From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 6, 1915:

• “At the close of the first month of his present term as health officer of Douglas county Dr. John C. Rudolph makes a report of the sanitary conditions as he has found them and offers some pertinent statements in regard to what must be done to better these conditions. In speaking of the conditions in Lawrence Dr. Rudolph says, ‘While no cases of Typhoid Fever, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, or Meningitis were reported, we had, especially in the north side where the hygienic conditions are unfavorable, an epidemic of Mumps, Whooping Cough, and Chicken Pox…. Owners of liveries and other stables have been notified that they must remove piles of refuse from the alleys behind their barns…. The shanties on Pennsylvania and New Jersey street are in a filthy condition and constitute a disgrace to our town and a constant danger to our citizens. The same conditions are found on the north side. These hovels have become the breeding place for contagious diseases. Still worse are the out-houses and the wells. The owners of these properties are responsible for these deplorable conditions and steps must be taken to make such changes as are necessary to protect the health and life of the poor renters and the health and live of the whole community.’ Dr. Rudolph stated that necessary steps to relieve the conditions will soon be taken.”
• “A bill which would require the Rock Island to stop its trains at Lawrence was added to the long list of legislation aimed at the railroads that has been introduced in the senate this session. The bill was introduced by Senator I. M. Mahin, of Smith county, for the benefit of the students of Kansas University who live along the Rock Island lines in northwestern and southwestern Kansas. These students must change trains at Topeka, as the Rock Island uses the Union Pacific’s tracks from Topeka to Kansas City under a 999-year lease. This lease prohibits the Rock Island from taking on or letting off passengers between Topeka and Kansas City. The Mahin bill is general in its terms, requiring all trains to stop in all towns of more than 10,000 population.”
• “Manhattan, Kan. – The Manhattan Retailers’ association is in receipt of a communication from the Bluebottom Welfare club, in which the latter asks for authority to remove the merchants’ signs from the highways in that community which lies northeast of Manhattan. The members of the club declare they are in favor of the merchants advertising in the newspapers, not with road signs. They declare the road signs are unsightly and that they frequently frighten teams.”
• “Topeka. – Senator J. M. Davis of Bourbon county, thinks the Kansas National Guard as at present constituted ought to be abolished at once. He has introduced a bill in the senate to do this…. Instead of the organized militia the Davis bill provides for the creation of a home guard military…. The bill directs that the property now owned by the state for the national guard be turned over to the executive council and all the property given the state by the government for the use of the guard be returned to the government at once, the military offices closed up and the active officials returned to their homes…. If the Davis bill should be enacted Kansas would have no one to wear the fine uniforms and no soldiers to lead parades and participate in Memorial Day or other exercises.”