The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-19

ing the session, to the work of his COM
mittee, much credit is due.
1t is unnecessary to go deeply into
details. The state house will be finish
ed, with an appropriation that will pro-
vide from one hundred and fifty thou
sand to two hundred thousand dollars;
an administration building will be
erected at the state insane asylum, and
many thousands expended in improv-
ing the present building; an Industrial
building, a much needed addition to the
reform school, will be erected,-and in
this connection 1 wish to remind you
that the necessity of these improve
ments was first presented in the Com
mercial club through addresses del1V-
cred by the superintendent of those in
situations, at our invitation. Appro-
priations aggregating more than $685.
900 were obtained in addition to the
passage of q number of local bills, such
as the auditorium. park, public school
levy, city court, and others of parS
mount Importance to Topeka.
We We're particularly fortunate in
having the benefit of Secretary Ander-
sons long experience in public life. and
his well known faculty for obtaining
the things that he goes after, and in
having a delegation in the lower hO@1se
that worked with enthusiasm for To-
peka.
During the period under considera-
ton, the matter of Increased train ser
vice on the Missouri Pacific railway
was taken up and in conjunction with
the Commercial club of Pittsburg, petit
lions obtained from every town be-
tween the two cities, that were signed
by substantially all of the residents of
that territory, and our efforts in that
direction bid fair to prove success
An effort was made to secure the To-
cation here of the state Odd Fellows
Home, and while the matter of a de-
cision was deferred for one year. our
prospects for obtaining it are exceed
ingly good.
Considerable interest has been
In cr1l,5 nf ant
bridges, and the starting of a system
of public parks is already so well un
derway as to be assured.
The advantages of organization are
certainly apparent in this summary of
a few of the more important of our I'M
dertakings, the result of properly d.
rected efforts when the business and
professional life of Topeka is back of
1t.
The object of the club is not to bring
in additional mercantile establishments
to glut an already crowded field, but to
secure the location of manufacturing
and other enterprises that through
their employment of labor will act as
feeders to our present retail stores, and
it was with this end in view that the
compilation of a statistical review for
the purpose of presenting our claims
and advantages, was undertaken. That
work is so recently from the press as
to be fresh in the minds of all of you.
1t involved a great deal of labor in its
preparation, but the results will justify
the effort. An edition of fifty thousand
copies is being spread to the uttermost
borders of the nation, and as an adver-
tisement for Topeka it will unQueStion-
ably prove of great value.
A town with a population of thirty
| eight thousand that pays to its 9,164
| wage earners yearly wages in excess of
five million dollars, that has manufac-
turing industries, the value of whose
annual product is about six million dol
lars and a wholesale trade amounting
to like sum- need not hesitate to pub
lish her achievements to the world.
The future of this organization as a
permanent factor in the development of
Topeka seems assured, and the necessi-
ty of it's continued existence more ap-
parent as time progresses.
That there are unpleasant incidents
| connected with the active management
of an organization of this kind, where
the laborS of those who take an inter
| est are expended without hope of re-
ward is indisputable, the objections of
| the disgruntled element sound louder
| that the plauditS of the more apprecia-
| tive ones as the bray of the jackass is
| louder than the song of the nightin-
| gale.
We come in contact with the individ-
| ual who kicks" when asked to lend as
| Sistance or pay his dues, and who says
| that he can not see how the club is ben
| citing him,-a class whose range of Wis
| ion is so enthusiastically minute that
| they are unable to comprehend any
| thing as beneficial unless it puts money
| directly into their pockets, they fail tc
| see that the good accomplished for the
| town in which they live and make mon
| ey, can be to their advantage. Topeka
| has a few such people, but they are
| few, and after all mere incidents, and
| about all that we ever had of them ir
| the club have dropped out, and ever
| with such losses as we have sustained
| we are able to show a growth for tbs
| past year of more than so per cent.