------The world beat a path to the cluttered desk of William Allen White, publisher of a small daily newspaper, The Emporia Gazette in Kansas.

------He advised presidents and governors, conferred with statesmen, talked with the great and the near great of the political world.

------In his writings he alternately counselled, warned, scolded amused and praised the country in general; Kansas and the Republican Party in particular.

------Of himself he once wrote, in an article about a friend:

------"As for me, I believe he has always regarded me as slightly mad - something between Falstaff and Don Quixote, with a bit ofvitriolic venom and a jigger of Billy Sunday in the secret formula of my heart's blood."

Elder Statesman

------In his later years he was an elder statesman of the Republican Party. Only once in his long career did he swerve from his party loyalty- in 1912, as a Bull Moose, he supported his good friend, Theodore Roosevelt, for President.

------"Roosevelt bit me and I went mad," he explained years afterwards.

------Only once did he seek public office, and he was unsuccessful. That was in 1924 when, in the midst of a bitter fight against the Ku Klux Klan, which he branded as un-American and cowardly, he ran independently for governor of Kansas, because the Klan had endorsed two other candidates for that office. While he finished third in the race, the Klan soon died out and he felt he had won his objective.

------He possessed the gift of writing exactly what he wished to say in clear, concise and sometimes homely language. He could write with wit and Puckish humor, with profound wisdom, with biting sarcasm or with gentle tenderness.

Two Editorials

------A sarcastic editorial, "What's the Matter with Kansas," written in 1896, skyrocketed. him to national prominence. A poignantly tender one, written in 1921 after the accidental death of his daughter, Mary, became a classic.

------In a busy life he somehow found time to write numerous books, most of which concerned politics and political figures. In "Masks In A Pageant," he reviewed the life and times of the 10 presidents he knew intimately.

------He was born in Emporia on Feb. 10, 1868, son of Allen White, a country merchant and doctor, and Mary A. Hatten White, pioneer Kansas teacher.

------He grew up El Dorado, attended the College of Emporia and later the University of Kansas, learned the printing and newspaper business in El Dorado, later was~a reporter in Lawrence and, when he was 22, went to the Kansas City Star as an editorial writer.

------On June 1,1895, he borrowed $3,000 to purchase The Emporia Gazette. And there he remained Emporia's leading citizen.

Belief In Luck

------He always insisted that luck played a big part in his career. "Lady luck was good to me," he said once, adding, "whenever she looked at me, I gave her the wink and away we went."

------"Sheer luck put me into the newspaper business," he wrote in recounting that in 1885, while a student at college, he sent three letters asking for a job - one to a grocer, one to a merchant and the third to the editor of an El Dorado paper. The grocer and merchant "knew my desultory ways and rejected myj oh suggestion. T.P. Fulton knew my father and took a chance."

------Luck, plus his gifted pen, also gave him his start in national politics.

------In the summer of 1896, while waiting for a train to take him to Colorado for a vacation, he became engaged in a street corner debate with a local Populist. The argument centered around the McKinley-Bryan campaign, the young editor taking the Republican side, the Populist, reinforced by bystanders, the Bryan cause.

"What's the Matter With Kansas"

In the midst of the argument he remembered he had some editorials ro write before train time, so he dashed to the office and, still "boiling mad," sat down and wrote "What's the Matter with Kansas." It was a scathing piece, flaying the Democratic leaders.

------He then forgot the editorial. But it found its way to Chicago and New York. "Boss" Mark Hanna, Republican national chairman, liked it, had it reprinted and distributed throughout the country. When the editor got back home from his vacation he found himself famous.

------Many years later he said that perhaps he had been too harsh in that editorial - that at another time he would have spoken more softly.

------After McKinley's election, party leaders asked him what he "wanted" and he astonished them by firmly insisting that he wanted nothing. However, he did establish national contacts which kept him in intimate touch with leaders and affairs.

------Frequently he was called on to aid in drafting Republican national platforms. In 1936 he laid down his editorial pen and worked for the presidential nomination of Alf M. Landon, a fellow Kansan, who was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. That year he was chairman of the party's resolutions committee.

------He admired Mr. Roosevelt, but never gave him his political support, especially for the third term. He did, on occasion, support his policies.

FDR's Telegram

Once he suggested to Mr. Roosevelt that he appoint Felix Frankfurter to the United States Supreme Court. Sometime later he received this telegram from the President:

"Dear Bill: I have done it." "What the devil does he mean?" he asked one of his editors. A few minutes later the editor showed him an Associated Press dispatch announcing Justice Frankfurter's nomination.

------He looked ahead, not behind. Discussing "Blunders I Have Made," he once remarked "Oh, I don't weep and moan. I say I did it and I'm sorry, and go on."

------As a couple of his blunders "that every darned fool is apt to make," he cited: "Writing editorials that mdica ted I believed in what is know~n as the best people that gave~ the impression I was an intell~ctual snob," and "In believing political machines are a necessary element of government."

------On April 27,1893, he was married to Miss Sallie Lindsay ofRansas City and they were ideally happy. They worked, played and traveled together and on their golden wedding anniversary they even came down with influenza together.

A Tragic Event

------The greatest tragedy in his life came in 1921. His daughter, Mary, 16 years old, was brushed from a horse by a low-hanging limb of a tree and died. Only a brief notice appeared in The Gazette that day but a few days later he poured out his grief in a touching editorial called Mary White.

------"A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous energe~ tic little body sank to its last sleep," he wrote. "But the soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn."

------A son, William L. White, followed his father's footsteps as a great writer. He was intensely proud of "Young Bill." who became famous as a war correspondent and an author of such best sellers as "A Journey for Margaret" and "They Were Expendable."

------Once when the son was in Europe during the war, his picture appeared briefly in a news reel in Emporia. Father and mother went every day to the theater, sometimes twice, just to catch a fleeting glimpse of him.

------Although "The Sage of Emporia" attended two colleges, he never qualified for his degree. However, in later years, at least eight leading universities gave him honorary degrees.

------Around the Gazette office everyone knew him affectionately as "The Boss." But he never bossed. He, in turn, referred to his employees as "The Gazette family." He shared theirjoys and sorrows, cautioned them against overwork and saw to it that they tare o~ in ~ness.

------His office, between the editorial and business departments, was used by employees as a short-cut and he encouraged them in it. He did have a private office in the building but rarely used it.