The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-08-11
THE SOUL OF
FORT DES MONIES
By 1. NJ. Horton.

Twelve large, modern brick houses,
giving shelter to 1,400 men, facing a
grass covered, we'll kept rectangle of
many acres, bordered on the other side
by another imposing row of bricks,
called the Officers Row, having at
the West end the Colonel's Mansion
and at the east the Coloners office and
his administrative forces and over this
administrative building attended to a
so it, iron staff waves OLD GLORY
Fort Des Moines!
But today Fort Des Moines is more
than these buildings and rolling acres
and waving flag Fort Des Moines is
soul The concrete expression of
hope, good will and faith in Negro
manhood by those white men in the
United States army in whom still lives
the spirit of Robert Gould Shaw,
blended with the aspiration of these
Negroes as they struggle here taught,
led, aided and encouraged to touch
| the mark set here for super.men that
! they might don the uniform and eff
ciently fill the proud position of Off
+cers in the United States Army; that
they might draw their swords as free
men and go forth to battle as peers and
equals among all the men of the world
declaring that by theirsmight, too, free
dom shall not parish from the earth.
A score of West Point Graduates
| (volunteers to the Negro uplifht) COM
pose the supervising faculty of this
college. Each one top notcher in
his line. Among them First Lieutenant
Max Murray, Ordinance Expert, served,
in the Boxer wars, a. rare Judge of
men and a master disciplinarian; Cap
tain Stever, the father of the Wiscon-
sin plan for Military Instruction in
American public schools; Major In
gram, expert Tactician and a model
il soldierly carriage and demeanor;
Major Sturtevant, administrative sex
pert, these and the rest are presided
over by Colonel C. W. Ballou, griz-
zled old veteran of abolition stock who
has led Negro troops for years, knows
ard loves them because they never
failed him.
Such is Fort Des Moines, the soul;
thrilling, inspiring, the mecca of the
Negros Military hopes, and first page
of a new volume of black history in
white America. At Fort Des Moines,
white America and black America
have joined hands to pull the black
race over a mighty barrier of race pre-
judice.
And such an effort it is!
These sons of black women are try
ing to do in three months what it
takes West Point four years to do.
These men in the main are not job
seekers nor draft dodgers. Many are
| past the draft age. They are patriots
and crusaders. Patriots, because they
love Old Glory-Lincoln's flag! Cru
saders. because they are the leaders
of a rising race fighting to rise. And
when the call came for Ethiopia to send
forth her champions these boys left
lucrative positions, deserted paying
patients and good clients and threw
down the gauntlet to Riley and Platts-
burg and Sheridan. They told their
instructors I'VE ask no mercy, beg
no sympathy. We want the same
standard of efficiency set here that
the white boys must rise to-" And it
was set.
And when the black boys had
worked and toiled a few weeks and
their marks of efficiency were summed
up, had the life lasting pleasure to
hear one of our West Point men say:
You men have made most remarka-
BILE showing" Another one, a Major,
stood in the field and cried out, Boys,
you are out of sight"
Crusaders, patriots, champions of
rising race! They are competing
with each other for the chance to die
| Ira-...oa - ,ouo ~