Taken to Task by a Recalcitrant Legislature Because He Said "Set 'Em Up,"
He Talks of Things That May Happen on Resurrection Morn.
Governor Edward Wallis Hoch, of Kansas, is a big man, with a slow manner
and a keen sense of humor. Born fifty-seven years ago in Kentucky, as soon
as he had graduated from a freshwater college he moved westward. At
twenty-five he found himself editor and proprietor of a country weekly in
Kansas; and the step from journalism to politics proved an easy one.
When Hoch talks about "trust-busting" legislation he speaks quietly and
seriously, with shrewdness and intelligence. At other times he is capable
of enlivening the dull routine of official work with a touch of
unconventional pleasantry. During the recent legislative eruption at
Topeka one of the more impetuous representatives introduced a bill which
had already been passed. The Governor vetoed it, remarking that it was up
to the representative to "set 'em up."
A member of the opposition, thinking that this was a dangerous expression
for the Governor of a prohibition State to use, had a resolution adopted
calling on the Governor to explain. Governor Hoch was extremely busy, but
he disentangled his signing hand from the pile of bills before him long
enough to dash off the following reply:
To the Senate--I am in receipt of Senate Resolution No. 40,
introduced by the Senator from Atchison County, requesting
me to explain what was meant by the term "set 'em up," as
used in my veto message of Senate Bill No. 341. This
expression, used playfully, and without having any
particular meaning, and possibly hardly comporting with the
dignity of your body, seems to have had, if not a good, at
least an unexpected effect, in that it has caused the
emaciated corpse of the Kansas Democracy to take on the
semblance of life and sit up and take notice.
The belief in miracles is here strengthened by absolute
proof, showing that the proper call will restore animation
to the dead. If the Angel Gabriel, standing with one foot on
land and one on sea, were to blow such a blast from his
trumpet that the mountains should rock to their bases, the
Democratic party of Kansas would probably sleep on
undisturbed, but if he were even to whisper the magic words
"set 'em up," the grave of this moribund organization would
give up its dead, and from the entire aggregation, headed by
the talented and handsome Senator from Atchison, would come
the answer in swelling chorus, "We will take the same."
E.W. HOCH, Governor.