The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-04
srnP rIrNsToN TALK.


A few years go it was the fashion to
glorify him The same persons and
the same newspapers, with few excep-
tions. that were instrumental in put
ting the Kansas hero on pedestal are
now trying to pull him down. The
praise lavished on General Funston
for his Philippine exploits when they
were fresh in the public mind was in
many cases exaggerated. The re-
acton has set in, and the abuse of him
is unjust and unreasonable.
This theory that his press agent
made General Funston is not a new
one 1t is merely a revival of what
has been charged ever since the
Twentieth Kansas regiment landed in
San Francisco on its return from the
Philippines. The jeaIousies, the dis
cords, the political Vaccinations that
had done more to disturb the peace of
the regiment in the Philippines than
ever the Filipinos did. were public
property before the regiment got
back to Kansas. The accounts of the
reception of the regiment at Topeka
were published alongside interviews
with the detractors of the general in
his own regiment, and for several
weeks the charges and counter
charges of the opposing factions of
the Twentieth occupied considerable
space in the newspapers. There were
many Interviews and statements
from officers and privates, and max
ing due allowance for personal pref
udices, natural antipathies and the
jealousy which seems to exist in every
regiment, there can be no doubt that
politics, which had been largely over
| looked in the original appointments
at the organization of the regiment,
had played a rather too-important
part in it's subsequent history. But
although all this was aired in the
| newspapers at the time, and the pub
/ lie had an opportunity of finding out
the truth from the men in whose
minds the episodes were still fresh,
only few people paid any attention
| to it. Kansas had a "hero'' in Fun
ston, and was determined upon his
apotheosis. The people would hear
nothing against him. Any man who
| dared to speak a detrimental or even
a qualifying word in opposition to the
chorus of praise was branded a carp
ing fault finder.
The people simply lost their heads
and went Funston crazy. If the war
| correspondents made" Funston, the
people finished the job. There was
no story of his courage and daring too
big for them to swallow. And they
kept it up after he came home. Cen
eraI Funston never claimed that he
swan the Rio Grand2. His statement
recently published by the Associated
Press is practically the same state
ment that he made when this contro-
versy over the swimming of the Bag
i Bag arose when the regiment first re-
turned from the Philippines. But at
that time nobody would read it, or
listen to it. or believe it. The people
had made up their minds that he was
a hero and a demi-god. and they
weren't going to let a little thing like
the real truth spoil their fun. But
that was several years ago, and every
one knows that the principal object
of raising an idol is the fun of pull
ing it down. Kansas is now tired of
General Funston and is ready to pull
him down. This school history contro-
versy has brought up all the old sto-
ries and all the old row. Nothing has
been brought out in the past two
4 weeks that was not published four
years ago; the only difference is that
now the people are willing to read it.
The elevation of Funston was the
sensation then the taking down of
Funston is the sensation now The
people really care very little about the
true facts in the case. All they want
as a scandal; something to talk about
whether they understand it or not Pig
1 headed obstinacy would have have i'm
! PEELED them to stick to the hero theory
four years ago in the face of any
amount of evidence to the contrary and
/ the same quality now prompts them to
insist upon the humiliation of their
hero in spite of the capture of Aguinal-
do, which deed alone without any of
the honor and glory of his career as
colonel of the Twentieth was sufficient
to make the Kansas general the most
prominent figure in the Philippine in
surrection. The people were determin-
ed, in the height of their worship of
him to give him credit for everything
his regiment had done and to attrib-
ute to him acts of daring which he de-
MED but nobody viii be surprised, now
that the reaction has come, if there
is a movement to take away from him
the credit of this browning triumph.
His detractors said, when he was given
his appointment in the United States
army and returned to the Philippines
after the Twentieth was mustered out
that we had heard the last of Freddy
Funston. John Steele had made" him,
they said, and now that he was going
back without his press agent he would
cut a very insignificant figure in the
campaign But a few months later
came the capture of Aguinaldo which
broke the back of the Philippine in
surrection and John Steele efghty-five
hundred miles away.
It is perhaps too much to expect the
people to use common sense in their