The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-14
NO GINGER is LEFT
Commercial Club Lacks Ele-
ment of Success.
A Few Old Members Make Obit-
nary Remarks
NEED OF NEW LIFE.
Reorganization Necessary to
Save the Organization.
This May Be Done at an Early
Date.

Friday the 18th day of November,
temperature below freezing, 3 mem
bers of the Topeka Commercial club
present at the regular monthly meet
ing when it was called to order by the
temporary chairman, and % members
present when adjournment was taken
an hour later. The combination of
hoodoos is too much for any institu-
ton in the weakened condition of the
Topeka Commercial club to attempt
to Withstand and last night the death
rattle began and the club will soon
be a thing of the past unless a strong
saline solution of some kind in the
shape of a reorganization is injected
into it.
This was the second of the series
of winter meetings and less than a
corporars guard of the three or four
hundred membership have attended
the two meetings. Probably no city
in the United States of the size of To-
peka is without a commercial organ
ization of some kind yet this city has
been in lust that shape for over
year and there seems to be no chance
of lettering the condition until a
complete reorganization of the Tope-
ka Commercial club occurs.
c. K. Holiday acted as chairman
last night for it must be remembered
that the organization has been
headless affair for nearly a year
which may in measure account for
its uselessness. There was a time
when the Commercial club was a cred
it to the city and a body which ac-
complished things for the betterment
of Topeka but that was so long ago
that the new members know of it on
1y by tradition.
Dry rot or something of that kind
commenced over year ago and since
that time the organization has been
almost useless as far as Topeka is
concerned Many members have been
dropped from the rolls BECAUSE they
do not feel obligated to maintain an
institution which is of no use to the
city or to any save the individuals
who draw salaries from its treasury.
Dry rot is a charitable name for the
trouble which has killed the useful
ness of the club but the malady is in
durable and nothing short of a COM
plete reorganization of the club will
again bring back its usefulness.
A little less than one year ago w.
F. Jensen was elected president of the
club and he Immediately set a number
of socalled reforms in motion. but the
club was already on the down grade.
Then politics crept into the organiZa-
tion and fight was started against the
railroads. but it failed to mat erialize.
The question of municipal lighting
came up a few weeks later and at a
packed meeting of the club it voted
almost unanimously to instruct the
city council against city ownership.
This move failed to produce the de-
sired result, for week or so later the
voted $4,000 in bonds to be used in
rebuilding the city lighting plant. Mr..
Jensen in the meantime had rendered
his resignation and later moved from
the city and since then the Topeka
Commercial club has been a headless
affair as helpless and useless as a
rudderless ship on a choppy sea.
The Topeka Commercial club is an
Incorporated affair and any changes
which are to be made must be done
according to the laws of the state gov
erning such organizations. An at
tempt was made to reorganize the
body at a meeting a month ago and
second attempt was made at the meet
ing last night and the condition of the
club today is just about what it has
been for months past. The business
men of Topeka acknowledge the ne
cessity of an organization of this kind
but many of them are refusing to con-
tribute to the expenses of the present
organization on the plea that it is
worse than useless.
The obituary services which were
held last night consisted of reading
the minutes of meetings held during
the past nine months or such mat
ter and which have been omitted
from time to time as useless, owing
to the fact that there has at no time
been more than handful of members
of the club present during the past nine
months.
In the dim and distant past the To-
peka Commercial club was the means
for the city, among them the Santa Fe
shops and numerous factories of vari-
Gus degrees of worth though during the
past year absolutely nothing has been
done and but little attempted. Secre-
tary Poole has plan for the reorgani-
cation of the club and the changing of
its name which he says has been APP
proved by T. f. Doran. The proposed
plan was submitted at the meeting last
night as we'll as at the previous meet
ing but it does not seem to meet with
the approval of the majority of the
members of the club.
The change contemplates paving the
members OF the board of directors one
dollar each for every meeting they at
tend and it is hoped that this will
stimulate the attendance at the meet
ing of this board. An attempt win
be made at the next meeting to change
the name of the club and adopt a new
constitution and bylaws, though the
majority of the members seem to feel
that the trouble is not with the con-
stitution or bylaws of the club nor with
it's name but with the nagement
1T appears to me that there is moth
ing else to do but bring about a COM
plete reorganization of the club said
Col Carter at last nights meeting.
Something should be done and that
at once" commented ex-Mayor Davis
Topeka needs commercial organi-
cation of some kind which will work
for the entire interests of the city"
commented Charles Wolff. the packer
IF there is any disgrace attached
to the old name I would be in favor
of changing it to most any thing
else" said D. R. Blaine, but if not it
seems to me that the present name is
good enough for all purposes
81 am in favor of any thing that
will bring about a new condition of
affairs" said c. K. Holiday. Topeka
needs a Commercial club and needs it
badly and the city suffers every day
that it is without body of men who
will abandon their own business for