The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-11-21


to one Of the Consequences Of the great
history making conflict in which most
OF Europe n now engaged.
Car to start Monday.
It was decided to lose no time be-
cause of the great need Of the Bel
the murderous storm of war, and the
opinion was that Neosho county's car
load OF flour should be on it's way not
later than Monday of next week.
In Harvey County.
The millers Of Harvey county are
making plans to ship a carload Of
flour to Philadelphia ON December 10,
which viii be conveyed on a steamer
with the contributions Of the mi1lers
OF all the states, to the sufferers Of
the European war. The steamer which
Will be used for this purpose is one
JUST recently completed-the North
been launched from the shipyard of
England and will make it's first trip to
the United States. 1t is expected that
It will be in Philadelphia about the
first week in December.
History OF Belgian Relief.
1t is doubtful whether Kansas has
ever had any great public enterprise
carried ON within it's borders with the
same amount of enthusiasm as has
been constantly shown in the Belgian
Relief movement. This great move
ment began November 2, when Gov
ernor Hodges issued a proclamation
calling upon the people to organize and
solicit contributions for the relief of the
hungry.
This proclamation received instant
attention everywhere and at about the
same time the millers everyw here, I'M
der the leadership of the Northwestern
Miller at Minneapolis, Minnesota, were
arranging to send ship loads of flour to
Belgium. cablegram from London
was received November 10 by w. r.
Stubbs. former governor of Kansas,
asking him to head a relief organiza-
!; ton in this state. Mr.. Stubbs called
upon Governor Hodges and with the
cooperation of the Topeka papers
called meeting for Friday night one
week ago, at the Commercial club
rooms This meeting was quite largely
attended by men from Wichita, Hutch
tnson. Salina. and other large and
small towns. An organisation was eff
fected. with Governor Hodges as pres
ident. Mr.. Stubs as chairman. Scott
Hopkins. a Topeka banker, treasurer.
ana Charles Dillon, secretary. for the
statewide movement.
Free Service Granted.
The telephone companies give free
serviceSinside of the state, with spec
1al permission from the board Of pub
lie utilities, which was necessary under
| the law. The presidents of the rail-
roads operating within the state au-
| thOrfzed free transportation for all Bel
g1an supplies to the state line. Through
Herbert Hoover. chairman of the
American commission in New York al
Il Broadway, further and complete
transportation for these supplies was
arranged from the Missouri river tC
New York City.
Mr.. Stubbs and Mr.. Dillon then di.
! rected their efforts solely to organ
! izing the counties throughout Kansas
using the telephones for this purpose
The Western Union Telegraph com.
pany generously contributed free ser.
vice to assist in this work. Within the
week committees have been organized
in nearly all of the one hundred anc
F., five counties.
! Special articles describing condi
tions in Belgium and outlining the
methods for handling the contribu
lions, giving definite and concise plan.
for county organization were supplied
to all of the 750 Newspapers daily
and weekly. Sixty-five daily newspa-
peFs agreed promptly to give the from
page, or at least one page in some par
OF their Saturday afternoon or Sun
day morning edition solely to an ap
fpeal for contributions to the Relgia
fund.
| This one feature never was attempt
ed before so far as anyone remember
in Kansas. Some of the papers agreed
to carry reading matter, while other
were to print one entire page as al
advertisement setting forth the plan
and purposes for which the Organiza
ton was formed.
Growth OF Movement.
By Wednesday. five days after tn
original organization in Topeka tn
work had become SO large that 1t be
came necessary to move from tn
Commercial club rooms into q suit
of offices on the seventh floor of tn
Mills building. at Ninth street ant
Kansas avenue. These offices wer
contributed, reEt free. by the Mill
Dry Goods company. All furniture
needed was provided by the Cape
Publishing company and the Mills DIR.
Goods company. A poster in color
half as large as an ordinary offic
door was made by the Adams Bros
lprinting company, and supplies nee
essary to get these posters. 1000 Il
number, to every town in Kansas
were provided by the Central Topek
Paper company. All of these YER
necessary contributions. which ordin
iarily would take much money wer
made by Topeka business men, so tina
as far as possible every dollar contrib
uted might be spent for flour.
Campaign Slogan.
II Az might have been expected,
I slogan was ueeucu 1OE SUCH d u
work and that slogan, lone hundre
| thousand barrels of Kansas flour o
!, the tracks within ten days." wa
! adopted everywhere. The executiv
, committee issued a general statemeT
, or proclamation to the state and thi
was printed in all Of the newspaper
This proclamation was read last Sur
day in hundreds of pulpits through
; out the state.
Tho churches without resnect TO dc
nomination, sent out letters from Tt
I peka to ministers everywhere in tn
state asking them to organize or I
| cooperate with the committees |
their towns. In order to help such 9
? might not be. familiar with the Of
= ganization methods needed this p1a
e was recommended:
4 How to Organize.