The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-02-05
IT WAS HER NATAL DAY.
Kansas Celebrates Her Thirty-sixth An
niVsrssFY as = State.

ulNoFaAtF A. q state
Last Friday was the thiFty-sixth an
niversaTy Of the admission of Kansas
into the union. The day was celebrated
at various points throughout the state,
and at Topeka that night an eRthusiss.
tic meeting was held in Representative
hall at which over 1900 people we're in
attendance.
The legislature was in charge, Speaker
Street called the assemblage to order,
and Frank DosteT, chief justice of the
supreme court, presided. Among other
things he said: Il do not wish to speak
Of Kansas soil OF cline or riches or
railroads, but of that which is so i'm
measurably higher and grander, Kansas
men and Kansas women.
"'What constitutes a stated
Not hills. nor Wales nor mines, nor marts Of
trade;
! Nohsteaming, pulsing miles Of rail nor lands,
nor crops, nor great estate,
But men, high-minded mem men who their
duties know, but know
Their rights as well, and knowing, dare main
tain them. These constitute a state
81 know of no land whose people are
predetermined, and drawer, and more
generous than ours; of people whose
hearts are truer, whose sympathies are
warmer, whose souls are more daring.
whose sentiments, both political and
religious, are more tolerant, whose
ideas are more progressive and whose
character is more elevated, than that
Of the people here.
II pride myself upon the liberslity
and rsdicslism aud breadth of view,
and freedom of thought, and receptiv-
ity of new ideas of Kansas men and
women.
"Ksnsas has been upon the skirmish
line Of every moral conflict since her
birth, and the issue of every such con-
fiict has shown her in the right. Here
it was that love of liberty, that devO-
ton to the principles of human
equality, first inspired men to armed
resistance to the hateful institution Of
slavery aud to the domineering, pOliti-
cal oligarchy Of the south.
"In Kansas more boldly than any
where else has the moral sense pro-
claimed its hostility to the evils Of in
toxicating drink. Expressed, perhaps,
in measures more drastic and severe
than can we'll be enforced, and requir-
ing direction, perhaps, along other
lines to reach ths desired end, it is
nevertheless true that Kansas was the
| first, and I believe so far the only
state, to throw around her homes the
shield of constitutional protection in
this regard"
Other things for which Judge DosteT
gave Kansas credit we're its laws giving
women right Of suffrage and the cleo
ton of black man 20 be state officer,
thus illustrating the fact that The state
believes in the theory of the civil and
political equality Of the races.
sand now" Judge Doster said, awheu
the greatest, and as I fondly hope, the
last, crest conflict of the world is com
3 ing on, when the lines of combat be-
tween the forces Of industrial freedom
on the one hand and industrial serf-
dom on the other are forming, Kansas
as before, is in the post Of honor, in
the center Of the line, the colors in bel
charge; aye, and more than that, if
: can be credited with speaking from {
. partisan standpoint, with her fisl
floating in triumph over one Of The
enemy's entrenched strongholds; anC
more, too, than that, with their choseI
, battsliOns pressed to the advance, de
] ployed, as it we're, in the skirmist
3 order, covering the entire front; anC
= still more than that, her picket guards
posted to The farthest verge, keeping