World War I Memorial And Centennial Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, the First World War ended with an armistice on November 11, 1918. The people of Missouri's largest city began to think about what they could do to memorialize the men and women who had sacrificed in World War I. And so in November of 1918, community leaders came together and raised $2.5 million in 10 days. Now if you recalculate the $2.5 million to inflation, it totals $30 million in 10 days.

The memorial was opened on November 1, 1921, to a tumultuous crowd of 200,000 people, including General John J. Pershing, and this photo shows a portion of the 200,000 people who came and listened to the five Allied leaders who were together only once in history at the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in 1921.

Harry Truman played a pivotal role in this because there was a rededication in 1961 with 40,000 people showing up to join Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower as they rededicated the memorial.

This was 1921. Let me show you a picture of the memorial today.

When I was elected mayor of Kansas City in 1991, the Liberty Memorial was in disrepair and so I came to Washington, met with the head of the National Park Service and asked if they could help. He said what National Park Service directors should say, We don't have any money to try to rebuild the Liberty Memorial and since we don't have a World War I memorial and there is no space on the mall, we hope something else can transpire.

So as mayor, I went out for a vote with a half cent sales tax which the voters approved, and we then repaired the World War I monument, and this is it with part of the downtown skyline in the background. Not only did we rebuild the World War I monument, but also the museum at the bottom. This is an actual photograph.

Now the sales tax was a point of great pride because we were trying to show the National Park Service that the people of Kansas City would, in fact, take care of this. This is the newspaper clipping, the front page on the day after the tax, ``Voters Endorse Higher Sales Tax to Fix Landmark,'' and it shows the map which is every part of the city approved this tax in order to maintain the Liberty Memorial.

The Liberty Memorial is a special place in Kansas City, Missouri, and people come there from all over the Nation. In fact, 3 years ago at the annual Veterans Day ceremony, the oldest living veteran from World War I, Mr. Buckles, at 106 years of age, actually came to the memorial, sat beside me in a wheelchair and wept.

Here is a photograph of the Liberty Memorial just 15 months ago that shows me standing in front of 75,000 people, and then President Barack Obama, taking advantage of the crowd I drew, standing also in the background to speak to 75,000 just 15 months ago.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is supported by over 101 Members of Congress. It is bipartisan. All nine Members of the Missouri delegation support it. A part of Kansas City is in the district of Congressman SAM GRAVES who has been an ardent supporter of this.

I yield first to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) whose father was there at the beginning of this landmark.

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