In conservative quarters, where the state of Kansas has been looked upon as particularly susceptible to the attractions of political novelties parading under the name of reform, the early and wide adoption of the commission form of government for cities has doubtless caused no surprise. Any tendency which Kansas may have to become a laboratory of political experiment is not, as is often inferred, due to sheer instability of political character. It flows, rather, from that supreme faith in democracy common to the trans-Mississippi region, intensified by a lofty idealism and an intense Puritanism inherited from the men and women who emigrated there in the fifties to make Kansas a bulwark of freedom. These original traits of character have, to a remarkable degree, persisted and find political expression even at the present day. Notwithstanding all this, the State had, like so many others, fallen under the control of a political organization strongly intrenched behind a spoils system and, if current reports are true, supported by large corporations for their own good. The recent widespread revolt against such conditions reached Kansas and reacting on the Kansas character brought about a far-reaching political upheaval. The net result of the agitation was a political over-turning, an awakened sense of personal responsibility on the part of the voter and a renewed interest in affairs State and municipal.