The Green Forest tribune., 1912-06-07

been our home We love it. We honor it. We revere it. And, so help us God, as long as there is one single spark of patriotic, manly sentiment left in our souls we shall continue to fight for the preservation of the old state capitol.
 When the old statehouse was built, MT. President, the population of the state was small. There was but lit tie wealth to be taxed; and the old building, though of but little money value today represents many years of high taxes and hard times for our par ents. But from a financial view point what does it's proposed sale mean to us today? Fifteen cents to each in- dividual in the state. MT. President, haven't you fifteen cents worth of sentiment wrapped up in that old building? God pity the stingy, sordid, miserly soul who would sell his inter- est in that precious old heirloom, not for fifteen cents but for fifteen hun dred dollars when he remembers how his father and his mother labored and | toiled and sweated and were burdened with taxes to build it, and how happy they must have been over their handi- work when it was finished.
 Sentiment Yes, MT. President, am sentimental enough to say thsa& any citizen of Arkansas who is will ling to sell his interest in the old statehouse for fifteen cents is a knave, | 1yl-n nrt tn hn of Ay1y sas. A man who would take fifteen cents for his interest in that building is too sordid and mean and low to be respected even by the local editor of a country newspaper
 Sentiment! Ask that old father, stopped with toll and bent with age, living now in the childhood of his de- clining years, when the dreams of the hereafter and the sweet sentiment of earlier memories form the staff upon which he leans in his advancing years ask that old father If he would sell his interest in the old state capitol for fifteen cents. Ask him if he wants to see it bartered out to the greedy sfeculators and have those beautiful historic old grounds denuded of forest trees and desecrated with modern buildings
 Mir. President, if we cant muster fifteen cents worth of sentiment to the individual in Arkansas; if we can't save the old statehouse from destrue- tion; if We have become so complete ly commercialized that every public act must be measured in terms of dol Iars and cents; then let us memoralize congress to convey the obelisk on Bunker Hill into bean oven; bridge the Potomac with WashIngton's monu- ment, and change the sacred grounds of Mount Vernon into national con vict farm. If there is no other spirit in our state or nation but the spirit of commercialism, then let us be con- mercial
 But, MT. President, if we are con- pletely commercialized; if our souls are dead to every patriotic sentiment; where, oh where, is the spirit of chi valry that has ever been the boasted possession of Southern manhood? Our mothers and wives and sisters and daughters are crying out to us to save the old statehouse. Can we turn deaf ear to womanhood? Can we ig- nore the culture and refinement and beauty and sweet sentiment of the fair women of our state? The women have been our silent partners all these years. They have been true to us in prosperity and in diversity. They have labored and toiled side by side, silently, but faithfully, with the lord ly men for the development of Arkan- saS and the advancement of our civic and social conditions. For the first time they make a direct appeal to our chivalry and our manhood They do not demand, as they have a right to, that we save the old statehouse-their statehouse-they come 10 us appeal ingly, pleadingly, begging us not to barter away this old heirloom that their mothers and fathers loved so dearly, and which to them is dearer than all the money in Arkansas.
 MT. President, have you fifteen cents worth of patriotism? Have you fifteen cents worth of sentiment? Have you fifteen cents worth Of respect for the memory of our patriotic, pioneer dead? Have you fifteen cents worth of love and admiration for our womanhood? Have you fifteen cents worth of chiy- airy? Then let us unite in one de- termined, patriotic band and say to the women of our beloved state, "Go dry your tears; the house shall not be sold.''