The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-01
HAD A BUSY YEAR
Chamber of Commerce Made
Proud 1918 War Record.
Organization Took Leading
Part in All Campaigns.
LITTLE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
Farmer and City Man Have
Been Brought Together.
Big Things Are Being Planned
for This Year.

The sands in the year glass of the
Topeka Chamber of Commerce have
run another course. Another year has
passed into history-the second one
since the organization of the institu-
ton when the marking of the passing
months saw little of actual Chamber
of Commerce work either completed
or attempted to be begun.
For this state of affairs the war
must bear the blame. For ever since
that memorable day in April, 1917,
might into the turmoil of strife, the
Topeka Chamber of Commerce has
had but one thought and but one end
in view-the furtherance of the war
and the winning of the war.
1t has fallen to the lot of the Cham
Der of Commerce in the last two years
to bear a heavy share of all of the
war work done in the city and in
Shawnee county. In every campaign
even remotely pertaining to the war
the Chamber of Commerce has been
the headquarters and Chamber Of
Commerce men have been in the fore
front In 1918 the drives have been
especially numerous and for the most
part of a heavier and more weighty
character than those of 1917.
Work in Last Year.
OF course in 1918 the people of the
county were more READY 10 contribute.
More families and persons were di-
rectly connected and bound up in the
war. But the increasing size of the
county's apportionment of the ma
tional war work quotas more than
made up for the increased willingness
of the people to give and made more
necessary than ever the concentration
of effort which alone could hold To-
peka and Shawnee county high up in
the list of territorial divisions whose
honor was untarnished by single re-
port of quota undersubscribed."
In every war work campaign the
city and the county have oversub-
scribed their quotas. In this the or
ganization of the Chamber of Gem
merce has played an important part.
Thru the military committee of the
Chamber the quota committees of the
various war work organizations have
been prevented from taking advantage
of the country's willingness to give
and have been forced to allot to Shaw
nee county and to Topeka no more
than fair and just quota.
County and City Closer.
The Chamber of Commerce has
furnished thru its membership prac-
tically the entire personnel of the war
work teams which did the canvassing
of the business section of Topeka in
the various drives. The heads of the
campaigns in the rural districts of
the city nlVe Deen INVARIABLY III Tie
hands of some member of the Cham
Der of Commerce.
So much for the history of the
Chamber of Commences part in the
war work of Shawnee county and its
patriotic support of every war move
ment. But in carrying out the war
work campaigns it has been necessary
for the business men of the city to
come more and more into personal
contact with the residents of the
country districts. The business men
have come to find out that the farmer
is human and rings true to the same
emotions as govern the dweller on
paved streets. The farmer has dis
covered that the interests of the city
man are not SO far off nor are they
s. much different than the interests
of himself. The dual discovery has
wrought for much good to the COM
munity as whole and no longer does
the farmer come to town with an air
of suspicion in his bearing nor the
| city man eye the farmer with the
| light of calculation in his orbs.
The two now meet on a common
ground. They are friends, tried in the
same fire of war and found true to
the same ideals of life. 1t is the opin-
ion of both business man and farmer
that the child of mutual trust and re-
spect has been born of the travail OF