The Reorganization of State Government in Kansas1

During March of 1913 Governor George H. Hodges of Kansas was the most talked-of and written-about governor in the United States. His message of March 11 to the Kansas legislature was probably the most quoted message of the year. To students of state government this message presented nothing new. It probably would be just as true to say that much of this message presented little that was new to the great majority of intelligent voters. It certainly suggested nothing unfamiliar to most thinking legislators in Kansas. Nevertheless it was a unique message and it merited all the publicity it received. That this should be true is one of the paradoxes of American politics.For years editors, students, and legislators themselves have been making the same criticism of our American methods of lawmaking that Governor Hodges makes. And from many quarters had come practically the same proposal for reform that the governor advocates. One of our American States had attempted the year before by direct popular action, to adopt a much more thorough going scheme of state reorganization. But we are a conservative people, and for some reason or another, we are but slightly stirred by criticism or suggestion for change in our governmental machinery unless it comes from an official source. Let congress suddenly discover that there is an insidious lobby at Washington and we all demand immediate house cleaning.