The Topeka state journal., 1909-01-29
Birthday of the State VIII be
Celebrated Tonight.
Dinner VIII Be Held in Masonic
Hall.
ORGANIZATION is OLD.
1t Was Formed in Topeka
Eighteen Years Ago Today.
Nearly All Prominent Men IN
State Have Been Members.
Many Have Served as President
of the Club.
ORGANIZATION is OLD.

Forty-eizht years ago today kansas
was admitted to the Union of the states
That is not very long ago when the age
of a state is being reckoned- New
Hampshire is 133 years old and so are
q half dozen others of the Atlantic
states that do not compare with tnelr
young sister of the empire Of the west
in wealth. progress and opportunity
There are states in Europe over a thou
sand years old. no larger than Kan
sas and still a thousand years oehlnd
the Suuf1ower state in wisdom, happl-
ness and application of the art Of civ
1Iization. Forty-eight years is but a
day in the life of commonwealth but
IN that day the young Jayhawker has
performed miracles. but it Is with only
one OF these miracles that this article
has to deal
Young blood to act. old age for coun-
sci was the rule in Kansas in the old
days as we'll as elsewhere but the
breath of the prairie makes young men
grow strong quickly and the Kansas
sunshine ripens youth in wondrous
short time as we'll as it does wheat
and corn II being agreed then that
the Kansas air and sky and soil are
different. it is not strange that the
young meB OF this state were among
the first TO chafe under the yoke OF
their youth and inexperience and seek
as the privilege of doing all the shout
ing and marching and a large part Of
the voting
Organization Eighteen Years Old
Eighteen years ago today party of
these young men gathered in the par
lors OF the Throop hotel to talk the
matter over and devise ways and means
20 make their elders give Up some OF
the spoils Of political victory. They
stafd late to talk il all over and
- =
was their states birthday. So they
made ii quite an event-that supper and
tmpromptu speeches were made eu-
1ogizing the glories of Kansas.
After the discussion. the supper and
the speeches was born the light of an
idea. and that was organization. They
would get together. these young Re
pubIicans, and gain strength from their
union
What was more natural than that
they should call their organization
formed on January %. 1892. the Kan
sas Day club? And some inspiration
decided them to give a banquet once a
year on that date at which young Re
publicans only should be the hosts
speakers and controlling factors. They
would merely have a few OF the older
what young blood could do
No Longer Young Men"
Those young men who gathered at the
Throop's hospitable board that winter
afternoon many years ago are we'll on
in middle life now and have sounded all
the shoals of success and failure in
the political seas. but they can look
hack on the work of their hands and
call il good.
Not since the Sons of Liberty tossed
the British tea chests into Boston har-
Dor has there been an organization of
young men that has done more for their
state in the way of its political and
commercial advancement than the Kan
sas Day club has done for Kansas.
Banquets Grow Larger.
Each succeeding banquet on the night
OF January . was larger, more infiu-
entail, better than its predecessor
Each one OF these annual meetings of
the club gave to the state another ora
tor. thinker. statesman, genius in the
management of affairs That banquet
board was as prolific of great men IS
the French Revolution which gave
France Napoleon and his twelve mar
shals. each one of the latter a hero
and a genius In battle second only TO
his master. and all of them sprung from
the despised peasant families, called the
canaflIe.
From a club composed of in
dividuals this organization became a |
state affair. From a banquet it |
evolved into a political school whose
graduates reached every state that
mortals desire and conquered every /
(pOlfticaD foe save DEATH
The old timers who had taken all |