The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-22


thing we call the west is a receding
proposition, and If our expansion policy
continue to expand y may be that the
west after a, while VIII push so far
around the globe that Boston and New
York viii be western cities.
Message From Kansas.
Gentlemen, in conclusion, I bring
you a message from the Sunfiower
state, from the choice. yes, the choicest
slice Of nature carved out of earth and
sky, right in the heart of the universe;
from the state that contains relatively
more American born citizens and is
therefore more distinctively an Amer
lean state than any other state in the
union; from the state that has a less
percentage of illiteracy than any state
IN the union, with one or two excep-
tons; the state that raises more wheat
than any of its sisters, and the value of
whose corn and wheat combined ex-
ceeds that of any other common
wealth; the state whose zinc mines,
and oil reservoirs, and salt deposits
have no equal; the state where Uncle
sam, who knows a good thing when
he sees it, has established two of the
finest and cOstliest military establish
ments in the world; the state which
when the tocsin of war was sounded
at Sumter responded with more men
than it had voters at that time, and
the valor Of whose soldiers was attest
ed by the greatest relative mortality
sustained by the soldtery of any state,
ously competing with Kansas for this
sanguinary honor the state in whose
banks are piled up Sis, 1852, 05S.12,
averaging $77 per capital the state
where there is a. school house on every
hill top and scarcely, I repeat softly,
scarcely a saloon in the valley; the
state where not many milliOnaires
flourish, it is true, but where pauper-
SolomOn's sound philosophy, "Give me
neither poverty nor riches is more
nearly realized perhaps than anywhere
else on earth; the state where the
Omnipotent artist has painted His
fa1FeSt skies and most beautiful land
scapeS and upon which the Giver of all
good has lavished His choicest bless
ings; the state which Senator Hoar
said was the child of Massachusetts,,
which great state indeed furnished us
our first and one of our best gov
errors, Charles Robinson, and our
most distinguished citizen, that great
Hnguist and orator, that master of
pureSt English and of inYective, bril- !
stately statue adorns the Hall of
Fame, Senator ingalls,. I am not IN
mindful of the fact that the claims of
New England voiced by Senator HOar |
are stubbornly disputed. Statistics |
have been produced to show that COM |
paratively few of the earliest settlers |
of Kansas, those sturdy pioneers who |
rescued the state from the border |
England, and that comparatively few
of its present population are natives of !
those far eastern states, but I noticed |
in a recent address by a distinguished |
and well posted Kansan who was dis |
putting Senator Hears claim, the fatal
admission that while New England 7
furnished but few of the Immigrants I
that made Kansas free, it furnished /
most of the money and most of the |
brains in that great struggle.
And so, Mr.. IOas tnaSter, and gem /
tlemen, I bring you greeting from the /
Sunflower state, which while it may /
not be 1uH OF New England people IS
saturated through and through with |
New England ideas. New England |
courage, New England patriotism and I
New England love Of liberty. Only I
this let me say with pardonabIe pride, |
the ideal kansan . a composite /
creature. He is Puritan and Cavalier /
con1bined; that is t0~s say he has ap-
prapriated the virtues and eliminated
tn sSsyicess of each, and is -tOday,AI- beg |
you TO believe, the ideal American.
This really reasonable claim along
with the other claims I have made for
my beloved state may seem exrava-
giant, and suggests to me that this is as
good a time as any to refute a great |
and quite common error. It is openly |
charged that Kansas orators and Kan |
sas newspapers are given to eXtrava- |
gance of speech in describing the !
gIories and possibilities Of the Sun !
using the language of hyperbOle on I
these occasions. This charge originally |
emanated from the envious, but many /
well meaning people who are either
uniformed or nisinformed have come |
to give. some credenc6 to these accuSa- /
tfons To all such I wish to say that |
these accusations are unfOunded in /
fact not because Kansas orators and /
writer's do not possess the weaknesses /
common to those of their kind and |
la hon cnI
legitimately open to these accusations, |
but because, gentlemen, the thing is i'm /
possible. Kansas is perhaps the only |
state whose possibilities and glories can /
not be exaggerated. Kansas IS the nun |
of the Union, all the other states are
but spokes, and when all the adjectives |
and superlatiVeS and exclamation /
points have been exhausted, when the /
most vivid imagination and the Wild |
est fancy have been taxed to their ut |
most, when the speaker or writer has /
done his best to describe the glories /
and possibilities of the Sunf1OWer state. /
he is not elated over his work, rather
is he depressed, and when this pane I
gyrist reviews his best efforts, he sits
down, not in Joy over victory but in |
sorrow over defeat, and is compelled I
to SADLY exclaim with the queen of /
Sheba 1.-The half has not been told"
Gentlemen, you have right to be /
proud of your native New England, but /
whether we trace our origin to New /
England ancestry, or whether we were
born in sight of the Golden Gate, or
whether our eyes first opened upon the
fragrant flowers Of the sunny south /
land, or whether our infant heads were
pilIowed on the throbbing heart of the I
nation in Kansas, let US all rejoice that /
out of the differences, and struggles, /
and bitterness of the past has come a
happy, prosperous and united people t
knowing no north, no south, no east,
no west but a glorious land of the free,
and that with all our paroonable state
and sectional pride, we are most proud
of the fact that we are citizens of the
greatest country on earth, sovereigns
Of the best government known among I
men-that we are one and all Ameri-
can citizens.