Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-05-07
PLAN A HISTORY
OF IOWA SOLDIERS
Legislature ApproprisSSS 1000
For Compiling Record ..
and SOl6.6rs Names eA.
WILL BEGIN THE
WORK nNGEDIATELY
Intention Us to Print 10000 Copies
Of Work. Which Will be Sold
At Nominal Cost

at Nominal Cost
Des Moines, Ia, In the closing days
of thessession Of the Thirty-eight
general assembly both the house and
senate put through the enactment Of
the bill by Representative J. A. Will
.1iams Of Pottawattamie county, which
provides for an ofacial war history
In brief form Of Iowa's part In the
world war, particularly complete
roster and honor roll Of all Iowa sole
diers, sailors and marines who par
kicipated In the war. Work on the
big history will be started at once.
The preparation and publication
OF the roster and history will be un-
der the direction Of Governor Hard
ing, Adjutant General Lasher and
Lieut.. Col. Frank Lyman. who was In
charge Of the draft.
The bill sets out that the roster
shall contain among other things the
following:
Record Of Each Man.
The main item OF record of each
soldier sailor and marine who en-
listed or was drafted from Iowa as
far as the same is obtainable from
the records Of the adjutant generals
Office, the war department at WASH
ington. the navy department and
from any other official source.
Historical sketches Of the organi-
-zations in which any considerable
number of these Iowa men served.
Summaries Of casualties, lists of
Iowa soldiers. sailors and marines
captured by the enemy, those buried
in the national or. foreign cemeteries
and those who have been decorated
or cited for. any cause bysthe United
States government or any Of the al
lied governments. e!-
Historical sketches of the draft
work in Iowa with reference to the
work Of the state headquarters, dis
trict. local, medical and legal advis-
=ory boards and the government ap-
peal agents.
Will Sell Histories.
The bill carries with it an appro-
priation Of $4,000 for use in carry
ing out the work. There will be seve-
raj volumes in the complete edition
and 10000 copies of each volume
will be published. The state execut-
i've council will Ak price on the set
at which they will be sold. Libraries
will receive free copies and a set will
be furnished to each nationally re-
cognized organization Of worlds war
soldiers, sailors and marines.
Representative Williams Of Coun-
Gil Bluffs who fathered the bill, in
statement on the need for prepar-
ing this roster at once. said:
Delay in Civil War.
Forty years after the Civil war
the legislature Of Iowa passed an act
at the repeated request Of the G. A..
r. for roster similar to the one pro-
vided for in this bill passed by the
Thirty-eighth general assembly. It
took four years to complete the
work. Had such an act been passed
soon after the war was closed the in
formation could have been obtained
in a few months and at small ex-
pense. There were $4,000 men, In the
Civil war from Iowa. some 5000 i'm
the Spanish American war, all in
cluded in the six volumes of roster
data published in 1907 to 1911. in
elusive. The cost to the state at that
time was about $4,000. BY COM
mencing the work on the roster of
Iowa men in the worlds war at this
time when much information that
will soon be lost Is easily available,
the state will save time and money
and show Its appreciation of the
work of the 10000 soldiers, sailors
and marines of phis war by publish
ing their records while they are still
alive. not waiting until many of them
are dead, as was the case with the
Civil war roster. As matter OF fact
the records of the individual soldier
in this war are going. to be much
harder to obtain than in any pre-
; 1ious war for the reason that the
state only has the record of the sol
dier's induction into service and then
all trace is lost so far as the state
is concerned. The rest must be OBJ
tanned from federal and other sourc-
es."