The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-28
TrainlOads of Delegates Reach
Bedecked City.
STREETS GAY WITH FLAGS
Hundreds of Signal Banners
Loaned by q. s. Navy.
Boy Scouts Doing Valiant Ser
vice as Guides.

Kansas City. Aug. 2s.-with the
calling to order this morning of the
executive committee of the national
council of administration. the fiftieth
national encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic was ushered
into official being. Immediately fol-
lowing was the session of the COM
mittee of credentials. Meetings of the
women's Relief Corps and of the va
ried allied organization of the G. A.
r., were scheduled thruout the day at
their headquarters at different hotels.
Convention hall, where the meetings
of the encampment will be held was
in bedecked attire for the aged but
light spirited throng which f1ocked In
to register at the circle of booths al
lotted to the different army units.
Clerks were kept busy answering in
quiries where, THE boys from Ohio
were staying?" and 'If so-and-so of
the Eleventh New York had arrived ?"
Boy Scouts on the Job.
Little knots of veterans formed and
uniformed before the various head
quarters as each new arrival entered
and was greeted by comrades alarms
Street decorations have been made
more varied and doubly effective by
the loan of several hundred signal
flags by the navy department. These
flags are strung on ropes and swung
across the streets high over head. Vet
Grams continue arriving on every train.
Troops of boy scouts are doing val
liant service plotting their aged com
rades' to the hotels while Kansas
City as a whole has felt a gentle touch
of sympathy for the heroes who saved
&c n ~
fort for them is lacking
May Be Last Reunion.
Threats of railway strike have
kept many of "Lincoln's Boys from
attending the encampment, ADJ. Gen
John Adams of Cincinnati said, add
ing that failure of the railroads to
grant rates, and the unusually hot
summer in nearly every section of the
union, has also cut the attendance
Here, however, the choicest weather
prevailed The maximum tempera-
ture yesterday was 6S degrees.
Indications multiply that this will
be the last national encampment Sam
d. Brown, commander of the Depart
ment of Kentucky, proposes hereafter
that encampments not be held en-
masse, but by delegates chosen from
each state, proportioned one delegate
to each 500 members. their expenses
to be paid by the encampment-
Commander Brown said it was only
year or two until the majority will
cease attending, owing to increasing
infirmities, and that his plan will put
us on a business basis as well as
patriotic" He feels sure 500 COM
rades could do the convention work as
well as 1t is done now, and that the
others would be content to stay at
home.
Many Special Trains.
The New England special bearing
delegates from Maine. Massachusetts,,
Vermont New Hampshire. Rhode
Island and Connecticut was the first
in today. 1t had been preceded late
last night by one of the Ohio specials
and later today the New York conting-
ent was expected to arrive. Hundreds
of the wearers of the army blue are
here from Illinois. Minnesota. IndI-
ara. Wisconsin. and Pennsylvania,
altho the special trains from those
states have not yet reached here.
Pat Coney a Candidate.
Coincident to the opening of the
various departmental headquarters to-
day campaigns were launched for sew
eral candidates who wish to succeed
Captain Elias r. Monfort of Cincin-
natl as commander-in-ch chief of the
army. Four men whose candidates.
were announced are VIM. J. Patterson
. of Pittsburgh. J. Payson Bradley of
Boston. Patrick H. Coney, inspector
general, of Topeka, Kansas. and Le-
want Dodge of Berea, Ky. The cleo
tion will be held Friday but in prep
grafton for it, lively campaigns in be-
half of each of them Were started by
their regimental comrades and fellow
department members.