The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-07-04
HONOR THE PIKE.
CONTINUED from First Page.)

the ledger balance was always on the
wrong side Now we are creditor ma
ton and the trade balance Is largely IN
About the time that Lieutenant Pike
raised the American flag here our imports
were $500 600; our exports s10o09o, egg,
showing a balance against US OF S5V,VVVs-
Now our exports are more than one and
a half billion dollars our Imports less
favor of more than $500, oo0. 000-1naking
the great balance on the credit side OF
the the ledger one-ha1 as great a 1ne sn
IN a single century we have grown from
wealth: from a debtor to a creditor ma
ton. The American flag is upon all seas.
merchant in all markets, and the United
States enters upon the new century as
But marvellous as has been the develop
ment of the United States the develop
bic For more than half a century after
the flag was planted here the territory
known by travellers and geographers
alike as q great desert The deXeiOpn1ent
substitution of an energetic. thrifty peo-
pie for savage tribes. the displacement OF
numbers over these prairies, by the Short
horn and the Hereford, the building OF
formerly the wigwam stood. have been
marvellous. and the history of that Won
derful growth reads like fairy tale.
Forty years ago Kansas was admitted
into the union as a state, 1t had scarceiy
but these have grown and increased until
we have within our borders one and
and law and order and good government
and temperance as any people that were
We have developed along the lines Of
agriculture until in 1900 and 1901, in two
succeeding harVeStS. Kansas produced the
astounding and unequaled yield of more
than $50 900 bushels of wheat Last year
of live stock-or more than four head for
every unit of our population We have
Tod 7rna 1f theorists
have a horse for every family and COW
for every individual in the state, with
plenty of swine and sheep thrown IN
for good measure. We have grown from
the crude business methods where pelts
change to a banking system represented
by over five hundred banks, with an ag-
ion dollarsEor nearly fifty dollars for ev-
cry unit Of our population The deposits
creased in a single year over 80 per cent
To carry the products of our pastures
nine thousand miles of railway. If built
in parallel lines equi-distant from each
traversing the state from east to west
But it is not in our rich harvests, our
deposits or our great system of railways
that the state has made its greatest ad-
in Kansas for half a century after PIKE
raised the flag here. There are now more
than nine thousand in the state There
are eleven thousand school teachers ana
an enrolment in our schools OF -FOUR nun
more than one-fourth of the population
are enrolled in the common schools and
that one out OF every one hnnorea , and
thirty OF our population IS q Scnooi
teacher. That our schools are efficient
is shown by the fact that Kansas has
smaller per cent OF nliteracy than any
state in the union
One of the strongest influences in this
wonderful development has been the pub
lie ress. There are now ublished in
Kansas eight hundred and thirty eight
papers and other periodicals
These go into our homes and afford the
people means of keeping IN touch with
the schools and homes and newspapers
had a forcible illustration during the
Spa American war when in four fun
Kansas regiments. enlisted from all parts
of the state, there was not a single sol
der who could not write a. leg1ble hand
A remarkable thing in all of this wonder
full development is that it has taken place
within the space of a. single life
Many of the men who moulded and
ear1v DAYS are moulding and SHAPING pub
lie Sentiment still OF the strong coterie
of newspaper men who directed the cur
the great struggle to make Kansas a free
state some stil1 WELD a. ready pen in de-
Tense of the institutions which the early
men, John A Martin of the Atchison
S. s. Prouty of Freedoms Champion; ID.
Dwight Thatcher of the Lawrence Jour
nal; F.. G. Adams of the -Atchison Free
the Leavenworth Times; M NJ. Murdoch
Sf rhe formerly Of the Junction city
Union now of the Kansas City Gazette,
are still in the editorial harness. think
many fail to realize the great and sue
eessful fight that the early free state
press of Kansas made for freedoms
cause and the influence it exerted to give
breadth and purpose to Kansas clviilza7
BY every golden harvest. by every low
ing herd, by every bursting granary, by
every overlooking bank, by all of her in
creasing streams of business-already
bank full - Kansas has reason to
these
dences Of material prosperity that
the flag Upon her SOL long before kan
sas was born But better than all these
from the dugout to the mansion. in all
of it's public schools. universities colleges
whatever name denomination or creed:
and in the product of all these its noble
type of manhood and womanhood, KAN
sas finds its real cause for rejoicing.
And this suggests two questions; II the
NAMING OF he American flag in its
stead at that place in the early days of
so much good, can the hauling down OF
the Spanish flag and the planting of the
American flag in its stead n any olner r
century. be productive of harmy II the
planting of the American flag in its place
brought so much liberty and blessing to
sava geT,v by high Christian civilization
is there any danger that the haulng down
the American flag in its place a hundred
years afterward, will bring haroshlp,
tyranny or oppresslon2
And now, in the name Of Kansas. in the
name of its one and a half million strong,
brave and law-abiding citizens in tho
name of its public schools. the pride and
glory of our state. in the name OF IT'S
homes, its churches. its public press In
the name of its early pioneers living and
dead. in the name of the boys and girls,
who are soon to come forth out OF our
/ homes and. churches and schOols-the pro-
duct of our civilization-to take upon their
shoulders the responsibilities and cares oS
/ state: il. the name of all that is good and
/ Inspiring in the history of Kansas here
4 bv accept. in the name and behalf OF all
! of these the deed to this historic spot