The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1921-06-30
WILL LIBERAL HOLD
NATIONAL GUARD CO

Liberal has one asset which may
not have been considered as sucf
by lot of people prior to the visit
of Adjt. Gen. C. l. Martin to the city
last Friday.
Gen. Martin addressed small
group Of business men and American
Legion representatives at the Arm
DRY that day and talks were made
by citizens of Liberal.
The prospect of Liberals losing
the National Guard company is no
pleasing one, especially since Gen.
Martin pointed out the facts and
some of the Guardsmen told their
side.
The principal thought brought
out by Gen. Martin was that mem
bership in the guard was a patriotic
proposition, almost as much so as
membership in the army. He said
that congress rather than make mil
itary service compulsory or keep q
large standing army, had assigned 6
quota to every state to be enlisted
in the National Guard as economy
measure. He said that in the event
of sudden war the Guard would be
ready for service in a very short
time, even before troops could be
trained, and that it was a duty Of
every citizen to stand back of the
Guard organization. He made it so
plain that many admitted they had
given the matter no thought in that
direction and agreed to do all posi-
BILE to remedy the oversight.
Employers were asked to urge
their employees to join in the organ
cation and give them such time as
was required on full pay and almost
every man signed an agreemet to
do this. Gen. Martin said that the
fact that man was ineligible did
not release him from any duty to
his country and that should he not
be able to join the guard he could
make it easy for someone else to do
so and that he owed that to the
country.
The proposition we are now fac
ing is this. During the war period
about the only persons eligible ser
vice were those ineligible to the draft
and for this reason business men
and married men were taken into
the guard, men whose duties made
it difficult for them to serve They
have served their time and many
feel that they have done their bit
and should be release and their pla-
ces taken by others. Owing to this
fact it is necessary to recruit forty
men to keep the company. Officers
state that with the backing and NOR
al support of the town this could be
accomplished easily. Then the mat
ter of providing an armory is up to
us. The present building is to be
RACED and this makes it necessary
to provide new quarters. The gov
eminent furnishes everything but
the armory-this must be supplied
by. the city. For the past three years
Messrs. Trindle & Woods have let
the company use their building, and
the citizens built the necessary adj
dition. Now they are to use the lots
for another purpose and they have
already done their part in keeping
the organization here. However, the
matter of securing an srmory is not
difficult feat, and plans will be
worked out to this end.
Aside from the advertising the
company gets for Liberal the pay
roll is something like $4,000 per
year-not bad financial PROPOSE
ton.
1t is too bad that the meeting
could not have been advertised suf-
ficiently in advance so that every
business man in town could have
been there, but the matter is now
under charge of the Chamber of
Commerce and banquet is soon to
be held at which time plans will be
made.
Every man at the meeting agreed
that Liberal could not afford to lose
the Company and promised their
support, and the remainder of the
business men will no doubt stand
n,.1 -.