The Topeka state journal., 1906-06-02
G. 4. &. Men Would Re-eleci
Popular Commander.
Find That There LIS Plenty of
PRECEDENT.
DECIDE IT NEXT WEEK
State Encampment to Be Held
at Sallna.
Letters From &. A. K. Men on
the Subject.

Friends OF Department Commander
P. II. Coney are preparing to make a.
big fight for his reelection to the post
he now holds at the state encampment
to be held at salina on June 5, 8, T
and 6.
There is considerable opposition to.
Capt. Coney on the ground that It has
been customary for department COM
manders to serve only one term. Capt.
Coney's friends say that he has been
doing SO much for the Grand Army
that he ought to be retained for this
good of the ORDER
A R. Greene, formerly one of the
Kansas department commanders has
received e5l owlng letter from
George H. Patrick Of Aseshilagton D.
c., to whom Mr.. Greene wrote a LETT
ter concerning the second term propo-
sition. Mr.. Patrick was the chief OF
staff under National Commanders
Shaw and King, and was formerly de-
partment commander Of Virginia. He
says in his letter:
My Dear Greene:
There is no written or unwritten
law prohibiting the reelection Of an
efficient department commander who
has been and is building up the mem
bership; on the contrary. our written
4dW 444dskASC every COl14IdQG III SOO0
standing eligible to any Office.
'sIt is true that a custom Of some
years standing has grown up to elect
new men each year both in department
and national organizations, even to the
shelving of a good man who happens
to have been complmented with an
election to a place below the salt in
stead Of the head of the table. where,
perhaps he better ought to have gone
than the man elected, this partly to
E1-l- IL
National Encampment, partly to SCAT
ter the honorS about before they shall
be the help that comes too late' partly
because almost every comrade is him.
self anxious to get into the lime-light,
and his friends kind.
But against this sentiment is the
manifest good Of the order, which all
ways ought TO prevail over custom \
stale variety or the ambitions of the
least or most worthy. 1 am clearly or
the opinion that no question that car
come before US is more important than
the recruiting or holding of our thin
ming ranks; and the comm mander who IS
doing this, unless there be some other
who can do more, much more, oughs
to be retained. Reelected. HTeinductedt
upheld in highest position, should be
kept two terms. yea, Just as long as hS
may be able to prove his faith bA
works. There can .be no question of
this; and I say this In the abstract,
your years commander, unless he be
Coney; and I rather fnelineF to the be-
lief that he has n0t5 yet climbed the
golden stairway which leads into glor-
ious oblivion. But, even if Coney. tbs.
aborer is worthy of his hires-earn-
ing it, as you say.
II fancy that the next Commander
lin-chief may be selected upon the plat
form of making good our mess NUNS
ber. So no matter how many splen-
~ n
or postponed a little, let them not say
good bye, but fade away like a summer
cloud smiling as they CO. SO be 1t the
order shall be strengthened by their
willing sacrifice Tom Lawler, OF
whom God had but one mold, which he
broke and cast the fragments away,
has been commander Of our senior post
at Rockford for nearly forty years;
and he'll be commander until he dies.
Afterwards there'lI lust be his vacant
chair draped in tender, loving n1em~
ory to the end And he wears the dia-
mond badge of a past commander-in-
chief IN honor; but his pride and joy
is the simpler emblem pinned on his
breast by the neighbors with whom he
touched elbows before and after who
wouldn't let him resign il he begged on
bended knee.
80, remembering that
Sixty thousand veterans die each year,
Sixty. gray haired regiments.
hear,
And at sunrise strike their tents.
keep the services of the department
and post commander who will go out
into the hedges and by-ways and gath
er in the sheaves for the vanishing
army numbers more than half a mil-
lion men who never have worn the butt
ton nor stood with Us before the altar;
and they ought to be entitled to have
taps sounded over their graves in
death, to be glad to receive the right
hand of fellowship while living.
Tell all the other aspirants to
mark time a year or two, until every
soldier Kansan shall be enrolled, pro-
vided. of course. reelection may keep
up or add to your number. Side
track everything else to that untif
/ they're ali in.
Il am delighted that this subject,
dull as it is, not meaning to hint that
your commander needs any sharpen
ing, has given me the pleasure of
again looking upon your glad hand
when it is read.
Accept the greetings of this Easter
tide, and believe me, always for the
successful recruiting officer
Yours in f. C. & l..
GEO. H. PATRICK"
+. P. Cochran. another department
| commander of the G. A. r. has writ
ten the following address to members
of that order, urging them to re-eleeT
Capt. Coney.
ITO Comrades of G. A. r.
As past commander of the G. Al.
r. and a member of that organization
in Kansas for 35 years. and believing
in that policy that has for its object the