The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-16
TAFT in CAMP
Former President Makes Five
Speeches at Funston.
Given Big Reception by Officers
and Selected Men.
SEE SMILE AND HEAR CHUCKLE
Y. M. C. A. Wonderfully Adapt
able Institution.
He Tells Why the Boys Are in
CantOnment.

BY SERGT. GEO. C. ADRIANCE.
| Hon. William H. Taft, former pres
ident of the United States. and the
Taft smile and chuckle visited Camp
Funston Monday and Tuesday, as re-
ported elsewhere. Mr.. Taft's train
was late and it was after three before
he appea red at the Y. M. c. A
| auditorium for his first address to
the members of the 164 artillery
brigade. The warmth of the recep-
ton accorded Mr.. Taft at this f1rst
/ speech was characteristic OF that
| given by the other organizations OF
the cantonment when each assembled
| in it's turn to hear him
With the organization standing at
attention, Mr.. Taft, accompanied by
Brigadier General Winn, command
| ing Camp Funston, and his aides,
came down the aisle while the honors
due an ex-president were given-the
drums beating four ruffles, the bugies
| sounding four flourisheS and the band
| playing Hail to the Chief. Upon
| the moment that the men were re-
| leased from the position of a soldier
| at attention, a mighty burst of ap-
| plause broke for sustained period
| 1t provoked the Taft smile. 1t did
more; it encouraged mood that later
| many times in his address broke out
| into the Taft chuckle.
Mr.. E. B. Pratt, general secretary
introduced Colonel Nugent. command
| ing the Artillery brigade. who, in
turn introduced the distinguished
| guest
II learned from the program that
| was to address the Caucasian race
today" the speaker began, leisurely,
and the artillerymen, their faces
black from the driving dust storm of
/ the afternoon, waited for the point
! tf@r1 @r,Oe. 7raf
enable me to prove it 1 think you
| have a solution for the race problem
| right here.
II am here today under the auspices
of the war work council of the Y. NJ
c. A. at the request of DR.. John R.
| Mott. The Y. M. c. A. is a wonder
fully adaptable institution whose prin-
| ciple is to employ the leisure hours
of the soldier in making him better
morally. physically, spiritually and So
| cialIy--to elevate him and to save him
! from the toboggan slide into democrat
| ization and vice. Years ago in Gin
| cinnati I had a law partner who was
| president of the Z. M. c. A, but 1
had not given the work much atten-
| ton. My partner worked that side of
the street. and the speaker chuckled.
1T was not until I went out to the
| Philippines that 1 came to regard the
| association as an institution OF the
utmost value, an institution to be used
1
| them to accomplish their official pur-
pose. The Y. NJ. C. A. was first or
ganized in London. Soon afterward it
fell as Mr.. Cleveland used to say, into
innocuous desuetude.' was revived in
the United States and from this coun-
try Y. M. C. A. agents were sent to
| London to restore it
when the war began Doctor Mott
Immediately telegraphed to the presi-
dent offering the services of the asso-
49, oil t1
accept. Then a campaign for $685.
| 900, 900 to sustain the work was begun
| but so generous was the response of
the American people that it reached
the sum of s60,00o.000. That you
boys may return to your homes some
day, look your mothers. your sisters,
your wives and sweethearts in the eye,
| unashamed and undefiled-that is the
purpose of the association. Its secre-
taries follow you to the front and from
| their dugouts they minister to you.
Many of them have given their lives to
| the cause.
DIR. Mott has asked me to give
| thirty days to a series of speeches
thruout the camps and cantonments
| explaining to the boys why they have
been summoned You know 1 re-
ceived a summons one time-a sum-
mons to private life whose nature
could not be misunderstood" and the
ex-president smiled while the men
a professor at Yale. You know some
men are presidents and then pro-
fessors while others are professors and
then presidents.
But why you are here. Why was
it necessary to pass an act of con-
scription? Why this great army Of
100000 men, an army that in my
judgment should be increased to
| 5000, 900? For we do not want to
leave the issue of this war in doubt.
I 9
won by predominating man power.
There is the whispering individual
| who says in a half-hearted way: oh.
I am for war. but I am sorry we're in
| it. If we had only been neutral. if
we had not sold munitions to the al
lies we might have stayed out of it,
Our government did not sell munitions
to the allies. 1t permitted its manu-
carried on under the international ar
rangement that permits the right of
confiscation of contraband of war on
the seas. The right of a neutral to
sell to a belligerent is a rule of inter-
| national law, and has never been de-
MED. Germany sold to Spain in the
iSpanish-American war and to the
I Beers in the Boer war. We sold to
both belligerents as long as Germany
could receive shipment. When other
| avenues were block and Germany sent
a cargo submarine she bought our
| copper, our aluminium and other ma
terials. The argument that we should
have placed an embargo on shipment
| of munitions sounds well. But re-
member that Germany had been plan
ming for war for fifty years while we,
a peace loving nation, were never
ready. The president and congress did
right in refusing to abrogate the right
of sale of munitions. In what shape
would we be to meet a war of agrees
sion if we were denied the markets of
the world in seeking to prepare for a
| war for which we were never ready?
I'm May. 1915, Germany sank the
Lusitania with 5000 souls aboard and
LIZA Americans lost their lives We
protested and Germany came back