“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” was published as an editorial in the Emporia Gazette on August 15, 1896, and subsequently reprinted across the country. It was not a book but a newspaper column — but its impact was so enormous that it requires treatment as a separate work. White wrote it in fury after encountering Populist campaigners on the street; it attacks the Populist movement (and by extension William Jennings Bryan’s presidential campaign) as a collection of failures and cranks who were driving successful people out of Kansas.
The editorial’s rhetoric is brilliant: White mocks the Populists by agreeing ironically with their premise that Kansas has problems, then attributes those problems not to the gold standard or railroad monopolies (as Populists claimed) but to the anti-business, anti-success attitudes of Populism itself. The piece is funny, savage, and unfair — White later admitted as much — but its energy and wit made it irresistible to Republican editors looking for ammunition against Bryan.
The piece made White famous overnight — at twenty-eight, he went from obscure small-town editor to national figure. Mark Hanna, McKinley’s campaign manager, reprinted it as a campaign document. White spent much of his subsequent career living down the piece’s conservatism — he became progressively more progressive — but the editorial’s fame endured.
Collecting What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Original printing (Emporia Gazette, August 15, 1896): Newspaper.
Campaign reprints (1896): Various pamphlet editions.
Market values:
- Original Gazette issue: $500–$2,000 (extremely scarce)
- Campaign pamphlet reprints: $50–$200
- Collected in later books: $15–$40