The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-13
IN The PUBLIC EYE
Old Family of Kansas VroO-
mans Heard From Again.
Frank Is Lecturing to Students
of Oxford University.
CARL In GOVERNMENT SERVICE
Is Assistant Secretary of Agri-
culture at Washington.
Once Lived in Topeka and
Were in WaShburn.
CARL IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE
SUNDAY.

Back in 1882 or 1888 a slim, good
looking young man started into Wash
burn college as a freshman, who was
later to become the greatest authority
in the world on questions concerning
the northwest country. Frank Buff
fington Vrooman attended school one
year and then-a victim to the wan
derlust-left for Beloit college in Wis
consin from where he tramped,
starved, hunted and explored the big
northwest country, wilderness I'M
broken by the gold searchers then.
Yes, 1 knew him when he was
here" said Robert Stone, SO, a To-
peka lawyer. HE was a tall slim
chap, remarkably smart and seemed
to possess the ability to learn without
studying. He had four or five broth
ers at Washburn later, Harry, Walter
and Carl. Every one of them was
smart a tack and was rather promi-
nent in Washburn affairs at that time.
Frank was only a freshman and never
got to be a real leader in the school,
but 1 remember him as a good de-
batter, and a ready talker with social
istic tendencies. We both belonged to
the Washburn literary society-there
were two of them then, the other
called the Gamma Sigma, this being
before the days of fraternities in
Topeka"
Ed McKeever Knew Him.
Ed McKeever, another Washburn
graduate in Topeka. knew Vrooman
and his younger brothers when they
attended college.
The Vrooman boys lived down town
while in school and one by one they
succumbed to the desire to travel and
slipped away, none of them staying
more than two years.
During the thirty years that have
elapsed since his residence in Topeka
Frank Burlington Vrooman has be-
come famous. After attending Har-
ward he went to oxford university in
England to study.
Oxford university offered him the
degree of B. Sc. in return for thesis
on the economic geography of north
ern and western Canada. Vrooman
had exactly eighteen days, two hours
and thirty minutes to get that thesis
in before Oxford closed for the year
Fifteen minutes before the time limit
his thesis was received. He had die
tated the entire ten-pound manuscript
directly to the typewriter. In its orig
mat typewriter form it stands today
an authority on the subject.
Nothing short of an uncanny thor
oughness of mental grasp on the sub
1ect could have made such a perform
ance possible. Vrooman had accumu-
lated his data and conclusions by first
hand observation and study. He had
tramped and explored and starved
over the headwaters of the Mackenzie
and Yukon rivers. over Vancouver Is
land and the frigid wilds of primitive
Canada.
Lecturer at Oxford.
What is he? Cataiogued as lecturer
on economic geography at Oxford uni
versity. Yet he is an American. Vroo-
man is unprecedented with construc-
tive study. Washburn college; Beloit
college, Wisconsin; Harvard; Univer-
sity of Berlin, and Oxford have con-
tributed to laying the foundations
upon which he has built colossal life
mission: to awake America and Great
Britain to their political and economic
duties.
For years his pen and voice have
been devoted to presenting to these
two nations some of the highly posi-
BILE consequences of shortsig htedness
in dealing with problems of internal
and international politics.
A few years back he addressed the
London chamber of commerce on the
subject of Imperial Preference for
British Investments He believed
that Great Britain was playing penny
wise in sending good money out of the
kingdom to Japan.
You have your own population to
keep British he said. You have
your own commerce to keep British
You have your own resources to de-
Velop. You can not do it by loaning
money to Japan to loan China,
which, by reason of this, is now buy
you. You will have posterity to reck-
on with if you are not willing to
spend enough on British warships for
the purposes of the empire!"
And Britain awoke to the fact that
Vrooman flashing her for her alliance
with Japan was looking through the
London fog and into tn great To-
morrow.
He Turns to America.
Today America is beginning to hear