Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1909-11-27
"Preserve the MissionsI"
Los ANGELES, CAL, Nov. 20.

LOS ANGELES-f oAI-, NOV ~
Preserve the Missions, That
is the keynote of movement
whica before the dawn of 1910
will be heard from the Pacific to
the Atlantic in the supreme eff
fort to preserve the crumbling
ruins of the old Spanish Missions
in California Wealth and in
fiuenceof California s most prom
inent citizens are being exerted
and their plans to make the
movement countrywide in its
scope have touched the respon
sive chord President Taft lent
his influence to the preservation
plans in his speech at Riverside,
Cal, then he said:
California is one of the few
states of the Union which has
picturesque past which the peo-
pie of the state should do all in
their power to preserve | fully
sympathize with the desire of
California people to preserve
these Missions and the style of
architecture they created"
The movement to which the
| executive gave impetus has long
been popular, but up to the time
of the presidents expression of
pleasure, it's popularity was linn
tied in a measure to Californians.
ProtestantS have joined hands
with the Catholics in furthering
| the move toward preservation of
these relics of the pioneer Catho
lie fathers. A fund, contributed
| by those interested directly in
the regions in which the Mis-
sionS are situated, has been pro-
posed and willingness to further
the movement in that manner
has been forthcoming from many
sources. The Landmarks Club,
of Los Angeles, is active in the
work. A heritage of loneliness,
of sentiment, of all that is beau
tiful in our natures" is the way
one member of that Organization
has referred to the Missions.
The stories of the Misaions are
like pages from Medieval history.
Yet today they stand almost in a
state of decay, with the excep-
ton of the edifice at Santa Bar
bara, which, thanks to the pub
lie spirit, has been restored to all
it's beauty.
Three of the finest of the mis-
sions Juan Capistrano,
San Antonio and San Batiste =
are in need of immediate atten-
ton. San Fernando Mission in
the San Fernando Valley is de-
serted and rapidly going into
ruins. Some effort at preserva-
ton has been made at ST. Cab
riel, between Los Angeles and
San Diego, and today it is in
fairly good shape.
The example furnished by the
lure of old world beauty is being
used as strong argument in fav-
or of preserving the Missions by
the Landmarks Club. Appeals
are being made to the men of
business on the coast and to the
thousands of Easter ners who
have established winter homes in
California
Governor Gillett makes a stir
ing appeal California has no
great battlefields to honor, no
statues of great generals to stil
martial spirit, but it has got
something better toward arous-
ing enthusiasm, in the crumb-
ling monuments erected by the
self sacrificing fathers in their
efforts to bring men from dark
ness into the light.
THE desire of the people tc
preserve the Missions is some
thing with which [ am in full
sympathy and l hope before ]
leave my Office to be able to APP
point commission the duty of
which will be the study of these
Missions and of the best way in
which to keep them to preserve
their beauty as an ethical slim u
lus to the people of our state
Bishop Johnson, the executive
head of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in southern California,
speaks of the work of the Pioneer
Catholic Fathers as monuments
of national architecture. He says:
These Mission Fathers built
with great courage, great devo-
ton and great diligence and they
created a style of architecture
which we should maintain. This
can best be done by keeping for
ourselves and those who come
after the original examples OF
/ l. l. L, I