The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 10

NEWS-LEADER OzarksNow.com 2B Monday. May 26, 2003 session a preview of 20041ections they have indicated they will Holden substantially the Longtime K.C. A sf 1 kjjv gets L)-iD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KANSAS CITY State Sen. Ronnie DePasco, a veteran Kansas City lawmaker and former Senate majority leader, died Saturday at his home after a battle with cancer. He was 60 years old.

DePasco, a Democrat who stopped smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer more than a year ago, had represented the northeast area of Kansas City since aWi ni ii DePasco point in voters. On one hand, Holden has a natural advantage as governor. When chief executives hold news conferences as Holden did every day last week while announcing vetoes of budget bills they almost always get attention, notes David Webber, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. On the other hand, Missourians have a natural dislike for tax increases, giving Republicans a built-in edge, said Candy Young, a political science professor at Truman State University. "People seem to be most upset about cuts to K-12 (education), but I don't hear them clamoring for a tax increase," Young said.

Calling a special session "certainly will bring attention and, in that sense, it could help (Holden)," she said. "But you have a bunch of people in the state of Missouri saying, 'See there, the Democrat wants to raise And that won't help him." The results of the special session are likely to have the biggest impact on who wins and loses politically. If Republican lawmaxers as. MISSOURI LEGISLATURE year's campaigns. In their starkest terms, those positions come down to tax increases vs.

cuts in state services. Ideally, a politician would like avoid cutting popular programs while also avoiding taxes increases. But with Missouri about to enter a fourth year of budget woes, that doesn't seem possible. So politicians must choose sides. That makes Holden's special session a high-stakes political gamble.

Will voters see a governor wanting to raise taxes? Or they see a legislature wanting to cut programs for children, the mentally ill and the poor? "It's all politics. It's all about strategy for winning the next gubernatorial election, strategy maintaining dominance in the legislature," said George Connor, who teaches political science at Southwest Missouri State University. Who wins and who loses de pends partly on how well each Slue is auie iw liisiiii ii3 yi- survivors live in US. today I Uvva Li) II '41 (Jo Evelyn Trickle (left) learns about the life of orphan train rider Anna Bellm from Mildred Witt at a reunion of the Orphan Train Heritage Society in 2002 in Monett. The reunion drew orphan train survivors descendants and people interested in learning about history.

1976, when he was elected to the House. He won a seat in the Senate in 1992, and was elected majority floor leader in 1998 a position he held until Democrats lost control of the chamber in 2001. DePasco was at the Capitol for the start of this year's legislative session in January, but missed most of the rest of it because of his illness. He was known both for his gregarious personality and his Want to learn more? BOOKS "Orphan Trains Their Precious Cargo: The Life's Work of Rev. H.D.

Clarke," by Herman D. Clarke and Clark Kidder. "We Rode the Orphan Trains" and "Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story," both by Andrea Warren. "Train to Somewhere," by Ronald Himler and Eve Bunting. "The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America," by Marilyn Irvin Holt.

"Orphan Trains: The Story of family they lived with, but also the towns in which they lived. Louise Anderson married when she was 17. Her adoptive mother refused to come to the wedding. Anderson didn't attend school as a child. She rarely went to town before she married.

Her young children helped her to learn to read and write, using the same schoolbooks, Witt said. "With most of them, it's a combination," Warren says. "Some were really young and they got into really good homes. They have no memory of the train ride, but grew up knowing they were orphan train riders, and they feel blessed that they got good families. "Then there are stories of kids who were older and who were completely traumatized.

They ended up in several homes, some of them just have awful stories," Warren adds. "Some were taken strictly to work, never got to go to town or school, some women went into early marriages, some of the boys running away finally." REMEMBERING RIDERS The surviving riders are in AUTOMOTIVE Special By David A. Lieb THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jefferson City Starting this week, Missourians are likely to be seeing campaign-style television commercials about the state budget. The commercials by the Democratic Party will tout Gov. Bob Holden's view of the doom and gloom that could befall basic services because of budget cuts passed by the Republican- ANALYSIS controlled legis- lature.

The intent is to put public pressure on lawmakers before a June 2 special session. Holden wants them to reverse the budget cuts and ask voters to raise taxes instead. Perhaps, like an emergency broadcast message that appears on the bottom of a TV screen, the commercials need a disclaimer: "This is a test of the 2004 election campaign. It is only a test." While the special session carries real consequences for taxpayers, schools and recipients of state services, it also is a preview of the political positions voters are likely to see in next Some 300 TRAIN, from Page IB knew that history; they would find the paperwork in an old trunk and discover they (the relatives) were an orphan train rider." There are an estimated 300 orphan train riders still living in the United States, said Mary Ellen Johnson, founder and director of the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America in Springdale, Ark. The society has been gathering histories for more than 10 years, and has files on 100,000 riders, but that is only half of the children affected.

Johnson says the reunions are a chance for riders, or their heirs, to come forward and tell their stories. HOMELESS CHILDREN It wasn't unusual to see children abandoned, homeless or simply unsupervised running through the streets of New York at the turn of the century and earlier. An estimated 30,000 children were homeless there in the 1850s, and those numbers increased as more immigrants came seeking a better life. Charles Loring Brace, founder of the Children's Aid Society, hoped that if the children were removed from the streets, from the poverty in which they lived, they Correction policy The News-Leader strives for accuracy and fairness. We will correct any errors or misunderstandings created by stories, headlines or photographs.

Readers may request a correction by calling 836-1258, day or night. Our metro editor is Paul Flemminq, 836-1199; or fax, 837-1381. the best of care for your heating and air conditioning comfort by a company can trust COME SEE fit iMt'nrtf UUK HUIjE JUs SELECTION OF i 1 Cookers i Chimeneas Wood Wrought Iron mJMJi 840 W.KEARNEY Air.illllh IMS to will for I I same budget as he vetoed, then the special session could appear as a waste of $98,000 a week. In that case, the only benefit to Holden would be the heightened public impression that the responsibility for the cuts to schools and vital services lies with the Republican legislature, not with him. "You could argue that getting two or three weeks more coverage of the distinction between where the governor is and the legislature is would be a win for the governor," said Terry Jones, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-St.

Louis. "But I don't think so, because there would be no shift politically and he would be subject to the charge of wasting the state's money for a special session." The reason the special session is only a test of next year's political campaigns is that the November 2004 elections are a long way off. By then, voters will have had time to see if the budget cuts turn out to be as painful and drastic as Holden claims. NEWS-LEADER FILE PHOTO. 2002 Agents were required to do follow-up visits, but sheer numbers sometimes made those visits impossible, researchers say.

"Some people think that we ought to bring back orphan trains," says Andrea Warren, author of several books about the orphan train riders. "I think the orphan trains were full of fault the local distribution system was a weak link there. But they were done by people with a good heart, who saw that they (the children) might be better off." Brace's hopes of upright farm families opening their hearts to needy children were not always reality. Children were sometimes accepted and loved, but others were little better than indentured servants. "Momma never was checked on," Witt says.

"She minded cattle from when she was 12 years old, all night, no fences, and she only had one toy." Some even felt out of place and unaccepted, not only by the United JJ Rentals 2700 E. Kearney St www.UR.com legislator dies; Cam ociiulw wfov. ctannrh advocacy of issues im portant to his hometown. "Ronnie was always someone you just enjoyed being around," said state Sen. Ed Quick, D-Kansas City, a friend for 29 vears who was Senate president 1 T-TrtO pro tem wneii fcraaw was the floor leader.

"He was a good senator. He was a good politician. But most importantly, he was a good person." When Gov. Bob Holden began his political career nf it as a state House memDer in 1983, DePasco was one of the people he looked to as a mentor. "Whenever he gave his word, you could take it to the bank.

If he was with you, he was with you. If he told you he disagreed with you, you knew it," Holden said Saturday night. DePasco's death means that Republicans now hold a 20-13 majority in the Senate. It will be up to Holden to call a special election to fill DePasco's seat. Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed," by Stephen O'Connor WEB SITES Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc.

www.orphantrainriders.com 614 East Emma 115, Springdale, Ark. 72764-4634 Phone (479) 756-2780 Children's Aid Society www.childrensaidsociety.org 105 East 22nd St. New York, NY 10010 Phone (212) 949-4800 their 70s, 80s, and 90s. Many of those who gather at reunions are descendants who trade information, genealogy tips and try to save a record of this migration of children. Warren asserts that the orphan train movement is important, not only for its effects on the children involved, but for its historical and social impact.

"It is uniquely American; it tells us so much about our immigrant history," Warren says. "It is one more way of understanding what a struggle it was when they came to this country, sometimes they couldn't keep their families together, and they lost their children." Warren says today's children empathize with the riders. "They really put themselves totally into the situation; it helps them in assessing their own lives," Warren says. Middle schoolers and teens have told her that they can't imagine that happening to them, that they'd miss parents and siblings. But they come away with an important lesson.

"When the times get tough for them, they can somehow see that there is a future there," Warren says. 1753 S.W. Bypass at Corner of Sunshine W. Bypass tmii. a mm Free Estimates Satisfaction Guaranteed DINT SUMhNATQR IfiO.

831-6288 880-9990 Learn More At: www.OzarksNow.comdent ivy Sunshine (160) Walmail I GOOD HOMES NEEDED The Children's Aid Society sought to find good homes for the children it gathered off the streets. Other agencies also placed children on the rails, including Children's Village (then known as the New York Juvenile Asylum), what is now New York Foundling Hospital and the former Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York, which is now the Graham-Windham Home for Children. Methods varied slightly. The Children's Aid Society would plan a route following a major rail line and send out fliers. A local screening committee, usually composed of the town's prominent citizens, such as doctors, clergymen or store owners, would select, approve or disapprove of possible parents.

Agents chaperoned groups of 10 to 40 children on each trip. If any children were left at the end of the line, they were returned to the orphanage. Want to go? The Orphan Train reunion begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Senior Center in Monett. Former riders and their descendants will share memories and stories.

For more information, call the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America at (479) 756-2780. would have a better chance in life. Morally upright farm families were Brace's answer. In exchange for a free home, the children would work on the farms and be raised in a loving atmosphere. By 1860, there was more than 30,000 miles of track crisscrossing the nation; by 1870 one could reach Omaha, from the East Coast easily by train.

The "orphan trains" were an inexpensive way to transport children west. Those like Brace, who operated orphanages, believed Godfearing farm families would open their hearts and homes to homeless city children. The first orphan train arrived in Dowagiac, in 1854. At its peak, about 4,000 children traveled West each year, according to the Orphan Train Heritage Society's Web site. LOTTERY PICK 3 PICK 4 7- 1-8 3-6-9-7 SH0W-ME 5 8- 23-30-36-40 SATURDAY'S POWERBALL 10-42-48-49-50-42 Up to a $1000 Rebate i II.

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