The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-15
GIVES It UP.
Ministerial Union Frowns Down
Auditorium Services.
President Will Be Allowed to
Worship Where He Pleases.

The Ministerial Union of Topeka will
rot hold union services in the auditor
ium on the Sunday that President
Roosevelt will be in Topeka The com
ton OF the president. appointed by the
CONNER cial club. had included union
service In its plan and passed the mat
ter up to the Ministerial Union. The
Ministerial Union, by formal vote this
morning, refused to accept the sugges-
zion or be responsible for the meeting.
Three main reasons were advanced in
opposition to the plan. One was that
the crowd that would want to attend
If there were no other services in the
city; another was that such q meeting
would not be meeting for worship but
the majority would attend out OF mere
curiosity; the third was that President
Roosevelt himself probably would not
favor the plan.
DR.. J. T. Mcfarland proposed that in
stead OF this plan. a committee be ap-
pointed by the president to compile
Topeka on that day and send it to the
president with the greetings of the Min
fsteria1 Union and the hope that he will
find it convenient to attend some one OF
adopted.
The committee on public morals, which
Is made up OF Rev. Charles M. Sheldon,
Rev. J. T. Mcfarland and Rev. A. NJ
Reynolds, made report scoring the
fair association for allowing gambling,
liquor selling and disreputable features
on the fair grounds. The report was
unanimously adopted and is as follows:
Your committee on public morals
would call attention to the disreputa BILE
features connected with the state fair
held here during the past week The
street fair shows were of a character
that were offensive to good taste ana
the moral sense of all respectable peo-
q mr. LODI aIxy 70, fI,a r1rrs,>
and corrupt. Such exhibitions have no
proper place in connection with an ex-
position assuming to represent the
prosperity and industrial progress Of
the state and asking for the patronage
and support of good citizens. We hold
the management inexcusably blame
worthy, for the sole motive of mere
catch-penny profit, in which we are
glad to learn they were disappointed
in bringing into the fair things whose
moral influence could only be debasing
I'VE wish also to enter our earnest
protest against the gambling features
or the races. The speeding of horses on
such occasions has degenerated into a
process of gambling, pure and simple.
and as such should receive the unquali-
fed condemnation of Christian people
SO long as the managers of fairs will
not only permit but make deliberate
arrangements for the operation of
book makers in connection with the
races, the support and the approval of
should be Withheld
I'VE wish also. and in the strongest
terms. to record our indignation and
grief that either through the direct ac-
ton of the managers of the fair or the
criminal connivance of some of their
members. saloons were permitted to be
maintained on the grounds during the
entire session of the fair. These saloons
must have been admitted to the ground
by some official authority, and there
can be no question that they must have
paid some one for the privilege granted
them Even granting that the admis-
sion Of the saloons in the first instance
was due to one or two members of the
board without the knowledge or consent
of the other managers, the board as a
whole became responsible, when open
attention had been called to the lawless
traffic, by neglecting to expel the law
breakers promptly from the grounds.
This they neglected, apparently refused
to do. Such an offense should be visit
ed with the severest public condemna-
ton. For the managers of the fair to