National Affairs: Arkansas Whoopee

In most states the adjournment of the legislature is an incident of interest only to the politically-minded. In Arkansas a fortnight ago it was a capital event, at least to the Haley Potato Chip Co., whose manager placed in the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette this advertisement:

WHOOPEE! HURRAH! The legislature has adjourned! Let’s all close up and celebrate! At one o’clock this afternoon I shall close my potato chip establishment. I shall hang out my American flags and as they kiss again the air of freedom unpolluted by the foul breath of the legislative bribe takers, the boodlers, the demagogues and the little dictators so drunk with power that they even dare to shout infamously, “To hell with the constitution,” I shall retire to the solitude of my home and I shall kneel before the pictures of George Washington, the founder of our Republic, Abraham Lincoln, the saviour of our Country, and Woodrow Wilson, who died a martyr to the ideal of making the whole world safe for democracy, and in joyous gratitude I shall thank the “author of liberty” that the Arkansas legislative monstrosity has at last expired. I shall pray devoutly that a blessing may come from the travesty of justice. That the eyes of the people may be opened and that so help us God we will exercise more wisely the God-given right of the ballot. The cessation of unprincipled work of the legislature marks the greatest day for Arkansas since the Armistice.