Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1893 — The Simpson Anarchists in Kansas. [ARTICLE]

The Simpson Anarchists in Kansas.

r Ex-President, B. B. Hayes died Tuesday night, of paralysis of the heart, at his home near Fremont, Ohio. In his death a truly good and hqble-minded man has gone to his reward. The statute provides for four door-keepers of the State Senate. The Senate ordered eleven more making fifteen in all. There are just ten doors to the Senate so that when they are all unlocked five men at five dollars per day will have no door to look at. This is Democratic economy. After the “ice, cold Harrison” was elected preeident he received in the most pleasant and friendly manner every delegation of any and every sort of people that called upon him, says the New Albany Tribune, lint "Hmrmrm hearted Cleveland has so managed himself since his election that any of the “common people” would no more think of entering his awesome presence than of invading the den of a polar bear. Several train men on the G. & I. C. railroad have, it is reported, been greatly frightened by the apparition of a headless woman, seen near a graveyard, south of Oxford. The train men should calm their fears. What they saw was, undoubtedly, Johu Carr, of the Oxford Tribune, in his well-known role of “The Girl About Town.” It is not at all strange that John’s “Girl” should appear without a head, for “she” proved by her writings, long ago, tlfS't “she” had no brains.

In this state the person receiving the highest number of votes for Senators and Representatives to the Legislature receive certificates to that effect from local canvassing boards. These are prima facie evidence of the election of the persons presenting them, and upon them they are permitted to vote in the organization of Senate and House without question, even if the right of a portion of those holding these certificates is contested. In Kansas, aud, indeed, in most other States, a State canvassing board examines the returns aud issues to those who appear to be elected upon the face of the returns certificates of that fact, which are the only legal credentials of membership for the organization of the Legislature. Strictly obeying the requirements of the law. the canvassing j board in Kansas issued certificates 1

- ' . . 1 of election to Sixty-four Republicans whom the returns showed to be elected in a total membership of 125. In one case a certificate might have been given to a Republican because of a clerical error in a return, but it was not The Populist managers have contested several seats, but the board of eanvassers-is required by law tb give certificates to those who appear to be elected, which it did. When the Kansas House met, on Tuesday, the Republicans had sixty-four members present and would have organized that body had not tbfr-Repalists, led by Jerry Simpson, defied law and precedent by declaring that those

Republicans holding certificates of election from districts which Populists had contested should not be allowed to participate. The certificates of all those present claiming to be members were the same and they were issued by -the only official authority recognized by the laws; yet Simpson and his followers usurped authority and made a claim never before set up in the organization of a legislative body. If those whose seats are subject of contest are denied the right to vote in the organization of a legislative body, it would be impossible to organize a Legislature or a Congress sioce so many contests would be made that there would not be a quorum. If tbe Simpson performance in Kansas shpuld become a precedent the country wodld be plunged into chaos and anarchy would reign. The attention of those who may have been looking with favor upon the Populist movement is callec to this conspiracy of Simpson and other political adventures to seize control of the House in Kansas by trampling under foot laws and precedents which have been regarded aB essential to representative government for years. They appealed to the court, and the' court sustained the canvassers because' they cannot go behind, the face of the returns. Failing before the court, those reckless adventurers, utterly regardless of consequences, defy the law and proceed ts organize a House by counting out persons who have the constitutional qualifications and credentials. In the history of the count r y, in the course of which many irregularities will be found, there is not an act of usurpation so defiant of law and so fraught with peril as that of Simpson and his followers. It is probable that Simpson and his associates may not be sustained, but their attempt proves that they would become political anarchists if it were necessary to subserve their personal interests. —lndianapolis Journal.