The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-06
IN PLEA FOR VETS
Kanavel Fights for Their Privi-
leges in Memorial Hall.
ider Would Abolish Old Sol
dier Control Second Floor.
SENATOR ASKS FOR TOLERANCE
Won't Be Long, He Said, Until
They'll All Be Gone.
Asserts They Gave More for
Union Than ArgOnne Fighters.

The quarrel that has been going o4
between Governor Allen and the war
department over the losses of the
Thirty fifth division in the Argonne
fighting, and their insignificance in
comparison with the losses in the Civil
war were brought out most forcibly
in the Kansas senate this morning by
Senator Kanavel. the only Civil war
veteran in the upper house of the leg
islature. when he was making a plea
90 give the old soldiers what they want
in the state memorial building.
1t was the first time during the ses-
sion that Senator Kanavei has vaxed
eloquent. and in voice that trembled
with emotion he pleaded that the re-
quests of old soldiers, who are becom-
ing very few, be borne7 patiently for
few years longer-that it VIII be only
matter of time until the state will
not be bothered with any of them and
that out OF respect, If not out of ap-
probation, they should be given a lit
tie more than tolerant endurance.
The occasion for the imprisoned
plea by the senator from Harvey was
a rider in the MemoriaiI nall ways and
means approximation, bill that would
take away the right of the old soldiers
to control the second floor OF the Me
mortal hall and would merely give
them such quarters as the state ooaro
of administration should deem proper.
Attacks w. and NJ. Committee.
Senator Kimbau made a bitter at
tack on the ways and means commit
tee for its effort to put rider in the
appropriation bill that would rob the
old soldiers of control of their part
of the building while providing that
the care of the building be taken OUT
of the hands of the building commas
A4ion and placed under the state execu-
Tive council.
Il deplore the fact that there is no
committee in this senate as Jealous OF
its powers as the ways and means
committee Kimball said. There is
never bill introduced in this senate
that the ways and means committee
does not make a strenuous effort 10
gets its clutches on it. / do not thlnk
il right or proper to attach a rider to
an appropriation bill doing the things
this rider does. l do not think it is
right to put in a provision in an ap-
preparation bill changing the statute
so as to rob the old soldiers of the
second floor of the Memorial building.
If this should be done, let us introduce
bill to do it aad fight it out on its
merits"
Waiter E. Wilson is chairman of
the ways and means committee and
the same committee Tuesday inserted
a rider in the educational institution
appropriation measure doing away
with the "fee system after a bill to
do this had been killed.
When the Memorial hall ,.ppropria-
ton came up with its rider, Senator
Eanavel introduced an amendment
that would place the second floor of
the hall in the hands of the COM
lnander and executive council of the
Cis A b to determine to what use the
s-loor should be put
Getty Tried 10 Compromise.
Wilson and Paulen fought this
amendment and Getty tried to play
the part of Henry Clay by offering
4 compromise that would place the
floor in control of the old soldiers and
the state executive council Jointly. 1t
was then that Senator Kanavel made
his plea for the old soldiers to be al
lowed to use the space in the building
allotted to them as they saw fit. After
referring to the quarrel over whether
ne losses of the Thirty-fifth division
in the AFgonne fighting were 1000 or
1000, he told how the Union soldiers
gave their lives in much greater num-
bers to save the nation in the Civil
war and told how there were $4,000
dead and dying the battlefield at
Gettysburg on the Union side after the
fighting.
Senator Nighswonger car1e to the
aid of Senator kanavel and read from
the Session Laws the act providing for
the erection of the Memorial hall in
which it was specifically stated that
the second floor should be at the dis
posal of the old soldiers. Senator Cole
man also assisted kanavel. while
Senator Paulen stood by the ways and
means committee and, as a member
stated he resented some of the state
ments that had been made about the
committee.
At noon nothing had been done with
either the bill or the amendment and
Paulen moved that recess be taken
until o'clock.
Late this afternoon the senate
reached an agreement to pass the bill
giving the veterans of the civil war
control over the second floor, with
the exception of the rooms occupied
by the state historical society