The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-15
PRIDE OF KANSAS
Is the Memorial Building Now
Nearly Completed.
A Dissertation Is Proposal to
Turn 1t Into Workshop.

Editor State Journal:
The Memorial building was author
lied by a previous legislature, and the
entire money on hand to build it, Its
erection was begun and the exterior
stands almost completed 1t is a beau
tifuI building, monumental in design
and is the inward pride OF the people
of Kansas
1t is the only grand edifce on the
face of the earth, dedicated to the
honor of the common soldier. There
are many monuments to generals, ad-
miraIs and the worlds great warriors,
but none where the especial honor is
given by a sovereignty to the man be-
hind the gun. Kansas is proudly the
soldier state. 1t is our boast that we
began the war for liberty; that the
guns were shotted here that first rang
out the clear bugle note for free homes,
free speech and free men; that Kan
SaS sent more men to the war than she
had voters. On many fields and in
many fierce engagements, Kansas was
honorabIy and courageously represent
ed I can but remember with a trem-
bic of my lip z I'd glow in my blood,
of the Twentieth Kansas. On its re-
turn home, had the legislature been
in session. the capitol and its campus
would have been presented to it as its
armory. If this monument is to re-
main incomplete or is to be diverted
from its original purpose, as a patri-
otto expression of the great state OF
Kansas to its common soldiers, it will
be a humiliating and sorrowful thing
to every old soldier who has watched
its walls go up, and has put his heart
into the mortar of every course laid
The soldiers of Kansas have looked to
the time when finished and complete,
they might enter its doors and see
tablet to their names and ind the rec
ord of their services, the one and only
of
deeds from utter oblivion The poor
devil who shoots the muSket, has at
best, but little opportunity for a niche
in the halls of the lmmOrtalS- 1t ought
not be diverted from this magnificent
purpose nor ought it be left a ruin.
To the soldiers, and there are many
of them yet living. it will be a regret
and sorrow, half akin to a dishonOr-
able discharge from the service The
proud descendants of our. dead SoIuiery
will view it as a humiliation cast on
their dead sires.
The completion of the Memorial
building and its use as a memorial,
monument and shrine will be as great
an educator as our schools. 1t keeps
a place for patriotism in the long race
it is making with commerialism- The
people of Kansas, when the voice of
calamity was heard throughout the
land, when we were mortgaged TO
death, when We sung songs of poverty,
might then have complained at SUCH
an expenditure, but now, when we have
nearly three billions on the taxrolI,
when our income from all sources, is
nigh a billion a year, when luxury, ex-
travagance and prosperity can be seen
on every hand, it is an inapt time to
do an ungracious thing. 1 know the
people of the state OF Kansas as they
are, as they live; they are the best
beings on the face OF the earth; they
do not believe in this attempt to turn
this noble monument into ruin Our
people can bear taxation, however bur-
densoyae, if they believe the money is
applied TO some honest, decent pur-
pose, and without perquisite or graft.
In common with a host of my fellow
citizens, / feel as though it were low
ering the standards of Kansas, to turn
or halt this memorial from its purpose
to a ruin or for the housing of the
states merchandise. 1 feel badly over
it; it is the one thing that should not
be done. 1t would diminish state
pride and help place the almighty dol
lar, petty economics and may be poll
tics. above our Wanted spirit We
may always have use for the military
fervor, for there may he a foe to
come from over seas, there may be
revolution and strife within our bord-
ers, the battalions may get be array
ed against some for-7 of commercial
ism, and let US hold fast to the patri-
otto sentiment, the one and only de-
pendabIe thing in the time of a coun-
try'S stress
i @ WATERS