On Oct. 20, 1902, the Lawrence Journal stated that it had “feared all the time that the presence of the equal suffragists in the state would be discovered by Col. Murdock, (of the Wichita Eagle) and bring on a fit of indigestion, or a new brand of fit. He has found them out, and of course he starts right in on their trail. In an editorial that contains more hot pepper than logic, perhaps, he dresses the ladies down, and mildly intimates that they ought to attend to their own business instead of attempting to conduct the business of others. Here is a specimen of the nasty things he said while talking about them: ‘The hand that rocks the cradle may set the world to tottering, but it can’t turn the old thing upside down The woman who aspires to rock the cradle and rock the world in one time and two motions will discover that either there is no baby in the cradle or that the world is not standing in need of any rocking.'”