The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-31
Rainbow Colonel Warns Legis-
Iature Against BOlshevism.
Choke 1t When 1t First APP
pears. He Tells Members.
LED FIRST KANSANS OVERSEAS
In First American Division
Into a Battle Line.
Eight Killed, % Hurt Were
Casualties of III Train.

shevik or Socialistic legislation during
the present session of the legislature
! the members of the senate and house
| of representatives will do well to
smother it, choke it to death and
stamp the life out of it without de-
| lay. That was the advice given to-
day by Lieut.. Col Frank L. Travis,
| of lola, who has just returned from
! France. where he commanded the
| famous 117th ammunition train of the
| Forty-second (Rainbow) division, and
came to Topeka today to assume his
duties as insurance commissioner,
| overwhelmingly elected while overseas.
Colonel and Mrs. Travis arrived in
I Topeka this morning and the colonel
visited the senate and house of repre-
| Sentatives, where he was greeted with
applause. In the senate when he ap-
! peared every senator arose to his feet
and the business in hand was imme-
| diately dropped that Lieutenant Gov
| ernor Huffman might introduce him
and give him the privilege of making
an address and of telling some of the
experiences of the Kansas boys who
were in the thickest of the fighting
/ in France.
! Colonel Travis gave a brief sum-
| mary of the war activities of the am
munition train from the time it was
J
! signed.
First Kansans Overseas.
| you probably know that our or
! ganiZation was the first formed in
| Kansas after the declaration of war"
/ he began. Soon after the organiza-
tion we were sent to Camp Mills and
| left in a very short time for France.
We were chased into Brest by German
! submarines and then sent to southern
France, where we remained until last
February. While in camp in southern
| France We did everything about the
operating the telephone system and
| doing police duty to operating the
| garages and handling the motor truck
service of the camp. We were classi-
| fled as an ammunition train but dur
ing our first few weeks in France. we
made up the finest organization of
tstevedores sent over by the United
! States"
The Forty-second division to which
| Colonel Travis's train was attached
was the first American division to take
! over battle sector. 1t was the only
division that stood in reserve between
| the Germans and Paris when the BIZ:
Hun drive was on and it was in the
Z. fighting at Chateau Thierry and the
| Argonne.
(, One of the new things brought out
! by Colonel Travis was the fact that
when the Germans were making their
| fiercest drive towards Paris and when
the French and English press WEI e
announcing that General Foch had a
| sufficient number of men in reserve tc
stop them. it was fact that the
! Forty-second American division was
| the only one Foch had to call upon
in case he had to throw reserves into
| the fray.
| Colonel Travis told how when his
| division first took over a sector they
lNH-o nraTx To InI and
to get as much training out OF IL e
! experience as possible. But we all
| thought we were in the war" he said,
| and our artillery began to make 1t
hot for the Germans, with the result
that the Germans came back and gave
us the worst bath of fire we got dur
! ing the war. When General Pershing
came up to visit us he told US kat
we had been sent in to make observa-
tons and to get training and that we
had spoiled all the plans by starting
a war. IT was the first intimation we
had that we had not been sent in to
get all the Germans we could get"
| Colonel Travis told how his division
| after one of its hottest fights of the
war was ordered back of the lines to
rest on March 81. I'VE left the front
line trenches all right but did little
resting" he said. soon after we left
the Germans made an attack and took
the trenches we had left from the
French, We went back al once and
retook these trenches and held them
until June"
Colonel Travis told how the Huns
had twenty-five divisions massed
against the French in the big drive
on Paris when Foch had only the
Forty-second American division in re-
serve. and he made the assertion that
the period between July Il and 19
was the most critical of the war.
American Morale Held.
The French wanted to fall back, -
he said. but our commander was op-
posed to 1t and then Foch issued the
famous order which said: We stand
or die,'
81 expected to die Colonel Travis
said Il did not think 1 would ever
get back to Topeka and Kansas and
l think 1t miracle that so many of
us did
The colonel told of the losses of his
train and said that the total number
OF killed was eight and the total num-
ber wounded twenty-seven. He told
OF the divisions part in the Chateau
Thierry fighting and in the Argonne
| forest-and especially of the seventeen
days of hell that it went thru at the
Chateau Thierry fighting when there
was nothing but dead and dying to
look at on all sides.
I high compliment was paid to ev-
cry man under his command and Col
onel Travis closed his talk by saying:
IT want to tell You. while We were
| over there we all had lovely ride for
our money"
Colonel and Mrs. Travis left this
afternoon for lola and the colonel will
return to Topeka next week to assume
his duties as insurance commissioner
| sion its defeat on final roll "a xphar