more than the year before, the tariff tax and internal taxes having been immensely productive.

A surplus of $25,009,000, against a deficit of $23,004,000 the year before, is tbe consequence. Expenditure was of which sura over $309,000,000 was for the war and navy department including rivers and harbors and for pensions. The outgo was $10,012,000 larger than in 1905. The tariff tax produced internal taxes, $249,150,000. The customs receipts break the record, which was $280,000,000 in 1903.

All the figures reflect the activity of business in the past year A New Watson Magazine. There is a Watson's magazine Sudden Changes. The weather for the last week has been a little more "unique" than usual. Sunday and Monday were real summer days, the thermometer going as high as 77 on Monday, which is an unusual figure for January, in this section. Fires went out, doors and windows were thrown open and 'heavy clothing became burdensome, as if the seasons were really getting topsy-turvy.

Tuesday night, though, there was an entire change of program, and rain and sleet fell until the ground had an icy coating an inch or more in thickness. Since then it has been cloudy and dark enough for a Puget Sound winter, but instead of growing colder, a9 generally happens after such a storm, it has become steadily warmer, and on yesterday most of the ice softened up, making mud much in evidence. It was a very dark day, with fog a plenty and today differs little from it. Such conditions would seem entirely seasonable for but are hardly "normal" for January. Ruining Gas Wells.

A subscriber living near Jefferson shows us the reports of County Gas Inspector Brown for three wells on his place, indicating that they are gradually being ruined by salt water. One of the three failed entirely, ard another dropped from million volume to 400 thousonl in the past six-months. The decline, appears to be entirely attributable to the sand having' been allowed to become Hooded with salt water. The lessee of the tract is the Kansas Naural Gas com pany, and we are wouderiDg how many more of the wells belonging to this company are beting allowed to ered the gold which promises to make them very wealthy is an ancient river channel. Mr.

Wood describes the find in the following letter: "At last we have struck it the old pre-historic mine. Struck it in the east bank or rim, crossed it with a narrow tunnel about four or five feet wide, and' cut into the west rim or bank. Tbe channel here is about six ty feet wide. We got some very pretty nuggets, some that go about $12 to $15 apiece, some about the size of corn or pumpkin seed, and some The Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Senator Porter returned this week from New York whither he was called to consider a new proposal regarding his railroad down into Oklahoma.

The new proposition is to start the road at once from Cherryvale, enter Independence near the Western States Cement plant, with a station at the foot of Pennsylvania avenue, shying out into Rutland township, proceding to Caney, and Into Oklahoma and on to Perry. Senator Porter is just as sanguine that his road will be built as that he has already mastered one project of this kind, lie has two or throe proposals now and it is only a question of which one to take up. smaller. We have not yet washed up 6r cleaned bed rock, where all the heavy gold Is. i "This has been a long pull, and I again with Tom Watson in it He has been crowded clear out of the original "TomWatson's Magazine" published in New York, but is getting out "Watson's JctTersonian Magazine" at Atfiinta.

Georgia, which is better in many ways than the former, especially in being entirely divorced ffom.the ownership of Colonel W. D. Mann, of "Town Topics" fame. am glad it is accomplished at last. We struck the channel under the most satisfactory conditions, no water in Unless the gas supply fails that country will continue to prosper as few others have ever done.

the face at all. I think it wiil prove very rich." Reporter. 0.