The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-13
GOV. ALLEN SAYS

comment this pride they took in their
native state produced.
Eighty-Nintf, Had Reputation.
1.-The Eighty-ninth division arrived
in France with the greatest reputation
of any national army division" Gov
ernor Allen said. This was because
of the great reputation of the great
soldier who trained it-Gen. Leonard
Wood. And it is with pleasure and
pride that I am able to tell you it
lived up to its reputation in every way
and fulfilled every expectation of its
admirers"
After speaking briefly of the indi-
viduals Of the Eighty ninth. Allen be-
gan to tell of the Thirty-fifth division,
to which he was attached from the
time it entered the combat area in
the Vosges mountains until after the
battle of the Arsonne forest and the
signing of the armistice. Special
mention was made of the 137th, 13Sth
and 10th infantry regiments; of the
10th ammunition train: of the 10th
sanitary unit; the 10th engineers; the
12Sth. 10th and both field artillery;
the sanitary and machine gun bat
talions and the hospital attachments
In praising the division[as a whole he
read a message Gen. Peter E. Traub
commander asked him to bring back
to the people of Kansas and Missouri.
This message said:
Message From Traub.
1T consider it an honor to command
such men as Kansas and Missouri
have sent. I have never seen drawer
men under fire and never once did
they fail or falter during those trying
five nights and six days"
Governor Allen then followed with
an account of the action of the Thirty
fifth which entered the trenches in
the Vosges mountains on June 20 and
which was in action in this sector un-
q Ia 0T-f Of EnT n
it went into the great battle of the
Argonne, more than 200 miles away
from the first scene of fighting.
A vivid account of the divisions ac-
ton in battle, of it's severe losses and
of the reasons for these losses was
given.
Died Without a Murmur.
"More than 1000 brave men of
Kansas and Missouri, nearly one-half
of those actively in the firing line,
said. He asserted that the lack of air
protection. the shortage of artillery
and the failure of artillery transport
tation were responsible for the losses
and told how the Kansas boys in the
infantry regiments were ordered to adj
vance on German artillery and ma
chine gun nests and how they obeyed
these orders, suffering frightful losses
without murmer or a falter and
taking every objective they were or
dered to take
AT that hour" Allen said, at was
a most gloomy reflection that made
me realize that these boys coming
from the most efficient mocha nical
nation in the world were forced to
go into the fighting with poorer
equipment than the soldiers who had
come from Indu China to- aid the
allies in their fight for democracy"
Were More Than Soldiers.
He told in glowing. eloquent words
how the 35th boys went forward de-
spite these great handicaps. taking
every objective and quoted the COM
pliment paid them by French officer.
This officer said:
II would not call them good SOL
diers. They are more than that.
They are magnificent fighters!"
After telling how Somebody's
blunder" was responsible for the
heavy losses of the 35th. Allen paid
high tribute to Gen. Charles I. Mar
tin, former adjutant general of Kan
sas who went to France as COM
mander Of the 10th brigade of the
S5th division but who was relieved of
his command and sent elsewhere just
two days before the brigade went into
the &rgonne action.
Martins Training Did 1t.
TT was due to the capacities of
General Martin as military student
and to the thoro training he had given
his brigade that it made such a splen-