The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-10
IN PERRY'S HONOR
A Marble Shaft Is Dedicated al
Put In Bay.
Former President Taft the Or
atOr of the Occasion.

Put in Bay. Sept. 10.-A towering
shaft of white marble, erected in COM
memoration of Commodore Perry's vic
tory in the battle of Lake Erie and the
one hundred years of peace between
the United States and Great Britain,
was formally dedicated today by For
mer President William Howard Taft.
Inauguratin the dedication cere-
monies cannon doomed at the hour of
firing the opening gun of the famous
battle, fought one hundred years ago
today. within view of the Put-in-Bay
shores
"A century ago today this day was
made famous by battle" said Mr..
Taft, "and today we meet to dedicate
a great and beautiful monument to
those who took part.
I'm the retrospection of one hundred
years we can weigh it's significance.
Nothing has developed in these years
to diminish the courage, patriotism and
skill of the commander and his men as
they appeared to their contemporaries.
But the consequences of the battle and
the war, of which it was one of the few
bright spots in a field of gloom, were
strikingly beneficent and promise to
grow even more so in the second CEN
tury upon which we are now entering"
Mr.. Taft then Sketched the biography
of Commodore Perry from his birth in
Rhode Island to the supreme moment
of his career-the naval engag cement
of West Sister Island one hundred
years ago-and to his sudden death in
Venezuela on his thirty fourth birth
day. His youth the difficulties en-
countered in building and manning his
fleet and his courage in the crisis which
turned the tide of victory were made
the subjects of eulogy.
The event in the light of difficulties
encountered in building. armfng ard
manning his fleet served to show the
greatness OF the man. the speaker
said, but when we note the almost
hand to hand fight in which he was
engaged, the slaughter upon the deck
of the flagship. his passage from one
vessel to the other in an open boat, ex-
posed to the direct fire of the enemy.
and then note how he took a second
flagship and bore down upon his two
formidable assailants and made them
strike their colors in ten minutes. we
see one worthy to rank with Lord Mel
son and all the great naval command
ers in history. When he fought the
battle he was not yet % years of age.
eve lay down the record of his life
and drop tear upon it's tragic closing
and we can truly place him among the
great heroes of our history. Through
out his short and brilliant career he
maintained the highest level of equa
nimity, patriotism and devotion to
duty.
I'VE celebrate the centennial of this
battle, not in the spirit of triumphal
victory of arms, but in the deep graft
tude that one hundred years has not
seen its repetition. No historical re-
view can give as much satisfactio to
him that hopes for permanent inter-
national peace. as the contrast between
the attitude of the two people then
and now.
Little could Perry have thought in
the struggle that he had in building
his puny fleet in the stress he was
under in the height of battle, in the
victory that he announced in his fam
Gus words to General Harrison, that
his work would be remembered for
one hundred years as the harbinger of
perpetual peace; and while we vener
ate the energy, the interpidity, the
patriotism. the self sacrifice that
brought him and his men their great
triumph. today we cherish not so
much its evidence of American man
hood. and love of country as the teach
ing that its memory brings to the
world of the practical possibility of un
ending love and peace between inter-
national neighborS''