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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e371cf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64910 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64910) diff --git a/old/64910-0.txt b/old/64910-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 209663f..0000000 --- a/old/64910-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6393 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Valley of Democracy, by Meredith -Nicholson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Valley of Democracy - -Author: Meredith Nicholson - -Illustrator: Walter Tittle - -Release Date: March 23, 2021 [eBook #64910] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY *** - - - - -THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY - - -[Illustration: Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from the steps of the Art -Institute.] - - - - - THE - VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY - - BY - - MEREDITH NICHOLSON - - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY - - WALTER TITTLE - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - 1919 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1917, 1918, BY - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - - Published September, 1918 - Reprinted November, December 1918 - - [Illustration] - - - - - TO MY CHILDREN - - ELIZABETH, MEREDITH, AND LIONEL - - IN TOKEN OF MY AFFECTION - - AND WITH THE HOPE THAT THEY MAY BE FAITHFUL TO THE - HIGHEST IDEALS OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. THE FOLKS AND THEIR FOLKSINESS 1 - - II. TYPES AND DIVERSIONS 39 - - III. THE FARMER OF THE MIDDLE WEST 83 - - IV. CHICAGO 135 - - V. THE MIDDLE WEST IN POLITICS 181 - - VI. THE SPIRIT OF THE WEST 235 - - - - -AUTHOR’S NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION - - -In the reprintings of a book of this character it would be possible -to revise and rewrite in such manner as to conceal the errors or -misjudgments of the author. It seems, however, more honest to permit -these impressions to stand practically as they were written, with only -a few minor corrections. It was my aim to make note of conditions, -tendencies, and needs in the Valley of Democracy, and the conclusion of -the war has affected my point of view with reference to these matters -very little. - -The first months of the present year have been so crowded with -incidents affecting the whole world that we recall with difficulty the -events of only a few years ago. We have met repeated crises with an -inspiring exhibition of unity and courage that should hearten us for -the new tasks of readjustment that press for attention, and for the -problems of self-government that are without end. I shall feel that -these pages possess some degree of vitality if they quicken in the -mind and heart of the reader a hope and confidence that we of America -do not walk blindly, but follow a star that sheds upon us a perpetual -light. - - M. N. - - INDIANAPOLIS, June 1, 1919. - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from the steps of the Art - Institute _Frontispiece_ - - FACING PAGE - - “Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my home town” 6 - - Art exhibits ... now find a hearty welcome 20 - - The Municipal Recreation Pier, Chicago 66 - - Types and Diversions 74 - - On a craft plying the waters of Erie I found all the - conditions of a happy outing and types that it is always a - joy to meet 78 - - The Perry Monument at Put-in Bay 80 - - A typical old homestead of the Middle West 100 - - Students of agriculture in the pageant that celebrated the - fortieth anniversary of the founding of Ohio State - University 114 - - A feeding-plant at “Whitehall,” the farm of Edwin S. - Kelly, near Springfield, Ohio 120 - - Judging graded shorthorn herds at the American Royal - Live Stock Show in Kansas City 132 - - Chicago is the big brother of all lesser towns 142 - - The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian loot, - but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve! 152 - - Banquet given for the members of the National Institute - of Arts and Letters 176 - - There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at every - political meeting 194 - - The Political Barbecue 198 - - - - -THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY - - - - -France evoked from the unknown the valley that may, in more than one -sense, be called the heart of America.... The chief significance and -import of the addition of this valley to the maps of the world, all -indeed that makes it significant, is that here was given (though not of -deliberate intent) a rich, wide, untouched field, distant, accessible -only to the hardiest, without a shadowing tradition or a restraining -fence, in which men of all races were to make attempt to live together -under rules of their own devising and enforcing. And as here the -government of the people by the people was to have even more literal -interpretation than in that Atlantic strip which had traditions of -property suffrage and church privilege and class distinctions, I have -called it the “Valley of the New Democracy.” - - --JOHN H. FINLEY: “The French in the Heart of America.” - - - - -THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE FOLKS AND THEIR FOLKSINESS - - -I - -“The great trouble with these fellows down here,” remarked my friend as -we left the office of a New York banker--“the trouble with all of ’em -is that they forget about the _Folks_. You noticed that when he asked -in his large, patronizing way how things are going out West he didn’t -wait for us to answer; he pressed a button and told his secretary to -bring in those tables of railroad earnings and to-day’s crop bulletins -and that sort of rubbish, so he could tell _us_. It never occurs to ’em -that the Folks are human beings and not just a column of statistics. -Why, the _Folks_----” - -My friend, an orator of distinction, formerly represented a tall-corn -district in Congress. He drew me into Trinity churchyard and discoursed -in a vein with which I had long been familiar upon a certain -condescension in Easterners, and the East’s intolerable ignorance -of the ways and manners, the hopes and aims, of the West, which move -him to rage and despair. I was aware that he was gratified to have an -opportunity to unbosom himself at the brazen gates of Wall Street, -and equally conscious that he was experimenting upon me with phrases -that he was coining for use on the hustings. They were so used, not -without effect, in the campaign of 1916--a contest whose results were -well calculated to draw attention to the “Folks” as an upstanding, -independent body of citizens. - -Folks is recognized by the lexicographers as an American colloquialism, -a variant of folk. And folk, in old times, was used to signify the -commonalty, the plain people. But my friend, as he rolled “Folks” -under his tongue there in the shadow of Trinity, used it in a sense -that excluded the hurrying midday Broadway throng and restricted its -application to an infinitely superior breed of humanity, to be found -on farms, in villages and cities remote from tide-water. His passion -for democracy, his devotion to the commonweal, is not wasted upon New -Englanders or Middle States people. In the South there are Folks, yes; -his own people had come out of North Carolina, lingered a while in -Kentucky, and lodged finally in Indiana, whence, following a common -law of dispersion, they sought new homes in Illinois and Kansas. -Beyond the Rockies there are Folks; he meets their leaders in national -conventions; but they are only second cousins of those valiant freemen -who rallied to the call of Lincoln and followed Grant and Sherman into -battles that shook the continent. My friend’s point of view is held by -great numbers of people in that region we now call the Middle West. -This attitude or state of mind with regard to the East is not to be -taken too seriously; it is a part of the national humor, and has been -expressed with delightful vivacity and candor in Mr. William Allen -White’s refreshing essay, “Emporia and New York.” - -A definition of Folks as used all the way from Ohio to Colorado, and -with particular point and pith by the haughty sons and daughters of -Indiana and Kansas, may be set down thus: - - FOLKS. _n._ A superior people, derived largely from the Anglo-Saxon - and Celtic races and domiciled in those northern States of the - American Union whose waters fall into the Mississippi. Their - _folksiness_ (_q. v._) is expressed in sturdy independence, hostility - to capitalistic influence, and a proneness to social and political - experiment. They are strong in the fundamental virtues, more or less - sincerely averse to conventionality, and believe themselves possessed - of a breadth of vision and a devotion to the common good at once - beneficent and unique in the annals of mankind. - -We of the West do not believe--not really--that we are the only true -interpreters of the dream of democracy. It pleases us to swagger a -little when we speak of ourselves as the Folks and hint at the dire -punishments we hold in store for monopoly and privilege; but we are far -less dangerous than an outsider, bewildered or annoyed by our apparent -bitterness, may be led to believe. In our hearts we do not think -ourselves the only good Americans. We merely feel that the East began -patronizing us and that anything we may do in that line has been forced -upon us by years of outrageous contumely. And when New York went to bed -on the night of election day, 1916, confident that as went the Empire -State so went the Union, it was only that we of the West might chortle -the next morning to find that Ah Sin had forty packs concealed in his -sleeve and spread them out on the Sierra Nevadas with an air that was -child-like and bland. - -Under all its jauntiness and cocksureness, the West is extremely -sensitive to criticism. It likes admiration, and expects the Eastern -visitor to be properly impressed by its achievements, its prodigious -energy, its interpretation and practical application of democracy, and -the earnestness with which it interests itself in the things of the -spirit. Above all else it does not like to appear absurd. According to -its light it intends to do the right thing, but it yields to laughter -much more quickly than abuse if the means to that end are challenged. - -The pioneers of the older States endured hardships quite as great -as the Middle Westerners; they have contributed as generously to -the national life in war and peace; the East’s aid to the West, -in innumerable ways, is immeasurable. I am not thinking of farm -mortgages, but of nobler things--of men and women who carried -ideals of life and conduct, of justice and law, into new territory -where such matters were often lightly valued. The prowler in these -Western States recognizes constantly the trail of New Englanders who -founded towns, built schools, colleges, and churches, and left an -ineffaceable stamp upon communities. Many of us Westerners sincerely -admire the East and do reverence to Eastern gods when we can sneak -unobserved into the temples. We dispose of our crops and merchandise as -quickly as possible, that we may be seen of men in New York. Western -school-teachers pour into New England every summer on pious pilgrimages -to Concord and Lexington. And yet we feel ourselves, the great body -of us, a peculiar people. “Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my -home town” in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, or Colorado. This expresses a very -general feeling in the provinces. - -It is far from my purpose to make out a case for the West as the true -home of the Folks in these newer connotations of that noun, but rather -to record some of the phenomena observable in those commonwealths where -we are assured the Folks maintain the only true ark of the covenant -of democracy. Certain concessions may be assumed in the unconvinced -spectator whose path lies in less-favored portions of the nation. The -West does indubitably coax an enormous treasure out of its soil to be -tossed into the national hopper, and it does exert a profound influence -upon the national life; but its manner of thought is different: it -arrives at conclusions by processes that strike the Eastern mind as -illogical and often as absurd or dangerous. The two great mountain -ranges are barriers that shut it in a good deal by itself in spite -of every facility of communication; it is disposed to be scornful of -the world’s experience where the experience is not a part of its own -history. It believes that forty years of Illinois or Wisconsin are -better than a cycle of Cathay, and it is prepared to prove it. - -[Illustration: “Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my home town.”] - -The West’s philosophy is a compound of Franklin and Emerson, with a -dash of Whitman. Even Washington is a pale figure behind the Lincoln of -its own prairies. Its curiosity is insatiable; its mind is speculative; -it has a supreme confidence that upon an agreed state of facts the -Folks, sitting as a high court, will hand down to the nation a true -and just decision upon any matter in controversy. It is a patient -listener. Seemingly tolerant of false prophets, it amiably gives them -hearing in thousands of forums while awaiting an opportunity to smother -their ambitions on election day. It will not, if it knows itself, do -anything supremely foolish. Flirting with Greenbackism and Free Silver, -it encourages the assiduous wooers shamelessly and then calmly sends -them about their business. Maine can approach her election booths as -coyly as Ohio or Nebraska, and yet the younger States rejoice in the -knowledge that after all nothing is decided until they have been heard -from. Politics becomes, therefore, not merely a matter for concern when -some great contest is forward, but the year round it crowds business -hard for first place in public affection. - - -II - -The people of the Valley of Democracy (I am indebted for this phrase -to Dr. John H. Finley) do a great deal of thinking and talking; they -brood over the world’s affairs with a peculiar intensity; and, beyond -question, they exchange opinions with a greater freedom than their -fellow citizens in other parts of America. I have travelled between -Boston and New York on many occasions and have covered most of New -England in railway journeys without ever being addressed by a stranger; -but seemingly in the West men travel merely to cultivate the art of -conversation. The gentleman who borrows your newspaper returns it -with a crisp comment on the day’s events. He is from Beatrice, or -Fort Collins, perhaps, and you quickly find that he lives next door -to the only man you know in his home town. You praise Nebraska, and -he meets you in a generous spirit of reciprocity and compliments -Iowa, Minnesota, or any other commonwealth you may honor with your -citizenship. - -The West is proud of its talkers, and is at pains to produce them for -the edification of the visitor. In Kansas a little while ago my host -summoned a friend of his from a town eighty miles away that I might -hear him talk. And it was well worth my while to hear that gentleman -talk; he is the best talker I have ever heard. He described for me -great numbers of politicians past and present, limning them with the -merciless stroke of a skilled caricaturist, or, in a benignant mood, -presented them in ineffaceable miniature. He knew Kansas as he knew his -own front yard. It was a delight to listen to discourse so free, so -graphic in its characterizations, so colored and flavored with the very -soil. Without impropriety I may state that this gentleman is Mr. Henry -J. Allen, of the Wichita _Beacon_; the friend who produced him for my -instruction and entertainment is Mr. William Allen White of the Emporia -_Gazette_. Since this meeting I have heard Mr. Allen talk on other -occasions without any feeling that I should modify my estimate of his -conversational powers. In his most satisfying narrative, “The Martial -Adventures of Henry and Me,” Mr. White has told how he and Mr. Allen, -as agents of the Red Cross, bore the good news of the patriotism and -sympathy of Kansas to England, France, and Italy, and certainly America -could have sent no more heartening messengers to our allies. - -I know of no Western town so small that it doesn’t boast at least one -wit or story-teller who is exhibited as a special mark of honor for -the entertainment of guests. As often as not these stars are women, -who discuss public matters with understanding and brilliancy. The old -superstition that women are deficient in humor never struck me as -applicable to American women anywhere; certainly it is not true of -Western women. In a region where story-telling flourishes, I can match -the best male anecdotalist with a woman who can evoke mirth by neater -and defter means. - -The Western State is not only a political but a social unit. It is -like a club, where every one is presumably acquainted with every -one else. The railroads and interurbans carry an enormous number of -passengers who are solely upon pleasure bent. The observer is struck -by the general sociability, the astonishing amount of visiting that -is in progress. In smoking compartments and in day coaches any one -who is at all folksy may hear talk that is likely to prove informing -and stimulating. And this cheeriness and volubility of the people one -meets greatly enhances the pleasure of travel. Here one is reminded -constantly of the provincial confidence in the West’s greatness and -wisdom in every department of human endeavor. - -In January of last year it was my privilege to share with seven other -passengers the smoking-room of a train out of Denver for Kansas -City. The conversation was opened by a vigorous, elderly gentleman -who had, he casually remarked, crossed Kansas six times in a wagon. -He was a native of Illinois, a graduate of Asbury (Depauw) College, -Indiana, a Civil War veteran, and he had been a member of the Missouri -Legislature. He lived on a ranch in Colorado, but owned a farm in -Kansas and was hastening thither to test his acres for oil. The range -of his adventures was amazing; his acquaintance embraced men of all -sorts and conditions, including Buffalo Bill, whose funeral he had -just attended in Denver. He had known General George A. Custer and -gave us the true story of the massacre of that hero and his command -on the Little Big Horn. He described the “bad men” of the old days, -many of whom had honored him with their friendship. At least three of -the company had enjoyed like experiences and verified or amplified his -statements. This gentleman remarked with undisguised satisfaction that -he had not been east of the Mississippi for thirty years! - -I fancied that he acquired merit with all the trans-Mississippians -present by this declaration. However, a young commercial traveller -who had allowed it to become known that he lived in New York seemed -surprised, if not pained, by the revelation. As we were passing from -one dry State to another we fell naturally into a discussion of -prohibition as a moral and economic factor. The drummer testified to -its beneficent results in arid territory with which he was familiar; -one effect had been increased orders from his Colorado customers. -It was apparent that his hearers listened with approval; they were -citizens of dry States and it tickled their sense of their own -rectitude that a pilgrim from the remote East should speak favorably -of their handiwork. But the young gentleman, warmed by the atmosphere -of friendliness created by his remarks, was guilty of a grave error of -judgment. - -“It’s all right for these Western towns,” he said, “but you could never -put it over in New York. New York will never stand for it. London, -Paris, New York--there’s only one New York!” - -The deep sigh with which he concluded, expressive of the most intense -loyalty, the most poignant homesickness, and perhaps a thirst of long -accumulation, caused six cigars, firmly set in six pairs of jaws, to -point disdainfully at the ceiling. No one spoke until the offender had -betaken himself humbly to bed. The silence was eloquent of pity for one -so abandoned. That any one privileged to range the cities of the West -should, there at the edge of the great plain, set New York apart for -adoration, was too impious, too monstrous, for verbal condemnation. - -Young women seem everywhere to be in motion in the West, going home -from schools, colleges, or the State universities for week-ends, or -attending social functions in neighboring towns. Last fall I came -down from Green Bay in a train that was becalmed for several hours -at Manitowoc. I left the crowded day coach to explore that pleasing -haven and, returning, found that my seat had been pre-empted by a very -charming young person who was reading my magazine with the greatest -absorption. We agreed that the seat offered ample space for two and -that there was no reason in equity or morals why she should not finish -the story she had begun. This done, she commented upon it frankly and -soundly and proceeded to a brisk discussion of literature in general. -Her range of reading had been wide--indeed, I was embarrassed by its -extent and impressed by the shrewdness of her literary appraisements. -She was bound for a normal school where she was receiving instruction, -not for the purpose of entering into the pedagogical life immediately, -but to obtain a teacher’s license against a time when it might become -necessary for her to earn a livelihood. Every girl, she believed, -should fit herself for some employment. - -Manifestly she was not a person to ask favors of destiny: at eighteen -she had already made terms with life and tossed the contract upon the -knees of the gods. The normal school did not require her presence until -the day after to-morrow, and she was leaving the train at the end of -an hour to visit a friend who had arranged a dance in her honor. If -that species of entertainment interested me, she said, I might stop for -the dance. Engagements farther down the line precluded the possibility -of my accepting this invitation, which was extended with the utmost -circumspection, as though she were offering an impersonal hospitality -supported by the sovereign dignity of the commonwealth of Wisconsin. -When the train slowed down at her station a commotion on the platform -announced the presence of a reception committee of considerable -magnitude, from which I inferred that her advent was an incident of -importance to the community. As she bade me good-by she tore apart a -bouquet of fall flowers she had been carrying, handed me half of them, -and passed from my sight forever. My exalted opinion of the young women -of Wisconsin was strengthened on another occasion by a chance meeting -with two graduates of the State University who were my fellow voyagers -on a steamer that bumped into a riotous hurricane on its way down Lake -Michigan. On the slanting deck they discoursed of political economy -with a zest and humor that greatly enlivened my respect for the dismal -science. - -The listener in the West accumulates data touching the tastes and -ambitions of the people of which local guide-books offer no hint. A -little while ago two ladies behind me in a Minneapolis street-car -discussed Cardinal Newman’s “Dream of Gerontius,” with as much avidity -as though it were the newest novel. Having found that the apostles -of free verse had captured and fortified Denver and Omaha, it was a -relief to encounter these Victorian pickets on the upper waters of the -Mississippi. - - -III - -One is struck by the remarkable individuality of the States, towns, and -cities of the West. State boundaries are not merely a geographical -expression: they mark real differences of opinion, habit, custom, and -taste. This is not a sentimental idea; any one may prove it for himself -by crossing from Illinois into Wisconsin, or from Iowa into Nebraska. -Kansas and Nebraska, though cut out of the same piece, not only seem -different but they _are_ different. Interest in local differentiations, -in shadings of the “color” derived from a common soil, keep the visitor -alert. To be sure the Ladies of the Lakes--Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, -Milwaukee, Toledo, Duluth--have physical aspects in common, but the -similarity ends there. The literature of chambers of commerce as to the -number of freight-cars handled or increases of population are of no -assistance in a search for the causes of diversities in aim, spirit, -and achievement. - -The alert young cities watch each other enviously--they are enormously -proud and anxious not to be outbettered in the struggle for perfection. -In many places one is conscious of an effective leadership, of a man -or a group of men and women who plant a target and rally the citizenry -to play for the bull’s-eye. A conspicuous instance of successful -individual leadership is offered by Kansas City, where Mr. William R. -Nelson, backed by his admirable newspaper, _The Star_, fought to the -end of his life to make his city a better place to live in. Mr. Nelson -was a remarkably independent and courageous spirit, his journalistic -ideals were the highest, and he was deeply concerned for the public -welfare, not only in the more obvious sense, but equally in bringing -within the common reach enlightening influences that are likely to be -neglected in new communities. Kansas City not only profited by Mr. -Nelson’s wisdom and generosity in his lifetime, but the community will -receive ultimately his entire fortune. I am precluded from citing in -other cities men still living who are distinguished by a like devotion -to public service, but I have chosen Mr. Nelson as an eminent example -of the force that may be wielded by a single citizen. - -Minneapolis offers a happy refutation of a well-established notion that -a second generation is prone to show a weakened fibre. The sons of the -men who fashioned this vigorous city have intelligently and generously -supported many undertakings of highest value. The Minneapolis art -museum and school and an orchestra of widening reputation present -eloquent testimony to the city’s attitude toward those things that -are more excellent. Contrary to the usual history, these were not -won as the result of laborious effort but rose spontaneously. The -public library of this city not only serves the hurried business man -through a branch in the business district, equipped with industrial -and commercial reference books, but keeps pace with the local -development in art and music by assembling the best literature in these -departments. Both Minneapolis and Kansas City are well advertised by -their admirably managed, progressive libraries. More may be learned -from a librarian as to the trend of thought in his community than from -the secretary of a commercial body. It is significant that last year, -when municipal affairs were much to the fore in Kansas City, there was -a marked increase in the use of books on civic and kindred questions. -The latest report of the librarian recites that “as the library more -nearly meets the wants of the community, the proportion of fiction used -grows less, being but 34 per cent of the whole issue for the year.” -Similar impulses and achievements are manifested in Cleveland, a city -that has written many instructive chapters in the history of municipal -government. Since her exposition of 1904 and the splendid pageant -of 1914 crystallized public aspiration, St. Louis has experienced -a new birth of civic pride. Throughout the West American art has -found cordial support. In Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Cincinnati, -Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City -there are noteworthy specimens of the best work of American painters. -The art schools connected with the Western museums have exercised a -salutary influence in encouraging local talent, not only in landscape -and portraiture, but in industrial designing. - -By friendly co-operation on the part of Chicago and St. Louis smaller -cities are able to enjoy advantages that would otherwise be beyond -their reach. Lectures, orchestras, and travelling art exhibits that -formerly stopped at Chicago or jumped thence to California, now find a -hearty welcome in Kansas City, Omaha, and Denver. Thus Indianapolis was -among the few cities that shared a few years ago in the comprehensive -presentation of Saint Gaudens’s work. The expense of the undertaking -was not inconsiderable, but merchants and manufacturers bought tickets -for distribution among their employees and met the demand with a -generosity that left a balance in the art association’s treasury. These -Western cities, with their political and social problems, their rough -edges, smoke, and impudent intrusions of tracks and chimneys due to -rapid development and phenomenal prosperity, present art literally as -the handmaiden of industry-- - - “All-lovely Art, stern Labor’s fair-haired child.” - -If any one thing is quite definitely settled throughout this territory -it is that yesterday’s leaves have been plucked from the calendar: -this verily is the land of to-morrow. One does not stand beside the -Missouri at Omaha and indulge long in meditations upon the turbulent -history and waywardness of that tawny stream; the cattle receipts -for the day may have broken all records, but there are schools that -must be seen, a collection of pictures to visit, or lectures to -attend. I unhesitatingly pronounce Omaha the lecture centre of the -world--reception committees flutter at the arrival of all trains. -Man does not live by bread alone--not even in the heart of the corn -belt in a city that haughtily proclaims itself the largest primary -butter-market in the world! It is the great concern of Kansas that -it shall miss nothing; to cross that commonwealth is to gain the -impression that politics and corn are hard pressed as its main -industries by the cultural mechanisms that produce sweetness and light. -Iowa goes to bed early but not before it has read an improving book! - -[Illustration: Art exhibits ... now find a hearty welcome.] - -In those Western States where women have assumed the burden of -citizenship they seem to lose none of their zeal for art, literature, -and music. Equal suffrage was established in Colorado in 1893, -and the passing pilgrim cannot fail to be struck by the lack of -self-consciousness with which the women of that State discuss social -and political questions. The Western woman is animated by a divine -energy and she is distinguished by her willingness to render public -service. What man neglects or ignores she cheerfully undertakes, and -she has so cultivated the gentle art of persuasion that the masculine -check-book opens readily to her demand for assistance in her pet causes. - -It must not be assumed that in this land of pancakes and panaceas -interest in “culture” is new or that its manifestations are sporadic or -ill-directed. The early comers brought with them sufficient cultivation -to leaven the lump, and the educational forces and cultural movements -now everywhere marked in Western communities are but the fruition -of the labors of the pioneers who bore books of worth and a love of -learning with them into the wilderness. Much sound reading was done in -log cabins when the school-teacher was still a rarity, and amid the -strenuous labors of the earliest days many sought self-expression in -various kinds of writing. Along the Ohio there were bards in abundance, -and a decade before the Civil War Cincinnati had honest claims to being -a literary centre. The numerous poets of those days--Coggeshall’s -“Poets and Poetry of the West,” published in 1866, mentions one hundred -and fifty-two!--were chiefly distinguished by their indifference to the -life that lay nearest them. Sentiment and sentimentalism flourished -at a time when life was a hard business, though Edward Eggleston is -entitled to consideration as an early realist, by reason of “The -Hoosier Schoolmaster,” which, in spite of Indiana’s repudiation of it -as false and defamatory, really contains a true picture of conditions -with which Eggleston was thoroughly familiar. There followed later E. -W. Howe’s “The Story of a Country Town” and Hamlin Garland’s “Main -Travelled Roads,” which are landmarks of realism firmly planted in -territory invaded later by Romance, bearing the blithe flag of Zenda. - -It is not surprising that the Mississippi valley should prove far more -responsive to the chimes of romance than to the harsh clang of realism. -The West in itself is a romance. Virginia’s claims to recognition as -the chief field of tourney for romance in America totter before the -history of a vast area whose soberest chronicles are enlivened by -the most inthralling adventures and a long succession of picturesque -characters. The French voyageur, on his way from Canada by lake and -river to clasp hands with his kinsmen of the lower Mississippi; the -American pioneers, with their own heroes--George Rogers Clark, “Mad -Anthony” Wayne, and “Tippecanoe” Harrison; the soldiers of Indian wars -and their sons who fought in Mexico in the forties; the men who donned -the blue in the sixties; the Knights of the Golden Circle, who kept the -war governors anxious in the border States--these are all disclosed -upon a tapestry crowded with romantic strife and stress. - -The earliest pioneers, enjoying little intercourse with their fellows, -had time to fashion many a tale of personal adventure against the -coming of a visitor, or for recital on court days, at political -meetings, or at the prolonged “camp meetings,” where questions of -religion were debated. They cultivated unconsciously the art of -telling their stories well. The habit of story-telling grew into a -social accomplishment and it was by a natural transition that here -and there some one began to set down his tales on paper. Thus General -Lew Wallace, who lived in the day of great story-tellers, wrote “The -Fair God,” a romance of the coming of Cortez to Mexico, and followed -it with “Ben Hur,” one of the most popular romances ever written. -Crawfordsville, the Hoosier county-seat where General Wallace lived, -was once visited and its romanticism menaced by Mr. Howells, who sought -local color for the court scene in “A Modern Instance,” his novel -of divorce. Indiana was then a place where legal separations were -obtainable by convenient processes relinquished later to Nevada. - -Maurice Thompson and his brother Will, who wrote “The High Tide at -Gettysburg,” sent out from Crawfordsville the poems and sketches that -made archery a popular amusement in the seventies. The Thompsons, both -practising lawyers, employed their leisure in writing and in hunting -with the bow and arrow. “The Witchery of Archery” and “Songs of Fair -Weather” still retain their pristine charm. That two young men in an -Indiana country town should deliberately elect to live in the days of -the Plantagenets speaks for the romantic atmosphere of the Hoosier -commonwealth. A few miles away James Whitcomb Riley had already begun -to experiment with a lyre of a different sort, and quickly won for -himself a place in popular affection shared only among American poets -by Longfellow. Almost coincident with his passing rose Edgar Lee -Masters, with the “Spoon River Anthology,” and Vachel Lindsay, a poet -hardly less distinguished for penetration and sincerity, to chant of -Illinois in the key of realism. John G. Niehardt has answered their -signals from Nebraska’s corn lands. Nor shall I omit from the briefest -list the “Chicago Poems” of Carl Sandburg. The “wind stacker” and the -tractor are dangerous engines for Romance to charge: I should want -Mr. Booth Tarkington to umpire so momentous a contest. Mr. Tarkington -flirts shamelessly with realism and has shown in “The Turmoil” that he -can slip overalls and jumper over the sword and ruffles of Beaucaire -and make himself a knight of industry. Likewise, in Chicago, Mr. -Henry B. Fuller has posted the Chevalier Pensieri-Vani on the steps -of the board of trade, merely, we may assume, to collect material -for realistic fiction. The West has proved that it is not afraid of -its own shadow in the adumbrations of Mrs. Mary A. Watts, Mr. Robert -Herrick, Miss Willa Sibert Cather, Mr. William Allen White, and Mr. -Brand Whitlock, all novelists of insight, force, and authority; nor may -we forget that impressive tale of Chicago, Frank Norris’s “The Pit,” a -work that gains in dignity and significance with the years. - -Education in all the Western States has not merely performed its -traditional functions, but has become a distinct social and economic -force. It is a far cry from the day of the three R’s and the dictum -that the State’s duty to the young ends when it has eliminated them -from the illiteracy columns of the census to the State universities -and agricultural colleges, with their broad curricula and extension -courses, and the free kindergartens, the manual-training high schools, -and vocational institutions that are socializing and democratizing -education. - - -IV - -In every town of the great Valley there are groups of people earnestly -engaged in determined efforts to solve governmental problems. These -efforts frequently broaden into “movements” that succeed. We witness -here constant battles for reform that are often won only to be lost -again. The bosses, driven out at one point, immediately rally and -fortify another. Nothing, however, is pleasanter to record than the -fact that the war upon vicious or stupid local government goes steadily -on and that throughout the field under scrutiny there have been -within a decade marked and encouraging gains. The many experiments -making with administrative devices are rapidly developing a mass of -valuable data. The very lack of uniformity in these movements adds to -their interest; in countless communities the attention is arrested -by something well done that invites emulation. Constant scandals in -municipal administration, due to incompetence, waste, and graft, are -slowly penetrating to the consciousness of the apathetic citizen, and -sentiment favorable to the abandonment of the old system of partisan -local government has grown with remarkable rapidity. The absolute -divorcement of municipalities from State and national politics is -essential to the conduct of city government on business principles. -This statement is made with the more confidence from the fact that it -is reinforced by a creditable literature on the subject, illustrated -by countless surveys of boss-ridden cities where there is determined -protest against government by the unfit. That cities shall be conducted -as stock companies with reference solely to the rights and needs of -the citizen, without regard to party politics, is the demand in so -many quarters that the next decade is bound to witness striking -transformations in this field. Last March Kansas City lost a splendidly -conducted fight for a new charter that embraced the city-manager plan. -Here, however, was a defeat with honor, for the results proved so -conclusively the contention of the reformers, that the bosses rule, -that the effort was not wasted. In Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and -Minneapolis, the leaven is at work, and the bosses with gratifying -density are aiding the cause by their hostility and their constant -illustration of the evils of the antiquated system they foster. - -The elimination of the saloon in States that have already adopted -prohibition promises political changes of the utmost importance in -municipal affairs. The saloon is the most familiar and the most -mischievous of all the outposts and rallying centres of political -venality. Here the political “organization” maintains its faithful -sentinels throughout the year; the good citizen, intent upon his lawful -business and interested in politics only when election day approaches, -is usually unaware that hundreds of barroom loafers are constantly -plotting against him. The mounting “dry wave” is attributable quite as -much to revolt against the saloon as the most formidable of political -units as to a moral detestation of alcohol. Economic considerations -also have entered very deeply into the movement, and prohibition -advocated as a war measure developed still another phase. The liquor -interests provoked and invited the drastic legislation that has -overwhelmed their traffic and made dry territory of a large area -of the West. By defying regulatory laws and maintaining lobbies in -legislatures, by cracking the whip over candidates and office-holders, -they made of themselves an intolerable nuisance. Indiana’s adoption of -prohibition was very largely due to antagonism aroused by the liquor -interests through their political activities covering half a century. -The frantic efforts of breweries and distilleries there and in many -other States to persuade saloon-keepers to obey the laws in the hope of -spiking the guns of the opposition came too late. The liquor interests -had counselled and encouraged lawlessness too long and found the -retailer spoiled by the immunity their old political power had gained -for him. - -A sweeping Federal law abolishing the traffic may be enacted while -these pages are on the press.[A] Without such a measure wet and dry -forces will continue to battle; territory that is only partly dry -will continue its struggle for bone-dry laws, and States that roped -and tied John Barleycorn must resist attempts to put him on his feet -again. There is, however, nothing to encourage the idea that the -strongly developed sentiment against the saloon will lose its potency; -and it is hardly conceivable that any political party in a dry State -will write a wet plank into its platform, though stranger things have -happened. Men who, in Colorado for example, were bitterly hostile to -prohibition confess that the results convince them of its efficacy. The -Indiana law became effective last April, and in June the workhouse at -Indianapolis was closed permanently, for the interesting reason that -the number of police-court prisoners was so reduced as to make the -institution unnecessary. - -The economic shock caused by the prostration of this long-established -business is absorbed much more readily than might be imagined. Compared -with other forms of manufacturing, brewing and distilling have been -enormously profitable, and the operators have usually taken care of -themselves in advance of the destruction of their business. I passed -a brewery near Denver that had turned its attention to the making -of “near” beer and malted milk, and employed a part of its labor -otherwise in the manufacture of pottery. The presence of a herd of -cows on the brewery property to supply milk, for combination with malt, -marked, with what struck me as the pleasantest of ironies, a cheerful -acquiescence in the new order. Denver property rented formerly to -saloon-keepers I found pretty generally occupied by shops of other -kinds. In one window was this alluring sign: - - BUY YOUR SHOES - WHERE YOU BOUGHT YOUR BOOZE - - -V - -The West’s general interest in public affairs is not remarkable when -we consider the history of the Valley. The pioneers who crossed the -Alleghanies with rifle and axe were peculiarly jealous of their rights -and liberties. They viewed every political measure in the light of -its direct, concrete bearing upon themselves. They risked much to -build homes and erect States in the wilderness and they insisted, not -unreasonably, that the government should not forget them in their -exile. Poverty enforced a strict watch upon public expenditures, and -their personal security entered largely into their attitude toward the -nation. Their own imperative needs, the thinly distributed population, -apprehensions created by the menace of Indians, stubbornly hostile to -the white man’s encroachments--all contributed to a certain selfishness -in the settlers’ point of view, and they welcomed political leaders -who advocated measures that promised relief and protection. As they -listened to the pleas of candidates from the stump (a rostrum fashioned -by their own axes!) they were intensely critical. Moreover, the -candidate himself was subjected to searching scrutiny. Government, -to these men of faith and hardihood, was a very personal thing: the -leaders they chose to represent them were in the strictest sense -their representatives and agents, whom they retired on very slight -provocation. - -The sharp projection of the extension of slavery as an issue served -to awaken and crystallize national feeling. Education, internal -improvements to the accompaniment of wildcat finance, reforms in State -and county governments, all yielded before the greater issue. The -promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had led the -venturous husbandmen into woods and prairies, and they viewed with -abhorrence the idea that one man might own another and enjoy the fruits -of his labor. Lincoln was not more the protagonist of a great cause -than the personal spokesman of a body of freemen who were attracted -to his standard by the facts of his history that so largely paralleled -their own. - -It is not too much to say that Lincoln and the struggle of which he was -the leader roused the Middle West to its first experience of a national -consciousness. The provincial spirit vanished in an hour before the -beat of drums under the elms and maples of court-house yards. The -successful termination of the war left the West the possessor of a new -influence in national affairs. It had not only thrown into the conflict -its full share of armed strength but had sent Grant, Sherman, and many -military stars of lesser magnitude flashing into the firmament. The -West was thenceforth to be reckoned with in all political speculations. -Lincoln was the precursor of a line of Presidents all of whom were -soldiers: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, McKinley; and there was no -marked disturbance in the old order until Mr. Cleveland’s advent in -1884, with a resulting flare of independence not wholly revealed in the -elections following his three campaigns. - -My concern here is not with partisan matters, nor even with those -internal upheavals that in the past have caused so much heartache to -the shepherds of both of the major political flocks. With only the -greatest delicacy may one refer to the Democratic schism of 1896 or to -the break in the Republican ranks of 1912. But the purposes and aims -of the Folks with respect to government are of national importance. -The Folks are not at all disposed to relinquish the power in national -affairs which they have wielded with growing effectiveness. No matter -whether they are right or wrong in their judgments, they are far from -being a negligible force, and forecasters of nominees and policies for -the future do well to give heed to them. - -The trend toward social democracy, with its accompanying eagerness -to experiment with new devices for confiding to the people the power -of initiating legislation and expelling unsatisfactory officials, -paralleled by another tendency toward the short ballot and the -concentration of power--these and kindred tendencies are viewed -best in a non-partisan spirit in those free Western airs where the -electorate is fickle, coy, and hard to please. A good deal of what was -called populism twenty years ago, and associated in the minds of the -contumelious with long hair and whiskers, was advocated in 1912 by -gentlemen who called themselves Progressives and were on good terms -with the barber. In the Progressive convention of 1916 I was struck -by the great number of Phi Beta Kappa keys worn by delegates and -sympathetic spectators. If they were cranks they were educated cranks, -who could not be accused of ignorance of the teachings of experience in -their political cogitations. They were presumably acquainted with the -history of republics from the beginning of time, and the philosophy to -be deduced from their disasters. It was because the Progressive party -enlisted so many very capable politicians familiar with organization -methods that it became a formidable rival of the old parties in 1912. -In 1916 it lost most of these supporters, who saw hope of Republican -success and were anxious to ride on the band-wagon. Nothing, however, -could be more reassuring than the confidence in the people, _i. e._, -the Folks manifested by men and women who know their Plato and are -familiar with Isaiah’s distrust of the crowd and his reliance upon the -remnant. - -The isolation of the independent who belongs to no organization and is -unaware of the number of voters who share his sentiments, militates -against his effectiveness as a protesting factor. He waits timidly in -the dark for a flash that will guide him toward some more courageous -brother. The American is the most self-conscious being on earth and he -is loath to set himself apart to be pointed out as a crank, for in -partisan camps all recalcitrants are viewed contemptuously as erratic -and dangerous persons. It has been demonstrated that a comparatively -small number of voters in half a dozen Western States, acting together, -can throw a weight into the scale that will defeat one or the other -of the chief candidates for the presidency. If they should content -themselves with an organization and, without nominating candidates, -menace either side that aroused their hostility, their effectiveness -would be increased. But here again we encounter that peculiarity of -the American that he likes a crowd. He is so used to the spectacular -demonstrations of great campaigns, and so enjoys the thunder of the -captains and the shouting, that he is overcome by loneliness when he -finds himself at small conferences that plot the overthrow of the party -of his former allegiance. - -The West may be likened to a naughty boy in a hickory shirt and -overalls who enjoys pulling the chair from under his knickerbockered, -Eton-collared Eastern cousins. The West creates a new issue whenever -it pleases, and wearying of one plaything cheerfully seeks another. It -accepts the defeat of free silver and turns joyfully to prohibition, -flattering itself that its chief concern is with moral issues. It -wants to make the world a better place to live in and it believes in -abundant legislation to that end. It experiments by States, points with -pride to the results, and seeks to confer the priceless boon upon the -nation. Much of its lawmaking is shocking to Eastern conservatism, but -no inconsiderable number of Easterners hear the window-smashing and are -eager to try it at home. - -To spank the West and send it supperless to bed is a very large order, -but I have conversed with gentlemen on the Eastern seaboard who feel -that this should be done. They go the length of saying that if this -chastisement is neglected the republic will perish. Of course, the -West doesn’t want the republic to perish; it honestly believes itself -preordained of all time to preserve the republic. It sits up o’ nights -to consider ways and means of insuring its preservation. It is very -serious and doesn’t at all like being chaffed about its hatred of Wall -Street and its anxiety to pin annoying tick-tacks on the windows of -ruthless corporations. It is going to get everything for the Folks -that it can, and it sees nothing improper in the idea of State-owned -elevators or of fixing by law the height of the heels on the slippers -of its emancipated women. It is in keeping with the cheery contentment -of the West that it believes that it has “at home” or can summon to its -R. F. D. box everything essential to human happiness. - -Across this picture of ease, contentment, and complacency fell the -cloud of war. What I am attempting is a record of transition, and -I have set down the foregoing with a consciousness that our recent -yesterdays already seem remote; that many things that were true only a -few months ago are now less true, though it is none the less important -that we remember them. It is my hope that what I shall say of that -period to which we are even now referring as “before the war” may -serve to emphasize the sharpness of America’s new confrontations and -the yielding, for a time at least, of the pride of sectionalism to the -higher demands of nationality. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -TYPES AND DIVERSIONS - - - “O I see flashing that this America is only you and me, - Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me, - Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, are you and me, - Its Congress is you and me, the officers, capitols, armies, ships, - are you and me, - Its endless gestations of new States are you and me, - The war (that war so bloody and grim, the war I will henceforth - forget), was you and me, - Natural and artificial are you and me, - Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me, - Past, present, future, are you and me.” - - WHITMAN. - - -I - -At the end of a week spent in a Middle Western city a visitor from the -East inquired wearily: “Does no one work in this town?” The answer to -such a question is that of course everybody works; the town boasts no -man of leisure; but on occasions the citizens play, and the advent of -any properly certified guest affords a capital excuse for a period of -intensified sociability. “Welcome” is writ large over the gates of all -Western cities--literally in letters of fire at railway-stations. -Approaching a town the motorist finds himself courteously welcomed -and politely requested to respect the local speed law, and as he -departs a sign at the postern thanks him and urges his return. The -Western town is distinguished as much by its generous hospitality -as by its enterprise, its firm purpose to develop new territory and -widen its commercial influence. The visitor is bewildered by the -warmth with which he is seized and scheduled for a round of exhausting -festivities. He may enjoy all the delights that attend the triumphal -tour of a débutante launched upon a round of visits to the girls she -knew in school or college; and he will be conscious of a sincerity, -a real pride and joy in his presence, that warms his heart to the -community. Passing on from one town to another, say from Cincinnati to -Cleveland, from Kansas City to Denver, from Omaha to Minneapolis, he -finds that news of his approach has preceded him. The people he has -met at his last stopping-place have wired everybody they know at the -next point in his itinerary to be on the lookout for him, and he finds -that instead of entering a strange port there are friends--veritable -friends--awaiting him. If by chance he escapes the eye of the reception -committee and enters himself on the books of an inn, he is interrupted -in his unpacking by offers of lodging in the homes of people he never -saw before. - -There is no other region in America where so much history has been -crowded into so brief a period, where young commonwealths so quickly -attained political power and influence as in the Middle West; but -the founding of States and the establishment of law is hardly more -interesting than the transfer to the wilderness of the dignities and -amenities of life. From the verandas of country clubs or handsome -villas scattered along the Great Lakes, one may almost witness the -receding pageant of discovery and settlement. In Wisconsin and Michigan -the golfer in search of an elusive ball has been known to stumble upon -an arrow-head, a significant reminder of the newness of the land; and -the motorist flying across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois sees log cabins -that survive from the earliest days, many of them still occupied. - -Present comfort and luxury are best viewed against a background of -pioneer life; at least the sense of things hoped for and realized in -these plains is more impressive as one ponders the self-sacrifice and -heroism by which the soil was conquered and peopled. The friendliness, -the eagerness to serve that are so charming and winning in the West -date from those times when one who was not a good neighbor was a -potential enemy. Social life was largely dependent upon exigencies that -brought the busy pioneers together, to cut timber, build homes, add a -barn to meet growing needs, or to assist in “breaking” new acres. The -women, eagerly seizing every opportunity to vary the monotony of their -lonely lives, gathered with the men, and while the axes swung in the -woodland or the plough turned up the new soil, held a quilting, spun -flax, made clothing, or otherwise assisted the hostess to get ahead -with her never-ending labors. To-day, throughout the broad valley -the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the pioneers ply the -tennis-racket and dance in country club-houses beside lakes and rivers -where their forebears drove the plough or swung the axe all day, and -rode miles to dance on a puncheon floor. There was marrying and giving -in marriage; children were born and “raised” amid conditions that cause -one to smile at the child-welfare and “better-baby” societies of these -times. The affections were deepened by the close union of the family in -the intimate association of common tasks. Here, indeed, was a practical -application of the dictum of one for all and all for one. - -The lines of contact between isolated clearings and meagre settlements -were never wholly broken. Months might pass without a household seeing -a strange face, but always some one was on the way--an itinerant -missionary, a lost hunter, a pioneer looking for a new field to -conquer. Motoring at ease through the country, one marvels at the -journeys accomplished when blazed trails were the only highways. A -pioneer railroad-builder once told me of a pilgrimage he made on -horseback from northern Indiana to the Hermitage in Tennessee to meet -Old Hickory face to face. Jackson had captivated his boyish fancy and -this arduous journey was a small price to pay for the honor of viewing -the hero on his own acres. I may add that this gentleman achieved his -centennial, remaining a steadfast adherent of Jacksonian democracy to -the end of his life. Once I accompanied him to the polls and he donned -a silk hat for the occasion, as appropriate to the dignified exercise -of his franchise. - -There was a distinct type of restless, adventurous pioneer who liked -to keep a little ahead of civilization; who found that he could not -breathe freely when his farm, acquainted for only a few years with -the plough, became the centre of a neighborhood. Men of this sort -persuaded themselves that there was better land to be had farther -on, though, more or less consciously, it was freedom they craved. -The exodus of the Lincolns from Kentucky through Indiana, where they -lingered fourteen years before seeking a new home in Illinois, is -typical of the pioneer restlessness. In a day when the effects of -a household could be moved in one wagon and convoyed by the family -on horseback, these transitions were undertaken with the utmost -light-heartedness. Only a little while ago I heard a woman of eighty -describe her family’s removal from Kentucky to Illinois, a wide détour -being made that they might visit a distant relative in central Indiana. -This, from her recital, must have been the jolliest of excursions, for -the children at least, with the daily experiences of fording streams, -the constant uncertainties as to the trail, and the camping out in the -woods when no cabin offered shelter. - -It was a matter of pride with the housewife to make generous provision -for “company,” and the pioneer annalists dwell much upon the good -provender of those days, when venison and wild turkeys were to be -had for the killing and corn pone or dodger was the only bread. -The reputation of being a good cook was quite as honorable as -that of being a successful farmer or a lucky hunter. The Princeton -University Press has lately resurrected and republished “The New -Purchase,” by Baynard Rush Hall, a graduate of Union College and of -Princeton Theological Seminary, one of the raciest and most amusing -of mid-Western chronicles. Hall sought “a life of poetry and romance -amid the rangers of the wood,” and in 1823 became principal of Indiana -Seminary, the precursor of the State University. Having enjoyed an -ampler experience of life than his neighbors, he was able to view the -pioneers with a degree of detachment, though sympathetically. - -No other contemporaneous account of the social life of the period -approaches this for fulness; certainly none equals it in humor. The -difficulties of transportation, the encompassing wilderness all but -impenetrable, the oddities of frontier character, the simple menage -of the pioneer, his food, and the manner of its preparation, and the -general social spectacle, are described by a master reporter. One of -his best chapters is devoted to a wedding and the subsequent feast, -where a huge potpie was the pièce de résistance. He estimates that at -least six hens, two chanticleers, and four pullets were lodged in this -doughy sepulchre, which was encircled by roast wild turkeys “stuffed” -with Indian meal and sausages. Otherwise there were fried venison, -fried turkey, fried chicken, fried duck, fried pork, and, he adds, “for -anything I knew, even fried leather!” - - -II - -The pioneer adventure in the trans-Mississippi States differed -materially from that of the timbered areas of the old Northwest -Territory. I incline to the belief that the forest primeval had a -socializing effect upon those who first dared its fastnesses, binding -the lonely pioneers together by mysterious ties which the open plain -lacked. The Southern infusion in the States immediately north of -the Ohio undoubtedly influenced the early social life greatly. The -Kentuckian, for example, carried his passion for sociability into -Indiana, and pages of pioneer history in the Hoosier State might have -been lifted bodily from Kentucky chronicles, so similar is their -flavor. The Kentuckian was always essentially social; he likes “the -swarm,” remarks Mr. James Lane Allen. To seek a contrast, the early -social picture in Kansas is obscured by the fury of the battle over -slavery that dominates the foreground. Other States fought Indians and -combated hunger, survived malaria, brimstone and molasses and calomel, -and kept in good humor, but the settlement of Kansas was attended -with battle, murder, and sudden death. The pioneers of the Northwest -Territory began life in amiable accord with their neighbors; Kansas -gained Statehood after a bitter war with her sister Missouri, though -the contest may not be viewed as a local disturbance, but as a “curtain -raiser” for the drama of the Civil War. When in the strenuous fifties -Missouri undertook to colonize the Kansas plains with pro-slavery -sympathizers, New England rose in majesty to protest. She not only -protested vociferously but sent colonies to hold the plain against the -invaders. Life in the Kansas of those years of strife was unrelieved -by any gayeties. One searches in vain for traces of the comfort and -cheer that are a part of the tradition of the settlement of the Ohio -valley States. Professor Spring, in his history of Kansas, writes: -“For amusement the settlers were left entirely to their own resources. -Lectures, concert troupes, and shows never ventured far into the -wilderness. Yet there was much broad, rollicking, noisy merrymaking, -but it must be confessed that rum and whiskey--lighter liquors like -wine and beer could not be obtained--had a good deal to do with it.... -Schools, churches, and the various appliances of older civilization got -under way and made some growth; but they were still in a primitive, -inchoate condition when Kansas took her place in the Union.” - -There is hardly another American State in which the social organization -may be observed as readily as in Kansas. For the reason that its -history and the later “social scene” constitute so compact a picture -I find myself returning to it frequently for illustrations and -comparisons. Born amid tribulation, having indeed been subjected to the -ordeal of fire, Kansas marks Puritanism’s farthest west; her people -are still proud to call their State “The Child of Plymouth Rock.” The -New Englanders who settled the northeastern part of the Territory were -augmented after the Civil War by men of New England stock who had -established themselves in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa when the war began, -and having acquired soldiers’ homestead rights made use of them to -pre-empt land in the younger commonwealth. The influx of veterans after -Appomattox sealed the right of Kansas to be called a typical American -State. “Kansas sent practically every able-bodied man of military age -to the Civil War,” says Mr. William Allen White, “and when they came -back literally hundreds of thousands of other soldiers came with them -and took homesteads.” For thirty years after Kansas attained Statehood -her New Englanders were a dominating factor in her development, -and their influence is still clearly perceptible. The State may be -considered almost as one vast plantation, peopled by industrious, -aspiring men and women. Class distinctions are little known; snobbery, -where it exists, hides itself to avoid ridicule; the State abounds in -the “comfortably well off” and the “well-to-do”; millionaires are few -and well tamed; every other family boasts an automobile. - -While the political and economic results of the Civil War have been -much written of, its influence upon the common relationships of life -in the border States that it so profoundly affected are hardly less -interesting. The pioneer period was becoming a memory, the conditions -of life had grown comfortable, and there was ease in Zion when the -young generation met a new demand upon their courage. Many were -permanently lifted out of the sphere to which they were born and -thrust forth into new avenues of opportunity. This was not of course -peculiar to the West, though in the Mississippi valley the effects -were so closely intermixed with those of the strenuous post-bellum -political history that they are indelibly written into the record. -Local hostilities aroused by the conflict were of long duration; the -copperhead was never forgiven for his disloyalty; it is remembered to -this day against his descendants. Men who, in all likelihood, would -have died in obscurity but for the changes and chances of war rose to -high position. The most conspicuous of such instances is afforded by -Grant, whose circumstances and prospects were the poorest when Fame -flung open her doors to him. - -Nothing pertaining to the war of the sixties impresses the student -more than the rapidity with which reputations were made or lost or -the effect upon the participants of their military experiences. From -farms, shops, and offices men were flung into the most stirring -scenes the nation had known. They emerged with the glory of battle -upon them to become men of mark in their communities, wearing a new -civic and social dignity. It would be interesting to know how many -of the survivors attained civil office as the reward of their valor; -in the Western States I should say that few escaped some sort of -recognition on the score of their military services. In the city -that I know best of all, where for three decades at least the most -distinguished citizens--certainly the most respected and honored--were -veterans of the Civil War, it has always seemed to me remarkable and -altogether reassuring as proof that we need never fear the iron collar -of militarism, that those men of the sixties so quickly readjusted -themselves in peaceful occupations. There were those who capitalized -their military achievements, but the vast number had gone to war from -the highest patriotic motives and, having done their part, were glad to -be quit of it. The shifting about and the new social experiences were -responsible for many romances. Men met and married women of whose very -existence they would have been ignorant but for the fortunes of war, -and in these particulars history was repeating itself last year before -our greatest military adventure had really begun! - -The sudden appearance of thousands of khaki-clad young men in the -summer and fall of 1917 marked a new point of orientation in American -life. Romance mounted his charger again; everywhere one met the wistful -war bride. The familiar academic ceremonials of college commencements -in the West as in the East were transformed into tributes to the -patriotism of the graduates and undergraduates already under arms -and present in their new uniforms. These young men, encountered in -the street, in clubs, in hurried visits to their offices as they -transferred their affairs to other hands, were impressively serious and -businesslike. In the training-camps one heard familiar college songs -rather than battle hymns. Even country-club dances and other functions -given for the entertainment of the young soldiers were lacking in -light-heartedness. In a Minneapolis country club much affected by -candidates for commissions at Fort Snelling, the Saturday-night dances -closed with the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner”; every face -turned instantly toward the flag; every hand came to salute; and the -effect was to send the whole company, young and old, soberly into -the night. In the three training and mobilizing camps that I visited -through the first months of preparation--Forts Benjamin Harrison, -Sheridan, and Snelling--there was no ignoring the quiet, dogged -attitude of the sons of the West, who had no hatred for the people -they were enlisted to fight (I heard many of them say this), but were -animated by a feeling that something greater even than the dignity and -security of this nation, something of deep import to the whole world -had called them. - - -III - -In “The American Scene” Mr. James ignored the West, perhaps as lacking -in those backgrounds and perspectives that most strongly appealed to -him. It is for the reason that “polite society,” as we find it in -Western cities, has only the scant pioneer background that I have -indicated that it is so surprising in the dignity and richness of its -manifestations. If it is a meritorious thing for people in prosperous -circumstances to spend their money generously and with good taste in -the entertainment of their friends, to effect combinations of the -congenial in balls, dinners, musicals, and the like, then the social -spectacle in the Western provinces is not a negligible feature of their -activities. If an aristocracy is a desirable thing in America, the -West can, in its cities great and small, produce it, and its quality -and tone will be found quite similar to the aristocracy of older -communities. We of the West are not so callous as our critics would -have us appear, and we are only politely tolerant of the persistence -with which fiction and the drama are illuminated with characters -whose chief purpose is to illustrate the raw vulgarity of Western -civilization. Such persons are no more acceptable socially in Chicago, -Minneapolis, or Denver than they are in New York. The country is -so closely knit together that a fashionable gathering in one place -presents very much the appearance of a similar function in another. -New York, socially speaking, is very hospitable to the Southerner; the -South has a tradition of aristocracy that the West lacks. In both New -York and Boston a very different tone characterizes the mention of a -Southern girl and any reference to a daughter of the West. The Western -girl may be every bit as “nice” and just as cultivated as the Southern -girl: they would be indistinguishable one from the other save for the -Southern girl’s speech, which we discover to be not provincial but “so -charmingly Southern.” - -Perhaps I may here safely record my impatience of the pretension that -provincialism is anywhere admirable. A provincial character may be -interesting and amusing as a type; he may be commendably curious about -a great number of things and even possess considerable information, -without being blessed with the vision to correlate himself with the -world beyond the nearest haystack. I do not share the opinion of some -of my compatriots of the Western provinces that our speech is really -the standard English, that the Western voice is impeccable, or that -culture and manners have attained among us any noteworthy dignity -that entitles us to strut before the rest of the world. Culture is -not a term to be used lightly, and culture, as, say, Matthew Arnold -understood it and labored to extend its sphere, is not more respected -in these younger States than elsewhere in America. We are offering -innumerable vehicles of popular education; we point with pride to -public schools, State and privately endowed universities, and to -smaller colleges of the noblest standards and aims; but, even with -these so abundantly provided, it cannot be maintained that culture -in its strict sense cries insistently to the Western imagination. -There are people of culture, yes; there are social expressions both -interesting and charming; but our preoccupations are mainly with the -utilitarian, an attitude wholly defensible and explainable in the -light of our newness, the urgent need of bread-winning in our recent -yesterdays. However, with the easing in the past fifty years of the -conditions of life there followed quite naturally a restlessness, -an eagerness to fill and drain the cup of enjoyment, that was only -interrupted by our entrance into the world war. There are people, rich -and poor, in these States who are devotedly attached to “whatsoever -things are lovely,” but that they exert any wide influence or color -deeply the social fabric is debatable. It is possible that “sweetness -and light,” as we shall ultimately attain them, will not be an -efflorescence of literature or the fine arts, but a realization of -justice, highly conceived, and a perfected system of government that -will assure the happiness, contentment, and peace of the great body of -our citizenry. - -In the smaller Western towns, especially where the American stock -is dominant, lines of social demarcation are usually obscure to the -vanishing-point. Schools and churches are here a democratizing factor, -and a woman who “keeps help” is very likely to be apologetic about it; -she is anxious to avoid the appearance of “uppishness”--an unpardonable -sin. It is impossible for her to ignore the fact that the “girl” in -her kitchen has, very likely, gone to school with her children or has -been a member of her Sunday-school class. The reluctance of American -girls to accept employment as house-servants is an aversion not to be -overcome in the West. Thousands of women in comfortable conditions -of life manage their homes without outside help other than that of -a neighborhood man or a versatile syndicate woman who “comes in” to -assist in a weekly cleaning. - -There is a type of small-town woman who makes something quite casual -and incidental of the day’s tasks. Her social enjoyments are in no -way hampered if, in entertaining company, she prepares with her own -hands the viands for the feast. She takes the greatest pride in her -household; she is usually a capital cook and is not troubled by any -absurd feeling that she has “demeaned” herself by preparing and -serving a meal. She does this exceedingly well, and rises without -embarrassment to change the plates and bring in the salad. The salad -is excellent and she knows it is excellent and submits with becoming -modesty to praise of her handiwork. In homes which it is the highest -privilege to visit a joke is made of the housekeeping. The lady of the -house performs the various rites in keeping with maternal tradition -and the latest approved text-books. You may, if you like, accompany -her to the kitchen and watch the broiling of your chop, noting the -perfection of the method before testing the result, and all to the -accompaniment of charming talk about life and letters or what you will. -Corporate feeding in public mess-halls will make slow headway with -these strongly individualistic women of the new generation who read -prodigiously, manage a baby with their eyes on Pasteur, and are as -proud of their biscuits as of their club papers, which we know to be -admirable. - -Are women less prone to snobbishness than men? Contrary to the -general opinion, I think they are. Their gentler natures shrink from -unkindness, from the petty cruelties of social differentiation which -may be made very poignant in a town of five or ten thousand people, -where one cannot pretend with any degree of plausibility that one does -not know one’s neighbor, or that the daughter of a section foreman or -the son of the second-best grocer did not sit beside one’s own Susan -or Thomas in the public school. The banker’s offspring may find the -children of the owner of the stave-factory or the planing-mill more -congenial associates than the children on the back streets; but when -the banker’s wife gives a birthday party for Susan the invitations are -not limited to the children of the immediate neighbors but include -every child in town who has the slightest claim upon her hospitality. -The point seems to be established that one may be poor and yet -be “nice”; and this is a very comforting philosophy and no mean -touchstone of social fitness. I may add that the mid-Western woman, -in spite of her strong individualism in domestic matters, is, broadly -speaking, fundamentally socialistic. She is the least bit uncomfortable -at the thought of inequalities of privilege and opportunity. Not long -ago I met in Chicago an old friend, a man who has added greatly to -an inherited fortune. To my inquiry as to what he was doing in town -he replied ruefully that he was going to buy his wife some clothes! -He explained that in her preoccupation with philanthropy and social -welfare she had grown not merely indifferent to the call of fashion, -but that she seriously questioned her right to adorn herself while -her less-favored sisters suffered for life’s necessities. This is an -extreme case, though I can from my personal acquaintance duplicate it -in half a dozen instances of women born to ease and able to command -luxury who very sincerely share this feeling. - - -IV - -The social edifice is like a cabinet of file-boxes conveniently -arranged so that they may be drawn out and pondered by the curious. The -seeker of types is so prone to look for the eccentric, the fantastic -(and I am not without my interest in these varieties), which so -astonishingly repeat themselves, that he is likely to ignore the claims -of the normal, the real “folksy” bread-and-butter people who are, after -all, the mainstay of our democracy. They are not to be scornfully waved -aside as bourgeoisie, or prodded with such ironies as Arnold applied to -the middle class in England. They constitute the most interesting and -admirable of our social strata. There is nothing quite like them in any -other country; nowhere else have comfort, opportunity, and aspiration -produced the same combination. - -The traveller’s curiosity is teased constantly, as he cruises through -the towns and cities of the Middle West, by the numbers of homes that -cannot imaginably be maintained on less than five thousand dollars a -year. The economic basis of these establishments invites speculation; -in my own city I am ignorant of the means by which hundreds of such -homes are conducted--homes that testify to the West’s growing good -taste in domestic architecture and shelter people whose ambitions are -worthy of highest praise. There was a time not so remote when I could -identify at sight every pleasure vehicle in town. A man who kept a -horse and buggy was thought to be “putting on” a little; if he set up -a carriage and two horses he was, unless he enjoyed public confidence -in the highest degree, viewed with distrust and suspicion. When in the -eighties an Indianapolis bank failed, a cynical old citizen remarked -of its president that “no wonder Blank busted, swelling ’round in a -carriage with a nigger in uniform”! Nowadays thousands of citizens -blithely disport themselves in automobiles that cost several times the -value of that banker’s equipage. I have confided my bewilderment to -friends in other cities and find the same ignorance of the economic -foundation of this prosperity. The existence, in cities of one, -two, and three hundred thousand people of so many whom we may call -non-producers--professional men, managers, agents--offers a stimulating -topic for a doctoral thesis. I am not complaining of this phenomenon--I -merely wonder about it. - -The West’s great natural wealth and extraordinary development is -nowhere more strikingly denoted than in the thousands of comfortable -homes, in hundreds of places, set on forty or eighty foot lots that -were tilled land or forest fifty or twenty years ago. Cruising -through the West, one enters every city through new additions, -frequently sliced out of old forests, with the maples, elms, or -beeches carefully retained. Bungalows are inadvertently jotted down -as though enthusiastic young architects were using the landscape -for sketch-paper. I have inspected large settlements in which no -two of these habitations are alike, though the difference may be -only a matter of pulling the roof a little lower over the eyes of -the veranda or some idiosyncrasy in the matter of the chimney. The -trolley and the low-priced automobile are continually widening the -urban arc, so that the acre lot or even a larger estate is within -the reach of city-dwellers who have a weakness for country air and -home-grown vegetables. A hedge, a second barricade of hollyhocks, a -flower-box on the veranda rail, and a splash of color when the crimson -ramblers are in bloom--here the hunter of types keeps his note-book -in hand and wishes that Henry Cuyler Bunner were alive to bring his -fine perceptions and sympathies to bear upon these homes and their -attractive inmates. - -The young woman we see inspecting the mignonette or admonishing the -iceman to greater punctuality in his deliveries, would have charmed a -lyric from Aldrich. The new additions are, we know, contrived for her -special delight. She and her neighbors are not to be confounded with -young wives in apartments with kitchenette attached who lean heavily -upon the delicatessen-shop and find their sole intellectual stimulus in -vaudeville or the dumb drama. It is inconceivable that any one should -surprise the mistresses of these bungalows in a state of untidiness, -that their babies should not be sound and encouraging specimens of the -human race, or that the arrival of unexpected guests should not find -their pantries fortified with delicious strawberries or transparent -jellies of their own conserving. These young women and their equally -young husbands are the product of the high schools, or perhaps they -have been fellow students in a State university. With all the world -before them where to choose and Providence their guide, they have -elected to attack life together and they go about it joyfully. Let no -one imagine that they lead starved lives or lack social diversion. Do -the housekeepers not gather on one another’s verandas every summer -afternoon to discuss the care of infants or wars and rumors of wars; -and is there not tennis when their young lords come home? On occasions -of supreme indulgence the neighborhood laundress watches the baby while -they go somewhere to dance or to a play, lecture, or concert in town. -They are all musical; indeed, the whole Middle West is melodious with -the tinklings of what Mr. George Ade, with brutal impiety, styles “the -upright agony box.” Or, denied the piano, these habitations at least -boast the tuneful disk and command at will the voices of Farrar and -Caruso. - - -V - -It is in summer that the Middle Western provinces most candidly present -themselves, not only because the fields then publish their richness -but for the ease with which the people may be observed. The study of -types may then be pursued along the multitudinous avenues in which -the Folks disport themselves in search of pleasure. The smoothing-out -processes, to which schools, tailors, dressmakers, and “shine-’em” -parlors contribute, add to the perils of the type-hunter. Mr. Howells’s -remark of twenty years ago or more, that the polish slowly dims on -footgear as one travels westward, has ceased to be true; types once -familiar are so disguised or modified as to be unrecognizable. Even the -Western county-seat, long rich in “character,” now flaunts the smartest -apparel in its shop-windows, and when it reappears in Main Street upon -the forms of the citizens one is convinced of the local prosperity -and good taste. The keeper of the livery-stable, a stout gentleman, -who knows every man, woman, and child in the county and aspires to -the shrievalty, has bowed before the all-pervasive automobile. He -has transformed his stable into a garage (with a plate-glass “front” -exposing the latest model) and hides his galluses (shamelessly -exhibited in the day of the horse) under a coat of modish cut, in -deference to the sensibilities of lady patrons. The country lawyer is -abandoning the trailing frock coat, once the sacred vestment of his -profession, having found that the wrinkled tails evoked unfavorable -comment from his sons and daughters when they came home from college. -The village drunkard is no longer pointed out commiseratingly; local -option and State-wide prohibition have destroyed his usefulness as an -awful example, and his resourcefulness is taxed to the utmost that he -may keep tryst with the skulking bootlegger. - -Every town used to have a usurer, a merchant who was “mean” (both -of these were frequently pillars in the church), and a dishevelled -photographer whose artistic ability was measured by the success of his -efforts to make the baby laugh. He solaced himself with the flute or -violin between “sittings,” not wholly without reference to the charms -of the milliner over the way. In the towns I have in mind there was -always the young man who would have had a brilliant career but for his -passion for gambling, the aleatory means of his destruction being an -all-night poker-game in the back room of his law-office opposite the -court-house. He may appropriately be grouped with the man who had been -ruined by “going security” for a friend, who was spoken of pityingly -while the beneficiary of his misplaced confidence, having gained -affluence, was execrated. The race is growing better and wiser, and -by one means and another these types have been forced from the stage; -or perhaps more properly it should be said that the stage and the -picture-screen alone seem unaware that they have passed into oblivion. - -[Illustration: The Municipal Recreation Pier, Chicago.] - -The town band remains, however, and it is one of the mysteries of our -civilization that virtuosi, capable of performing upon any instrument, -exist in the smallest hamlet and meet every Saturday night for -practice in the lodge-room over the grocery. I was both auditor and -spectator of such a rehearsal one night last summer, in a small town -in Illinois. From the garage across the street it was possible -to hear and see the artists, and to be aware of the leader’s zeal -and his stern, critical attitude toward the performers. He seized -first the cornet and then the trombone (Hoosierese, sliphorn) to -demonstrate the proper phrasing of a difficult passage. The universal -Main Street is made festive on summer nights by the presence of the -town’s fairest daughters, clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, -who know every one and gossip democratically with their friend the -white-jacketed young man who lords it at the druggist’s soda-fountain. -Such a group gathered and commented derisively upon the experiments -of the musicians. That the cornetist was in private life an assistant -to the butcher touched their humor; the evocation of melody and the -purveying of meat seemed to them irreconcilable. In every such town -there is a male quartette that sings the old-time melodies at church -entertainments and other gatherings. These vocalists add to the joy -of living, and I should lament their passing. Their efforts are more -particularly pleasing when, supplemented by guitar and banjo, they move -through verdurous avenues thrumming and singing as they go. Somewhere a -lattice opens guardedly--how young the world is! - -The adventurous boy who, even in times of peace, was scornful of formal -education and ran away to enlist in the navy or otherwise sought to -widen the cramped horizons of home--and every town has this boy--still -reappears at intervals to report to his parents and submit to the -admiration and envy of his old schoolmates in the Main Street bazaars. -This type endures and will, very likely, persist while there are seas -to cross and battles to be won. The trumpetings of war stir the blood -of such youngsters, and since our entrance into the war it has been -my fortune to know many of them, who were anxious to dare the skies -or play with death in the waters under the earth. The West has no -monopoly of courage or daring, but it was reassuring to find that the -best blood of the Great Valley thrilled to the cry of the bugle. On a -railway-train I fell into talk with a young officer of the national -army. Finding that I knew the president of the Western college that -he had attended, he sketched for me a career which, in view of his -twenty-six years, was almost incredible. At eighteen he had enlisted -in the navy in the hope of seeing the world, but had been assigned to -duty as a hospital orderly. Newport had been one of his stations; there -and at other places where he had served he spent his spare hours in -study. When he was discharged he signed papers on a British merchant -vessel. The ship was short-handed and he was enrolled as an able -seaman, which, he said, was an unwarranted compliment, as he proved to -the captain’s satisfaction when he was sent to the wheel and nearly (as -he put it) bowled over a lighthouse. His voyages had carried him to the -Orient and the austral seas. After these wanderings he was realizing -an early ambition to go to college when the war-drum sounded. He had -taken the training at an officer’s reserve camp and was on his way to -his first assignment. The town he mentioned as his home is hardly more -than a whistling-point for locomotives, and I wondered later, as I -flashed through it, just what stirring of the spirit had made its peace -intolerable and sent him roaming.[B] At a club dinner I met another -man, born not far from the town that produced my sailor-soldier, who -had fought with the Canadian troops from the beginning of the war -until discharged because of wounds received on the French front. His -pocketful of medals--he carried them boyishly, like so many marbles, in -his trousers pocket!--included the _croix de guerre_, and he had been -decorated at Buckingham Palace by King George. He had been a wanderer -from boyhood, his father told me, visiting every part of the world that -promised adventure and, incidentally, was twice wounded in the Boer War. - -The evolution of a type is not, with Mother Nature, a hasty business, -and in attempting to answer an inquiry for a definition of the typical -mid-Western girl, I am disposed to spare myself humiliating refutations -by declaring that there is no such thing. In the Rocky Mountain States -and in California, we know, if the motion-picture purveyors may be -trusted, that the typical young woman of those regions always wears -a sombrero and lives upon the back of a bronco. However, in parts -of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, where there has been a minimum of -intermixture since the original settlements, one is fairly safe in the -choice of types. I shall say that in this particular territory the -typical young woman is brown-haired, blue or brown of eye, of medium -height, with a slender, mobile face that is reminiscent of Celtic -influences. Much Scotch-Irish blood flowed into the Ohio valley in the -early immigration, and the type survives. In the streets and in public -gatherings in Wisconsin and Minnesota the German and Scandinavian -infusion is clearly manifest. On the lake-docks and in lumber-camps -the big fellows of the North in their Mackinaw coats and close-fitting -knit caps impart a heroic note to the landscape. In January, 1917, -having gone to St. Paul to witness the winter carnival, I was struck by -the great number of tall, fair men who, in their gay holiday attire, -satisfied the most exacting ideal of the children of the vikings. They -trod the snow with kingly majesty, and to see their performances on -skis is to be persuaded that the sagas do not exaggerate the daring of -their ancestors. - - “What was that?” said Olaf, standing - On the quarter deck. - “Something heard I like the stranding - Of a shattered wreck.” - Einar then, the arrow taking - From the loosened string, - Answered “that was Norway breaking - From thy hand, O king!” - -The search for characteristic traits is likely to be more fruitful -of tangible results than the attempt to fix physical types, and the -Western girl who steps from the high schools to the State universities -that so hospitably open their doors to her may not be _the_ type, but -she is indubitably _a_ type, well defined. The lore of the ages has -been preserved and handed down for her special benefit and she absorbs -and assimilates it with ease and grace. Man is no enigma to her; she -begins her analysis of the male in high school, and the university -offers a post-graduate course in the species. Young men are not more -serious over the affairs of their Greek-letter societies than these -young women in the management of their sororities, which seem, after -school-days, to call for constant reunions. It is not surprising that -the Western woman has so valiantly fought for and won recognition of -her rights as a citizen. A girl who has matched her wits against boys -in the high school and again in a State university, and very likely has -surpassed them in scholarship, must be forgiven for assuming that the -civil rights accorded them cannot fairly be withheld from her. The many -thousands of young women who have taken degrees in these universities -have played havoc with the Victorian tradition of womanhood. They -constitute an independent, self-assured body, zealous in social and -civic service, and not infrequently looking forward to careers. - -The State university is truly a well-spring of democracy; this may -not be said too emphatically. There is evidence of the pleasantest -comradeship between men and women students, and one is impressed in -classrooms by the prevailing good cheer and earnestness. - - “And one said, smiling, Pretty were the sight - If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt - With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, - And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.” - -Mild flirtations are not regarded as detrimental to the attainment -of sound or even distinguished scholarship. The university’s social -life may be narrow, but it is ampler than that of the farm or “home -town.” Against the argument that these institutions tend to the -promotion of provincial insularity, it may be said that there is a -compensating benefit in the mingling of students drawn largely from a -single commonwealth. A gentleman whose education was gained in one of -the older Eastern universities and in Europe remarked to me that, as -his son expected to succeed him in the law, he was sending him to the -university of his own State, for the reason that he would meet there -young men whose acquaintance would later be of material assistance to -him in his profession. - - -VI - -The value of the Great Lakes as a social and recreational medium is -hardly less than their importance as commercial highways. The saltless -seas are lined with summer colonies and in all the lake cities piers -and beaches are a boon to the many who seek relief from the heat -which we of the West always speak of defensively as essential to the -perfecting of the corn that is our pride. Chicago’s joke that it is the -best of summer resorts is not without some foundation; certainly one -may find there every variety of amusement except salt-water bathing. -The salt’s stimulus is not missed apparently by the vast number of -citizens--estimated at two hundred thousand daily during the fiercest -heat--who disport themselves on the shore. The new municipal pier is -a prodigious structure, and I know of no place in America where the -student of mankind may more profitably plant himself for an evening of -contemplation. - -[Illustration: Types and diversions. - -A popular bathing beach on Lake Erie, near the town of Sandusky.] - -What struck me in a series of observations of the people at play, -extending round the lakes from Chicago to Cleveland, was the general -good order and decorum. At Detroit I was introduced to two dancing -pavilions on the riverside, where the prevailing sobriety was most -depressing in view of my promise to the illustrator that somewhere -in our pilgrimage I should tax his powers with scenes of depravity -and violence. A quarter purchased a string of six tickets, and one -of these deposited in a box entitled the owner to take the floor -with a partner. As soon as a dance and its several encores was -over the floor cleared instantly and one was required to relinquish -another ticket. There and in a similar dance-hall in a large Cleveland -amusement park fully one-third of the patrons were young women who -danced together throughout the evening, and often children tripped into -the picture. Chaperonage was afforded by vigilant parents comfortably -established in the balcony. The Cleveland resort, accessible to any one -for a small fee, interested me particularly because the people were so -well apparelled, so “good-looking,” and the atmosphere was so charged -with the spirit of neighborliness. The favorite dances there were the -waltz (old style), the fox-trot, and the schottische. I confess that -this recrudescence of the schottische in Cleveland, a progressive city -that satisfies so many of the cravings of the aspiring soul--the home -of three-cent car-fares and a noble art museum--greatly astonished me. -But for the fact that warning of each number was flashed on the wall -I should not have trusted my judgment that what I beheld was, indeed, -the schottische. Frankly I do not care for the schottische, and it may -have been that my tone or manner betokened resentment at its revival; -at any rate a policeman whom I interviewed outside the pavilion eyed -me with suspicion when I expressed surprise that the schottische was so -frequently announced. When I asked why the one-step was ignored utterly -he replied contemptuously that no doubt I could find places around -Cleveland where that kind of rough stuff was permitted, but “it don’t -go _here_!” I did not undertake to defend the one-step to so stern a -moralist, though it was in his eye that he wished me to do so that he -might reproach me for my worldliness. I do not believe he meant to be -unjust or harsh or even that he appraised me at once as a seeker of the -rough stuff he abhorred; I had merely provided him with an excuse for -proclaiming the moral standards of the city of Cleveland, which are -high. I made note of the persistence of the Puritan influence in the -Western Reserve and hastily withdrew in the direction of the trolley. - -Innumerable small lakes lie within the far-flung arms of the major -lakes adding variety and charm to a broad landscape, and offering -summer refuge to a host of vacationists. Northern Indiana is -plentifully sprinkled with lakes and ponds; in Michigan, Wisconsin, -and Minnesota there are thousands of them. I am moved to ask--is a -river more companionable than a lake? I had always felt that a river -had the best of the argument, as more neighborly and human, and I am -still disposed to favor those streams of Maine that are played upon -by the tides; but an acquaintance with a great number of these inland -saucerfuls of blue water has made me their advocate. Happy is the town -that has a lake for its back yard! The lakes of Minneapolis (there are -ten within the municipal limits) are the distinguishing feature of that -city. They seem to have been planted just where they are for the sole -purpose of adorning it, and they have been protected and utilized with -rare prevision and judgment. To those who would chum with a river, St. -Paul offers the Mississippi, where the battlements of the University -Club project over a bluff from which the Father of Waters may be -admired at leisure, and St. Paul will, if you insist, land you in one -of the most delightful of country clubs on the shore of White Bear -Lake. I must add that the country club has in the Twin Cities attained -a rare state of perfection. That any one should wing far afield from -either town in summer seems absurd, so blest are both in opportunities -for outdoor enjoyment. - -Just how far the wide-spread passion for knitting has interfered with -more vigorous sports among our young women I am unable to say, but -the loss to links and courts in the Western provinces must have been -enormous. The Minikahda Club of Minneapolis was illuminated one day by -a girls’ luncheon. These radiant young beings entered the dining-room -knitting--knitting as gravely as though they were weaving the destinies -of nations--and maybe they were! The small confusions and perplexities -of seating the party of thirty were increased by the dropping of balls -of yarn--and stitches! The round table seemed to be looped with yarn, -as though the war overseas were tightening its cords about those young -women, whose brothers and cousins and sweethearts were destined to the -battle-line. - -Longfellow celebrated in song “The Four Lakes of Madison,” which he -apostrophized as “lovely handmaids.” I treasure the memory of an -approach round one of these lakes to Wisconsin’s capitol (one of the -few American State-houses that doesn’t look like an appropriation!) -through a mist that imparted to the dome an inthralling illusion of -detachment from the main body of the building. The first star twinkled -above it; perhaps it was Wisconsin’s star that had wandered out of -the galaxy to symbolize for an hour the State’s sovereignty! - -[Illustration: On a craft plying the waters of Erie I found all of the -conditions of a happy outing and types that it is always a joy to meet.] - -Whatever one may miss on piers and in amusement parks in the way of -types may be sought with confidence on the excursion steamers that ply -the lakes--veritable arks in which humanity in countless varieties -may be observed. The voyager is satisfied that the banana and peanut -and the innocuous “pop” are the ambrosia and nectar of our democracy. -Before the boat leaves the dock the deck is littered; one’s note-book -bristles with memoranda of the untidiness and disorder. On a craft -plying the waters of Erie I found all the conditions of a happy outing -and types that it is always a joy to meet. The village “cut-up,” -dashingly perched on the rail; the girl who is never so happy as when -organizing and playing games; the young man who yearns to join her -group, but is prevented by unconquerable shyness; the child that, -carefully planted in the most crowded and inaccessible part of the -deck, develops a thirst that results in the constant agitation of half -the ship as his needs are satisfied. There is, inevitably, a woman -of superior breeding who has taken passage on the boat by mistake, -believing it to be first-class, which it so undeniably is not; and -if you wear a sympathetic countenance she will confide to you her -indignation. The crunching of the peanut-shell, the poignant agony of -the child that has loved the banana not wisely but too well, are an -affront to this lady. She announces haughtily that she’s sure the boat -is overcrowded, which it undoubtedly is, and that she means to report -this trifling with human life to the authorities. That any one should -covet the cloistral calm of a private yacht when the plain folks are so -interesting and amusing is only another proof of the constant struggle -of the aristocratic ideal to fasten itself upon our continent. - -Below there was a dining-saloon, but its seclusion was not to be -preferred to an assault upon a counter presided over by one of the -most remarkable young men I have ever seen. He was tall and of a -slenderness, with a wonderful mane of fair hair brushed straight back -from his pale brow. As he tossed sandwiches and slabs of pie to the -importunate he jerked his hair into place with a magnificent fling of -the head. In moments when the appeals of starving supplicants became -insistent, and he was confused by the pressure for attention, he would -rake his hair with his fingers, and then, wholly composed, swing round -and resume the filling of orders. The young man from the check-room -went to his assistance, but I felt that he resented this as an -impertinence, a reflection upon his prowess. He needed no assistance; -before that clamorous company he was the pattern of urbanity. His locks -were his strength and his consolation; not once was his aplomb shaken, -not even when a stocky gentleman fiercely demanded a whole pie! - -[Illustration: The Perry monument at Put-in Bay. - -A huge column of concrete erected in commemoration of Commodore Perry’s -victory.] - -While Perry’s monument, a noble seamark at Put-in-Bay, is a reminder -that the lakes have played their part in American history, it is at -Mackinac that one experiences a sense of antiquity. The white-walled -fort is a link between the oldest and the newest, and the imagination -quickens at the thought of the first adventurous white man who ever -braved the uncharted waters; while the eye follows the interminable -line of ore barges bound for the steel-mills on the southern curve -of Michigan or on the shores of Erie. Commerce in these waters began -with the fur-traders travelling in canoes; then came sailing vessels -carrying supplies to the new camps and settlements and returning with -lumber or produce; but to-day sails are rare and the long leviathans, -fascinating in their apparent unwieldiness and undeniable ugliness, are -the dominant medium of transportation. - -One night, a few years ago, on the breezy terrace of one of the -handsomest villas in the lake region, I talked with the head of a -great industry whose products are known round the world. His house, -furnished with every comfort and luxury, was gay with music and the -laughter of young folk. Through the straits crawled the ships, bearing -lumber, grain, and ore, signalling their passing in raucous blasts to -the lookout at St. Ignace. My host spoke with characteristic simplicity -and deep feeling of the poverty of his youth (he came to America an -immigrant) and of all that America had meant to him. He was near the -end of his days and I have thought often of that evening, of his -seigniorial dignity and courtesy, of the portrait he so unconsciously -drew of himself against a background adorned with the rich reward of -his laborious years. And as he talked it seemed that the power of the -West, the prodigious energies of its forests and fields and hills, its -enormous potentialities of opportunity, became something concrete and -tangible, that flowed in an irresistible tide through the heart of the -nation. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE FARMER OF THE MIDDLE WEST - - That it may please Thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly - fruits of the earth, so that in due time we may enjoy them.--_The - Litany._ - - -When spring marches up the Mississippi valley and the snows of the -broad plains find companionship with the snows of yesteryear, the -traveller, journeying east or west, is aware that life has awakened in -the fields. The winter wheat lies green upon countless acres; thousands -of ploughshares turn the fertile earth; the farmer, after the enforced -idleness of winter, is again a man of action. - -Last year (1917), that witnessed our entrance into the greatest of -wars, the American farmer produced 3,159,000,000 bushels of corn, -660,000,000 bushels of wheat, 1,587,000,000 bushels of oats, 60,000,000 -bushels of rye. From the day of our entrance into the world struggle -against autocracy the American farm has been the subject of a new -scrutiny. In all the chancelleries of the world crop reports and -estimates are eagerly scanned and tabulated, for while the war lasts -and far into the period of rehabilitation and reconstruction that -will follow, America must bear the enormous responsibility, not merely -of training and equipping armies, building ships, and manufacturing -munitions, but of feeding the nations. The farmer himself is roused -to a new consciousness of his importance; he is aware that thousands -of hands are thrust toward him from over the sea, that every acre of -his soil and every ear of corn and bushel of wheat in his bins or in -process of cultivation has become a factor in the gigantic struggle to -preserve and widen the dominion of democracy. - - -I - -“Better be a farmer, son; the corn grows while you sleep!” - -This remark, addressed to me in about my sixth year by my great-uncle, -a farmer in central Indiana, lingered long in my memory. There was -no disputing his philosophy; corn, intelligently planted and tended, -undoubtedly grows at night as well as by day. But the choice of seed -demands judgment, and the preparation of the soil and the subsequent -care of the growing corn exact hard labor. My earliest impressions of -farm life cannot be dissociated from the long, laborious days, the -monotonous plodding behind the plough, the incidental “chores,” the -constant apprehensions as to drought or flood. The country cousins I -visited in Indiana and Illinois were all too busy to have much time -for play. I used to sit on the fence or tramp beside the boys as they -drove the plough, or watch the girls milk the cows or ply the churn, -oppressed by an overmastering homesickness. And when the night shut -down and the insect chorus floated into the quiet house the isolation -was intensified. - -My father and his forebears were born and bred to the soil; they -scratched the earth all the way from North Carolina into Kentucky and -on into Indiana and Illinois. I had just returned, last fall, from a -visit to the grave of my grandfather in a country churchyard in central -Illinois, round which the corn stood in solemn phalanx, when I received -a note from my fifteen-year-old boy, in whom I had hopefully looked for -atavistic tendencies. From his school in Connecticut he penned these -depressing tidings: - -“I have decided never to be a farmer. Yesterday the school was marched -three miles to a farm where the boys picked beans all afternoon and -then walked back. Much as I like beans and want to help Mr. Hoover -conserve our resources, this was rubbing it in. I never want to see a -bean again.” - -I have heard a score of successful business and professional men say -that they intended to “make farmers” of their boys, and a number of -these acquaintances have succeeded in sending their sons through -agricultural schools, but the great-grandchildren of the Middle Western -pioneers are not easily persuaded that farming is an honorable calling. - -It isn’t necessary for gentlemen who watch the tape for crop -forecasts to be able to differentiate wheat from oats to appreciate -the importance to the prosperous course of general business of a big -yield in the grain-fields; but to the average urban citizen farming is -something remote and uninteresting, carried on by men he never meets -in regions that he only observes hastily from a speeding automobile or -the window of a limited train. Great numbers of Middle Western city -men indulge in farming as a pastime--and in a majority of cases it is, -from the testimony of these absentee proprietors, a pleasant recreation -but an expensive one. However, all city men who gratify a weakness -for farming are not faddists; many such land-owners manage their -plantations with intelligence and make them earn dividends. Mr. George -Ade’s Indiana farm, Hazelden, is one of the State’s show-places. The -playwright and humorist says that its best feature is a good nine-hole -golf-course and a swimming-pool, but from his “home plant” of 400 acres -he cultivates 2,000 acres of fertile Hoosier soil. - -A few years ago a manufacturer of my acquaintance, whose family -presents a clear urban line for a hundred years, purchased a farm on -the edge of a river--more, I imagine, for the view it afforded of a -pleasant valley than because of its fertility. An architect entered -sympathetically into the business of making habitable a century-old -log house, a transition effected without disturbing any of the timbers -or the irregular lines of floors and ceilings. So much time was spent -in these restorations and readjustments that the busy owner in despair -fell upon a mail-order catalogue to complete his preparations for -occupancy. A barn, tenant’s house, poultry-house, pump and windmill, -fencing, and every vehicle and tool needed on the place, including a -barometer and wind-gauge, he ordered by post. His joy in his acres was -second only to his satisfaction in the ease with which he invoked all -the apparatus necessary to his comfort. Every item arrived exactly as -the catalogue promised; with the hired man’s assistance he fitted the -houses together and built a tower for the windmill out of concrete made -in a machine provided by the same establishment. His only complaint -was that the catalogue didn’t offer memorial tablets, as he thought -it incumbent upon him to publish in brass the merits of the obscure -pioneer who had laboriously fashioned his cabin before the convenient -method of post-card ordering had been discovered. - - -II - -Imaginative literature has done little to invest the farm with -glamour. The sailor and the warrior, the fisherman and the hunter are -celebrated in song and story, but the farmer has inspired no ringing -saga or iliad, and the lyric muse has only added to the general joyless -impression of the husbandman’s life. Hesiod and Virgil wrote with -knowledge of farming; Virgil’s instructions to the ploughman only -need to be hitched to a tractor to bring them up to date, and he was -an authority on weather signs. But Horace was no farmer; the Sabine -farm is a joke. The best Gray could do for the farmer was to send him -homeward plodding his weary way. Burns, at the plough, apostrophized -the daisy, but only by indirection did he celebrate the joys of -farm life. Wordsworth’s “Solitary Reaper” sang a melancholy strain; -“Snow-Bound” offers a genial picture, but it is of winter-clad fields. -Carleton’s “Farm Ballads” sing of poverty and domestic infelicity. -Riley made a philosopher and optimist of his Indiana farmer, but his -characters are to be taken as individuals rather than as types. There -is, I suppose, in every Middle Western county a quizzical, quaint -countryman whose sayings are quoted among his neighbors, but the man -with a hundred acres of land to till, wood to cut, and stock to feed is -not greatly given to poetry or humor. - -English novels of rural life are numerous but they are usually in a low -key. I have a lingering memory of Hardy’s “Woodlanders” as a book of -charm, and his tragic “Tess” is probably fiction’s highest venture in -this field. “Lorna Doone” I remember chiefly because it established in -me a distaste for mutton. George Eliot and George Meredith are other -English novelists who have written of farm life, nor may I forget Mr. -Eden Phillpotts. French fiction, of course, offers brilliant exceptions -to the generalization that literature has neglected the farmer; but, -in spite of the vast importance of the farm in American life, there -is in our fiction no farm novel of distinction. Mr. Hamlin Garland, -in “Main Traveled Roads” and in his autobiographical chronicle “A Son -of the Middle Border,” has thrust his plough deep; but the truth as -we know it to be disclosed in these instances is not heartening. The -cowboy is the jolliest figure in our fiction, the farmer the dreariest. -The shepherd and the herdsman have fared better in all literatures -than the farmer, perhaps because their vocations are more leisurely -and offer opportunities for contemplation denied the tiller of the -soil. The Hebrew prophets and poets were mindful of the pictorial and -illustrative values of herd and flock. It is written, “Our cattle also -shall go with us,” and, journeying across the mountain States, where -there is always a herd blurring the range, one thinks inevitably of -man’s long migration in quest of the Promised Land. - -The French peasant has his place in art, but here again we are -confronted by joylessness, though I confess that I am resting my case -chiefly upon Millet. What Remington did for the American cattle-range -no one has done for the farm. Fields of corn and wheat are painted -truthfully and effectively, but the critics have withheld their highest -praise from these performances. Perhaps a corn-field is not a proper -subject for the painter; or it may be that the Maine rocks or a group -of birches against a Vermont hillside “compose” better or are supported -by a nobler tradition. The most alluring pictures I recall of farm life -have been advertisements depicting vast fields of wheat through which -the delighted husbandman drives a reaper with all the jauntiness of a -king practising for a chariot-race. - -I have thus run skippingly through the catalogues of bucolic literature -and art to confirm my impression as a layman that farming is not an -affair of romance, poetry, or pictures, but a business, exacting and -difficult, that may be followed with success only by industrious and -enlightened practitioners. The first settlers of the Mississippi valley -stand out rather more attractively than their successors of what I -shall call the intermediate period. There was no turning back for the -pioneers who struck boldly into the unknown, knowing that if they -failed to establish themselves and solve the problem of subsisting -from the virgin earth they would perish. The battle was to the strong, -the intelligent, the resourceful. The first years on a new farm in -wilderness or prairie were a prolonged contest between man and nature, -nature being as much a foe as an ally. That the social spark survived -amid arduous labor and daily self-sacrifice is remarkable; that the -earth was subdued to man’s will and made to yield him its kindly fruits -is a tribute to the splendid courage and indomitable faith of the -settlers. - -These Middle Western pioneers were in the fullest sense the sons of -democracy. The Southern planter with the traditions of the English -country gentleman behind him and, in slavery time, representing a -survival of the feudal order, had no counterpart in the West, where the -settler was limited in his holdings to the number of acres that he and -his sons could cultivate by their own labor. I explored, last year, -much of the Valley of Democracy, both in seed-time and in harvest. -We had been drawn at last into the world war, and its demands and -conjectures as to its outcome were upon the lips of men everywhere. -It was impossible to avoid reflecting upon the part these plains have -played in the history of America and the increasing part they are -destined to play in the world history of the future. Every wheat shoot, -every stalk of corn was a new testimony to the glory of America. Not -an acre of land but had been won by intrepid pioneers who severed -all ties but those that bound them to an ideal, whose only tangible -expression was the log court-house where they recorded the deeds for -their land or the military post that afforded them protection. At -Decatur, Illinois, one of these first court-houses still stands, and we -are told that within its walls Lincoln often pleaded causes. American -democracy could have no finer monument than this; the imagination -quickens at the thought of similar huts reared by the axes of the -pioneers to establish safeguards of law and order on new soil almost -before they had fashioned their habitations. It seemed to me that if -the Kaiser had known the spirit in which these august fields were -tamed and peopled, or the aspirations, the aims and hopes that are -represented in every farmhouse and ranch-house between the Alleghanies -and the Rockies, he would not so contemptuously have courted our -participation against him in his war for world domination. - -What I am calling, for convenience, the intermediate period in the -history of the Mississippi valley, began when the rough pioneering was -over, and the sons of the first settlers came into an inheritance of -cleared land. In the Ohio valley the Civil War found the farmer at -ease; to the west and northwest we must set the date further along. -The conditions of this intermediate period may not be overlooked -in any scrutiny of the farmer of these changed and changing times. -When the cloud of the Civil War lifted and the West began asserting -itself in the industrial world, the farmer, viewing the smoke-stacks -that advertised the entrance of the nearest towns and cities into -manufacturing, became a man with a grievance, who bitterly reflected -that when rumors of “good times” reached him he saw no perceptible -change in his own fortunes or prospects, and in “bad times” he felt -himself the victim of hardship and injustice. The glory of pioneering -had passed with his father and grandfather; they had departed, leaving -him without their incentive of urgent necessity or the exultance of -conquest. There may have been some weakening of the fibre, or perhaps -it was only a lessening of the tension now that the Indians had been -dispersed and the fear of wild beasts lifted from his household. - -There were always, of course, men who were pointed to as prosperous, -who for one reason or another “got ahead” when others fell behind. They -not only held their acres free of mortgage but added to their holdings. -These men were very often spoken of as “close,” or tight-fisted; in -Mr. Brand Whitlock’s phrase they were “not rich, but they had money.” -And, having money and credit, they were sharply differentiated from -their neighbors who were forever borrowing to cover a shortage. These -men loomed prominently in their counties; they took pride in augmenting -the farms inherited from pioneer fathers; they might sit in the State -legislature or even in the national Congress. But for many years the -farmer was firmly established in the mind of the rest of the world as -an object of commiseration. He occupied an anomalous position in the -industrial economy. He was a landowner without enjoying the dignity of -a capitalist; he performed the most arduous tasks without recognition -by organized labor. He was shabby, dull, and uninteresting. He drove -to town over a bad road with a load of corn, and, after selling or -bartering it, negotiated for the renewal of his mortgage and stood on -the street corner, an unheroic figure, until it was time to drive home. -He symbolized hard work, hard luck, and discouragement. The saloon, the -livery-stable, and the grocery where he did his trading were his only -loafing-places. The hotel was inhospitable; he spent no money there -and the proprietor didn’t want “rubes” or “jays” hanging about. The -farmer and his wife ate their midday meal in the farm-wagon or at a -restaurant on the “square” where the frugal patronage of farm folk was -not despised. - -The type I am describing was often wasteful and improvident. The -fact that a degree of mechanical skill was required for the care of -farm-machinery added to his perplexities; and this apparatus he very -likely left out-of-doors all winter for lack of initiative to build a -shed to house it. I used to pass frequently a farm where a series of -reapers in various stages of decrepitude decorated the barn-lot, with -always a new one to heighten the contrast. - -The social life of the farmer centred chiefly in the church, where on -the Sabbath day he met his neighbors and compared notes with them on -the state of the crops. Sundays on the farm I recall as days of gloom -that brought an intensification of week-day homesickness. The road -was dusty; the church was hot; the hymns were dolorously sung to the -accompaniment of a wheezy organ; the sermon was long, strongly flavored -with brimstone, and did nothing to lighten - - “the heavy and the weary weight - Of all this unintelligible world.” - -The horses outside stamped noisily in their efforts to shake off the -flies. A venturous bee might invade the sanctuary and arouse hope in -impious youngsters of an attack upon the parson--a hope never realized! -The preacher’s appetite alone was a matter for humor; I once reported -a Methodist conference at which the succulence of the yellow-legged -chickens in a number of communities that contended for the next -convocation was debated for an hour. The height of the country boy’s -ambition was to break a colt and own a side-bar buggy in which to take -a neighbor’s daughter for a drive on Sunday afternoon. - -Community gatherings were rare; men lived and died in the counties -where they were born, “having seen nothing, still unblest.” County -and State fairs offered annual diversion, and the more ambitious -farmers displayed their hogs and cattle, or mammoth ears of corn, -and reverently placed their prize ribbons in the family Bibles on -the centre-tables of their sombre parlors. Cheap side-shows and -monstrosities, horse-races and balloon ascensions were provided for -their delectation, as marking the ultimate height of their intellectual -interests. A characteristic “Riley story” was of a farmer with a boil -on the back of his neck, who spent a day at the State fair waiting for -the balloon ascension. He inquired repeatedly: “Has the balloon gone up -yit?” Of course when the ascension took place he couldn’t lift his head -to see the balloon, but, satisfied that it really had “gone up,” he -contentedly left for home. (It may be noted here that the new status of -the farmer is marked by an improvement in the character of amusements -offered by State-fair managers. Most of the Western States have added -creditable exhibitions of paintings to their attractions, and in -Minnesota these were last year the subject of lectures that proved to -be very popular.) - -The farmer, in the years before he found that he must become a -scientist and a business man to achieve success, was the prey -of a great variety of sharpers. Tumble-down barns bristled with -lightning-rods that cost more than the structures were worth. A man -who had sold cooking-ranges to farmers once told me of the delights of -that occupation. A carload of ranges would be shipped to a county-seat -and transferred to wagons. It was the agent’s game to arrive at the -home of a good “prospect” shortly before noon, take down the old, -ramshackle cook-stove, set up the new and glittering range, and assist -the womenfolk to prepare a meal. The farmer, coming in from the fields -and finding his wife enchanted, would order a range and sign notes -for payment. These obligations, after the county had been thoroughly -exploited, would be discounted at the local bank. In this way the -farmer’s wife got a convenient range she would never have thought of -buying in town, and her husband paid an exorbitant price for it. - -The farmer’s wife was, in this period to which I am referring, a poor -drudge who appeared at the back door of her town customers on Saturday -mornings with eggs and butter. She was copartner with her husband, but, -even though she might have “brought” him additional acres at marriage, -her spending-money was limited to the income from butter, eggs, and -poultry, and even this was dependent upon the generosity of the head of -the house. Her kitchen was furnished with only the crudest housewifery -apparatus; labor-saving devices reached her slowly. In busy seasons, -when there were farm-hands to cook for, she might borrow a neighbor’s -daughter to help her. Her only relief came when her own daughters -grew old enough to assist in her labors. She was often broken down, a -prey to disease, before she reached middle life. Her loneliness, the -dreary monotony of her existence, the prevailing hopelessness of never -“catching up” with her sewing and mending, often drove her insane. The -farmhouse itself was a desolate place. There is a mustiness I associate -with farmhouses--the damp stuffiness of places never reached by the -sun. With all the fresh air in the world to draw from, thousands of -farmhouses were ill-lighted and ill-ventilated, and farm sanitation was -of the most primitive order. - -I have dwelt upon the intermediate period merely to heighten the -contrast with the new era--an era that finds the problem of farm -regeneration put squarely up to the farmer. - - -III - -The new era really began with the passage of the Morrill Act, approved -July 2, 1862, though it is only within a decade that the effects of -this law upon the efficiency and the character of the farmer have been -markedly evident. The Morrill Act not only made the first provision -for wide-spread education in agriculture but lighted the way for -subsequent legislation that resulted in the elevation of the Department -of Agriculture to a cabinet bureau, the system of agriculture -experiment-stations, the co-operation of federal and State bureaus -for the diffusion of scientific knowledge pertaining to farming and -the breeding and care of live-stock, and the recent introduction of -vocational training into country schools. - -[Illustration: A typical old homestead of the Middle West. - -The farm on which Tecumseh was born.] - -It was fitting that Abraham Lincoln, who had known the hardest farm -labor, should have signed a measure of so great importance, that -opened new possibilities to the American farmer. The agricultural -colleges established under his Act are impressive monuments to Senator -Morrill’s far-sightedness. When the first land-grant colleges were -opened there was little upon which to build courses of instruction. -Farming was not recognized as a science but was a form of hard labor -based on tradition and varied only by reckless experiments that usually -resulted in failure. The first students of the agricultural schools, -drawn largely from the farm, were discouraged by the elementary -character of the courses. Instruction in ploughing, to young men who -had learned to turn a straight furrow as soon as they could tiptoe up -to the plough-handles, was not calculated to inspire respect for “book -farming” either in students or their doubting parents. - -The farmer and his household have found themselves in recent years -the object of embarrassing attentions not only from Washington, -the land-grant colleges, and the experiment-stations, but countless -private agencies have “discovered” the farmer and addressed themselves -determinedly to the amelioration of his hardships. The social surveyor, -having analyzed the city slum to his satisfaction, springs from his -automobile at the farmhouse door and asks questions of the bewildered -occupants that rouse the direst apprehensions. Sanitarians invade the -premises and recommend the most startling changes and improvements. -Once it was possible for typhoid or diphtheria to ravage a household -without any interference from the outside world; now a health officer -is speedily on the premises to investigate the old oaken bucket, the -iron-bound bucket, that hangs in the well, and he very likely ties -and seals the well-sweep and bids the farmer bore a new well, in a -spot kindly chosen for him, where the barn-lot will not pollute his -drinking-water. The questionnaire, dear to the academic investigator, -is constantly in circulation. Women’s clubs and federations thereof -ponder the plight of the farmer’s wife and are eager to hitch her -wagon to a star. Home-mission societies, alarmed by reports of the -decay of the country church, have instituted surveys to determine the -truth of this matter. The consolidation of schools, the introduction -of comfortable omnibuses to carry children to and from home, the -multiplication of country high schools, with a radical revision of the -curriculum, the building of two-story schoolhouses in place of the old -one-room affair in which all branches were taught at once, and the use -of the schoolhouse as a community centre--these changes have dealt a -blow to the long-established ideal of the red-mittened country child, -wading breast-high through snow to acquaint himself with the three -R’s and, thus fortified, enter into the full enjoyment of American -democracy. Just how Jefferson would look upon these changes and this -benignant paternalism I do not know, nor does it matter now that -American farm products are reckoned in billions and we are told that -the amount must be increased or the world will starve. - -The farmer’s mail, once restricted to an occasional letter, began to be -augmented by other remembrances from Washington than the hollyhock-seed -his congressman occasionally conferred upon the farmer’s wife. -Pamphlets in great numbers poured in upon him, filled with warnings and -friendly counsel. The soil he had sown and reaped for years, in the -full confidence that he knew all its weaknesses and possibilities, he -found to be something very different and called by strange names. His -lifelong submission to destructive worms and hoppers was, he learned, -unnecessary if not criminal; there were ways of eliminating these -enemies, and he shyly discussed the subject with his neighbors. - -In speaking of the farmer’s shyness I have stumbled into the field -of psychology, whose pitfalls are many. The psychologists have as -yet played their search-light upon the farm guardedly or from the -sociologist’s camp. I here condense a few impressions merely that the -trained specialist may hasten to convict me of error. The farmer of the -Middle West--the typical farmer with approximately a quarter-section -of land--is notably sensitive, timid, only mildly curious, cautious, -and enormously suspicious. (“The farmer,” a Kansas friend whispers, -“doesn’t vote his opinions; he votes his suspicions!”) In spite of the -stuffing of his rural-route box with instructive literature designed -to increase the productiveness of his acres and lighten his own toil, -he met the first overtures of the “book-l’arnin’” specialist warily, -and often with open hostility. The reluctant earth has communicated -to the farmer, perhaps in all times and in all lands, something of -its own stubbornness. He does not like to be driven; he is restive -under criticism. The county agent of the extension bureau who seeks -him out with the best intentions in the world, to counsel him in his -perplexities, must approach him diplomatically. I find in the report -of a State director of agricultural extension a discreet statement -that “the forces of this department are organized, not for purposes -of dictation in agricultural matters but for service and assistance -in working out problems pertaining to the farm and the community.” -The farmer, unaffected as he is by crowd psychology, is not easily -disturbed by the great movements and tremendous crises that rouse the -urban citizen. He reads his newspaper perhaps more thoroughly than the -city man, at least in the winter season when the distractions of the -city are greatest and farm duties are the least exacting. Surrounded by -the peace of the fields, he is not swayed by mighty events, as men are -who scan the day’s news on trains and trolleys and catch the hurried -comments of their fellow citizens as they plunge through jostling -throngs. Professor C. J. Galpin, of Wisconsin University, aptly -observes that, while the farmer trades in a village, he shares the -invisible government of a township, which “scatters and mystifies” his -community sense. - -It was a matter of serious complaint that farmers responded very slowly -in the first Liberty Loan campaigns. At the second call vigorous -attempts were made through the corn belt to rouse the farmer, who had -profited so enormously by the war’s augmentation of prices. In many -cases country banks took the minimum allotment of their communities and -then sent for the farmers to come in and subscribe. The Third Loan, -however, was met in a much better spirit. The farmer is unused to the -methods by which money-raising “drives” are conducted and he resents -being told that he must do this, that, or the other thing. Townfolk are -beset constantly by demands for money for innumerable causes; there -is always a church, a hospital, a social-service house, a Y. M. C. A. -building, or some home or refuge for which a special appeal is being -made. There is a distinct psychology of generosity based largely on the -inspiration of thoroughly organized effort, where teams set forth with -a definite quota to “raise” before a fixed hour, but the farmer was -long immune from these influences. - -In marked contrast with the small farmer, who wrests a scant -livelihood from the soil, is his neighbor who boasts a section or -a thousand acres, who is able to utilize the newest machinery and -to avail himself of the latest disclosures of the laboratories, to -increase his profits. One visits these large farms with admiration -for the fruitful land, the perfect equipment, the efficient method, -and the alert, wide-awake owner. He lives in a comfortable house, -often electric-lighted and “plumbed,” visits the cities, attends farm -conferences, and is keenly alive to the trend of public affairs. If the -frost nips his corn he is aware of every means by which “soft” corn may -be handled to the best advantage. He knows how many cattle and hogs -his own acres will feed, and is ready with cash to buy his neighbors’ -corn and feed it to stock he buys at just the right turn of the market. -It is possible for a man to support himself and a family on eighty -acres; I have talked with men who have done this; but they “just about -get by.” The owner of a big farm, whose modern house and rich demesne -are admired by the traveller, is a valued customer of a town or city -banker; the important men of his State cultivate his acquaintance, with -resulting benefits in a broader outlook than his less-favored neighbors -enjoy. Farmers of this class are themselves usually money-lenders or -shareholders in country banks, and they watch the trend of affairs -from the view-point of the urban business man. They live closer to the -world’s currents and are more accessible and responsive to appeals of -every sort than their less-favored brethren. - -But it is the small farmer, the man with the quarter-section or less, -who is the special focus of the search-light of educator, scientist, -and sociologist. During what I have called the intermediate period--the -winter of the farmer’s discontent--the politicians did not wholly -ignore him. The demagogue went forth in every campaign with special -appeals to the honest husbandman, with the unhappy effect of driving -the farmer more closely into himself and strengthening his class -sense. For the reason that the security of a democracy rests upon -the effacement to the vanishing-point of class feeling, and the -establishment of a solidarity of interests based upon a common aim -and aspiration, the effort making to dignify farming as a calling and -quicken the social instincts of the farmer’s household are matters of -national importance. - -It may be said that in no other business is there a mechanism so -thoroughly organized for guarding the investor from errors of omission -or commission. I am aware of no “service” in any other field of -endeavor so excellent as that of the agricultural colleges and their -auxiliary experiment and extension branches, and it is a pleasure to -testify to the ease with which information touching the farm in all -its departments may be collected. Only the obtuse may fail these days -to profit by the newest ideas in soil-conservation, plant-nutrition, -animal-husbandry, and a thousand other subjects of vital importance -to the farmer. To test the “service” I wrote to the Department of -Agriculture for information touching a number of subjects in which my -ignorance was profound. The return mail brought an astonishing array -of documents covering all my inquiries and other literature which my -naïve questions had suggested to the Department as likely to prove -illuminative. As the extent of the government’s aid to the farmer and -stockman is known only vaguely to most laymen, I shall set down the -titles of some of these publications: - - “Management of Sandy Land Farms in Northern Indiana and Southern - Michigan.” - - “The Feeding of Grain Sorghums to Live Stock.” - - “Prevention of Losses of Live Stock from Plant Poisoning.” - - “The Feeding of Dairy Cows.” - - “An Economic Study of the Farm Tractor in the Corn Belt.” - - “Waste Land and Wasted Land on Farms.” - - “How to Grow an Acre of Corn.” - - “How to Select a Sound Horse.” - - “The Chalcis Fly in Alfalfa Seed.” - - “Homemade Fireless Cookers and Their Use.” - - “A Method of Analyzing the Farm Business.” - - “The Striped Peach Worm.” - - “The Sheep-Killing Dog.” - - “Food Habits of the Swallows, a Family of Valuable Native Birds.” - -As most of these bulletins may be had free and for others only a -nominal price of five or ten cents is charged, it is possible to -accumulate an extensive library with a very small expenditure. -Soil-fertilization alone is the subject of an enormous literature; -the field investigator and the laboratory expert have subjected the -earth in every part of America to intensive study and their reports -are presented clearly and with a minimum use of technical terms. Many -manufacturers of implements or materials used on farms publish and -distribute books of real dignity in the advertisement of their wares. I -have before me a handsome volume, elaborately illustrated, put forth by -a Wisconsin concern, describing the proper method of constructing and -equipping a dairy-barn. To peruse this work is to be convinced that -the manger so alluringly offered really assures the greatest economy of -feeding, and the kine are so effectively photographed, so clean, and -so contented that one is impelled to an immediate investment in a herd -merely for the joy of housing it in the attractive manner recommended -by the sagacious advertiser. - -Agricultural schools and State extension bureaus manifest the greatest -eagerness to serve the earnest seeker for enlightenment. “The Service -of YOUR College Brought as Near as Your Mail-Box,” is the slogan of -the Kansas State Agricultural College. Once upon a time I sought the -answer to a problem in Egyptian hieroglyphics and learned that the -only American who could speak authoritatively on that particular point -was somewhere on the Nile with an exploration party. In the field of -agriculture there is no such paucity of scholarship. The very stupidity -of a question seems to awaken pity in the intelligent, accommodating -persons who are laboring in the farmer’s behalf. Augustine Birrell -remarks that in the days of the tractarian movement pamphlets were -served upon the innocent bystander like sheriffs’ processes. In like -manner one who manifests only the tamest curiosity touching agriculture -in any of its phases will find literature pouring in upon him; and he -is distressed to find that it is all so charmingly presented that he is -beguiled into reading it! - -The charge that the agricultural school is educating students away -from the farm is not substantiated by reports from representative -institutions of this character. The dean of the College of Agriculture -of the University of Illinois, Dr. Eugene Davenport, has prepared a -statement illustrative of the sources from which the students of that -institution are derived. Every county except two is represented in -the agricultural department in a registration of 1,200 students, and, -of 710 questioned, 242 are from farms; 40 from towns under 1,000; 87 -from towns of 1,000 to 1,500; 262 from towns of 5,000 and up; and 79 -from Chicago. Since 1900 nearly 1,000 students have completed the -agricultural course in this institution, and of this number 69 per -cent are actually living on farms and engaged in farming; 17 per cent -are teaching agriculture, or are engaged in extension work; 10 per -cent entered callings related to farming, such as veterinary surgery, -landscape-gardening, creamery-management, etc.; less than 4 per cent -are in occupations not allied with agriculture. It should be explained -that the Illinois school had only a nominal existence until seventeen -years ago. The number of students has steadily increased from 7 -registrations in 1890 to 1,201 in 1916-17. At the Ohio College of -Agriculture half the freshman classes of the last three years came from -the cities, though this includes students in landscape architecture and -horticulture. In Iowa State College the reports of three years show -that 54.5 per cent of the freshmen were sons of farmers, and of the -graduates of a seven-year period (1907-1914) 34.8 are now engaged in -farming. - -The opportunities open to the graduates of these colleges have been -greatly multiplied by the demand for teachers in vocational schools, -and the employment of county agents who must be graduates of a school -of agriculture or have had the equivalent in practical farm experience. -The influence of the educated farmer upon his neighbors is very marked. -They may view his methods with distrust, but when he rolls up a yield -of corn that sets a new record for fields with which they are familiar -they cannot ignore the fact that, after all, there may be something -in the idea of school-taught farming. By the time a farm boy enters -college he is sufficiently schooled in his father’s methods, and well -enough acquainted with the home acres, to appreciate fully the value of -the instruction the college offers him. - -The only difference between agricultural colleges and other technical -schools is that to an unscientific observer the courses in agronomy -and its co-ordinate branches deal with vital matters that are more -interesting and appealing than those in, let us say, mechanical -engineering. If there is something that stirs the imagination in the -thought that two blades of grass may be made to grow where only one had -grown before, how much more satisfying is the assurance that an acre of -soil, properly fertilized and thoroughly tended, may double its yield -of corn; that there is a choice well worth the knowing between breeds -of beef or dairy cattle, and that there is a demonstrable difference in -the energy of foods that may be converted into pork, particularly when -there is a shortage and the government, to stimulate hog production, -fixes a minimum price (November, 1917) of $15.50 per hundredweight in -the Chicago market; and even so stabilized the price is close upon $20 -in July, 1918. - -[Illustration: Students of agriculture in the pageant that celebrated -the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Ohio State University.] - -The equipment of these institutions includes, with the essential -laboratories, farms under cultivation, horses, cattle, sheep, and -swine of all the representative breeds. Last fall I spent two days in -the agricultural school of a typical land-grant college of the corn -belt (Purdue University), and found the experience wholly edifying. -The value of this school to the State of Indiana is incalculable. -Here the co-ordinate extension service under Professor G. I. Christie -is thoroughly systematized, and reaches every acre of land in the -commonwealth. “Send for Christie” has become a watchword among Indiana -farmers in hours of doubt or peril. Christie can diagnose an individual -farmer’s troubles in the midst of a stubborn field, and fully satisfy -the landowner as to the merit of the prescribed remedy; or he can -interest a fashionable city audience in farm problems. He was summoned -to Washington a year ago to supervise farm-labor activities, and is a -member of the recently organized war policies board.[C] The extension -service in all the corn and wheat States is excellent; it must be in -capable hands, for the farmer at once becomes suspicious if the State -agent doesn’t show immediately that he knows his business. - -The students at Purdue struck me as more attentive and alert than those -I have observed from time to time in literature classes of schools -that stick to the humanities. In an entomology class, where I noted -the presence of one young woman, attention was riveted upon a certain -malevolent grasshopper, the foe of vegetation and in these years of -anxious conservation an enemy of civilization. That a young woman -should elect a full course in agronomy and allied branches seemed to -me highly interesting, and, to learn her habitat in the most delicate -manner possible, I asked for a census of the class, to determine how -many students were of farm origin. The young lady so deeply absorbed in -the grasshopper was, I found, a city girl. Women, it should be noted, -are often very successful farmers and stock-breeders. They may be -seen at all representative cattle-shows inspecting the exhibits with -sophistication and pencilling notes in the catalogues. - -To sit in the pavilion of one of these colleges and hear a lecture -on the judging of cattle is to be persuaded that much philosophy -goes into the production of a tender, juicy beefsteak or a sound, -productive milch cow. In a class that I visited a Polled Angus steer -and a shorthorn were on exhibition; the instructor might have been a -sculptor, conducting a class in modelling, from the nice points of -“line,” the distribution of muscle and fat, that he dilated upon. He -invited questions, which led to a discussion in which the whole class -participated. At the conclusion of this lecture a drove of swine was -driven in that a number of young gentlemen might practise the fine -art of “judging” this species against an approaching competitive -meeting with a class from another school. In these days of multiplying -farm-implements and tractors, the farmer is driven perforce to know -something of mechanics. Time is precious and the breaking down of a -harvester may be calamitous if the owner must send to town for some -one to repair it. These matters are cared for in the farm-mechanics -laboratories where instruction is offered in the care, adjustment, and -repair of all kinds of farm-machinery. While in the summer of 1917 only -40,000 tractors were in use on American farms, it is estimated that by -the end of the current year the number will have increased to 200,000, -greatly minimizing the shortage in men and horses. The substitution -of gasolene for horse-power is only one of the many changes in farm -methods attributable to the imperative demand for increased production -of foodstuffs. Whitman may have foreseen the coming of the tractor when -he wrote: - - “Well-pleased America, thou beholdest, - Over the fields of the West those crawling monsters; - The human-divine inventions, the labor-saving implements”; - -for “crawling monster” happily describes the tractor. - -The anxiety to serve, to accommodate the instruction to special needs, -is illustrated in the length of courses offered, which include a -week’s intensive course in midwinter designed for farmers, two-year -and four-year courses, and post-graduate work. Men well advanced in -years attend the midwinter sessions, eager to improve their methods -in a business they have followed all their lives. They often bring -their wives with them, to attend classes in dairying, poultry-raising, -or home economics. It is significant of the new movement in farming -that at the University of Wisconsin, an institution whose services to -American agriculture are inestimable, there is a course in agricultural -journalism, “intended,” the catalogue recites, “to be of special -service to students who will engage in farming or who expect to be -employed in station work or in some form of demonstration or extension -service and who therefore may have occasion to write for publication -and certainly will have farm produce and products to sell. To these -ends the work is very largely confined to studies in agricultural -writing.” - - -IV - -The easing of the farmer’s burdens, through the development -of labor-saving machinery, and the convenience of telephones, -trolley-lines, and the cheap automobile that have vastly improved his -social prospects, has not overcome a growing prejudice against close -kinship with the soil. We have still to deal with the loneliness and -the social barrenness that have driven thousands of the children of -farms to the cities. The son of a small farmer may make a brilliant -record in an agricultural college, achieve the distinction of admission -to the national honorary agricultural fraternity (the Alpha Zeta, the -little brother of the Phi Beta Kappa), and still find the old home -crippling and stifling to his awakened social sense. - -There is general agreement among the authorities that one of the chief -difficulties in the way of improvement is the lack of leadership in -farm communities. The farmer is not easily aroused, and he is disposed -to resent as an unwarranted infringement upon his constitutional rights -the attempts of outsiders to meddle with his domestic affairs. He -has found that it is profitable to attend institutes, consult county -agents, and peruse the literature distributed from extension centres, -but the invasion of his house is a very different matter. Is he not the -lord of his acres, an independent, self-respecting citizen, asking no -favors of society? Does he not ponder well his civic duty and plot the -destruction of the accursed middleman, his arch-enemy? The benevolently -inclined who seek him out to persuade him of the error of his ways -in any particular are often received with scant courtesy. He must be -“shown,” not merely “told.” The agencies now so diligently at work to -improve the farmer’s social status understand this and the methods -employed are wisely tempered in the light of abundant knowledge of just -how much crowding the farmer will stand. - -[Illustration: A feeding-plant at “Whitehall,” the farm of Edwin S. -Kelly, near Springfield, Ohio.] - -Nothing is so essential to his success as the health of his household; -yet inquiries, more particularly in the older States of the Mississippi -valley, lead to the conclusion that there is a dismaying amount of -chronic invalidism on farms. A physician who is very familiar with farm -life declares that “all farmers have stomach trouble,” and this obvious -exaggeration is rather supported by Dr. John N. Hurty, secretary of the -Indiana State Board of Health, who says that he finds in his visits to -farmhouses that the cupboards are filled with nostrums warranted -to relieve the agonies of poor digestion. Dr. Hurty, who has probably -saved more lives and caused more indignation in his twenty years of -public service than any other Hoosier, has made a sanitary survey of -four widely separated Indiana counties. In Blackford County, where -1,374 properties were inspected, only 15 per cent of the farmhouses -were found to be sanitary. Site, ventilation, water-supply, the -condition of the house, and the health of its inmates entered into the -scoring. In Ohio County, where 441 homes were visited, 86 per cent -were found to be insanitary. The tuberculosis rate for this county was -found to be 25 per cent higher than that of the State. In Scott County -97.6 per cent of the farms were pronounced insanitary, and here the -tuberculosis rate is 48.3 per cent higher than that of the State. In -Union County, where only 2.3 per cent of the farms were found to be -sanitary, the average score did not rise above 45 per cent on site, -ventilation, and health. Here the tuberculosis death-rate was 176.3 -in 100,000, against the State rate of 157. In all these counties the -school population showed a decrease. - -It should be said that in the communities mentioned, old ones as -history runs in this region, many homes stand practically unaltered -after fifty or seventy-five years of continuous occupancy. Thousands -of farmers who would think it a shameless extravagance to install -a bathtub boast an automobile. A survey by Professor George H. von -Tungeln, of Iowa College, of 227 farms in two townships of northern -Iowa, disclosed 62 bathtubs, 98 pianos, and 124 automobiles. The number -of bathtubs reported by the farmers of Ohio is so small that I shrink -from stating it. - -Here, again, we may be sure that the farmer is not allowed to dwell -in slothful indifference to the perils of uncleanliness. On the heels -of the sanitarian and the sociologist come the field agents of the -home-economics departments of the meddlesome land-grant colleges, -bent upon showing him a better way of life. I was pondering the -plight of the bathless farmhouse when a document reached me showing -how a farmhouse may enjoy running water, bathroom, gas, furnace, and -two fireplaces for an expenditure of $723.97. One concrete story is -better than many treatises, and I cheerfully cite, as my authority, -“Modernizing an Old Farm House,” by Mrs. F. F. Showers, included -among the publications of the Wisconsin College of Agriculture. The -home-economics departments do not wait for the daughters of the farm -to come to them, but seek them out with the glad tidings that greater -ease and comfort are within their reach if only their fathers can be -made to see the light. In many States the extension agents organize -companies of countrywomen and carry them junketing to modern farmhouses. - -Turning to Nebraska, whose rolling cornfields are among the noblest -to be encountered anywhere, home-demonstration agents range the -commonwealth organizing clubs, which are federated where possible to -widen social contacts, better-babies conferences, and child-welfare -exhibits. The Community Welfare Assembly, as conducted in Kansas, has -the merit of offering a varied programme--lectures on agriculture and -home economics, civics, health, and rural education by specialists, -moving pictures, community music, and folk games and stories for the -children. In Wisconsin the rural-club movement reaches every part of -the State, and a State law grants the use of schoolhouses for community -gatherings. Seymour, Indiana, boasts a Farmer’s Club, the gift of a -citizen, with a comfortably appointed house, where farmers and their -families may take their ease when in town. - -The organization of boys’ and girls’ clubs among farm youth is -a feature of the vocational-training service offered under the -Smith-Lever Act of 1914, and already the reports of its progress are -highly interesting. These organizations make possible the immediate -application of the instruction in agriculture and home economics -received in the schools. In Indiana more than 25,000 boys and girls -were enlisted last year in such club projects as the cultivation of -corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables, canning, sewing, and home-craft, -and the net profit from these sources was $105,100. In my prowlings -nothing has delighted me more than the discovery of the Pig Club. This -is one of Uncle Sam’s many schemes for developing the initiative and -stimulating the ambition of farm children. It might occur to the city -boy, whose acquaintance with pork is limited to his breakfast bacon, -that the feeding of a pig is not a matter worthy of the consideration -of youth of intelligence and aspiration. Uncle Sam, however, holds the -contrary opinion. From a desk in the Department of Agriculture he has -thrown a rosy glamour about the lowly pig. Country bankers, properly -approached and satisfied of the good character and honorable intentions -of applicants, will advance money to farm boys to launch them upon -pig-feeding careers. My heart warms to Douglas Byrne, of Harrison -County, Indiana, who, under the guidance of a club supervisor, fed 17 -hogs with a profit of $99.30. Another young Hoosier, Elmer Pearce, of -Vanderburgh County, fed 2 pigs that made a daily gain of 1.38 pounds -for four months, and sold them at a profit of $12.36. We learn from -the official report that this young man’s father warned him that the -hogs he exercised his talents upon would make no such gains as were -achieved. Instead of spanking the lad for his perverseness, as would -have been the case in the olden golden days, this father made him the -ruler over 30 swine. There are calf and pig clubs for girls, and a -record has been set for Indiana by twelve-year-old Pauline Hadley, of -Mooresville, who cared for a Poland China hog for 110 days, increasing -its weight from 65 to 256 pounds, and sold it at a profit of $20.08. - -The farmer of yesterday blundered through a year and at the end -had a very imperfect idea of his profits and losses. He kept no -accounts; if he paid his taxes and the interest on the omnipresent -mortgage, and established credit for the winter with his grocer, he -was satisfied. Uncle Sam, thoroughly aroused to the importance of -increasing the farmer’s efficiency, now shows him how to keep simple -accounts and returns at the end of the season to analyze the results. -(Farm-management is the subject of many beguiling pamphlets; it seems -incredible that any farmer should blindly go on wasting time and -money when his every weakness is anticipated and prescribed for by -the Department of Agriculture and its great army of investigators and -counsellors!) - -If there is little cheerful fiction dealing with farm life, its absence -is compensated for by the abundance of “true stories” of the most -stimulating character, to be found in the publications of the State -agricultural extension bureaus. Professor Christie’s report of the -Indiana Extension Service for last year recites the result of three -years’ observation of a southern Indiana farm of 213 acres. In 1914 the -owner cleared $427 above interest on his capital, in addition to his -living. This, however, was better than the average for the community, -which was a cash return of $153. This man had nearly twice as much -land as his neighbors, carried more live-stock, and his crop yields -were twice as great as the community average. His attention was called -to the fact that he was investing $100 worth of feed and getting back -only $82 in his live-stock account. He was expending 780 days in the -care of his farm and stock, which the average corn-belt farmer could -have managed with 605 days of labor. Acting on the advice of the -Extension Department, he added to his live-stock, built a silo, changed -his feeding ration, and increased his live-stock receipts to $154 per -$100 of feed. The care of the additional live-stock through the winter -resulted in a better reward for his labor and the amount accredited -to labor income for the year was $1,505. The third year he increased -his live-stock and poultry, further improved the feeding ration, and -received $205 per $100 of feed. By adding to the conveniences of his -barn, he was able to cut down his expenditure for hired labor; or, to -give the exact figures, he reduced the amount expended in this way from -$515 to $175. His labor income for the third year was $3,451. “Labor -income,” as the phrase is employed in farm bookkeeping, is the net sum -remaining after the farm-owner has paid all business expenses of the -farm and deducted a fair interest on the amount invested in his plant. - -I have mentioned the 80-acre farm as affording a living for a family; -but there is no ignoring the testimony of farm-management surveys, -covering a wide area, that this unit is too small to yield the -owner the best results from his labor. In a Nebraska survey it is -demonstrated that farms of from 200 to 250 acres show better average -returns than those of larger or smaller groups, but rainfall, soil -conditions, and the farmer’s personal qualifications are factors in all -such studies that make generalizations difficult. A diversified farm of -160 acres requires approximately 3,000 hours’ labor a year. Forty-five -acres of corn, shocked and husked, consume 270 days of labor; like -acreages of oats and clover, 90 and 45 days respectively; care of -live-stock and poultry, 195 days. In summer a farmer often works twelve -or fourteen hours a day, while in winter, with only his stock to look -after, his labor is reduced to three or four hours. - -The Smith-Hughes Act (approved February, 1917) appropriates -annually sums which will attain, in 1926, a maximum of $3,000,000 -“for co-operation with the States in the promotion of education in -agriculture and the trades and industries, and in the preparation of -teachers of vocational subjects, the sums to be allotted to the States -in the proportion which their rural population bears to the total rural -population of the United States.” Washington is only the dynamic centre -of inspiration and energy in the application of the laws that make so -generous provision for the farmer’s welfare. The States must enter into -a contract to defray their share of the expense and put the processes -into operation. - -There was something of prophecy in the message of President Roosevelt -(February 9, 1909) transmitting to Congress the report of his Country -Life Commission. He said: “Upon the development of country life rests -ultimately our ability, by methods of farming requiring the highest -intelligence, to continue to feed and clothe the hungry nations; to -supply the city with fresh blood, clean bodies, and clear brains that -can endure the terrific strain of modern life; we need the development -of men in the open country, who will be in the future, as in the past, -the stay and strength of the nation in time of war, and its guiding and -controlling spirit in time of peace.” The far-reaching effect of the -report, a remarkably thorough and searching study of farm conditions, -is perceptible in agencies and movements that were either suggested by -it or that were strengthened by its authoritative utterances. - - -V - -Much has been written of the decline of religion in rural communities, -and melancholy statistics have been adduced as to the abandonment of -churches. But here, as in the matter of farm efficiency and kindred -rural problems, vigorous attempts are making to improve conditions. -“The great spiritual needs of the country community just at present -are higher personal and community ideals,” the Country Life Commission -reported. “Rural people have need to have an aspiration for the highest -possible development of the community. There must be an ambition on -the part of the people themselves constantly to progress in all those -things that make the community life wholesome, satisfying, educative, -and complete. There must be a desire to develop a permanent environment -for the country boy and girl, of which they will become passionately -fond. As a pure matter of education, the countryman must learn to love -the country and to have an intellectual appreciation of it.” In this -connection I wish that every farm boy and girl in America might read -“The Holy Earth,” by L. H. Bailey (a member of the commission), a -book informed with a singular sweetness and nobility, and fit to be -established as an auxiliary reading-book in every agricultural college -in America. - -There is abundant evidence that the religious bodies are not -indifferent to the importance of vitalizing the country church, and -here the general socializing movement is acting as a stimulus. Not only -have the churches, in federal and State conferences, set themselves -determinedly to improve the rural parish, but the matter has been the -subject of much discussion by educational and sociological societies -with encouraging gains. The wide-spread movement for the consolidation -of country schools suggests inevitably the combination of country -parishes, assuring greater stability and making possible the employment -of permanent ministers of a higher intellectual type, capable of -exercising that intelligent local leadership which all commentators on -the future of the farm agree is essential to progress. - -By whatever avenue the rural problem is approached it is apparent -that it is not sufficient to persuade American youth of the economic -advantages of farming over urban employments, but that the new -generation must be convinced in very concrete ways that country life -affords generous opportunities for comfort and happiness, and that -there are compensations for all it lacks. The farmer of yesterday, -strongly individualistic and feeling that the world’s rough hand was -lifted against him, has no longer an excuse for holding aloof from the -countless forces that are attempting to aid him and give his children a -better chance in life. No other figure in the American social picture -is receiving so much attention as the farmer. A great treasure of money -is expended annually by State and federal governments to increase -his income, lessen his labor, educate his children, and bring health -and comfort to his home. If he fails to take advantage of the vast -machinery that is at work in his behalf, it is his own fault; if his -children do not profit by the labors of the State to educate them, the -sin is at his own door. In his business perplexities he has but to -telephone to a county agent or to the extension headquarters of his -State to receive the friendly counsel of an expert. If his children -are dissatisfied and long for variety and change, it is because he has -concealed from them the means by which their lives may be quickened and -brightened. - -[Illustration: Judging graded shorthorn herds at the American Royal -Live Stock Show in Kansas City.] - -With the greatest self-denial I refrain from concluding this chapter -with a ringing peroration in glorification of farm life. From a desk -on the fifteenth floor of an office-building, with an outlook across a -smoky, clanging industrial city, I could do this comfortably and with -an easy conscience. But the scientist has stolen farming away from the -sentimentalist and the theorist. Farming, I may repeat, is a business, -the oldest and the newest in the world. No year passes in which its -methods and processes are not carried nearer to perfection. City boys -now about to choose a vocation will do well to visit an agricultural -college and extension plant, or, better still, a representative -corn-belt farm, before making the momentous decision. Perhaps the -thousands of urban lads who this year volunteered to aid the farmers -as a patriotic service will be persuaded that the soil affords -opportunities not lightly to be passed by. No one can foretell the vast -changes that will be precipitated when the mighty war is ended; but one -point is undebatable: the world, no matter how low its fortunes may -sink, must have bread and meat. Tremendous changes and readjustments -are already foreshadowed; but in all speculations the productiveness of -the American farm will continue to be a factor of enormous importance. - -A wide-spread absorption of land by large investors, the increase of -tenantry, and the passing of the farm family are possibilities of the -future not to be overlooked by those who have at heart the fullest and -soundest development of American democracy. For every 100 acres of -American land now under cultivation there are about 375 acres untilled -but susceptible of cultivation. Here is a chance for American boys of -the best fibre to elect a calling that more and more demands trained -intelligence. All things considered, the rewards of farming average -higher than those in any other occupation, and the ambitious youth, -touched with the new American passion for service, for a more perfect -realization of the promise of democracy, will find in rural communities -a fallow field ready to his hand. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -CHICAGO - - “And yonder where, gigantic, wilful, young, - Chicago sitteth at the northwest gates, - With restless violent hands and casual tongue - Moulding her mighty fates----” - - WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY. - - -I - -A fateful Titan, brooding over a mammoth chess-board, now cautious -in his moves as he shifts his myriad pigmies, now daring, but always -resolute, clear-eyed, steady of hand, and with no thought but -victory--as such a figure Rodin might have visualized twentieth-century -Chicago. - -Chicago is not a baby and utters no bleating cry that it is -“misunderstood,” and yet a great many people have not only -misunderstood or misinterpreted it but have expressed their dislike -with hearty frankness. To many visitors Chicago is a city of dreadful -night, to be explored as hurriedly as possible with outward-bound -ticket clenched tightly in hand. But Chicago may not be comprehended in -the usual scamper of the tourist; for the interesting thing about this -city is the people, and they require time. I do not, of course, mean -that they are all worthy of individual scrutiny, but rather that the -very fact of so many human beings collecting there, living cheerfully -and harmoniously, laboring and aspiring and illustrating the pressing, -changing problems of our democracy awakens at once the beholder’s -sympathetic interest. Chicago is not New York, nor is it London or -Paris: Chicago is different. The Chicagoan will convince you of this if -you fail to see it; the point has been conceded by a great number of -observers from all quarters, but not in just the same spirit in which -the citizen speaks of it. - -Both inspired and uninspired critics have made Chicago the subject -of a considerable literature that runs the gamut of anxious concern, -dismal apprehension, dismay, and disgust. Mr. Kipling saw the city -embodied as a girl arrayed in a costume of red and black, shod in red -shoes sauntering jauntily down the gory aisle of a slaughter-house. Mr. -H. G. Wells boasts that he refrained from visiting the packing-houses -owing to what he describes as his immense “repugnance to the killing -of fixed and helpless animals.” He reports that he saw nothing of -those “ill-managed, ill-inspected establishments,” though he “smelt -the unwholesome reek from them over and over again,” and observed -with trepidation “the enormous expanse and intricacy of railroads that -net this great industrial desolation.” Chicago’s pressing need, he -philosophizes, is discipline--a panacea which he generously prescribes -not only for all that displeased him in America, but for Lancashire, -South and East London, and the Pas de Calais. “Each man,” he ruminates, -“is for himself, each enterprise; there is no order, no prevision, -no common and universal plan.” I have cheerfully set down this last -statement to lighten my own burdens, for by reversing it one may very -happily express the real truth about Chicago. Instead of the “shoving -unintelligent proceedings of under-bred and morally obtuse men,” great -numbers of men and women of the highest intelligence are constantly -directing their talents toward the amelioration of the very conditions -that grieved Mr. Wells. - -Chicago may, to be sure, be dismissed in a few brilliant phrases as the -black pit of perdition, the jumping-off place of the world; but to the -serious-minded American the effort making there for the common uplift -is too searching, too intelligent, too sincere, for sneers. I fancy -that in view of events that have occurred in Europe since his visit -to America Mr. Wells would be less likely to rest his case against -Chicago on the need of discipline alone. All that discipline may do -for a people had been achieved by the Imperial German Government when -the Kaiser started for Paris in 1914; but subjection, obedience, even -a highly developed efficiency are not the whole of the law and the -prophets. Justice and mercy are finer things, and nothing in Chicago -is more impressive or encouraging than the stubborn purpose of many -citizens who are neither foolish nor ignorant to win and establish -these twain for the whole. It is an unjust and ungenerous assumption -that Chicago is unaware of its needs and dangers, or that from year to -year no gains are made in the attempt to fuse and enlighten the mass. -It is the greatest laboratory that democracy has known. The very fact -that so much effort must go into experiment, that there are more than -two and a half million distinct units to deal with, with a resulting -confusion in needs and aims, adds not merely to the perplexity but to -the fascination of the social and political enigma. There is, quite -definitely, a thing called the Chicago spirit, a thing compounded of -energy, faith, and hope--and again energy! Nor is the energy all spent -upon the material and sordid, for the fine, arresting thing is the -tremendous vim this lusty young giant among the world’s cities brings -to the solution of its problems--problems that deserve to be printed in -capitals out of respect for their immensity and far-reaching importance -to the national life. Chicago does not walk around her problems, but -meets them squarely and manfully. The heart of the inquirer is won by -the perfect candor with which the Chicagoan replies to criticism; the -critic is advised that for every evil there is a remedy; indeed, that -some agency is at work on that particular thing at that particular -moment. This information is conveyed with a smile that expresses -Chicago’s faith and hope--a smile that may be a little sad and -wistful--but the faith and the hope are inescapably there. - - * * * * * - -Chicago is the industrial and financial clearing-house, the -inspirational centre of the arts, and the playground for 50,000,000 -people. The pilgrim who lands on the lake shore with an open mind and -a fair understanding of what America is all about--the unprejudiced -traveller--is immediately conscious that here, indeed, is a veritable -capital of democracy. - -Every night three hundred or more sleeping-cars bear approximately -4,500 persons toward this Western metropolis on journeys varying from -five to twelve hours in length. From innumerable points it is a night’s -run, and any morning one may see these pilgrims pouring out of the -railway-stations, dispersing upon a thousand errands, often concluded -in time for the return trip between six o’clock and midnight. At -times one wonders whether all the citizens of the tributary provinces -have not gathered here at once, so great is the pressure upon hotel -space, so thronged the streets. The sleeping-car holds no terrors -for the Westerner. He enjoys the friendship of the train-crews; the -porters--many of them veterans of the service--call him by name and in -addressing them he avoids the generic “George,” which the travelling -salesman applies to all knights of the whisk-broom, and greets them by -their true baptismal appellations of Joshua or Obadiah. Mr. George Ade -has threatened to organize a “Society for the Prevention of the Calling -of Sleeping-Car Porters George”! - -The professional or business man rises from his meagre couch refreshed -and keen for adventure and, after a strenuous day, returns to it and -slumbers peacefully as he is hurled homeward. The man from Sioux City -or Saint Joe who spends a day here does not crawl into his berth weary -and depressed, but returns inspired and cheered and determined to put -more vim into his business the next morning. On the homeward trail, -eating supper in company with the neighbors he finds aboard, he dilates -eloquently upon the wonders of the city, upon its enterprise, upon the -heartiness with which its business men meet their customers. Chicago -men work longer hours than their New York brethren and take pride in -their accessibility. It is easier to get a hearing in high quarters -in any field of endeavor in Chicago than in New York; there is less -waiting in the anteroom, and a better chance of being asked out for -lunch. - -The West is proud of Chicago and loves it with a passionate devotion. -Nor is it the purpose of these reflections to hint that this mighty -Mecca is unworthy of the adoration of the millions who turn toward it -in affection and reverence. Chicago not only draws strength from a vast -territory but, through myriad agencies and avenues, sends back a mighty -power from its huge dynamo. It is the big brother of all lesser towns, -throwing an arm about Davenport and Indianapolis, Springfield and -Columbus, and manifesting a kindly tolerance toward St. Louis, Kansas -City, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Cleveland, whose growth and prosperity -lift them to a recognized and respected rivalry. - -The intense loyalty of the Chicagoan to his city is one of his most -admirable characteristics and the secret of his city’s greatness. -He is proud even of the Chicago climate, which offers from time to -time every variety of weather known to meteorology and is capable -of effecting combinations utterly new to this most fascinating of -sciences. Chicago’s coldest day of record was in 1872, when the minus -registration was 23; the hottest in 1901, when the mercury rose to -103. Such excesses are followed by contrition and repentance and days -of ethereal mildness. The lake serves as a funnel down which roar icy -blasts direct from the hyperboreans. The wind cuts like a scythe of -ice swung by a giant. In summer the hot plains pour in their burning -heat; or, again, when it pleases the weather-god to produce a humid -condition, the moisture-charged air is stifling. But a Chicagoan does -not mind the winter, which he declares to be good for body and soul; -and, as for the heat, he maintains--and with a degree of truth to -sustain him--that the nights are always cool. The throngs that gathered -in Chicago for the Republican and the Progressive conventions in -June, 1916, were treated to a diversity of weather, mostly bad. It -was cold; it rained hideously. There were dismal hours of waiting for -reports of the negotiations between the two bodies of delegates in -which the noblest oratory failed to bring warmth and cheer. Chicago did -her worst that week, but without serious impairment of her prestige as -the greatest convention city in the world. Every one said, “Isn’t this -just like Chicago!” and inquired the way to the nearest quinine. - -[Illustration: Chicago is the big brother of all lesser towns.] - -“The Windy City” is a descriptive sobriquet. There are not only -cold winds and hot winds of the greatest intensity, but there are -innumerable little gusts that spring up out of nowhere for no other -conceivable purpose than to deposit dust or cinders in the human eye. -There is a gesture acquired by all Chicagoans--a familiar bit of -calisthenics essential to the preservation of head-gear. If you see -a man pursuing his hat in a Chicago street you may be sure that he -is an outsider; the native knows by a kind of prescience just when -the fateful breeze is coming, prepares for it, and is never caught -unawares. In like manner the local optic seems to be impregnable -to persistent attacks of the omnipresent cinder. By what means the -eyeball of a visitor becomes the haven for flying débris, while the -native-born walks unscathed, is beyond my philosophy. It must be -that the eye of the inhabitant is trained to resist these malevolent -assaults and that the sharp-edged cinder spitefully awaits an -opportunity to impinge upon the defenseless optic of passing pilgrims. -The pall of smoke miraculously disappears at times and the cinder -abandons its depredations. The sky may be as blue over Chicago as -anywhere else on earth. The lake shimmers like silk and from brown, -near shore, runs away to the horizon through every tint of blue and -green and vague, elusive purples. - - -II - -Chicago still retained, in the years of my first acquaintance, -something of the tang of the wild onion which in the Indian vernacular -was responsible for its name. (I shudderingly take refuge in this -parenthesis to avoid collision with etymological experts who have spent -their lives sherlocking the word’s origin. The genesis of “Chicago” is -a moot question, not likely to be settled at this late day. Whether -it meant leek, polecat, skunkweed, or onion does not greatly matter. -I choose the wild onion from the possibilities, for the highly -unscientific reason that it seems to me the most appropriate and -flavorsome of all accessible suggestions.) - -In the early eighties one might stand by the lakeside and be very -conscious of a West beyond that was still in a pioneer stage. At the -department headquarters of the army might be met hardy campaigners -against the Indians of mountain and plain who were still a little -apprehensive that the telegraph might demand orders for the movement -of troops against hostile red men along the vanishing frontiers. -The battle of Wounded Knee, in which 100 warriors and 120 women and -children were found dead on the field (December 29, 1890), might almost -have been observed from a parlor-car window. It may have been that on -my visits I chanced to touch circles dominated by Civil War veterans, -but great numbers of these diverted their energies to peaceful channels -in Chicago at the end of the rebellion, and they gave color to the -city life. It was a part of the upbringing of a mid-Western boy of my -generation to reverence the heroes of the sixties, and it was fitting -that in the land of Lincoln and in a State that gave Grant a regiment -and started him toward immortality there should be frequent reunions -of veterans, and political assemblages and agitations in which they -figured, to encourage hero-worship in the young. Unforgettable among -the more distinguished of these Civil War veterans was General John -A. Logan, sometime senator in Congress and Blaine’s running mate in -1884. In life he was a gallant and winning figure, and Saint Gaudens’s -equestrian statue in Grant Park preserves his memory in a city that -delighted to honor him. - -Chicago’s attractions in those days included summer engagements of -Theodore Thomas’s orchestra, preceding Mr. Thomas’s removal to the city -and the founding of the orchestra that became his memorial. Concerts -were given in an exposition hall on the site now occupied by the Art -Institute, with railway-trains gayly disporting on the lake side of the -building. So persistent is the association of ideas, that to this day -I never hear the Fifth Symphony or the Tannhäuser Overture free of the -rumble and jar and screech of traffic. It was in keeping with Chicago’s -good-humored tolerance of the incongruous and discordant in those -years that the scores of Beethoven and Wagner should be punctuated by -locomotive whistles, and that _pianissimo_ passages should be drowned -in the grinding of brakes. - -At this period David Swing stood every Sunday morning in Central Music -Hall addressing large audiences, and he looms importantly in the -Chicago of my earliest knowledge. Swing was not only a fine classical -scholar--he lectured charmingly on the Greek poets--but he preached -a gospel that harmonized with the hopeful and liberal Chicago spirit -as it gathered strength and sought the forms in which it has later -declared itself. He was not an orator in the sense that Ingersoll and -Beecher were; as I remember, he always read his sermons or addresses; -but he was a strikingly individual and magnetic person, whose fine -cultivation shone brilliantly in his discourses. In the retrospect it -seems flattering to the Chicago of that time that it recognized and -appreciated his quality in spite of an unorthodoxy that had caused his -retirement from the formal ministry. - -The third member of a trinity that lingers agreeably in my memory is -Eugene Field. Journalism has known no more versatile genius, and his -column of “Sharps and Flats” in the _Morning News_ (later the _Record_) -voiced the Chicago of his day. Here indubitably was the flavor of the -original wild-onion beds of the Jesuit chronicles! Field became an -institution quite as much as Thomas and Swing, and reached an audience -that ultimately embraced the whole United States. The literary finish -of his paragraphs, their wide range of subject, their tone, varying -from kindly encouraging comment on a new book of verse that had won his -approval to a mocking jibe at some politician, his hatred of pretense, -the plausibility of the hoaxes he was constantly perpetrating, gave -an infinite zest to his department. The most devoted of Chicagoans, -he nevertheless laid a chastening hand upon his fellow citizens. In -an ironic vein that was perhaps his best medium he would hint at the -community’s lack of culture, though he would be the first to defend -the city from such assaults from without the walls. He prepared the -way for the coming of Edmund Clarence Stedman with announcements of -a series of bizarre entertainments in the poet’s honor, including a -street parade in which the meat-packing industry was to be elaborately -represented. He gave circulation to a story, purely fanciful, that -Joel Chandler Harris was born in Africa, where his parents were -missionaries, thus accounting for “Uncle Remus’s” intimate acquaintance -with negro characters and folklore. His devotion to journalism was -such that he preferred to publish his verses in his newspaper rather -than in magazines, often hoarding them for weeks that he might fill a -column with poems and create the impression that they were all flung -off as part of the day’s work, though, as a matter of fact, they were -the result of the most painstaking labor. With his legs thrown across -a table he wrote, on a pad held in his lap, the minute, perpendicular -hand, with its monkish rubrications, that gave distinction to all his -“copy.” Among other accomplishments he was a capital recitationist -and mimic. There was no end to the variety of ways in which he could -interest and amuse a company. He was so pre-eminently a social being -that it was difficult to understand how he produced so much when he -yielded so readily to any suggestion to strike work for any enterprise -that promised diversion. I linger upon his name not because of his -talents merely but because he was in a very true sense the protagonist -of the city in those years; a veritable _genius loci_ who expressed a -Chicago, “wilful, young,” that was disposed to stick its tongue in its -cheek in the presence of the most exalted gods. - -My Chicago of the consulship of Plancus was illuminated also by the -National League ball club, whose roster contained “names to fill a -Roman line”--“Pop” Anson, Clarkson, Williamson, Ryan, Pfeffer, and -“Mike” Kelley. Chicago displayed hatchments of woe on her portals when -Kelley was “sold to Boston” for $10,000! In his biography of Field Mr. -Slason Thompson has preserved this characteristic paragraph--only one -of many in which the wit, humorist, and poet paid tribute to Kelley’s -genius: - -“Benjamin Harrison is a good, honest, patriotic man, and we like him. -But he never stole second base in all his life and he could not swat -Mickey Welch’s down curves over the left-field fence. Therefore, we -say again, as we have said many times before, that, much as we revere -Benjamin Harrison’s purity and amiability, we cannot but accord the -tribute of our sincerest admiration to that paragon of American -manhood, Michael J. Kelley.” - - -III - -It must be said for Chicago that to the best of her ability her -iniquities are kept in the open; she conceals nothing; it is all there -for your observation if you are disposed to pry into the heart of the -matter. The rectilinear system of streets exposes the whole city to -the sun’s eye. One is struck by the great number of foreign faces, and -by faces that show a blending of races--a step, perhaps, toward the -evolution of some new American type. On Michigan Avenue, where on -fair afternoons something of the brilliant spectacle of Fifth Avenue -is reproduced, women in bright turbans, men in modifications of their -national garb--Syrians, Greeks, Turks, Russians and what-not--are -caught up and hurried along in the crowd. In the shopping centres -of Wabash Avenue and State Street the foreign element is present -constantly, and even since the war’s abatement of immigration these -potential citizens are daily in evidence in the railway-stations. Yet -one has nowhere the sense of congestion that is so depressing in New -York’s East Side; the overcrowding is not so apparent even where the -conditions are the worst Chicago has to offer. - -My search for the picturesque had been disappointing until, quite -undirected, I stumbled into Maxwell Street one winter morning and found -its Jewish market to my liking. The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in -antiquarian loot, but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve! Here we -have squalor, perhaps, and yet a pretty clean and a wholly orderly -squalor. Innumerable booths litter the sidewalks of this thoroughfare -between Halstead and Jefferson Streets, and merchandise and customers -overflow into the streets until traffic is blocked. Fruits, vegetables, -meats, fowls, raiment of every kind are offered. Bushel-baskets are -the ordained receptacle for men’s hats. A fine leisure characterizes -the movements and informs the methods of the cautious purchaser. Cages -of pigeons proudly surmounting coops of fowls suggested that their -elevation might be attributable to some special sanctity or reservation -for sacrificial rites. A cynical policeman (I saw but one guardian -of the peace in the course of three visits) rudely dispelled this -illusion with a hint that these birds, enjoying a free range of the -air, had doubtless been feloniously captured for exposure to sale in -the market-place--an imputation upon the bearded keepers of the bird -bazaars that I reject with scorn. Negroes occasionally cross the bounds -of their own quarter to shop among these children of the Ghettos--I -wonder whether by some instinctive confidence in the good-will of a -people who like themselves do daily battle with the most deeply planted -of all prejudices. - -[Illustration: The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian loot, -but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve!] - -Chicago is rich in types; human nature is comprehensively represented -with its best and worst. It should be possible to find here, midway of -the seas, the typical American, but I am mistrustful of my powers of -selection in so grave a matter. There are too many men observable in -office-buildings and in clubs who might pass as typical New Yorkers -if they were encountered in Fifth Avenue, to make possible any safe -choice for the artist’s pencil. There is no denying that the average -Chicagoan is less “smart” than the New Yorker. The pressing of clothes -and nice differentiations in haberdashery seem to be less important -to the male here than to his New York cousin. I spent an anxious -Sunday morning in quest of the silk hat, and reviewed the departing -worshippers in the neighborhood of many temples in this search, but the -only toppers I found were the crowning embellishments of two colored -gentlemen in South State Street. - -Perhaps the typical Chicagoan is the commuter who, after the day’s -hurry and fret, ponders the city’s needs calmly by the lake shore or in -prairie villages. Chicago’s suburbs are felicitously named--Kenilworth, -Winnetka, Hubbard Woods, Ravinia, Wilmette, Oak Park, and Lake Forest. -But neither the opulence of Lake Forest and Winnetka, nor polo and a -famous golf-course at Wheaton can obscure the merits of Evanston. The -urban Chicagoan becomes violent at the mention of Evanston, yet here we -find a reservoir of the true Western folksiness, and Chicago profits -by its propinquity. Evanston goes to church, Evanston reads, Evanston -is shamelessly high-brow with a firm substratum of evangelicanism. -Here, on spring mornings, Chopin floats through many windows across -the pleasantest of hedges and Dostoyefsky is enthroned by the evening -lamp. The girl who is always at the tennis-nets or on the golf-links of -Evanston is the same girl one has heard at the piano, or whose profile -is limned against the lamp with the green shade as she ponders the -Russians. She is symbolic and evocative of Chicago _in altissimo_. Her -father climbs the heights perforce that he may not be deprived of her -society. Fitted by nature to adorn the bright halls of romance, she is -the sternest of realists. She discusses politics with sophistication, -and you may be sure she belongs to many societies and can wield the -gavel with grace and ease. She buries herself at times in a city -settlement, for nothing is so important to this young woman as the -uplift of the race; and in so far as the race’s destiny is in her hands -I cheerfully volunteer the opinion that its future is bright. - -I hope, however, to be acquitted of ungraciousness if I say that the -most delightful person I ever met in Chicago, where an exacting social -taste may find amplest satisfaction, and where, in the academic shades -of three universities (Northwestern, Lake Forest, and Chicago), one -may find the answer to a question in any of the arts or sciences--the -most refreshing and the most instructive of my encounters was with a -lady who followed the vocation of a pickpocket and shoplifter. A friend -of mine who is engaged in the detection of crime in another part of the -universe had undertaken to introduce me to the presence of a “gunman,” -a species of malefactor that had previously eluded me. Meeting this -detective quite unexpectedly in Chicago, he made it possible for -me to observe numbers of gangsters, or persons he vouched for as -such--gentlemen willing to commit murder for a fee so ridiculously low -that it would be immoral for me to name it. - -It is enough that I beheld and even conversed with a worthy descendant -of the murderers of Elizabethan tragedy--one who might confess, with -the Second Murderer in Macbeth: - - “I am one, my liege, - Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world - Have so incens’d that I am reckless what - I do to spite the world.” - -But it was even more thrilling to be admitted, after a prearranged -knock at the back door, into the home of a woman of years whose life -has been one long battle with the social order. Assured by my friend -that I was a trustworthy person, or, in the vernacular, “all right,” -she entered with the utmost spirit into the discussion of larceny as -she had practised it. Only a week earlier she had been released from -the Bridewell after serving a sentence for shoplifting, and yet her -incarceration--only one of a series of imprisonments--had neither -embittered her nor dampened her zest for life. She met my inquiries as -to the hazards of the game with the most engaging candor. I am ashamed -to confess that as she described her adventures I could understand -something of the lawless joy she found in the pitting of her wits -against the law. She had lived in Chicago all her life and knew its -every corner. The underworld was an open book to her; she patiently -translated for my benefit the thieves’ argot she employed fluently. -She instructed me with gusto and humor in the most approved methods -of shoplifting, with warnings as to the machinery by which the big -department stores protect themselves from her kind. She was equally -wise as to the filching of purses, explaining that this is best done -by three conspirators if a crowded street-car be the chosen scene of -operations. Her own function was usually the gentle seizure of the -purse, to be passed quickly back to a confederate, and he in turn was -charged with the responsibility of conveying it to a third person, -who was expected to drop from the rear platform and escape. Having -elucidated this delicate transaction, she laughed gleefully. “Once on -a Wabash Avenue car I nipped a purse from a woman’s lap and passed it -back, thinking a girl who was working with me was right there, but -say--I handed it to a captain of police!” Her husband, a burglar of -inferior talents, sitting listlessly in the dingy room that shook under -the passing elevated trains, took a sniff of cocaine. When I professed -interest in the proceeding she said she preferred the hypodermic, and -thereupon mixed a potion for herself and thrust the needle into an arm -much swollen from frequent injections. Only the other day, a year after -this visit, I learned that she was again in durance, this time for an -ingenious attempt to defraud an insurance company. - - -IV - -In the field of social effort Chicago has long stood at the fore, and -the experiments have continued until a good many debatable points as -to method have been determined. Hull House and Miss Jane Addams are a -part of American history. There are those in Chicago who are skeptical -as to the value of much of the machinery employed in social betterment, -but they may be silenced effectively by a question as to just what the -plight of the two and a half million would be if so many high-minded -people had not consecrated themselves to the task of translating -America into terms of service for the guidance and encouragement of the -poor and ignorant. The spirit of this endeavor is that expressed in -Arnold’s lines on Goethe: - - “He took the suffering human race, - He read each wound, each weakness clear; - And struck his finger on the place - And said: Thou ailest here and here!” - -And when the diagnosis has been made some one in this city of hope is -ready with a remedy. - -When I remarked to a Chicago alderman upon the great number of agencies -at work in Chicago for social betterment, he said, with manifest pride: -“This town is full of idealists!” What strikes the visitor is that so -many of these idealists are practical-minded men and women who devote -a prodigious amount of time, energy, and money to the promotion of -social welfare. It is impossible to examine a cross-section anywhere -without finding vestigia of welfare effort, or traces of the movements -for political reform represented in the Municipal Voters’ League, the -Legislative League, or the City Club. - -It is admitted (grudgingly in some quarters) that the strengthening -of the social fabric has carried with it an appreciable elevation of -political ideals, though the proof of this is less impressive than we -should like to have it. It is unfortunately true that an individual -may be subjected to all possible saving influences--transformed -into a clean, reputable being, yet continue to view his political -obligations as through a glass darkly. Nor is the average citizen of -old American stock, who is satisfied, very often, to accept any kind -of local government so long as he is not personally annoyed about it, -a wholly inspiring example to the foreign-born. The reformer finds it -necessary to work coincidentally at both ends of the social scale. The -preservation of race groups in Chicago’s big wards (the vote in these -political units ranges from eight to thirty-six thousand), is essential -to safe manipulation. The bosses are not interested in the successful -operation of the melting-pot. It is much easier for them to buy votes -collectively from a padrone than to negotiate with individuals whose -minds have been “corrupted” by the teachers of political honesty in -settlements and neighborhood houses. However, the Chicago bosses enjoy -little tranquillity; some agency is constantly on their heels with -an impudent investigation that endangers their best-laid devices for -“protection.” - -As an Americanizing influence, important as a means of breaking-up -race affiliations that facilitate the “delivery” of votes, Chicago has -developed a type of recreation park that gives promise of the best -results. The first of these were opened in the South Park district -in 1905. There are now thirty-five such centres, which, without -paralleling or infringing upon the work of other social agencies, -greatly widen the scope of the city’s social service. These parks -comprise a playground with baseball diamond, tennis-courts, an outdoor -swimming-pool, playgrounds for young children, and a field-house -containing a large assembly-hall, club-rooms, a branch library, and -shower-baths with locker-rooms for men and women. Skating is offered -as a winter diversion, and the halls may be used for dances, dramatic, -musical, and other neighborhood entertainments. Clubs organized -for the study of civic questions meet in these houses; there are -special classes for the instruction of foreigners in the mystery -of citizenship; and schemes of welfare work are discussed in the -neighborhood councils that are encouraged to debate municipal problems -and to initiate new methods of social service. A typical centre is -Dvorák Park, ninety-five per cent of whose patrons are Bohemians. -Among its organizations are a Bohemian Old Settlers’ Club and a -Servant Girls’ Chorus. Colonel H. C. Carbaugh, of the Civil Service -Board of South Park Commissioners, in an instructive volume, “Human -Welfare Work in Chicago,” calls these park centres “public community -clearing-houses.” They appeal the more strongly to the neighborhoods -they serve from the fact that they are provided by the municipality, -and, while under careful and sympathetic supervision, are in a very -true sense the property of the people. Visits are exchanged by the -musical, gymnastic, or other societies of the several communities, with -a view to promoting fellowship between widely separated neighborhoods. - -One has but to ask in Chicago whether some particular philanthropic or -welfare work has been undertaken to be borne away at once to observe -that very thing in successful operation. It is a fair statement -that no one need walk the streets of the city hungry. Many doors -stand ajar for the despairing. A common indictment of the churches, -that they have neglected the practical application of Christianity -to humanity’s needs, hardly holds against Chicago’s churches. The -Protestant Episcopal Church has long been zealous in philanthropic -and welfare work, and Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists are -conspicuously active in these fields. The Catholic Church in Chicago -extends a helping hand through forty-five alert and well-managed -agencies. The total disbursement of the Associated Jewish Charities -for the year ending May, 1916, was $593,466, and the Jewish people of -Chicago contribute generously to social-welfare efforts outside their -fold. The Young Men’s Christian Association conducts a great number -of enterprises, including a nineteen-story hotel, built at a cost of -$1,350,000, which affords temporary homes to the thousands of young men -who every year seek employment in Chicago. This huge structure contains -1,821 well-ventilated rooms that are rented at from thirty to fifty -cents a day. The Chicago Association has twenty-nine widely distributed -branches, offering recreation, vocational instruction, and spiritual -guidance. The Salvation Army addresses itself tirelessly to Chicago’s -human problem. Colonel Carbaugh thus summarizes the army’s work for the -year ending in September, 1916: “At the various institutions for poor -men and women 151,501 beds and meals were worked for; besides which -$38,779.98 in cash was paid to the inmates for work done. To persons -who were not in a position to work, or whom it was impossible to supply -with work, 111,354 beds and meals, 11,330 garments and pairs of shoes, -and 123 tons of coal were given without charge.” - -The jaunty inquirer for historical evidences--hoary ruins “out of -fashion, like a rusty mail in monumental mockery”--is silenced by the -multiplicity of sentry-houses that mark the line of social regeneration -and security. Chicago is carving her destiny and in no small degree -moulding the future of America by these laborious processes brought to -bear upon humanity itself. Perhaps the seeker in quest of the spirit -of Chicago better serves himself by sitting for an hour in a community -centre, in a field-house, in the juvenile court, in one of the hundreds -of places where the human problem is met and dealt with hourly than in -perusing tables of statistics. - -At every turn one is aware that no need, no abuse is neglected, and -an immeasurable patience characterizes all this labor. One looks at -Chicago’s worst slum with a sense that after all it is not so bad, or -that at any rate it is not hopeless. Nothing is hopeless in a city -where the highest reach down so constantly to the lowest, where the -will to protect, to save, to lift is everywhere so manifest. This will, -this determination is well calculated to communicate a certain awe to -the investigator: no other expression of the invincible Chicago spirit -is so impressive as this. - - -V - -_Anno Urbis Conditæ_ may not be appended to any year in the chronicles -of a city that has so repeatedly rebuilt itself and that goes -cheerfully on demolishing yesterday’s structures to make way for -the nobler achievements of to-morrow. While the immediate effect of -the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1892-3 was to quicken the civic -impulse and arouse Chicago to a sense of her own powers, a lasting and -concrete result is found in the ambition inspired by the architectural -glories of the fair to invoke the same arts for the city’s permanent -beautification. The genius of Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, who waved the -magic wand that summoned “pillared arch and sculptured dome” out -of flat prairie and established “the White City” to live as a happy -memory for many millions in all lands, was enlisted for the greater -task. Without the fair as a background the fine talents of Mr. Burnham -and his collaborator, Mr. Edward H. Bennett, might never have been -exercised upon the city. Chicago thinks in large terms, and being -properly pleased with the demonstration of its ability to carry -through an undertaking of heroic magnitude it immediately sought other -fields to conquer. The fair had hardly closed its doors before Mr. -Burnham and Mr. Bennett were engaged by the Commercial Club to prepare -comprehensive plans for the perpetuation of something of the charm -and beauty of the fairy city as a permanent and predominating feature -of Chicago. Clearly what served so well as a temporary matter might -fill the needs of all time. The architects boldly attacked the problem -of establishing as the outer line, the façade of the city, something -distinctive, a combination of landscape and architecture such as no -other American city has ever created out of sheer pride, determination, -and sound taste. Like the æsthetic problems, the practical difficulties -imposed by topography, commercial pre-emptions, and legal -embarrassments were intrusted only to competent and sympathetic hands. -The whole plan, elaborated in a handsome volume published in 1909, with -the effects contemplated happily anticipated in the colored drawings of -Mr. Jules Guérin, fixed definitely an ideal and a goal. - -This programme was much described and discussed at the time of its -inception, and I had ignorantly assumed that it had been neglected in -the pressure of matters better calculated to resound in bank clearings, -but I had grossly misjudged the firmness of the Chicago fibre. The -death of Mr. Burnham left the architectural responsibilities of the -work in the very capable hands of Mr. Bennett. The Commercial Club, -an organization of highest intelligence and influence, steadfastly -supported the plan until it was reinforced by a strong public demand -for its fulfilment. The movement has been greatly assisted by Mr. -Charles H. Wacker, president of the plan commission and the author -of a primer on the subject that is used in the public schools. Mr. -Wacker’s vigorous propaganda, through the press and by means of -illustrated lectures in school and neighborhood houses, has tended to -the democratizing of what might have passed as a fanciful scheme of no -interest to the great body of the people. - -With singular perversity nature vouchsafed the fewest possible -aids to the architect for the embellishment of a city that had -grown to prodigious size before it became conscious of its artistic -deficiencies. The lake washes a flat beach, unbroken by any islanded -bay to rest the eye, and the back door is level with limitless prairie. -There is no hill on which to plant an acropolis, and the Chicago River -(transformed into a canal by clever engineering) offered little to -the landscape-architect at any stage of its history. However, the -distribution of parks is excellent, and they are among the handsomest -in the world. These, looped together by more than eighty miles of -splendid boulevards, afford four thousand acres of open space. The -early pre-emption of the lake front by railroad-tracks added to the -embarrassments of the artist, but the plan devised by Messrs. Burnham -and Bennett conceals them by a broadening of Grant Park that cannot -fail to produce an effect of distinction and charm. Chicago has a -playful habit of driving the lake back at will, and it is destined to -farther recessions. When the prodigious labors involved in the plan -are completed the lake may be contemplated across green esplanades, -broken by lagoons; peristyles and statuary will be a feature of -the transformed landscape. The new Field Museum is architecturally -consonant with the general plan; a new art museum and other buildings -are promised that will add to the variety and picturesqueness of the -whole. With Michigan Avenue widened and brought into harmony with -Grant Park, thus extended and beautified and carried across the river -northward to a point defined at present by the old water-tower (one -of Chicago’s few antiquities), landscape architecture will have set a -new mark in America. The congestion of north and south bound traffic -on Michigan Avenue will be relieved by a double-decked bridge, making -possible the classification of traffic and the exclusion of heavy -vehicles from the main thoroughfare. All this is promised very soon, -now that necessary legislation and legal decisions are clearing the -way. The establishment of a civic centre, with a grouping of public -buildings that would make possible further combinations in keeping with -those that are to lure the eye at the lakeside is projected, but may be -left for another generation to accomplish. - -Chicago’s absorption in social service and well-planned devices for -taking away the reproach of its ugliness is not at the expense of the -grave problems presented by its politics. Here again the inquirer is -confronted by a formidable array of citizens, effectively organized, -who are bent upon making Chicago a safe place for democracy. That -Chicago shall be the best-governed city in America is the aspiration -of great numbers of men and women, and one is struck once more not -merely by the energy expended in these matters but by the thoroughness -and far-sightedness of the efforts for political betterment. Illinois -wields so great an influence in national affairs that strictly -municipal questions suffer in Chicago as in every other American city -where the necessities of partisan politics constantly obscure local -issues. The politics of Chicago is bewilderingly complicated by the -complexity of its governmental machinery. - -It is staggering to find that the city has not one but, in effect, -twenty-two distinct governing agencies, all intrusted with the taxing -power! These include the city of Chicago, a board of education, a -library board, the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, the county -government of Cook County, the sanitary district of Chicago, and -sixteen separate boards of park commissioners. The interests -represented in these organizations are, of course, identical in so -far as the taxpaying citizen is concerned. An exhaustive report of -the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency published in January, 1917, -reaches the conclusion that “this community is poorly served by its -hodgepodge of irresponsible governing agencies, not only independent -of one another but often pulling and hauling at cross-purposes. A -single governing agency, in which should be centred all the local -administrative and legislative functions of the community, but directly -responsible to the voters, would be able to render services which -existing agencies could not perform nearly so well, if at all, even -if directed by officials of exceptional ability. The present system, -however, instead of attracting to public employment men of exceptional -ability, tends to keep them out, with the result that the places are -left at the disposal of partisan-spoils political leaders.” - -The waste entailed by this multiplication of agencies and resulting -diffusion of power and responsibility is illustrated by the number of -occasions on which the citizen is called upon to register and vote. The -election expenses of Chicago and Cook County for 1916 were more than -two million dollars, an increase of one hundred per cent in four years. -This does not, of course, take account of the great sums expended by -candidates and party organizations, or the waste caused by the frequent -interruptions to normal business. Chicago’s calendar of election events -for 1918 includes opportunities for registration in February, March, -August, and October; city primaries in February; general primaries in -September; a city election in April; and a general election in November. - -Under the plan of unified government proposed by the Bureau of -Efficiency there would be but three regular elections in each four-year -period, two biennial elections for national and State officials, and -one combined municipal and judicial election. A consolidation and -reform of the judicial machinery of Cook County and Chicago is urged -by the bureau, which complains that the five county courts and the -municipal court of Chicago, whose functions are largely concurrent, -cost annually two and a quarter million. There are six separate clerks’ -offices and a small army of deputy sheriffs and bailiffs to serve these -courts, with an evident paralleling of labor. While the city and county -expend nearly a million dollars annually for legal services, this is -not the whole item, for the library board, the board of education, and -committees of the city council may, on occasion, employ special counsel. - -The policing of so large a city, whose very geographical position -makes it a convenient way station for criminals of every sort, where -so many races are to be dealt with, and where the existing form of -municipal government keeps politics constantly to the fore, is beset -with well-nigh insuperable obstacles. Last year the police department -passed through a fierce storm with what seems to be a resulting -improvement in conditions. An investigator of the Committee of Fifteen, -a citizens’ organization, declared in May, 1917, that ten per cent -of the men on the police force are “inherently crooked and ought to -be driven from the department.” To which a police official retorted -that for every crooked policeman there are 500 crooked citizens, an -ill-tempered aspersion too shocking for acceptance. The _Chicago Daily -News Almanac_ records 114,625 arrests in 1915. Half of the total -are set down as Americans; there were 9,508 negroes, 4,739 Germans, -2,144 Greeks, 7,644 Polanders, 5,577 Russians, 2,981 Italians, and -2,565 Irish. In that year there were 194 murders--35 fewer than in -1914. Comparisons in such matters are not profitable but it may be -interesting to note that in 1915 there were 222 murders in New York; -244 in 1914; 265 in 1913. Over 3,000 keepers and inmates of Chicago -gaming-houses were arrested in 1915. The cost of the police department -is in excess of $7,000,000--an amount just about balanced by the -license fee paid by the city’s seven thousand saloons. Until recently -the State law closing saloons on Sunday was ignored, but last year the -city police department undertook to enforce it, with (to the casual -eye) a considerable degree of success. - -The report of the Bureau of Efficiency recommends the consolidation -of the existing governing agencies into a single government headed by -an executive of the city-manager type. Instead of a political mayor -elected by popular vote the office would be filled by the city council -for an indefinite tenure. The incumbent would be the executive officer -of the council and he might be given a seat in that body without a -vote. The council would be free to go outside the city if necessary -in its search for a competent mayor under this council-manager plan. -One has but to read the Chicago newspapers to be satisfied that some -such change as here indicated is essential to the wise and economical -government of the city. Battles between the mayor and the council, -upheavals in one city department or another occur constantly with a -serious loss of municipal dignity. With deep humility I confess my -incompetence for the task of describing the present mayor of Chicago, -Mr. William Hale Thompson, whose antics since he assumed office have -given Chicago a vast amount of painful publicity. As a public official -his manifold infelicities (I hope the term is sufficiently delicate) -have at least served to strengthen the arguments in favor of the recall -as a means of getting rid of an unfit office-holder.[D] Last year a -general shaking up of the police department had hardly faded from the -head-lines before the city’s school system, a frequent storm-centre, -caught the limelight. The schools are managed by a board of trustees -appointed by the mayor. On a day last spring (1917) the board met -and discharged the superintendent of schools (though retaining him -temporarily), and, if we may believe the news columns of the Chicago -_Tribune_, “Chicago’s mayor was roped, thrown, and tied so rapidly -that the crowd gasped, laughed, and broke into a cheer almost in one -moment.” I mention this episode, which was followed in a few weeks by -the reinstatement of the superintendent with an increase of salary, -as justifying the demand for a form of government that will perform -its functions decently and in order and without constant disturbances -of the public service that result only in the encouragement of -incompetence. - -The politicians will not relinquish so big a prize without a struggle; -but one turns from the dark side of the picture to admire the many -hopeful, persistent agencies that are addressing themselves to the -correction of these evils. The best talents of the city are devoted -to just these things. The trustees of the Bureau of Public Efficiency -are Julius Rosenwald, Alfred L. Baker, Onward Bates, George G. -Tunnell, Walter L. Fisher, Victor Elting, Allen B. Pond, and Frank I. -Moulton, whose names are worthy of all honor as typical of Chicago’s -most successful and public-spirited citizens. The City Club, with -a membership of 2,400, is a wide-awake organization whose 27 civic -committees, enlisting the services of 500 members, are constantly -studying municipal questions, instituting inquiries, and initiating -“movements” well calculated to annoy and alarm the powers that prey. - -Space that I had reserved for some note of Chicago’s industries, the -vastness of the stock-yards, the great totals in beasts and dollars -represented in the meat-packing business, the lake and railroad -tonnage, and like matters, shrinks under pressure of what seem, on -the whole, to be things of greater interest and significance. That -the total receipts of live-stock for one year exceeded 14,000,000 -with a cash value of $370,938,156 strikes me as less impressive than -the fact that a few miles distant from the packing-houses exists an -art institute, visited by approximately a million persons annually, -and an art school that affords capable instruction to 3,000 students. -Every encouragement is extended to these pupils, nor is the artist, -once launched upon his career, neglected by the community. The city -provides, through a Commission for the Encouragement of Local Art, -for the purchase of paintings by Chicago artists. There are a variety -of private organizations that extend a helping hand to the tyro, and -lectures and concerts are abundantly provided. A few years ago the -National Institute of Arts and Letters met for the first time in -Chicago. It must have been with a certain humor that the citizens -spread for the members, who came largely from the East, a royal -banquet in the Sculpture Hall of the Institute, as though to present -Donatello and Verrocchio as the real hosts of the occasion. It is by -such manifestations that Chicago is prone to stifle the charge of -philistinism. - -[Illustration: Banquet given for the members of the National Institute -of Arts and Letters.] - -With a noteworthy absence of self-consciousness, Chicago assimilates -a great deal of music. The symphony orchestra, founded by Theodore -Thomas and conducted since his death by Frederic Stock, offers a -series of twenty-eight concerts a year. Eight thousand contributors -made possible the building of Orchestra Hall, the organization’s -permanent home. Boston is not more addicted to symphonies than Chicago. -Indeed, on afternoons when concerts are scheduled the agitations of -the musically minded in popular refectories, the presence in Michigan -Avenue of suburban young women, whom one identifies at sight as -devotees of Bach and Brahms, suggest similar scenes that are a part -of the life of Boston. The luxury of grand opera is offered for ten -weeks every winter by artists of first distinction; and it was Chicago, -we shall frequently be reminded, that called New York’s attention to -the merits of Mme. Galli-Curci. Literature too is much to the fore -in Chicago, but I shall escape from the task of enumerating its many -practitioners by pleading that only a volume would do justice to the -subject. The contributors to Mr. Bert Leston Taylor’s “Line o’ Type” -column in the _Tribune_ testify daily to the prevalence of the poetic -impulse within the city and of an alert, mustang, critical spirit. - -With all its claims to cosmopolitanism one is nevertheless conscious -that Chicago is only a prairie county-seat that is continually -outgrowing its bounds, but is striving to maintain its early -fundamental devotion to decency and order, and develop among its -millions the respect for those things that are more excellent that is -so distinguishing a trait of the Folks throughout the West. Chicago’s -strength is the strength of the soil that was won for civilization and -democracy by a great and valorous body of pioneer freemen; and the -Chicago spirit is that of the men and women who plunged into the West -bearing in their hearts that “something pretty fine” (in Lincoln’s -phrase), which was the ideal of the founders of the republic. “The -children of the light” are numerous enough to make the materialists and -the philistines uncomfortable if not heartily ashamed of themselves; -for it is rather necessary in Chicago to have “interests,” to manifest -some degree of curiosity touching the best that has been thought and -done in the world, and to hold a commission to help and to serve the -community and the nation, to win the highest esteem. - -Every weakness and every element of strength in democracy, as we -are experimenting with it, has definite and concrete presentment in -Chicago. In the trying months preceding and following the declaration -of war with Germany the city repeatedly asserted its intense -patriotism. The predominating foreign-born population is German, yet -once the die was cast these citizens were found, except in negligible -instances, supporting the American cause as loyally as their neighbors -of old American stock. The city’s patriotic ardor was expressed -repeatedly in popular demonstrations--beginning with a preparedness -parade in June, 1916, in which 150,000 persons participated; in public -gatherings designed to unify sentiment, not least noteworthy of these -being the meeting in the stock-yards pavilion in May, of last year, -when 12,000 people greeted Colonel Roosevelt. The visit of M. Viviani -and Field-Marshal Joffre afforded the city another opportunity to -manifest its devotion to the cause of democracy. Every responsibility -entailed by America’s entrance into the war was met immediately with -an enthusiasm so hearty that the Chicago press was to be pardoned -for indulging in ironic flings at the East, which had been gloomily -apprehensive as to the attitude of the Middle West. - -The flag flies no more blithely or securely anywhere in America than in -the great city that lies at the northern edge of the prairies that gave -Lincoln to be the savior of the nation. Those continuing experiments -and that struggle for perfection that are the task of democracy -have here their fullest manifestation, and the knowledge that these -processes and undertakings are nobly guided must be a stimulus and an -inspiration to all who have at heart the best that may be sought and -won for America. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE MIDDLE WEST IN POLITICS - - _The great interior region bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by - the British dominions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the - line along which the culture of corn and cotton meets ... already has - above 10,000,000 people, and will have 50,000,000 within fifty years - if not prevented by any political folly or mistake. It contains more - than one-third of the country owned by the United States--certainly - more than 1,000,000 square miles. Once half as populous as - Massachusetts already is, it would have more than 75,000,000 people. - A glance at the map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the - great body of the republic. The other parts are but marginal borders - to it.--Lincoln: Annual Message to Congress, December, 1862._ - - -I - -If a general participation in politics is essential to the successful -maintenance of a democracy, then the people of the West certainly bear -their share of the national burden. A great deal of history has been -made in what Lincoln called “the great body of the republic,” and the -election of 1916 indicated very clearly the growing power of the West -in national contests, and a manifestation of independence that is not -negligible in any conjectures as to the issues and leadership of the -immediate future. - -A few weeks before the last general election I crossed a Middle Western -State in company with one of its senators, a veteran politician, who -had served his party as State chairman and as chairman of the national -committee. In the smoking compartment was a former governor of an -Eastern State and several others, representing both the major parties, -who were bound for various points along the line where they were to -speak that night. In our corner the talk was largely reminiscent of -other times and bygone statesmen. Republicans and Democrats exchanged -anecdotes with that zest which distinguishes the Middle Western -politician, men of one party paying tribute to the character and -ability of leaders of the other in a fine spirit of magnanimity. As the -train stopped, from time to time, the United States senator went out -upon the platform and shook hands with friends and acquaintances, or -received reports from local leaders. Everybody on the train knew him; -many of the men called him by his first name. He talked to the women -about their children and asked about their husbands. The whole train -caught the spirit of his cheer and friendliness, and yet he had been -for a dozen years the most abused man in his State. This was all in the -day’s work, a part of what has been called the great American game. -The West makes something intimate and domestic of its politics, and the -idea that statesmen must “keep close to the people” is not all humbug, -not at least in the sense that they hold their power very largely -through their social qualities. They must, as we say, be “folks.” - -Apart from wars, the quadrennial presidential campaigns are America’s -one great national expression in terms of drama; but through months -in which the average citizen goes about his business, grateful for a -year free of political turmoil, the political machinery is never idle. -No matter how badly defeated a party may be, its State organization -must not be permitted to fall to pieces; for the perfecting of an -organization demands hard work and much money. There is always a great -deal of inner plotting preliminary to a State or national contest, and -much of this is wholly without the knowledge of the quiet citizen whose -active interests are never aroused until a campaign is well launched. -In State capitals and other centres men meet, as though by chance, -and in hotel-rooms debate matters of which the public hears only when -differences have been reconciled and a harmonious plan of action has -been adopted. Not a day passes even in an “off year” when in the corn -belt men are not travelling somewhere on political errands. There are -fences to repair, local conditions to analyze, and organizations to -perfect against the coming of the next campaign. In a Western State I -met within the year two men who had just visited their governor for -the purpose of throwing some “pep” into him. They had helped to elect -him and felt free to beard him in the capitol to caution him as to -his conduct. It is impossible to step off a train anywhere between -Pittsburgh and Denver without becoming acutely conscious that much -politics is forward. One campaign “doth tread upon another’s heel, so -fast they follow.” This does not mean merely that the leaders in party -organizations meet constantly for conferences, or that candidates are -plotting a long way ahead to secure nominations, but that the great -body of the people--the Folks themselves--are ceaselessly discussing -new movements or taking the measure of public servants. - -The politician lives by admiration; he likes to be pointed out, to have -men press about him to shake his hand. He will enter a State convention -at just the right moment to be greeted with a cheer, of which a -nonchalant or deprecatory wave of the hand is a sufficient recognition. -Many small favors of which the public never dreams are granted to the -influential politician, even when he is not an office-holder--favors -that mean much to him, that contribute to his self-esteem. A friend -who was secretary for several years of one of the national committees -had a summer home by a quiet lake near an east-and-west railway-line. -When, during a campaign, he was suddenly called to New York or Chicago -he would wire the railway authorities to order one of the fast trains -to pick him up at a lonely station, which it passed ordinarily at the -highest speed. My friend derived the greatest satisfaction from this -concession to his prominence and influence. Men who affect to despise -politicians of the party to which they are opposed are nevertheless -flattered by any attention from them, and they will admit, when there -is no campaign forward, that in spite of their politics they are mighty -good fellows. And they _are_ good fellows; they have to be to retain -their hold upon their constituents. There are exceptions to the rule -that to succeed in politics one must be a good fellow, a folksy person, -but they are few. Cold, crafty men who are not “good mixers” may -sometimes gain a great deal of power, but in the Western provinces they -make poor candidates. The Folks don’t like ’em! - -Outside of New York and Pennsylvania, where much the same phenomena -are observable, there is no region where the cards are so tirelessly -shuffled as in the Middle Western commonwealths, particularly in Ohio, -Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas, which no party can pretend to carry -jauntily in its pocket. Men enjoy the game because of its excitement, -its potentialities of preferment, the chance that a few votes delivered -in the right quarter may upset all calculations and send a lucky -candidate for governor on his way to the Federal Senate or even to the -White House. And in country towns where there isn’t much to do outside -of routine business the practice of politics is a welcome “side-line.” -There is a vast amount of fun to be got out of it; and one who is apt -at the game may win a county office or “go” to the legislature. - -To be summoned from a dull job in a small town to a conference called -suddenly and mysteriously at the capital, to be invited to sit at the -council-table with the leaders, greatly arouses the pride and vanity -of men to whom, save for politics, nothing of importance ever happens. -There are, I fancy, few American citizens who don’t hug the delusion -that they have political “influence.” This vanity is responsible for -much party regularity. To have influence a man must keep his record -clear of any taint of independence, or else he must be influential -enough as an independent to win the respect of both sides, and this -latter class is exceedingly small. At some time in his life every -citizen seeks an appointment for a friend, or finds himself interested -in local or State or national legislation. It is in the mind of the -contributor to a campaign fund that the party of his allegiance has -thus a concrete expression of his fidelity, and if he “wants something” -he has opened a channel through which to make a request with a -reasonable degree of confidence that it will not be ignored. There was -a time when it was safe to give to both sides impartially so that no -matter who won the battle the contributor would have established an -obligation; but this practice has not worked so satisfactorily since -the institution of publicity for campaign assessments. - -It is only immediately after an election that one hears criticisms -of party management from within a party. A campaign is a great -time-eater, and when a man has given six months or possibly a year of -hard work to making an aggressive fighting machine of his party he -is naturally grieved when it goes down in defeat. In the first few -weeks following the election of 1916 Western Republicans complained -bitterly of the conduct of the national campaign. Unhappily, no amount -of _a posteriori_ reasoning can ever determine whether, if certain -things had been handled differently, a result would have been changed. -If Mr. Hughes had not visited California, or, venturing into that -commonwealth, he had shaken the hand of Governor Hiram Johnson, or if -he had remained quietly on his veranda at home and made no speeches, -would he have been elected President? Speculations of this kind may -alleviate the poignancy of defeat, but as a political situation is -rarely or never repeated they are hardly profitable. - -There are phases of political psychology that defy analysis. For -example, in doubtful States there are shifting moods of hope and -despair which are wholly unrelated to tangible events and not -reconcilable with “polls” and other pre-election tests. Obscure -influences and counter-currents may be responsible, but often the -politicians do not attempt to account for these alternations of -“feeling.” When, without warning, the barometer at headquarters begins -to fall, even the messengers and stenographers are affected. The gloom -may last for a day or two or even for a week; then the chairman issues -a statement “claiming” everything, every one takes heart of hope, and -the dread spectre of defeat steals away to the committee-rooms of the -opposition. - -An interesting species are the oracles whose views are sought by -partisans anxious for trustworthy “tips.” These “medicine-men” may not -be actively engaged in politics, or only hangers-on at headquarters, -but they are supposed to be endowed with the gift of prophecy. I know -several such seers whose views on no other subject are entitled to -the slightest consideration, and yet I confess to a certain respect -for their judgment as to the outcome of an election. Late in the fall -of 1916, at a time when the result was most uncertain, a friend told -me that he was wagering a large sum on Mr. Wilson’s success. Asked -to explain his confidence, he said he was acting on the advice of -an obscure citizen, whom he named, who always “guessed right.” This -prophet’s reasoning was wholly by inspiration; he had a “hunch.” State -and county committee-rooms are infested with elderly men who commune -among themselves as to old, unhappy, far-off things and battles long -ago, and wait for a chance to whisper some rumor into the ear of a -person of importance. Their presence and their misinformation add -little to the joy of the engrossed, harassed strategists, who spend -much time dodging them, but appoint a subordinate of proved patience to -listen to their stories. - -To be successful a State chairman must possess a genius for -organization and administration, and a capacity for quick decision and -action. While he must make no mistakes himself, it is his business to -correct the blunders of his lieutenants and turn to good account the -errors of his adversary. He must know how and where to get money, and -how to use it to the best advantage. There are always local conditions -in his territory that require judicious handling, and he must deal with -these personally or send just the right man to smooth them out. Harmony -is the great watchword, and such schisms as that of the Sound Money -Democrats in 1896, the Progressive split of 1912, and the frequent -anti-organization fights that are a part of the great game leave much -harsh jangling behind. - -The West first kicked up its heels in a national campaign in the -contest of 1840, when William Henry Harrison, a native of Virginia who -had won renown as a soldier in the Ohio Valley and served as governor -of the Northwest Territory, was the Whig candidate. The campaign was -flavored with hard cider and keyed to the melody of “Tippecanoe and -Tyler too.” The log cabin, with a raccoon on the roof or with a pelt of -the species nailed to the outer wall, and a cider-barrel seductively -displayed in the foreground, were popular party symbols. The rollicking -campaign songs of 1840 reflect not only the cheery pioneer spirit but -the bitterness of the contest between Van Buren and Harrison. One of -the most popular ballads was a buckeye-cabin song sung to the tune of -“The Blue Bells of Scotland”: - - “Oh, how, tell me how does your buckeye cabin go? - Oh, how, tell me how does your buckeye cabin go? - It goes against the spoilsman, for well its builders know - It was Harrison who fought for the cabins long ago. - - Oh, who fell before him in battle, tell me who? - Oh, who fell before him in battle, tell me who? - He drove the savage legions and British armies, too, - At the Rapids and the Thames and old Tippecanoe. - - Oh, what, tell me what will little Martin do? - Oh, what, then, what will little Martin do? - He’ll follow the footsteps of Price and Swartout, too, - While the log cabins ring again with Tippecanoe!” - -The spirit of the ’40’s pervaded Western politics for many years after -that strenuous campaign. Men who had voted for “Tippecanoe” Harrison -were pointed out as citizens of unusual worth and dignity in my youth; -and organizations of these veterans were still in existence and -attentive to politics when Harrison’s grandson was a candidate for the -Presidency. - -I find myself referring frequently to the continuing influence of the -Civil War in the social and political life of these Western States. The -“soldier vote” was long to be reckoned with, and it was not until Mr. -Cleveland brought a new spirit into our politics that the war between -the States began to fade as a political factor; and even then we were -assured that if the Democrats succeeded they would pension Confederate -soldiers and redeem the Confederate bonds. There were a good many of us -in these border States who, having been born of soldier fathers, and -with Whig and Republican antecedents, began to resent the continued -emphasis of the war in every campaign; and I look back upon Mr. -Cleveland’s rise as of very great importance in that he was a messenger -of new and attractive ideals of public service that appealed strongly -to young men. But my political apostasy (I speak of my own case -because it is in some sense typical) was attended with no diminution -of reverence for that great citizen army that defended and saved the -Union. The annual gatherings of the Grand Army of the Republic have -grown pathetically smaller, but this organization is not a negligible -expression of American democracy. The writing of these pages has been -interrupted constantly by bugle-calls floating in from the street, by -the cheers of crowds wishing Godspeed to our young army in its high -adventure beyond the Atlantic, and at the moment, by stirring news of -American valor and success in France. In my boyhood I viewed with awe -and admiration the veterans of ’61-’65 and my patriotism was deeply -influenced by the atmosphere in which I was born, by acquaintance -with my father’s comrades, and quickened through my formative years -by attendance at encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic and -cheery “camp-fires” in the hall of George H. Thomas Post, Indianapolis, -where privates and generals met for story-telling and the singing -of war-songs. The honor which it was part of my education should be -accorded those men will, I reflect, soon be the portion of their -grandsons, the men of 1917-18, and we shall have very likely a new -Grand Army of the Republic, with the difference that the descendants -of men who fought under Grant and Sherman will meet at peaceful -“camp-fires” with grandsons of the soldiers of Lee and Jackson, quite -unconscious that this was ever other than a united nation. - - -II - -The West has never lost its early admiration for oratory, whether from -the hustings, the pulpit, or the lecture-platform. Many of the pioneer -preachers of the Ohio valley were orators of distinguished ability, and -their frequent joint debates on such subjects as predestination and -baptism drew great audiences from the countryside. Both religious and -political meetings were held preferably out of doors to accommodate the -crowds that collected from the far-scattered farms. A strong voice, a -confident manner, and matter so composed as to hold the attention of an -audience which would not hesitate to disperse if it lost interest were -prerequisites of the successful speaker. Western chronicles lay great -stress upon the oratorical powers of both ministers and politicians. -Henry Ward Beecher, who held a pastorate at Indianapolis (1839-47), -was already famed as an eloquent preacher before he moved to Brooklyn. -Not long ago I heard a number of distinguished politicians discussing -American oratory. Some one mentioned the addresses delivered by Beecher -in England during the Civil War, and there was general agreement that -one of these, the Liverpool speech, was probably the greatest of -American orations--a sweeping statement, but its irresistible logic and -a sense of the hostile atmosphere in which it was spoken may still be -felt in the printed page. - -[Illustration: There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at -every political meeting.] - -The tradition of Lincoln’s power as an orator is well fortified by -the great company of contemporaries who wrote of him, as well as by -the text of his speeches, which still vibrate with the nobility, the -restrained strength, with which he addressed himself to mighty events. -Neither before nor since his day has the West spoken to the East with -anything approaching the majesty of his Cooper Union speech. It is -certainly a far cry from that lofty utterance to Mr. Bryan’s defiant -cross-of-gold challenge of 1896. - -The Westerner will listen attentively to a man he despises and has no -intention of voting for, if he speaks well; but the standards are high. -There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at every political -meeting, composed of veterans who compare all later performances with -some speech they heard Garfield or “Dan” Voorhees, Oliver P. Morton -or John J. Ingalls deliver before the orator spouting on the platform -was born. Nearly all the national conventions held in the West have -been marked by memorable oratory. Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll’s -speech nominating Blaine at the Republican convention of 1876 held -at Cincinnati (how faint that old battle-cry has become: “Blaine, -Blaine, Blaine of Maine!”) is often cited as one of the great American -orations. “He swayed and moved and impelled and restrained and worked -in all ways with the mass before him,” says the Chicago _Times_ report, -“as if he possessed some key to the innermost mechanism that moves the -human heart, and when he finished, his fine, frank face as calm as -when he began, the overwrought thousands sank back in an exhaustion of -unspeakable wonder and delight.” - -Even making allowance for the reporter’s exuberance, this must have -been a moving utterance, with its dramatic close: - -“Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched -down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance -full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his -country and the maligners of his honor. For the Republican party to -desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert -their gallant general upon the field of battle.... Gentlemen of the -convention, in the name of the great republic, the only republic that -ever existed upon this earth; in the name of all her defenders and of -all her supporters; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field -of battle, and in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch -of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly -remembers, Illinois, Illinois nominates for the next President of this -country that prince of parliamentarians, that leader of leaders--James -G. Blaine.” - -In the fall of the same year Ingersoll delivered at Indianapolis -an address to war veterans that is still cited for its peroration -beginning: “The past rises before me like a dream.” - -The political barbecue, common in pioneer days, is about extinct, -though a few such gatherings were reported in the older States of the -Middle West in the last campaign. These functions, in the day of poor -roads and few settlements, were a means of luring voters to a meeting -with the promise of free food; it was only by such heroic feats of -cookery as the broiling of a whole beef in a pit of coals that a crowd -could be fed. The meat was likely to be either badly burnt, or raw, -but the crowds were not fastidious, and swigs of whiskey made it more -palatable. Those were days of plain speech and hard hitting, and on -such occasions orators were expected to “cut loose” and flay the enemy -unsparingly. - -Speakers of the rabble-rouser type have passed out, though there -are still orators who proceed to “shell the woods” and “burn the -grass” in the old style in country districts where they are not in -danger of being reported. This, however, is full of peril, as the -farmer’s credulity is not so easily played upon as in the old days -before the R. F. D. box was planted at his gate. The farmer is the -shrewdest, the most difficult, of auditors. He is little given to -applause, but listens meditatively, and is not easily to be betrayed -into demonstrations of approval. The orator’s chance of scoring a hit -before an audience of country folk depends on his ability to state his -case with an appearance of fairness and to sustain it with arguments -presented in simple, picturesque phraseology. Nothing could be less -calculated to win the farmer’s franchise than any attempt to “play -down” to him. In old times the city candidate sometimes donned his -fishing-clothes before venturing into country districts, but some of -the most engaging demagogues the West has known appeared always in -their finest raiment. - -[Illustration: The Political Barbecue.] - -There has always been a considerable sprinkling of women at big Indiana -rallies and also at State conventions, as far back as my memory -runs; but women, I am advised, were rarely in evidence at political -meetings in the West until Civil War times. The number who attended -meetings in 1916 was notably large, even in States that have not yet -granted general suffrage. They are most satisfactory auditors, quick to -catch points and eagerly responsive with applause. The West has many -women who speak exceedingly well, and the number is steadily growing. -I have never heard heckling so cleverly parried as by a young woman -who spoke on a Chicago street corner, during the sessions of the last -Republican convention, to a crowd of men bent upon annoying her. She -was unfailingly good-humored, and her retorts, delivered with the -utmost good nature, gradually won the sympathy of her hearers. - -The making of political speeches is exhausting labor, and only the -possessor of great bodily vigor can make a long tour without a serious -drain upon his physical and nervous energy. Mr. Bryan used to refer -with delight to the manner in which Republicans he met, unable to -pay him any other compliment, expressed their admiration for his -magnificent constitution, which made it possible for him to speak so -constantly without injury to his health. The fatiguing journeys, the -enforced adjustment to the crowds of varying size in circumstances -never twice alike, the handshaking and the conferences with local -committees to which prominent speakers must submit make speaking-tours -anything but the triumphal excursions they appear to be to the -cheering audiences. The weary orator arrives at a town to find that -instead of snatching an hour’s rest he must yield to the importunity -of a committee intrusted with the responsibility of showing him the -sights of the city, with probably a few brief speeches at factories; -and after a dinner, where he will very likely be called upon to say -“just a few words,” he must ride in a procession through the chill -night before he addresses the big meeting. One of the most successful -of Western campaigners is Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana, twice Mr. -Wilson’s running mate on the presidential ticket. In 1908 Mr. Marshall -was the Democratic candidate for governor and spoke in every county -in the State, avoiding the usual partisan appeals, but preaching a -political gospel of good cheer, with the result that he was elected by -a plurality of 14,453, while Mr. Taft won the State’s electoral vote -by a plurality of 10,731. Mr. Marshall enjoys a wide reputation as a -story-teller, both for the humor of his narratives and the art he -brings to their recital. - -A few dashes of local color assist in establishing the visiting orator -on terms of good-fellowship with his audience. He will inform himself -as to the number of broom-handles or refrigerators produced annually in -the town, or the amount of barley and buckwheat that last year rewarded -the toil of the noble husbandmen of the county. It is equally important -for him to take counsel of the local chairman as to things to avoid, -for there are sore spots in many districts which must be let alone -or touched with a healing hand. The tyro who prepares a speech with -the idea of giving it through a considerable territory finds quickly -that the sooner he forgets his manuscript the better, so many are the -concessions he must make to local conditions. - -In the campaign of 1916 the Democrats made strenuous efforts to -win the Progressive vote. Energetic county chairmen would lure as -many Progressives as possible to the front seats at all meetings -that they might learn of the admiration in which they were held by -forward-looking Democrats--the bond of sympathy, the common ideals, -that animated honest Democrats and their brothers, those patriotic -citizens who, long weary of Republican indifference to the rights -of freemen, had broken the ties of a lifetime to assert their -independence. Democratic orators, with the Progressives in mind, -frequently apostrophized Lincoln, that they might the better contrast -the vigorous, healthy Republicanism of the ’60’s with the corrupt, -odious thing the Republican party had become. This, of course, had to -be done carefully, so that the Progressive would not experience twinges -of homesickness for his old stamping-ground. - -There is agreement among political managers as to the doubtful value -of the “monster meetings” that are held in large centres. With plenty -of money to spend and a thorough organization, it is always possible -to “pull off” a big demonstration. Word passed to ward and precinct -committeemen will collect a vast crowd for a parade adorned with -fireworks. The size and enthusiasm of these crowds is never truly -significant of party strength. One such crowd looks very much like -another, and I am betraying no confidence in saying that its units are -often drawn from the same sources. The participants in a procession -rarely hear the speeches at the meeting of which they are the -advertisement. When they reach the hall it is usually filled and their -further function is to march down the aisles with bands and drum-corps -to put the crowd in humor for the speeches. Frequently some belated -phalanx will noisily intrude after the orator has been introduced, and -he must smile and let it be seen that he understands perfectly that the -interruption is due to the irrepressible enthusiasm of the intelligent -voters of the grand old blank district that has never failed to support -the principles of the grand old blank party. - -The most satisfactory meetings are small ones, in country districts, -where one or two hundred people of all parties gather, drawn by an -honest curiosity as to the issues. Such meetings impose embarrassments -upon the speaker, who must accommodate manner and matter to auditors -disconcertingly close at hand, of whose reaction to his talk he is -perfectly conscious. In an “all-day” meeting, held usually in groves -that serve as rural social centres, the farmers remain in their -automobiles drawn into line before the speakers’ stand, and listen -quietly to the programme arranged by the county chairman. Sometimes -several orators are provided for the day; Republicans may take the -morning, the Democrats the afternoon. Here, with the audience sitting -as a jury, we have one of the processes of democracy reduced to its -simplest terms. - -The West is attracted by statesmen who are “human,” who impress -themselves upon the Folks by their amiability and good-fellowship. -Benjamin Harrison was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of the -bar of his day, but he was never a popular hero and his defeat for -re-election was attributable in large degree to his lack of those -qualities that constitute what I have called “folksiness.” In the -campaign of 1888 General Harrison suffered much from the charge that -he was an aristocrat, and attention was frequently called to the fact -that he was the grandson of a President. Among other cartoons of the -period there was one that represented Harrison as a pigmy standing in -the shadow of his grandfather’s tall hat. This was probably remembered -by an Indiana politician who called at the White House repeatedly -without being able to see the President. After several fruitless visits -the secretary said to him one day: “The President cannot be seen.” “My -God!” exclaimed the enraged office-seeker, “has he grown as small as -that?” - -Probably no President has ever enjoyed greater personal popularity than -Mr. McKinley. He would perform an act of kindness with a graciousness -that doubled its value and he could refuse a favor without making an -enemy. Former Governor Glynn of New York told me not long ago an -incident illuminative of the qualities that endeared Mr. McKinley -to his devoted followers. Soon after his inauguration a Democratic -congressman from an Eastern State delivered in the House a speech -filled with the bitterest abuse of the President. A little later -this member’s wife, not realizing that a savage attack of this sort -would naturally make its author _persona non grata_ at the White -House, expressed a wish to take her young children to call on the -President. The youngsters were insistent in their demand to make the -visit and would not be denied. The offending representative confessed -his embarrassment to Mr. Glynn, a Democratic colleague, who said he’d -“feel out” the President. Mr. McKinley, declaring at once with the -utmost good humor that he would be delighted to receive the lady and -her children, named a day and met them with the greatest cordiality. -He planted the baby on his desk to play, put them all at ease, and as -they left distributed among them a huge bouquet of carnations that -he had ordered specially from the conservatory. In this connection I -am reminded of a story of Thomas B. Reed, who once asked President -Harrison to appoint a certain constituent collector at Portland. The -appointment went to another candidate for the office, and when one of -Reed’s friends twitted him about his lack of influence he remarked: -“There are only two men in the whole State of Maine who hate me: one -of them I landed in the penitentiary, and the other one Harrison has -appointed collector of the port in my town!” - - -III - -Statesmen of the “picturesque” school, who attracted attention by -their scorn of conventions, or their raciness of speech, or for some -obsession aired on every occasion, are well-nigh out of the picture. -The West is not without its sensitiveness, and it has found that a -sockless congressman, or one who makes himself ridiculous by advocating -foolish measures, reflects upon the intelligence of his constituents -or upon their sense of humor, and if there is anything the West prides -itself upon it is its humor. We are seeing fewer statesmen of the type -so blithely represented by Mr. Cannon, who enjoy in marked degree the -affections of their constituents; who are kindly uncles to an entire -district, not to be displaced, no matter what their shortcomings, -without genuine grief. One is tempted far afield in pursuit of the -elements of popularity, of which the West offers abundant material -for analysis. “Dan” Voorhees, “the tall sycamore of the Wabash,” was -prominent in Indiana politics for many years, and his fine figure, his -oratorical gifts, his sympathetic nature and reputation for generosity -endeared him to many who had no patience with his politics. He was -so effective as an advocate in criminal cases that the Indiana law -giving defendants the final appeal was changed so that the State might -counteract the influence of his familiar speech, adjustable to any -case, which played upon the sympathy and magnanimity of the jurors. -Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, a man of higher intellectual gifts, was -similarly enshrined in the hearts of his constituency. His bandanna -was for years the symbol of Buckeye democracy, much as “blue jeans” -expressed the rugged simplicity of the Hoosier democracy when, in -1876, the apparel of James D. Williams, unwisely ridiculed by the -Republicans, contributed to his election to the governorship over -General Harrison, the “kid-glove” candidate. Kansas was much in -evidence in those years when it was so ably represented in the Senate -by the brilliant John J. Ingalls. Ingalls’s oratory was enriched by a -fine scholarship and enlivened by a rare gift of humor and a biting -sarcasm. Once when a Pennsylvania colleague attacked Kansas Ingalls -delivered a slashing reply. “Mr. President,” he said, “Pennsylvania has -produced but two great men: Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts, and -Albert Gallatin, of Switzerland.” On another occasion Voorhees of the -blond mane aroused Ingalls’s ire and the Kansan excoriated the Hoosier -in a characteristic deliverance, an incident thus neatly epitomized by -Eugene F. Ware, (“Ironquill”), a Kansas poet: - - “Cyclone dense, - Lurid air, - Wabash hair, - Hide on fence.” - -Nothing is better calculated to encourage humility in young men about -to enter upon a political career than a study of the roster of Congress -for years only lightly veiled in “the pathos of distance.” Among United -States senators from the Middle West in 1863-9 were Lyman Trumbull, -Richard J. Oglesby, and Richard Yates, of Illinois; Henry S. Lane, -Oliver P. Morton, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana; James Harlan and -Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa; Samuel C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane, of -Kansas; Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. Howard, of Michigan; Alexander -Ramsey and Daniel S. Norton, of Minnesota; Benjamin F. Wade and John -Sherman, of Ohio. - -In the lower house sat Elihu B. Washburne, Owen Lovejoy, and William -R. Morrison, of Illinois; Schuyler Colfax, George W. Julian, Daniel W. -Voorhees, William S. Holman, and Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana; William -B. Allison, Josiah B. Grinnell, John A. Kasson, and James F. Wilson, of -Iowa; James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Robert C. Schenck, -of Ohio. In the same group of States in the ’80’s we find David Davis, -John A. Logan, Joseph E. McDonald, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas W. Ferry, -Henry P. Baldwin, William Windom, Samuel J. R. McMillan, Algernon S. -Paddock, Alvin Saunders, M. H. Carpenter, John J. Ingalls, and Preston -B. Plumb, all senators in Congress. In this same period the Ohio -delegation in the lower house included Benjamin Butterworth, A. J. -Warner, Thomas Ewing, Charles Foster, Frank H. Hurd, J. Warren Keifer, -and William McKinley. - -How many students in the high schools and colleges of these States -would recognize any considerable number of these names or have any -idea of the nature of the public service these men performed? To -be sure, three representatives in Congress from Ohio in the years -indicated, and one senator from Indiana, reached the White House; but -at least two-thirds of the others enjoyed a wide reputation, either -as politicians or statesmen or as both. In the years preceding the -Civil War the West certainly did not lack leadership, nor did all who -rendered valuable service attain conspicuous place. For example, George -W. Julian, an ardent foe of slavery, a member of Congress, and in 1852 -a candidate for Vice-President on the Free Soil ticket, was a political -idealist, independent and courageous, and with the ability to express -his opinions tersely and effectively. - -It is always hazardous to compare the statesmen of one period with -those of another, and veteran observers whose judgments must be treated -with respect insist that the men I have mentioned were not popularly -regarded in their day as the possessors of unusual abilities. Most of -these men were prominent in my youth, and in some cases were still -important factors when I attained my majority, and somehow they seem to -“mass” as their successors do not. The fierce passions aroused in the -Middle West by the slavery issue undoubtedly brought into the political -arena men who in calmer times would have remained contentedly in -private life. The restriction of slavery and the preservation of the -Union were concrete issues that awakened a moral fervor not since -apparent in our politics. Groups of people are constantly at work in -the social field, to improve municipal government, or to place State -politics upon a higher plane; but these movements occasion only slight -tremors in contrast with the quaking of the earth through the free-soil -agitation, Civil War, and reconstruction. - -The men I have mentioned were, generally speaking, poor men, and -the next generation found it much more comfortable and profitable -to practise law or engage in business than to enter politics. I am -grieved by my inability to offer substantial proof that ideals of -public service in the Western provinces are higher than they were -fifty or twenty years ago. I record my opinion that they are not, and -that we are less ably served in the Congress than formerly, frankly to -invite criticism; for these times call for a great searching for the -weaknesses of democracy and, if the best talent is not finding its way -into the lawmaking, administrative, and judicial branches of our State -and federal governments, an obligation rests upon every citizen to find -the reason and supply the remedy. - -No Westerner who is devoted to the best interests of his country will -encourage the belief that there is any real hostility between East and -West, or that the West is incapable of viewing social and political -movements in the light of reason and experience. It stood steadfastly -against the extension of slavery and for the Union through years of -fiery trial, and its leaders expressed the national thought and held -the lines firm against opposition, concealed and open, that was kept -down only by ceaseless vigilance. Even in times of financial stress -it refused to hearken to the cry of the demagogue, and Greenbackism -died, just as later Populism died. More significant was the failure -of Mr. Bryan to win the support of the West that was essential to his -success in three campaigns. We may say that it was a narrow escape, -and that the West was responsible for a serious menace and a peril not -too easily averted, but Mr. Bryan precipitated a storm that was bound -to break and that left the air clearer. He “threw a scare” into the -country just when it needed to be aroused, and some of his admonitions -have borne good fruit on soil least friendly to him. - -The West likes to be “preached at,” and it admires a courageous -evangelist even when it declines his invitation to the mourners’ -bench. The West liked and still likes Mr. Roosevelt, and no other -American can so instantly gain the ear of the West as he. In my -pilgrimages of the past year nothing has been more surprising than the -change of tone with reference to the former President among Western -Republicans, who declared in 1912 and reiterated in 1916 that never, -never again would they countenance him.[E] - - -IV - -One may find in the Mississippi valley, as in the Connecticut valley -or anywhere else in America, just about what one wishes to find. A New -England correspondent complains with some bitterness of the political -conservatism he encountered in a journey through the West; he had -expected to find radicalism everywhere rampant, and was disappointed -that he was unable to substantiate his preconceived impression by -actual contacts with the people. - -If I may delicately suggest the point without making too great a -concession, the West is really quite human. It has its own “slant”--its -tastes and preferences that differ in ways from those of the East, -the South, or the farther West; and radicals are distributed through -the corn belt in about the same proportion as elsewhere. The -bread-and-butter Western Folks are pretty sensible, taken in the long -run, and not at all anxious to pull down the social pillars just -to make a noise. They will impiously carve them a little--yes, and -occasionally stick an incongruous patch on the wall of the sanctuary -of democracy; but they are never wilfully destructive. And it cannot -be denied that some of their architectural and decorative efforts have -improved the original design. The West has saved other sections a good -deal of trouble by boldly experimenting with devices it had “thought -up” amid the free airs of the plains; but the West, no more than the -East, will give storage to a contrivance that has been proved worthless. - -The vindictive spirit that was very marked in the Western attitude -toward the railroads for many years was not a gratuitous and unfounded -hatred of corporations, but had a real basis in discriminations that -touched vitally the life of the farmer and the struggling towns to -which he carried his products. The railroads were the only corporations -the West knew before the great industrial development. A railroad -represented “capital,” and “capital” was therefore a thing to chastise -whenever opportunity offered. It has been said in bitterness of -late that the hostile legislation demanded by the West “ruined the -railroads.” This is not a subject for discussion here, but it can -hardly be denied that the railroads invited the war that was made upon -them by injustices and discriminations of which the obscure shipper -had a right to complain. The antagonism to railroads inspired a great -deal of radicalism aimed at capital generally, and “corporate greed,” -“the encroachments of capital,” “the money devils of Wall Street,” and -“special privilege” burned fiercely in our political terminology. Our -experiment with government control as a war measure has, of course, -given a new twist to the whole transportation problem. - -The West likes to play with novelties. It has been hospitable to such -devices as the initiative, the referendum, and the recall, multiplied -agencies for State supervision in many directions, and it has shown -in general a confidence in automatic machinery popularly designed to -correct all evils. The West probably infected the rest of the country -with the fallacy that the passing of a law is a complete transaction -without reference to its enforcement, and Western statute-books are -littered with legislation often frivolous or ill considered. There has, -however, been a marked reaction and the demand is rather for less -legislation and better administration. A Western governor said to me -despairingly that his State is “commissioned” to death, and that he is -constantly embarrassed by the difficulty of persuading competent men to -accept places on his many bipartisan regulative boards. - -There is a virtue in our very size as a nation and the multiplicity -of interests represented by the one hundred million that make it -possible for the majority to watch, as from a huge amphitheatre, the -experiments in some particular arena. A new agrarian movement that -originated in North Dakota in 1915 has attained formidable proportions. -The Non-Partisan League (it is really a political party) seems to have -sprung full-panoplied from the Equity Society, and is a successor -of the Farmers’ Alliance and Populism. The despised middleman was -the first object of its animosity, and it began with a comprehensive -programme of State-owned elevators and flour-mills, packing-houses -and cold-storage plants. The League carried North Dakota in 1916, -electing a governor who immediately vetoed a bill providing for a -State-owned terminal elevator because the League leaders “raised their -sights” as soon as they got into the trenches. They demanded unlimited -bonding-power and a complete new programme embodying a radical form -of State socialism. “Class struggle,” says Mr. Elmer T. Peterson, an -authority on the League’s history, “is the key-note of its propaganda.” -The student of current political tendencies will do well to keep an eye -on the League, as it has gained a strong foothold in the Northwest, and -the co-operative features of its platform satisfy an old craving of the -farmer for State assistance in the management of his business. - -The League is now thoroughly organized in the Dakotas, Minnesota, -Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado and is actively at work in -Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Governor Burnquist of Minnesota -addressed a letter to its executive secretary during the primary -campaign last summer in which he said: - - At the time of our entrance into the European conflict your - organization condemned our government for entering the war. When it - became evident that this course would result in disaster for their - organization they changed their course and made an eleventh-hour - claim to pure loyalty, but notwithstanding this claim the National - Non-Partisan League is a party of discontent. It has drawn to it - the pro-German element of our State. Its leaders have been closely - connected with the lawless I. W. W. and with Red Socialists. - Pacifists and peace advocates whose doctrines are of benefit to - Germany are among their number. - -The League’s activities in obstructing conscription and other war -measures have been the subject of investigation by military and civil -authorities. The _Leader_, the official organ of the party, recently -printed, heavily capitalized, this sentiment, “The Government of the -People by the Rascals for the Rich,” as the key-note of its hostility -to America’s participation in the war. - -The West is greatly given to sober second thoughts. Hospitable to new -ideas as it has proved itself to be, it will stop short of a leap in -the dark. There is a point at which it becomes extremely conservative. -It will run like a frightened rabbit from some change which it has -encouraged. But the West has a passion for social justice, and is -willing to make sacrifices to gain it. The coming of the war found -this its chief concern, not under the guidance of feverish agitators -but from a sense that democracy, to fulfil its destiny, must make the -conditions of life happy and comfortable for the great body of the -people. It is not the “pee-pul” of the demagogue who are to be reckoned -with in the immediate future of Western political expression, but an -intelligent, earnest citizenry, anxious to view American needs with the -new vision compelled by the world struggle in the defense of democracy. - -The rights and privileges of citizenship long enjoyed by women of -certain Western States ceased to be a vagary of the untutored wilds -when last year New York adopted a constitutional amendment granting -women the ballot. The fight for a federal amendment was won in the -House last winter by a narrow margin, but at this writing the matter -is still pending in the Senate. Many of the old arguments against the -enfranchisement of women have been pretty effectually disposed of -in States that were pioneers in general suffrage. I lived for three -years in Colorado without being conscious of any of those disturbances -to domesticity that we used to be told would follow if women were -projected into politics. I can testify that a male voter may register -and cast his ballot without any feeling that the women he encounters as -he performs these exalted duties have relinquished any of the ancient -prerogatives of their womanhood. - -There is nothing in the experience of suffrage States to justify a -suspicion that women are friendlier to radical movements than men, but -much to sustain the assertion that they take their politics seriously -and are as intelligent in the exercise of the ballot as male voters. -The old notion that the enfranchisement of women would double the vote -without changing results is another fallacy; I am disposed to think -them more independent than their male fellow citizens and less likely -to submit meekly to party dictation. - -In practically every American court- and State-house and city hall -there are women holding responsible clerical positions, and, if the -keeping of important records may be intrusted to women, the task of -defending their exclusion from elective offices is one that I confess -to be beyond my powers. Nor is there anything shocking in the presence -of a woman on the floor of a legislative body. Montana sent a woman to -the national Congress, and already her fellow members hear her voice -without perturbation. Mrs. Agnes Riddle, a member of the Colorado -Senate, is a real contributor, I shall not scruple to say, to the -intelligence and wisdom of that body. Mrs. Riddle, apart from being -a stateswoman, manages a dairy to its utmost details, and during the -session answers the roll-call after doing a pretty full day’s work on -her farm. The schools of Colorado are admirably conducted by Mrs. C. -C. Bradford, who has thrice been re-elected superintendent of public -instruction. The deputy attorney-general of Colorado, Miss Clara Ruth -Mozzor, sits at her desk as composedly as though she were not the first -woman to gain this political and professional recognition in the -Centennial Commonwealth. I am moved to ask whether we shall not find -for the enfranchised woman who becomes active in public affairs some -more felicitous and gallant term than politician--a word much soiled -from long application to the corrupt male, and perhaps the Federation -of Women’s Clubs will assist in this matter. - - -V - -As the saying became trite, almost before news of our entrance into -the world war had reached the nation’s farthest borders, that we -should emerge from the conflict a new and a very different America, it -becomes of interest to keep in mind the manner and the spirit in which -we entered into the mighty struggle. It was not merely in the mind of -people everywhere, on the 2d of April, 1917, that the nation was face -to face with a contest that would tax its powers to the utmost, but -that our internal affairs would be subjected to serious trial, and -that parties and party policies would inevitably experience changes -of greatest moment before another general election. When this is read -the congressional campaign will be gathering headway; as I write, -public attention is turning, rather impatiently it must be said, to -the prospects of a campaign that is likely to pursue its course to the -accompaniment of booming cannon overseas. How much the conduct of the -war by the administration in power will figure in the pending contest -is not yet apparent; but as the rapid succession of events following -Mr. Wilson’s second inauguration have dimmed the issues of 1916, it may -be well to summarize the respective attitudes of the two major parties -two years ago to establish a point of orientation. - -It was the chief Republican contention that the Democratic -administration had failed to preserve the national honor and security -in its dealings with Mexico and Germany. As political platforms are -soon forgotten, it may be of interest to reproduce this paragraph of -the Republican declaration of 1916: - - The present administration has destroyed our influence abroad and - humiliated us in our own eyes. The Republican party believes that a - firm, consistent, and courageous foreign policy, always maintained by - Republican Presidents in accordance with American traditions, is the - best, as it is the only true way to preserve our peace and restore us - to our rightful place among the nations. We believe in the pacific - settlement of international disputes and favor the establishment of a - world court for that purpose. - -The concluding sentence is open to the criticism that it weakens what -precedes it; but the Mexican plank, after denouncing “the indefensible -methods of interference employed by this administration in the internal -affairs of Mexico,” promises to “our citizens on and near our border, -and to those in Mexico, wherever they may be found, adequate and -absolute protection in their lives, liberty, and property.” - -General Pershing had launched his punitive expedition on Mexican soil -in March, and the Democratic platform adopted at St. Louis in June -justifies this move; but it goes on to add: - - Intervention, implying as it does military subjugation, is revolting - to the people of the United States, notwithstanding the provocation - to that course has been great, and should be resorted to, if at all, - only as a last resort. The stubborn resistance of the President and - his advisers to every demand and suggestion to enter upon it, is - creditable alike to them and to the people in whose name he speaks. - -As to Germany, this paragraph of the Democratic platform might almost -have been written into President Wilson’s message to Congress of April -2, 1917, so clearly does it set forth the spirit in which America -entered into the war: - - We believe that every people has the right to choose the sovereignty - under which it shall live; that the small states of the world have - a right to enjoy from other nations the same respect for their - sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and - powerful nations expect and insist upon, and that the world has a - right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its - origin in aggression or disregard of the rights of peoples and - nations, and we believe that the time has come when it is the duty of - the United States to join with the other nations of the world in any - feasible association that will effectively serve these principles, to - maintain inviolate the complete security of the highway of the seas - for the common and unhindered use of all nations. - -The impression was very general in the East that the West was apathetic -or indifferent both as to the irresponsible and hostile acts of -Mexicans and the growing insolence of the Imperial German Government -with reference to American rights on the seas. Any such assumption was -unfair at the time, and has since been disproved by the promptness -and vigor with which the West responded to the call to arms. But the -West had no intention of being stampeded. A Democratic President whose -intellectual processes and manner of speech were radically different -from those at least of his immediate predecessors, was exercising a -Lincoln-like patience in his efforts to keep the country out of war. -From the time the Mexican situation became threatening one might -meet anywhere in the West Republicans who thought that the honor and -security of the nation were being trifled with; that the President’s -course was inconsistent and vacillating; and even that we should have -whipped Mexico into subjection and maintained an army on her soil until -a stable government had been established. These views were expressed in -many parts of the West by men of influence in Republican councils, and -there were Democrats who held like opinions. - -The Republicans were beset by two great difficulties when the national -convention met. The first of these was to win back the Progressives -who had broken with the party and contributed to the defeat of Mr. -Taft in 1912; the second was the definition of a concrete policy -touching Germany and Mexico that would appeal to the patriotic voter, -without going the length of threatening war. The standpatters were -in no humor to make concessions to the Progressives, who, in another -part of Chicago, were unwilling to receive the olive-branch except on -their own terms. Denied the joy of Mr. Roosevelt’s enlivening presence -to create a high moment, the spectators were aware of his ability to -add to the general gloom by his telegram suggesting Senator Lodge as a -compromise candidate acceptable to the Progressives. The speculatively -inclined may wonder what would have happened if in one of the dreary -hours of waiting Colonel Roosevelt had walked upon the platform and -addressed the convention. Again, those who have leisure for political -solitaire may indulge in reflections as to whether Senator Lodge would -not have appealed to the West quite as strongly as Mr. Hughes. The -West, presumably, was not interested in Senator Lodge, though I timidly -suggest that if a New Jersey candidate can be elected and re-elected -with the aid of the West, Massachusetts need not so modestly hang in -the background when a national convention orders the roll-call of the -States for favorite sons. - -There was little question at any time from the hour the convention -opened that Mr. Hughes would be the nominee, and I believe it is a -fair statement that he was the candidate the Democrats feared most. -The country had formed a good opinion of him as a man of independence -and courage, and, having strictly observed the silence enjoined by his -position on the bench during the Republican family quarrel of four -years earlier, he was looked upon as a candidate well fitted to rally -the Progressives and lead a united party to victory. - -The West waited and listened. While it had seemed a “safe play” for the -Republicans to attack the Democratic administration for its course -with Mexico and Germany, the presentation of the case to the people was -attended with serious embarrassments. The obvious alternative of Mr. -Wilson’s policy was war. The West was not at all anxious for war; it -certainly did not want two wars. If war could be averted by negotiation -the West was in a mood to be satisfied with that solution. Republican -campaigners were aware of the danger of arraigning the administration -for not going to war and contented themselves with attacks upon what -they declared to be a shifty and wobbly policy. The West’s sense of -fair play was, I think, roused by the vast amount of destructive -criticism launched against the administration unaccompanied by any -constructive programme. The President had grown in public respect and -confidence; the West had seen and heard him since he became a national -figure, and he did not look or talk like a man who would out of sheer -contrariness trifle with the national security and honor. It may be -said with truth that the average Western Democrat was not “keen” about -Mr. Wilson when he first loomed as a presidential possibility. I -heard a good deal of discussion by Western Democrats of Mr. Wilson’s -availability in 1910-11, and he was not looked upon with favor. He was -“different”; he didn’t invoke the Democratic gods in the old familiar -phraseology, and he was suspected of entertaining narrow views as to -“spoils,” such as caused so much heartache among the truly loyal in Mr. -Cleveland’s two administrations. - -The Democratic campaign slogan, “He has kept us out of war!” was -not met with the definite challenge that he should have got us into -war. Jingoism was well muffled. What passed for apathy was really -a deep concern as to the outcome of our pressing international -difficulties, an anxiety to weigh the points at issue soberly. Western -managers constantly warned visiting orators to beware of “abusing the -opposition,” as there were men and women of all political faiths in the -audiences. Both sides were timid where the German vote was concerned, -the Democrats alarmed lest the “strict accountability” attitude of -the President toward the Imperial German Government would damage the -party’s chances, and the Republicans embarrassed by the danger of -openly appealing to the hyphenates when the Republican campaign turned -upon an arraignment of the President for not dealing drastically enough -with German encroachment upon American rights. In view of the mighty -sweep of events since the election, all this seems tame and puerile, -and reminds us that there is a vast amount of punk in politics. - -In the West there are no indications that an effect of the war will -be to awaken new radical movements or strengthen tendencies that were -apparent before America sounded the call to arms. I have dwelt upon the -sobriety with which the West approached the election of 1916 merely as -an emphasis of this. We shall have once more a “soldier vote” to reckon -with in our politics, and the effect of their participation in the -world struggle upon the young men who have crossed the sea to fight for -democracy is an interesting matter for speculation. One thing certain -is that the war has dealt the greatest blow ever administered to -American sectionalism. We were prone for years to consider our national -life in a local spirit, and the political parties expended much energy -in attempts to reconcile the demands and needs of one division of the -States with those of another. The prolonged debate of the tariff as -a partisan issue is a noteworthy instance of this. The farmer, the -industrial laborer, the capitalist have all been the objects of special -consideration. One argument had to be prepared for the cotton-grower -in the South; another for the New England mill-hands who spun his -product; still another for the mill-owner. The farm-hand and the -mechanic in the neighboring manufacturing town had to be reached by -different lines of reasoning. Our statesmanship, East and West, has -been of the knot-hole variety--rarely has a man risen to the top of -the fence for a broad view of the whole field. What will be acceptable -to the South? What does the West want? We have had this sort of thing -through many years, both as to national policies and as to candidates -for the presidency, and its effect has been to prevent the development -of sound national policies. - -The Republican party has addressed itself energetically to the business -of reorganization. The national committee met at St. Louis in February -to choose a new chairman in place of Mr. William R. Willcox, and the -contest for this important position was not without its significance. -The standpatters yielded under pressure, and after a forty-eight-hour -deadlock the election of Mr. Will H. Hays, of Indiana, assured a -hospitable open-door policy toward all prodigals. In 1916 Mr. Hays, as -chairman of the Republican State committee, carried Indiana against -heavy odds and established himself as one of the ablest political -managers the West has known. As the country is likely to hear a -good deal of him in the next two years, I may note that he is a man -of education, high-minded, resourceful, endowed with prodigious -energy and trained and tested executive ability. A lawyer in a town -of five thousand people, he served his political apprenticeship in -all capacities from precinct committeeman to the State chairmanship. -Mr. Hays organized and was the first chairman of the Indiana State -Council of Defense, and made it a thoroughly effective instrument for -the co-ordination of the State’s war resources and the diffusion of -an ardent patriotism. Indeed the methods of the Indiana Council were -so admirable that they were adopted by several other States. It is -in the blood of all Hoosiers to suspect partisan motives where none -exists, but it is to Mr. Hays’s credit that he directed Indiana’s war -work, until he resigned to accept the national chairmanship, with the -support and to the satisfaction of every loyal citizen without respect -to party. Mr. Hays is essentially a Westerner, with the original Wabash -tang; and his humor and a knack of coining memorable phrases are not -the least important items of his equipment for politics. He is frank -and outspoken, with no affectations of mystery, and as his methods -are conciliatory and assimilative the chances are excellent for a -Republican rejuvenation. - -The burden of prosecuting the war to a conclusive peace that shall -realize the American aims repeatedly set forth by President Wilson -is upon the Democratic administration. The West awaits with the same -seriousness with which it pondered the problems of 1916 the definition -of new issues touching vitally our social, industrial, and financial -affairs, and our relations with other nations, that will press for -attention the instant the last shot is fired. In the mid-summer of 1918 -only the most venturesome political prophets are predicting either -the issues or the leaders of 1920. Events which it is impossible to -forecast will create issues and possibly lift up new leaders not -now prominent in national politics. A successful conclusion of the -war before the national conventions meet two years hence would give -President Wilson and his party an enormous prestige. On the other -hand, if the war should be prolonged we shall witness inevitably the -development of a sentiment for change based upon public anxiety to -hasten the day of peace. These things are on the knees of the gods. - -In both parties there is to-day a melancholy deficiency of presidential -timber. It cannot be denied that Republican hopes, very generally, -are centred in Mr. Roosevelt; this is clearly apparent throughout -the West. In the Democratic State convention held at Indianapolis, -June 18, tumultuous enthusiasm was awakened by the chairman, former -Governor Samuel M. Ralston, who boldly declared for Wilson in 1920--the -first utterance of the kind before any body of like representative -character. However, the immediate business of the nation is to win -the war, and there is evident in the West no disposition to suffer -this predominating issue to be obscured by partisanship. Indeed since -America took up arms nothing has been more marked in the Western States -than the sinking of partisanship in a whole-hearted support of the -government and a generous response to all the demands of the war. In -meetings called in aid of war causes Democrats and Republicans have -vied with each other in protestations of loyalty to the government. I -know of no exception to the rule that every request from Washington -has been met splendidly by Republican State governors. Indeed, there -has been a lively rivalry among Middle Western States to exceed the -prescribed quotas of dollars and men. - -Already an effect of the war has been a closer knitting together -of States and sections, a contemplation of wider horizons. It is -inevitable that we shall be brought, East and West, North and South, -to the realization of a new national consciousness that has long been -the imperative need of our politics. And in all the impending changes, -readjustments, and conciliations the country may look for hearty -co-operation to a West grown amazingly conservative and capable of -astonishing manifestations of independence. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE SPIRIT OF THE WEST - - The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which - perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and not lead, - the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper - is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for - eternity; and that the form of government which prevails is the - expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits - it.--EMERSON. - - -I - -Much water has flowed under the bridge since these papers were -undertaken, and I cheerfully confess that in the course of the year -I have learned a great deal about the West. My observations began at -Denver when the land was still at peace, and continued through the hour -of the momentous decision and the subsequent months of preparation. -The West is a place of moods and its changes of spirit are sometimes -puzzling. The violence has gone out of us; we went upon a war footing -with a minimum amount of noise and gesticulation. Deeply preoccupied -with other matters, the West was annoyed that the Kaiser should so -stupidly make it necessary for the American Republic to give him a -thrashing, but as the thing had to be done the West addressed itself -to the job with a grim determination to do it thoroughly. - -We heard, after the election of 1916, that the result was an indication -of the West’s indifference to the national danger; that the Middle -Western people could not be interested in a war on the farther side of -the Atlantic and would suffer any indignities rather than send their -sons to fight in Europe. It was charged in some quarters that the West -had lost its “pep”; that the fibre had softened; that the children and -the grandchildren of “Lincoln’s men” were insensible to the national -danger; and that thoughts of a bombardment of New York or San Francisco -were not disturbing to a people remote from the sea. I am moved to -remark that we of the West are less disposed to encourage the idea -that we are a people apart than our friends to the eastward who often -seem anxious to force this attitude upon us. We like our West and may -boast and strut a little, but any intimation that we are not loyal -citizens of the American Republic, jealous of its honor and security -and responsive to its every call upon our patriotism and generosity, -arouses our indignation. - -Many of us were favored in the first years of the war with letters -from Eastern friends anxious to enlighten us as to America’s danger -and her duty with respect to the needs of the sufferers in the wake -of battle. On a day when I received a communication from New York -asking “whether nothing could be done in Indiana to rouse the people -to the sore need of France,” a committee for French relief had just -closed a week’s campaign with a fund of $17,000, collected over the -State in small sums and contributed very largely by school children. -The Millers’ Belgian Relief movement, initiated in the fall of 1914 by -Mr. William C. Edgar, of Minneapolis, publisher of _The Northwestern -Miller_, affords a noteworthy instance of the West’s response to -appeals in behalf of the people in the trampled kingdom. A call was -issued November 4 for 45,000 barrels of flour, but 70,000 barrels -were contributed; and this cargo was augmented by substantial gifts -of blankets, clothing for women and children, and condensed milk. -These supplies were distributed in Belgium under Mr. Edgar’s personal -direction, in co-operation with Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, chairman of the -Commission for the Relief of Belgium. - -Many Westerners were fighting under the British and French flags, or -were serving in the French ambulance service before our entrance -into the war, and the opening of the officers’ training-camps in 1917 -found young Westerners of the best type clamoring for admission. The -Western colleges and universities cannot be too strongly praised for -the patriotic fervor with which they met the crisis. One president -said that if necessary he would nail up the doors of his college until -the war was over. The eagerness to serve is indicated in the Regular -Army enlistments for the period from June to December, 1917, in which -practically all of the Middle Western States doubled and tripled the -quota fixed by the War Department; and any assumption that patriotism -diminishes the farther we penetrate into the interior falls before -the showing of Colorado, whose response to a call for 1,598 men was -answered by 3,793; and Utah multiplied her quota by 5 and Montana by -7. This takes no account of men who, in the period indicated, entered -training-camps, or of naval and marine enlistments, or of the National -Guard or the selective draft. More completely than ever before the -West is merged into the nation. The situation when war was declared is -comparable to that of householders, long engrossed with their domestic -affairs and heeding little the needs of the community, who are brought -to the street by a common peril and confer soberly as to ways and means -of meeting it. - -“The West,” an Eastern critic complains, “appears always to be -demanding something!” The idea of the West as an Oliver Twist with -a plate insistently extended pleases me and I am unable to meet it -with any plausible refutation. The West has always wanted and it will -continue to want and to ask for a great many things; we may only pray -that it will more and more hammer upon the federal counter, not for -appropriations but for things of value for the whole. “We will try -anything once!” This for long was more or less the Western attitude -in politics, but we seem to have escaped from it; and the war, with -its enormous demands upon our resources, its revelation of national -weaknesses, caused a prompt cleaning of the slate of old, unfinished -business to await the outcome. - -It is an element of strength in a democracy that its political -and social necessities are continuing; there is no point of rest. -Obstacles, differences, criticism are all a necessary part of the -eternal struggle toward perfection. What was impossible yesterday is -achieved to-day and may be abandoned to-morrow. Democracy, as we have -thus far practised it, is a series of experiments, a quest. - - -II - -The enormous industrial development of the Middle West was a thing -undreamed of by the pioneers, whose chief concern was with the soil; -there was no way of anticipating the economic changes that have been -forced upon attention by the growth of cities and States. Minnesota had -been a State thirteen years when in 1871 Proctor Knott, in a speech in -Congress, ridiculed the then unknown name of Duluth: “The word fell -upon my ear with a peculiar and indescribable charm, like the gentle -murmur of a low fountain stealing forth in the midst of roses, or the -soft, sweet accent of an angel’s whisper in the bright, joyous dream of -sleeping innocence.” And yet Duluth has become indeed a zenith city of -the saltless seas, and the manufactured products of Minnesota have an -annual value approximating $500,000,000. - -The first artisans, the blacksmiths and wagon-makers, and the women -weaving cloth and fashioning the garments for their families in Ohio, -Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, never dreamed that the manufactures -of these States alone would attain a value of $5,500,000,000, -approximately a fifth of the nation’s total. The original social and -economic structure was not prepared for this mighty growth. States in -which the soil was tilled almost wholly by the owners of the land were -unexpectedly confronted with social and economic questions foreign to -all their experience. Rural legislators were called upon to deal with -questions of which they had only the most imperfect understanding. -They were bewildered to find the towns nearest them, which had been -only trading centres for the farmer, asking for legislation touching -working hours, housing, and child labor, and for modifications of local -government made necessary by growth and radical changes in social -conditions. I remember my surprise to find not long ago that a small -town I had known all my life had become an industrial centre where the -citizens were gravely discussing their responsibilities to the laborers -who had suddenly been added to the population. - -The preponderating element in the original occupation of the Middle -Western States was American, derived from the older States; and the -precipitation into the Mississippi valley industrial centres of great -bodies of foreigners, many of them only vaguely aware of the purposes -and methods of democracy, added an element of confusion and peril to -State and national politics. The perplexities and dangers of municipal -government were multiplied in the larger cities by the injection into -the electorate of the hordes from overseas that poured into States -whose government and laws had been fashioned to meet the needs of a -homogeneous people who lived close to the soil. - -The war that has emphasized so many needs and dangers has sharply -accentuated the growing power of labor. Certain manifestations of -this may no longer be viewed in the light of local disturbances and -agitations but with an eye upon impending world changes. Whatever -the questions of social and economic reconstruction that Europe must -face, they will be hardly less acutely presented in America; and these -matters are being discussed in the West with a reassuring sobriety. -The Industrial Workers of the World has widely advertised itself by -its lawlessness, in recent years, and its obstructive tactics with -respect to America’s preparations for war have focussed attention upon -it as an organization utterly inconsonant with American institutions. -An arresting incident of recent years was the trial, in 1912, in -the United States Court for the District of Indiana, of forty-two -officers and members of the International Association of Structural -Iron Workers for the dynamiting of buildings and bridges throughout the -country. The trial lasted three months, and the disclosures, pointing -to a thoroughly organized conspiracy of destruction, were of the most -startling character. Thirty-eight of the defendants were convicted. The -influence of labor in the great industrial States of the West is very -great, and not a negligible factor in the politics of the immediate -future. What industrial labor has gained has been through constant -pressure of its organizations; and yet the changes of the past fifty -years have been so gradual as to present, in the retrospect, the -appearance of an evolution. - -There is little to support an assumption that the West in these -critical hours will not take counsel of reason; and it is an -interesting circumstance that the West has just now no one who may be -pointed to as its spokesman. No one is speaking for the West; the West -has learned to think and to speak for itself. “Organized emotion” (I -believe the phrase is President Lowell’s) may again become a power for -mischief in these plains that lend so amiable an ear to the orator; but -the new seriousness of which I have attempted to give some hint in the -progress of these papers, and the increasing political independence of -the Western people, encourage the belief that whatever lies before us -in the way of momentous change, the West will not be led or driven to -ill-considered action. - -In spite of many signs of a drift toward social democracy, -individualism is still the dominant “note” in these Middle Western -States, apart from the industrial centres where socialism has -indisputably made great headway. It may be that American political and -social phenomena are best observed in States whose earliest settlement -is so recent as to form a background for contrast. We have still -markedly in the Mississippi valley the individualistic point of view -of the pioneer who thought out his problems alone and was restrained -by pride from confessing his needs to his neighbors. In a region where -capital has been most bitterly assaulted it has been more particularly -in the pursuit of redress for local grievances. The agrarian attacks -upon railroads are an instance of this. The farmer wants quick and -cheap access to markets, and he favors co-operative elevators because -he has felt for years that the middleman poured too many grains out of -the bushel for his services. In so far as the farmer’s relations with -the State are concerned, he has received from the government a great -many things for which, broadly speaking, he has not asked, notably in -the development of a greater efficiency of method and a widening of -social horizons. - - -III - -When the New Englander, the Southeasterner, and the Pennsylvanian met -in the Ohio valley they spoke a common language and were animated by -common aims. Their differences were readily reconcilable; Southern -sentiment caused tension in the Civil War period and was recognizable -in politics through reconstruction and later, but it was possible -for one to be classed as a Southern sympathizer or even to bear the -opprobrious epithet of copperhead without having his fundamental -Americanism questioned. Counties through this belt of States were named -for American heroes and statesmen--Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, -Hamilton, Marion, Clark, Perry--varied by French and Indian names that -tinkle musically along lakes and rivers. - -There was never any doubt in the early days that all who came were -quickly assimilated into the body of the republic, and certainly -there was no fear that any conceivable situation could ever cause -the loyalty of the newly adopted citizen to be questioned. The soil -was too young in the days of Knownothingism and the body of the -population too soundly American for the West to be greatly roused by -that movement. Nevertheless we have had in the West as elsewhere the -political recognition of the race group--a particular consideration for -the Irish vote or the German vote, and in the Northwestern States for -the Scandinavian. The political “bosses” were not slow to throw their -lines around the increasing race groups with a view to control and -manipulation. Our political platforms frequently expressed “sympathy -with the Irish people in their struggle for home rule,” and it had -always been considered “good politics” to recognize the Irish and the -Germans in party nominations. - -Following Germany’s first hostile acts against American life and -property, through the long months of waiting in which America hoped -for a continuation of neutrality, we became conscious that the point -of view held by citizens of American stock differed greatly from that -of many--of, indeed, the greater number--of our citizens of German -birth or ancestry. Until America became directly concerned it was -perfectly explicable that they should sympathize with the people, -if not with the government, of the German Empire. The _Lusitania_ -tragedy, defended in many cases openly by German sympathizers; the -disclosure of the duplicity of the German ambassador, and revelations -of the insidious activity and ingenious propaganda that had been in -progress under the guise of pacifism--all condoned by great numbers of -German-Americans--brought us to a realization of the fact that even -unto the third and fourth generation the fatherland still exercised -its spell upon those we had accepted unquestioningly as fellow -citizens. And yet, viewed in the retrospect, the phenomenon is not so -remarkable. More than any other people who have enjoyed free access to -the “unguarded gates,” of which Aldrich complained many years ago, the -Germans have settled themselves in both town and country in colonies. -Intermarriage has been very general among them, and their social fife -has been circumscribed by ancestral tastes and preferences. As they -prospered they made frequent visits to Germany, strengthening ties -never wholly broken. - -It was borne in upon us in the months following close upon the -declaration of war against Germany, that many citizens of German birth, -long enjoying the freedom and the opportunities of the Valley of -Democracy, had not really been incorporated into the body of American -citizenship, but were still, in varying degrees, loyal to the German -autocracy. That in States we had proudly pointed to as typically -American there should be open disloyalty or only a surly acceptance -of the American Government’s position with reference to a hostile -foreign Power was profoundly disturbing. That amid the perils of war -Americanism should become the issue in a political campaign, as in -Wisconsin last April, brought us face to face with the problem of a -more thorough assimilation of those we have welcomed from the Old -World--a problem which when the urgent business of winning the war -has been disposed of, we shall not neglect if we are wise. Wisconsin -nobly asserted her loyalty, and it should be noted further that her -response in enlistments, in loan subscriptions, in contributions to the -Red Cross and other war benevolences have been commensurate with her -wealth and in keeping with her honorable record as one of the sturdiest -of American commonwealths. The rest of America should know that as -soon as Wisconsin realized that she had a problem with reference to -pro-Germanism, disguised or open, her greatly preponderating number -of loyal citizens at once set to work to deal with the situation. It -was met promptly and aggressively, and in the wide-spread campaign -of education the University of Wisconsin took an important part. A -series of pamphlets, straight-forward and unequivocal, written by -members of the faculty and published by the State, set forth very -clearly America’s position and the menace to civilization of Germany’s -programme of frightfulness. - -Governor Philipp, in a patriotic address at Sheboygan in May, on the -seventieth anniversary of Wisconsin’s admission to the Union, after -reviewing the State’s war preparations, evoked great applause by these -utterances: - -“There is a great deal said by some people about peace. Don’t you -permit yourselves to be led astray by men who come to you with some -form of peace that they advocate that would be an everlasting disgrace -to the American people. We cannot subscribe to any peace treaty, my -friends, that does not include within its provisions an absolute and -complete annihilation of the military autocracy that we have said to -the world we are going to destroy. We have enlisted our soldiers with -that understanding. We have asked our boys to go to France to do that, -and if we quit short of fulfilling that contract with our own soldiers, -those boys on the battlefield will have given their lives in vain.” - -In the present state of feeling it is impossible to weigh from -available data the question of how far there was some sort of -“understanding” between the government at Berlin and persons of German -sympathies in the United States that when _Der Tag_ dawned for the -precipitation of the great scheme of world domination they would stand -ready to assist by various processes of resistance and interference. -For the many German-Americans who stood steadfastly for the American -cause at all times it is unfortunate that much testimony points to -some such arrangement. At this time it is difficult to be just about -this, and it is far from my purpose to support an indictment that is -an affront to the intelligence and honor of the many for the offenses -of scattered groups and individuals; and yet through fifty years -German organizations, a German-language press, the teaching of German -in public schools fostered the German spirit, and the efforts made to -preserve the solidarity of the German people lend color to the charge. -It cannot be denied that systematic German propaganda, either open -or in pacifist guise, was at work energetically throughout the West -from the beginning of the war to arouse sentiment against American -resistance to German encroachments. - -Americans of German birth have been controlled very largely by leaders, -often men of wealth, who directed them in their affairs great and -small. This “system” took root in times when the immigrant, finding -himself in a strange land and unfamiliar with its language, naturally -sought counsel of his fellow countrymen who had already learned the -ways of America. This form of leadership has established a curious -habit of dependence, and makes against freedom of thought and action -in the humble while augmenting the power of the strong. It has been -a common thing for German parents to encourage in their children the -idea of German superiority and Germany’s destiny to rule the world. -A gentleman whose parents, born in Germany, came to the Middle West -fifty years ago told me recently that his father, who left Germany to -escape military service, had sought to inculcate these ideas in the -minds of his children from their earliest youth. The sneer at American -institutions has been very common among Germans of this type. Another -young man of German ancestry complained bitterly of this contemptuous -attitude toward things American. There was, he said, a group of men -who met constantly in a German clubhouse to belittle America and -exalt the joys of the fatherland. Their attitude toward their adopted -country was condensed into an oft-repeated formula: “What shall we -think of a people whose language does not contain an equivalent for -_Gemütlichkeit_!” - -As part of the year’s record I may speak from direct knowledge of a -situation with which we were brought face to face in Indianapolis, a -city of three hundred thousand people, in a State in which the centre -of population for the United States has been fixed by the federal -census for two decades. Indiana’s capital, we like to believe, is a -typical American city. Here the two tides of migration from the East -and the Southeast met in the first settlement. A majestic shaft in the -heart of the town testifies to the participation of Indiana in all -the American wars from the Revolution; in no other State perhaps is -political activity so vigorous as here. It would seem that if there -exists anywhere a healthy American spirit it might be sought here with -confidence. The phrase “He’s an honest German” nowhere conveyed a -deeper sense of rectitude and probity. Men of German birth or ancestry -have repeatedly held responsible municipal and county offices. And yet -this city affords a striking instance of the deleterious effect of the -preservation of the race group. It must be said that the community’s -spirit toward these citizens was the friendliest in the world; that in -the first years of the European War allowances were generously made for -family ties that still bound many to the fatherland and for pride and -prejudice of race. There had never been any question as to the thorough -assimilation of the greater number into the body of American democracy -until the beginning of the war in 1914. - -When America joined with the Allies a silence fell upon those who had -been supporting the German cause. The most outspoken of the German -sympathizers yielded what in many cases was a grudging and reluctant -assent to America’s preparations for war. Others made no sign one way -or the other. There were those who wished to quibble--who said that -they were for America, of course, but that they were not for England; -that England had begun the war to crush Germany; that the stories -of atrocities were untrue. As to the _Lusitania_, Americans had no -business to disregard the warning of the Imperial German Government; -and America “had no right” to ship munitions to Germany’s enemies. -Reports of disloyal speech or of active sedition on the part of -well-known citizens were freely circulated. - -German influence in the public schools had been marked for years, and -the president of the school board was a German, active in the affairs -of the National German-American Alliance. The teaching of German in the -grade schools was forbidden by the Indianapolis school commissioners -last year, though it is compulsory under a State law where the -parents of twenty-five children request it. It was learned that “The -Star-Spangled Banner” was sung in German in at least one public school -as part of the instruction in the German language, and this was -defended by German-Americans on the ground that knowledge of their -national anthem in two languages broadened the children’s appreciation -of its beauties. One might wonder just how long the singing of “Die -Wacht am Rhein” in a foreign language would be tolerated in Germany! - -We witnessed what in many cases was a gradual and not too hearty -yielding to the American position, and what in others was a refusal to -discuss the matter with a protest that any question of loyalty was an -insult. Suggestions that a public demonstration by German-Americans, -at a time when loyalty meetings were being held by American citizens -everywhere, would satisfy public clamor and protect innocent sufferers -from business boycott and other manifestations of disapproval were met -with indignation. The situation became acute upon the disclosure that -the Independent Turnverein, a club with a handsome house that enrolled -many Americans in its membership, had on New Year’s Eve violated the -government food regulations. The president, who had been outspoken -against Germany long before America was drawn into the war, made public -apology, and as a result of the flurry steps were taken immediately to -change the name of the organization to the Independent Athletic Club. -On Lincoln’s Birthday a patriotic celebration was held in the club. On -Washington’s Birthday _Das Deutsche Haus_, the most important German -social centre in the State, announced a change of its name to the -Athenæum. In his address on this occasion Mr. Carl H. Lieber said: - - With mighty resolve we have taken up arms to gain recognition for - the lofty principles of a free people in unalterable opposition to - autocracy and military despotism. Emerging from the mists and smoke - of battle, these American principles, like brilliant handwriting - in the skies, have been clearly set out by our President for the - eyes of the world to see. Our country stands undivided for their - realization. Impartially and unselfishly we are fighting, we feel, - for justice in this world and the rights of mankind. - -This from a representative citizen of the second generation -satisfactorily disposed of the question of loyalty, both as to the -renamed organization and the majority of its more influential members. -A little later the Männerchor, another German club, changed its name to -the Academy of Music. - -It is only just to say that, as against many evidences of a failure -to assimilate, there is gratifying testimony that a very considerable -number of persons of German birth or ancestry in these States have -neither encouraged nor have they been affected by attempts to diffuse -and perpetuate German ideas. Many German families--I know conspicuous -instances in Western cities--are in no way distinguishable from their -neighbors of American stock. In one Middle Western city a German -mechanic, who before coming to America served in the German army and -is without any illusions as to the delights of autocracy, tells me -that attachment to the fatherland is confined very largely to the more -prosperous element, and that he encountered little hostility among the -humbler people of German antecedents whom he attempted to convince of -the justice of the American position. - -The National German-American Alliance, chartered by special act of -Congress in 1901, was one of the most insidious and mischievous -agencies for German propaganda in America. It was a device for -correlating German societies of every character--turnvereins, music -societies, church organizations, and social clubs, and it is said -that the Alliance had 2,500,000 members scattered through forty-seven -American States. “Our own prestige,” recites one of its publications, -“depends upon the prestige of the fatherland, and for that reason -we cannot allow any disparagement of Germany to go unpunished.” It -was recited in the Alliance’s statement of its aims that one of its -purposes was to combat “nativistic encroachments.” I am assured by a -German-American that this use of “nativistic” does not refer to the -sense in which it was used in America in the Know-Nothing period, but -that it means merely resistance to puritanical infringements upon -personal freedom, with special reference to prohibition. - -The compulsory teaching of German in the public schools was a frank -item of the Alliance’s programme. In his book, “Their True Faith and -Allegiance” (1916), Mr. Gustavus Ohlinger, of Toledo, whose testimony -before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate attracted -much attention last February, describes the systematic effort to widen -the sphere of the teaching of German in Western States. Ohio and -Indiana have laws requiring German to be taught upon the petition of -parents. Before the repeal of a similar law in Nebraska last April we -find that in Nebraska City the school board had been compelled by the -courts to obey the law, though less than one-third of the petitioners -really intended to have their children receive instruction in German. -Mr. Ohlinger thus describes the operation of the law in Omaha: - - In the city of Omaha ... the State organizer of the Nebraska - federation of German societies visited the schools recently and was - more than pleased with what he found: the children were acquiring a - typically Berlin accent, sung a number of German songs to his entire - approval, and finally ended by rendering “Die Wacht am Rhein” with - an enthusiasm and a gusto which could not be excelled among children - of the fatherland. Four years ago Nebraska had only 90 high schools - which offered instruction in German. To-day, so the Alliance reports, - German is taught in 222 high schools and in the grade schools of - nine cities. Omaha alone has 3,500 pupils taking German instruction. - In addition to this, the State federation has been successful in - obtaining an appropriation for the purchase of German books for the - State circulating library. Germans have been urged to call for such - books, in order to convince the State librarian that there is a - popular demand and to induce further progress in this direction. - -These conditions have, of course, passed, and it is for those of us who -would guard jealously our rights, and honestly fulfil our obligations, -as American citizens to see to it that they do not recur. The Alliance -announced its voluntary dissolution some time before its charter was -annulled, but the testimony before the King committee, which the -government has published, will be an important source of material for -the historian of the war. German propaganda and activity in the Middle -West did little for the Kaiser but to make the word “German” an odious -term. “German” in business titles and in club names has disappeared and -German language newspapers have in many instances changed their names -or gone out of business. I question whether the end of the war will -witness any manifestations of magnanimity that will make possible a -restoration of the teaching of German in primary and high schools. - -We of the Middle West, who had thought ourselves the especial guardians -of American democracy, found with dismay that the mailed fist of Berlin -was clutching our public schools. In Chicago, where so much time, -money, and thought are expended in the attempt to Americanize the -foreign accretions, the spelling-book used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, -seventh, and eighth grades consisted wholly of word-lists, with the -exception of two exercises--one of ten lines, describing the aptness of -the natives of Central Australia in identifying the tracks of birds and -animals, and another which is here reproduced: - - - THE KAISER IN THE MAKING - - In the _gymnasium_ at Cassel the German _Kaiser_ spent three years of - his boyhood, a _diligent_ but not a _brilliant_ pupil, ranking tenth - among _seventeen candidates_ for the _university_. - - Many tales are told of this _period_ of his life, and one of them, at - least, is _illuminating_. - - A _professor_, it is said, wishing to curry favor with his royal - pupil, informed him _overnight_ of the chapter in Greek that was to - be made the _subject_ of the next day’s lesson. - - The young _prince_ did what many boys would not have done. As soon as - the classroom was _opened_ on the following morning, he entered and - wrote _conspicuously_ on the blackboard the _information_ that had - been given him. - - One may say _unhesitatingly_ that a boy capable of such an action has - the root of a fine _character_ in him, _possesses_ that _chivalrous_ - sense of fair play which is the nearest thing to a _religion_ that - may be looked for at that age, hates _meanness_ and _favoritism_, - and will, _wherever possible_, expose them. There is in him a - _fundamental_ bent toward what is clean, manly, and aboveboard. - -The copy of the book before me bears the imprint, “Board of Education, -City of Chicago, 1914.” The Kaiser’s “chivalrous sense of fair play” -has, of course, ceased to be a matter of public instruction in the -Western metropolis. - -“Im Vaterland,” a German reading-book used in a number of Western -schools, states frankly in its preface that it was “made in Germany,” -and that “after the manuscript had been completed it was manifolded and -copies were criticised by teachers in Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria.” - -In contrast with the equivocal loyalty of Germans who have sought to -perpetuate and accentuate the hyphen, it is a pleasure to testify to -the admirable spirit with which the Jewish people in these Western -States have repeatedly manifested their devotion to America. Many of -these are of German birth or the children of German immigrants, and yet -I am aware of no instance of a German Jew in the region most familiar -to me who has not warmly supported the American cause. They have not -only given generously to the Red Cross and to funds for French and -Belgian relief, quite independently of their efforts in behalf of -people of their own race in other countries, but they have rendered -most important aid in all other branches of war activities. No finer -declaration of whole-hearted Americanism has been made by any American -of German birth than that expressed (significantly at Milwaukee) by -Mr. Otto H. Kahn, of New York, last January: - - Until the outbreak of the war, in 1914, I maintained close and active - personal and business relations in Germany. I was well acquainted - with a number of the leading personages of the country. I served - in the German army thirty years ago. I took an active interest - in furthering German art in America. I do not apologize for, nor - am I ashamed of, my German birth. But I am ashamed--bitterly and - grievously ashamed--of the Germany which stands convicted before the - high tribunal of the world’s public opinion of having planned and - willed war, of the revolting deeds committed in Belgium and northern - France, of the infamy of the _Lusitania_ murders, of innumerable - violations of The Hague conventions and the law of nations, of - abominable and perfidious plotting in friendly countries, and - shameless abuse of their hospitality, of crime heaped upon crime in - hideous defiance of the laws of God and man. - -A curious phase of this whole situation is the fact that so many -thousands of Germans who found the conditions in their own empire -intolerable and sought homes in America, should have fostered a -sentimental attachment for the fatherland as a land of comfort and -happiness, and of its ruler as a glorious Lohengrin afloat upon the -river of time in a swan-boat, in an atmosphere of charm and mystery, to -the accompaniment of enchanting music. In their clubs and homes they so -dreamed of this Germany and talked of it in the language of the land -of their illusion that the sudden transformation of their knight of the -swan-boat into a war lord of frightfulness and terror, seeking to plant -his iron feet upon an outraged world, has only slowly penetrated to -their comprehension. It is clear that there has been on America’s part -a failure, that cannot be minimized or scouted, to communicate to many -of the most intelligent and desirable of all our adopted citizens, the -spirit of that America founded by Washington and saved by Lincoln, and -all the great host who in their train-- - - “spread from sea to sea - A thousand leagues the zone of liberty, - And gave to man this refuge from his past, - Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered.” - - -IV - -In closing these papers it seems ungenerous to ignore the criticisms -with which they were favored during their serial publication. To a -gentleman in Colorado who insists that my definition and use of Folks -and “folksiness” leave him in the dark as to my meaning, I can only -suggest that a visit to certain communities which I shall be glad to -choose for him, in the States of our central basin, will do much for -his illumination. An intimation from another quarter that those terms -as I have employed them originated in Kentucky does not distress me a -particle, for are not we of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois first cousins -of the people across the Ohio? At once some one will rise to declare -that all that is truly noble in the Middle West was derived from the -Eastern States or from New England, and on this question I might -with a good conscience write a fair brief on either side. With one -Revolutionary great-grandfather, a native of Delaware, buried in Ohio, -and another, a Carolinian, reposing in the soil of Kentucky, I should -be content no matter where fell the judgment of the court. - -To the complaint of the Chicago lady who assailed the editor for his -provincialism in permitting an Easterner to abuse her city, I demur -that I was born and have spent most of the years of my life within a -few hours of Chicago, a city dear to me from long and rather intimate -acquaintance and hallowed by most agreeable associations. The _Evening -Post_ of Chicago, having found the fruits of my note-book “dull” as to -that metropolis, must permit me to plead that in these stirring times -the significant things about a city are not its clubs, its cabarets, -or its galloping “loop-hounds,” but the efforts of serious-minded -citizens of courage and vision to make it a better place to live in. -The cynicism of those to whom the contemplation of such efforts is -fatiguing, lacks novelty and is only tolerable in so far as it is a -stimulus to the faithful workers in the vineyard. - -I have spoken of The Valley of Democracy as being in itself a romance, -and the tale as written upon hill and plain and along lake and river -is well-nigh unequalled for variety and interest in the annals of -mankind. I must plead that the sketchiness of these papers is due -not to any lack of respect for the work of soberer chroniclers, but -is attributable rather to the humility with which I have traversed a -region laboriously explored by the gallant company of scholars who -have established Middle Western history upon so firm a foundation. It -is the view of persons whose opinions are entitled to all respect that -the winning of the West is the most significant and important phase of -American history. Certain it is that the story wherever one dips into -it immediately quickens the heart-beat, and it is a pleasure to note -the devotion and intelligence with which materials for history have -been assembled in all the States embraced in my general title. - -The great pioneer collector of historical material was Dr. Reuben Gold -Thwaites, who made the Wisconsin Historical Society the most efficient -local organization of its kind in the country. “He was the first,” -writes Dr. Clarence W. Alvord, of the University of Illinois, “to unite -the State historical agent and the university department of history so -that they give each other mutual assistance--a union which some States -have brought about only lately with great difficulty, while others are -still limping along on two ill-mated crutches.” Dr. Thwaites was an -indefatigable laborer in his chosen field, and an inspiring leader. He -not only brought to light a prodigious amount of material and made it -accessible to other scholars, but he communicated his enthusiasm to a -noteworthy school of historians who have specialized in “sections” of -the broad fertile field into which he set the first plough. Where the -land is so new it is surprising and not a little amusing that there -should be debatable points of history, and yet the existence of these -adds zest to the labors of the younger school of historical students -and writers. State historical societies have in recent years assumed a -new dignity and importance, due in great measure to the fine example -set by Wisconsin under Dr. Thwaites’s guidance. - -Frederick Jackson Turner is another historian whose interest in the -West has borne fruit in works of value, and he has established new -points of orientation for explorers in this field. He must always be -remembered as one of the first to appreciate the significance of the -Western frontier in American history, and by his writings and addresses -he has done much to arouse respect for the branch in which he has -specialized. Nor shall I omit Dr. John H. Finley’s “The French in the -Heart of America” as among recent valuable additions to historical -literature. There is a charming freshness and an infectious enthusiasm -in Dr. Finley’s pages, attributable to his deep poetic feeling for the -soil to which he was born. All writers of the history of the Northwest, -of course, confess their indebtedness to Parkman, and it should not be -forgotten that before Theodore Roosevelt became a distinguished figure -in American public life he had written “The Winning of the West,” which -established a place for him among American historians. - -A historical society was formed in Indiana in 1830, but as no building -was ever provided for its collection, many valuable records were lost -when the State capitol was torn down thirty years ago. Many documents -that should have been kept within the State found their way to -Wisconsin--an appropriation by the tireless Thwaites of which Indiana -can hardly complain in view of the fact that she has never provided for -the proper housing of historical material. Still, interest in local -history, much of it having an important bearing on the national life, -has never wholly died, and in recent years the _Indiana Historical -Magazine_ and the labors of Jacob P. Dunn, James A. Woodburn, Logan -Esarey, Daniel Waite Howe, Harlow Lindley, and other students and -writers have directed attention to the richness of the local field. - -Illinois, slipping this year into her second century of statehood, -is thoroughly awake to the significance of the Illinois country in -Western development. Dr. Alvord, who, by his researches and writings, -has illuminated many dark passages of Middle Western history, has -taken advantage of the centenary to rouse the State to a new sense of -its important share in American development. The investigator in this -field is rewarded by the unearthing of treasures as satisfying as any -that may fall to the hand of a Greek archæologist. The trustees of the -Illinois Historical Library sent Dr. Alvord to “sherlock” an old French -document reported to be in the court-house of St. Clair county. Not -only was this document found but the more important Cahokia papers -were discovered, bearing upon the history of the Illinois country -during the British occupation and the American Revolution. Illinois -has undertaken a systematic survey of county archives, which includes -also a report upon manuscript material held by individuals, and the -centenary is to have a fitting memorial in a five-volume State history -to be produced by authoritative writers. - -Iowa, jealous of her history and traditions, has a State-supported -historical society with a fine list of publications to its credit. -Under the direction of the society’s superintendent, Dr. Benjamin F. -Shambaugh, the search for material is thorough and persistent, and -over forty volumes of historical material have been published. The -Iowa public and college libraries are all branches of the society and -depositories of its publications. The Mississippi Valley Historical -Association held its eleventh annual meeting this year in St. Paul to -mark the dedication of the new building erected by the State for the -use of the Minnesota Historical Society. - -The wide scope of Western historical inquiry is indicated in the papers -of the Mississippi Valley Association, and its admirable quarterly -review, in which we find monographs by the ethnologist, the specialist -in exploration, and the student of political crises, such as the -Lincoln-Douglas contest and the Greenback movement. Not only are the -older Middle Western States producing historical matter of national -importance but Montana and the Dakotas are inserting chapters that bind -the Mississippi Valley to the picturesque annals of California in a -continuous narrative. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, -and Indiana have established an informal union for the prosecution of -their work, one feature of which is the preparation of a “finding list” -of documents in Washington. This co-ordination prevents duplication of -labor and makes for unity of effort in a field of common interest. - - -V - -I had hoped that space would permit a review in some detail of -municipal government in a number of cities, but I may now emphasize -only the weakness of a mere “form,” or “system,” where the electorate -manifest too great a confidence in a device without the “follow-up” so -essential to its satisfactory employment; and I shall mention Omaha, -whose municipal struggle has been less advertised than that of some -other Western cities. Omaha was fortunate in having numbered among -its pioneers a group of men of unusual ability and foresight. First a -military outpost and a trading centre for adventurous settlements, the -building of the Union Pacific made it an important link between East -and West, and, from being a market for agricultural products of one of -the most fertile regions in the world, its interests have multiplied -until it now offers a most interesting study in the interdependence and -correlation of economic factors. - -Like most other Western cities, Omaha grew so rapidly and was so -preoccupied with business that its citizens, save for the group of -the faithful who are to be found everywhere, left the matter of -local government to the politicians. Bossism became intolerable, and -with high hopes the people in 1912 adopted commission government; -but the bosses, with their usual adaptability and resourcefulness, -immediately captured the newly created offices. It is a fair consensus -of local opinion that there has been little if any gain in economy or -efficiency. Under the old charter city councilmen were paid $1,800; the -commissioners under the new plan receive $4,500, with an extra $500 for -the one chosen mayor. Several of the commissioners are equal to their -responsibilities, but a citizen who is a close student of such matters -says that “while in theory we were to get a much higher grade of public -servants, in fact we merely elected men content to work for the lower -salary and doubled and tripled their pay. We still have $1,800 men in -$4,500 jobs.” However, at the election last spring only one of the city -commissioners was re-elected, and Omaha is hoping that the present -year will show a distinct improvement in the management of its public -business. Local pride is very strong in these Western cities, and from -the marked anxiety to show a forward-looking spirit and a praiseworthy -sensitiveness to criticism we may look confidently for a steady gain in -the field of municipal government. - -It is to be hoped that in the general awakening to our imperfections -caused by the war, there may be a widening of these groups of patient, -earnest citizens, who labor for the rationalization of municipal -government. The disposition to say that “as things have been they -remain” is strong upon us, but it is worth remembering that Clough also -bids us “say not the struggle naught availeth.” The struggle goes on -courageously, and the number of those who concern themselves with the -business of strengthening the national structure by pulling out the -rotten timbers in our cities proceeds tirelessly. - -Western cities are constantly advertising their advantages and -resources, and offering free sites and other inducements to -manufacturers to tempt them to move; but it occurs to me that -forward-looking cities may present their advantages more alluringly -by perfecting their local government and making this the burden of -their appeal. We shall get nowhere with commission government or the -city-manager plan until cities realize that no matter how attractive -and plausible a device, it is worthless unless due consideration is -given to the human equation. It is very difficult to find qualified -administrators under the city-manager plan. A successful business man -or even a trained engineer may fail utterly, and we seem to be at the -point of creating a new profession of great opportunities for young -men (and women too) in the field of municipal administration. At the -University of Kansas and perhaps elsewhere courses are offered for -the training of city managers. The mere teaching of municipal finance -and engineering will not suffice; the courses should cover social -questions and kindred matters and not neglect the psychology involved -in the matter of dealing fairly and justly with the public. By giving -professional dignity to positions long conferred upon the incompetent -and venal we should at least destroy the cynical criticism that there -are no men available for the positions created; and it is conceivable -that once the idea of fitness has become implanted in a careless and -indifferent public a higher standard will be set for all elective -offices. - - -VI - -No Easterner possessed of the slightest delicacy will read what -follows, which is merely a memorandum for my friends and neighbors -of the great Valley. We of the West have never taken kindly to -criticism, chiefly because it has usually been offered in a spirit of -condescension, or what in our extreme sensitiveness we have been rather -eager to believe to be such. In our comfortable towns and villages we -may admit weaknesses the mention of which by our cousins _in partibus -infidelium_ arouses our deepest ire. We shall not meekly suffer the -East in its disdainful moods to play upon us with the light lash of -its irony; but among ourselves we may confess that at times we have -profited by Eastern criticism. After all, there is no spirit of the -West that is very different from the spirit of the East. Though I only -whisper it, we have, I think, rather more humor. We are friendlier, -less snobbish, more sanguine in our outlook upon public matters, and -have a greater confidence in democracy than the East. I have indicated -with the best heart in the world certain phases and tendencies of our -provinces that seem to me admirable, and others beside which I have -scratched a question-mark for the contemplation of the sober-minded. -I am disposed to say that the most interesting thing about us is our -politics, but that, safely though we have ridden the tempest now and -again, these be times when it becomes us to ponder with a new gravity -the weight we carry in the national scale. Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, -Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin wield -145 votes of the total of 531 in the electoral college; and in 1916 Mr. -Wilson’s majority was only 23. The political judgment of the nation is -likely, far into the future, to be governed by the West. We dare not, -if we would, carry our responsibilities lightly. We have of late been -taking our politics much more seriously; a flexibility of the vote, -apparent in recent contests, is highly encouraging to those of us who -see a hope and a safety in the multiplication of the independents. But -even with this we have done little to standardize public service; the -ablest men of the West do not govern it, and the fact that this has -frequently been true of the country at large can afford us no honest -consolation. There is no reason why, if we are the intelligent, proud -sons of democracy we imagine ourselves to be, we should not so elevate -our political standards as to put other divisions of the republic -to shame. There are thousands of us who at every election vote for -candidates we know nothing about, or for others we would not think of -intrusting with any private affair, and yet because we find their names -under a certain party emblem we cheerfully turn over to such persons -important public business for the honest and efficient transaction of -which they have not the slightest qualification. What I am saying is -merely a repetition of what has been said for years without marked -effect upon the electorate. But just now, when democracy is fighting -for its life in the world, we do well to give serious heed to such -warnings. If we have not time or patience to perform the services -required of a citizen who would be truly self-governing, then the glory -of fighting for free institutions on the battle-fields of Europe is -enormously diminished. - -The coming of the war found the West rather hard put for any great -cause upon which to expend its energy and enthusiasm. We need a good -deal of enthusiasm to keep us “up to pitch,” and I shall not scruple -to say that, in spite of our fine showing as to every demand thus -far made by the war, the roll of the drums really found us inviting -the reproach passed by the prophet upon them “that lie upon beds of -ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs -out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.” Over -and over again, as I have travelled through the West in recent years, -it has occurred to me that sorely indeed we needed an awakening. -Self-satisfaction and self-contemplation are little calculated to -promote that clear thinking and vigorous initiative that are essential -to triumphant democracy. Yes; this may be just as true of East or -South; but it is of the West that we are speaking. I shall go the -length of saying that any failure of democracy “to work” here in -America is more heavily chargeable upon us of these Middle Western -States than upon our fellow Americans in other sections. For here we -are young enough to be very conscious of all those processes by which -States are formed and political and social order established. Our -fathers or our grandfathers were pioneers; and from them the tradition -is fresh of the toil and aspiration that went to the making of these -commonwealths. We cannot deceive ourselves into believing that they did -all that was necessary to perpetuate the structure, and that it is not -incumbent upon us to defend, strengthen, and renew what they fashioned. -We had, like many of those who have come to us from over the sea to -share in our blessings, fallen into the error of assuming that America -is a huge corporation in which every one participates in the dividends -without reference to his part in earning them. Politically speaking, we -have too great a number of those who “hang on behind” and are a dead -weight upon those who bear the yoke. We must do better about this; and -in no way can the West prove its fitness to wield power in the nation -than through a quickening of all those forces that tend to make popular -government an intelligently directed implement controlled by the fit, -and not a weapon caught up and exercised ignorantly by the unfit. - -Again, still speaking as one Westerner to another, our entrance into -the war found us dangerously close to the point of losing something -that was finely spiritual in our forebears. I am aware that an -impatient shrug greets this suggestion. The spires and towers of -innumerable churches decorate the Western sky-line, and I accept -them for what they represent, without discussing the efficiency -of the modern church or its failure or success in meeting the -problems of modern life. There was apparent in the first settlers -of the Mississippi valley a rugged spirituality that accounted -for much in their achievements. The West was a lonesome place and -religion--Catholic and Protestant--filled a need and assisted greatly -in making wilderness and plain tolerable. The imagination of the -pioneer was quickened and brightened by the promise of things that -he believed to be eternal; the vast sweep of prairie and woodland -deepened his sense of reliance upon the Infinite. This sense so -happily interpreted and fittingly expressed by Lincoln is no longer -discernible--at least it is not obtrusively manifest--and this seems -to me a lamentable loss. Here, again, it may be said that this is not -peculiar to the West; that we have only been affected by the eternal -movement of the time spirit. And yet this elementary confidence in -things of the spirit played an important part in the planting of the -democratic ideal in the heart of America, and we can but deplore the -passing of what to our immediate ancestors was so satisfying and -stimulating. And here, as with other problems that I have passed with -only the most superficial note, I have no solution, if indeed any be -possible. I am fully conscious that I fumble for something intangible -and elusive; and it may be that I am only crying vainly for the -restoration of something that has gone forever. Perhaps this war came -opportunely to break our precipitate rush toward materialism, and the -thing we were apparently losing, the old enthusiasm for higher things, -the greater leisure for self-examination and self-communion, may come -again in the day of peace. - -“There is always,” says Woodberry, “an ideality of the human spirit” -visible in all the works of democracy, and we need to be reminded -of this frequently, for here in the heart of America it is of grave -importance that we remain open-minded and open-hearted to that -continuing idealism which must be the strength and stay of the nation. - -Culture, as we commonly use the term, may properly be allowed to -pass as merely another aspect of the idealism “deep in the general -heart of man” that we should like to believe to be one of the great -assets of the West. Still addressing the Folks, my neighbors, I will -temerariously repeat an admission tucked into an earlier chapter, -that here is a field where we do well to carry ourselves modestly. -There was an impression common in my youth that culture of the highest -order was not only possible in the West but that we Westerners were -peculiarly accessible to its benignant influences and very likely to -become its special guardians and apostles. Those were times when life -was less complex, when the spirituality stirred by the Civil War was -still very perceptible, when our enthusiasms were less insistently -presented in statistics of crops and manufactures. We children of those -times were encouraged to keep Emerson close at hand, for his purifying -and elevating influence, and in a college town which I remember very -well the professor of Greek was a venerated person and took precedence -in any company over the athletic director. - -In those days, that seem now so remote, it was quite respectable to -speak of the humanities, and people did so without self-consciousness. -But culture, the culture of the humanities, never gained that foothold -in the West that had been predicted for it. That there are few signs -of its permanent establishment anywhere does not conceal our failure -either to implant it or to find for it any very worthy substitute. We -have valiantly invested millions of dollars in education and other -millions in art museums and in libraries without any resulting -diffusion of what we used to be pleased to call culture. We dismiss -the whole business quite characteristically by pointing with pride to -handsome buildings and generous endowments in much the same spirit that -we call attention to a new automobile factory. There are always the -few who profit by these investments; but it is not for the few that we -design them; it is for the illumination of the great mass that we spend -our treasure upon them. The doctrine of the few is the old doctrine of -“numbers” and “the remnant,” and even at the cost of reconstructing -human nature we promised to show the world that a great body of people -in free American States could be made sensitive and responsive to -beauty in all its forms. The humanities still struggle manfully, but -without making any great headway against adverse currents. The State -universities offer an infinite variety of courses in literature and the -fine arts, and they are served by capable and zealous instructors, but -with no resulting progress against the tide of materialism. “Culture,” -as a friend of mine puts it, “is on the blink.” We hear reassuring -reports of the State technical schools where the humanities receive -a niggardly minimum of attention, and these institutions demand our -heartiest admiration for the splendid work they are doing. But -our development is lamentably one-sided; we have merely groups of -cultivated people, just as older civilizations had them, not the great -communities animated by ideals of nobility and beauty that we were -promised. - -In the many matters which we of the West shall be obliged to consider -with reference to the nation and the rest of the world as soon as -_Kultur_ and its insolent presumptions have been disposed of, culture, -in its ancient and honorable sense, is quite likely to make a poor -fight for attention. And yet here are things, already falling into -neglect, which we shall do well to scan once and yet again before -parting company with them forever. There are balances as between -materialism and idealism which it is desirable to maintain if the -fineness and vigor of democracy and its higher inspirational values -are to be further developed. Our Middle Western idealism has been -expending itself in channels of social and political betterment, and it -remains to be seen whether we shall be able to divert some part of its -energy to the history, the literature, and the art of the past, not for -cultural reasons merely but as part of our combat with provincialism -and the creation of a broad and informed American spirit. - -“Having in mind things true, things elevated, things just, things pure, -things amiable, things of good report--having these in mind, studying -and loving these, is what saves States,” wrote Matthew Arnold thirty -years ago. In the elaboration of a programme for the future of America -that shall not ignore what is here connoted there is presented to -the Middle West abundant material for new enthusiasms and endeavors, -commensurate with its opportunities and obligations not merely as the -Valley of Democracy but as the Valley of Decision. - - -THE END. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[A] The matter has been disposed of by the adoption of a prohibition -amendment to the Federal Constitution. - -[B] Kenneth Victor Elliott, of Sheridan, Indiana. He died in battle, -giving his youth and his high hope of life for the America he loved -with a passionate devotion. - -[C] Now the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. - -[D] Mr. Thompson was re-elected April 1, 1919, by a plurality of 17,600. - -[E] Colonel Roosevelt died January 6, 1919. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Valley of Democracy</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Meredith Nicholson</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Walter Tittle</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 23, 2021 [eBook #64910]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="40%" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<h1>THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY</h1> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_0"></span></p> -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_frontispiece.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from the steps of the Art Institute.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p><span class="xlarge">THE<br /> -VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY</span></p> - -<p>BY<br /> - -<span class="large">MEREDITH NICHOLSON</span></p> - -<p>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br /> - -<span class="large">WALTER TITTLE</span></p> - -<p><span class="large">NEW YORK<br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> -1919</span></p> -</div></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center"> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1917, 1918, by</span><br /> - -<span class="smcap">Charles Scribner’s Sons</span><br /> - -<br /> -Published September, 1918<br /> - -Reprinted November, December 1918<br /> -</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_logo.jpg" alt="" /></div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center"> -TO MY CHILDREN<br /> -<br /> -<span class="large">ELIZABETH, MEREDITH, AND LIONEL</span><br /> -<br /> -IN TOKEN OF MY AFFECTION<br /> -<br /> -AND WITH THE HOPE THAT THEY MAY BE FAITHFUL TO THE<br /> -HIGHEST IDEALS OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP<br /> -</p></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> - - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> - - -<tr><td class="tdr"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Folks and Their Folksiness</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1"> 1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Types and Diversions</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39"> 39</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Farmer of the Middle West</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83"> 83</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Chicago</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135"> 135</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Middle West in Politics</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_181"> 181</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Spirit of the West</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235"> 235</a></td></tr> -</table> -</div> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">AUTHOR’S NOTE TO THE FOURTH<br /> -EDITION</h2> -</div> - - -<p>In the reprintings of a book of this character -it would be possible to revise and rewrite in -such manner as to conceal the errors or misjudgments -of the author. It seems, however, -more honest to permit these impressions to -stand practically as they were written, with only -a few minor corrections. It was my aim to -make note of conditions, tendencies, and needs -in the Valley of Democracy, and the conclusion -of the war has affected my point of view with -reference to these matters very little.</p> - -<p>The first months of the present year have been -so crowded with incidents affecting the whole -world that we recall with difficulty the events -of only a few years ago. We have met repeated -crises with an inspiring exhibition of unity and -courage that should hearten us for the new tasks -of readjustment that press for attention, and for -the problems of self-government that are without -end. I shall feel that these pages possess -some degree of vitality if they quicken in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span> -mind and heart of the reader a hope and confidence -that we of America do not walk blindly, -but follow a star that sheds upon us a perpetual -light.</p> - -<p class="right">M. N.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Indianapolis</span>, June 1, 1919.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -</div> - - - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> - - -<tr><td>Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from the steps of the Art Institute</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_0"> <i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td class="tdr"><small>FACING PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td>“Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my home town”</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_6"> 6</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Art exhibits ... now find a hearty welcome</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20"> 20</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>The Municipal Recreation Pier, Chicago</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66"> 66</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Types and Diversions</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74"> 74</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>On a craft plying the waters of Erie I found all the conditions -of a happy outing and types that it is always a -joy to meet</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78"> 78</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>The Perry Monument at Put-in Bay </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80"> 80</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>A typical old homestead of the Middle West</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100"> 100</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Students of agriculture in the pageant that celebrated the -fortieth anniversary of the founding of Ohio State -University </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_114"> 114</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>A feeding-plant at “Whitehall,” the farm of Edwin S. -Kelly, near Springfield, Ohio</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_120"> 120</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Judging graded shorthorn herds at the American Royal -Live Stock Show in Kansas City</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_132"> 132</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Chicago is the big brother of all lesser towns</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142"> 142</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian loot, -but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve!</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_152"> 152</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Banquet given for the members of the National Institute -of Arts and Letters</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176"> 176</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span></td></tr> - -<tr><td>There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at every -political meeting </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194"> 194</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>The Political Barbecue</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198"> 198</a></td></tr> - -</table> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>France evoked from the unknown the valley that may, in more than -one sense, be called the heart of America.... The chief significance -and import of the addition of this valley to the maps of the world, all -indeed that makes it significant, is that here was given (though not of -deliberate intent) a rich, wide, untouched field, distant, accessible only -to the hardiest, without a shadowing tradition or a restraining fence, in -which men of all races were to make attempt to live together under -rules of their own devising and enforcing. And as here the government -of the people by the people was to have even more literal interpretation -than in that Atlantic strip which had traditions of property suffrage -and church privilege and class distinctions, I have called it the “Valley -of the New Democracy.”</p> - - -<p class="right">—<span class="smcap">John H. Finley</span>: “The French in the Heart of America.”</p> -</div></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span> - -<p class="ph1">THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY</p> -</div> - - - - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I<br /> - - -THE FOLKS AND THEIR FOLKSINESS</h2> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p class="drop-cap">“THE great trouble with these fellows -down here,” remarked my friend as -we left the office of a New York -banker—“the trouble with all of ’em is that -they forget about the <i>Folks</i>. You noticed that -when he asked in his large, patronizing way -how things are going out West he didn’t wait -for us to answer; he pressed a button and told -his secretary to bring in those tables of railroad -earnings and to-day’s crop bulletins and that -sort of rubbish, so he could tell <i>us</i>. It never -occurs to ’em that the Folks are human beings -and not just a column of statistics. Why, the -<i>Folks</i>——”</p> - -<p>My friend, an orator of distinction, formerly -represented a tall-corn district in Congress. He -drew me into Trinity churchyard and discoursed -in a vein with which I had long been -familiar upon a certain condescension in Easterners,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> -and the East’s intolerable ignorance of -the ways and manners, the hopes and aims, of -the West, which move him to rage and despair. -I was aware that he was gratified to have an -opportunity to unbosom himself at the brazen -gates of Wall Street, and equally conscious that -he was experimenting upon me with phrases -that he was coining for use on the hustings. -They were so used, not without effect, in the -campaign of 1916—a contest whose results were -well calculated to draw attention to the “Folks” -as an upstanding, independent body of citizens.</p> - -<p>Folks is recognized by the lexicographers as -an American colloquialism, a variant of folk. -And folk, in old times, was used to signify the -commonalty, the plain people. But my friend, -as he rolled “Folks” under his tongue there in -the shadow of Trinity, used it in a sense that -excluded the hurrying midday Broadway throng -and restricted its application to an infinitely -superior breed of humanity, to be found on -farms, in villages and cities remote from tide-water. -His passion for democracy, his devotion -to the commonweal, is not wasted upon New -Englanders or Middle States people. In the -South there are Folks, yes; his own people had -come out of North Carolina, lingered a while in -Kentucky, and lodged finally in Indiana, whence,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> -following a common law of dispersion, they -sought new homes in Illinois and Kansas. Beyond -the Rockies there are Folks; he meets -their leaders in national conventions; but they -are only second cousins of those valiant freemen -who rallied to the call of Lincoln and followed -Grant and Sherman into battles that shook the -continent. My friend’s point of view is held by -great numbers of people in that region we now -call the Middle West. This attitude or state of -mind with regard to the East is not to be taken -too seriously; it is a part of the national humor, -and has been expressed with delightful vivacity -and candor in Mr. William Allen White’s refreshing -essay, “Emporia and New York.”</p> - -<p>A definition of Folks as used all the way from -Ohio to Colorado, and with particular point and -pith by the haughty sons and daughters of Indiana -and Kansas, may be set down thus:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Folks.</span> <i>n.</i> A superior people, derived largely from -the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races and domiciled in those -northern States of the American Union whose waters fall -into the Mississippi. Their <i>folksiness</i> (<i>q. v.</i>) is expressed -in sturdy independence, hostility to capitalistic influence, -and a proneness to social and political experiment. They -are strong in the fundamental virtues, more or less sincerely -averse to conventionality, and believe themselves -possessed of a breadth of vision and a devotion to the -common good at once beneficent and unique in the annals -of mankind.</p> -</div> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>We of the West do not believe—not really—that -we are the only true interpreters of the -dream of democracy. It pleases us to swagger -a little when we speak of ourselves as the Folks -and hint at the dire punishments we hold in -store for monopoly and privilege; but we are -far less dangerous than an outsider, bewildered -or annoyed by our apparent bitterness, may be -led to believe. In our hearts we do not think -ourselves the only good Americans. We merely -feel that the East began patronizing us and that -anything we may do in that line has been forced -upon us by years of outrageous contumely. -And when New York went to bed on the night -of election day, 1916, confident that as went -the Empire State so went the Union, it was only -that we of the West might chortle the next -morning to find that Ah Sin had forty packs -concealed in his sleeve and spread them out on -the Sierra Nevadas with an air that was child-like -and bland.</p> - -<p>Under all its jauntiness and cocksureness, -the West is extremely sensitive to criticism. It -likes admiration, and expects the Eastern visitor -to be properly impressed by its achievements, -its prodigious energy, its interpretation and -practical application of democracy, and the -earnestness with which it interests itself in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> -things of the spirit. Above all else it does not -like to appear absurd. According to its light it -intends to do the right thing, but it yields to -laughter much more quickly than abuse if the -means to that end are challenged.</p> - -<p>The pioneers of the older States endured hardships -quite as great as the Middle Westerners; -they have contributed as generously to the national -life in war and peace; the East’s aid to -the West, in innumerable ways, is immeasurable. -I am not thinking of farm mortgages, but -of nobler things—of men and women who carried -ideals of life and conduct, of justice and -law, into new territory where such matters were -often lightly valued. The prowler in these -Western States recognizes constantly the trail -of New Englanders who founded towns, built -schools, colleges, and churches, and left an ineffaceable -stamp upon communities. Many of -us Westerners sincerely admire the East and do -reverence to Eastern gods when we can sneak -unobserved into the temples. We dispose of -our crops and merchandise as quickly as possible, -that we may be seen of men in New York. -Western school-teachers pour into New England -every summer on pious pilgrimages to Concord -and Lexington. And yet we feel ourselves, the -great body of us, a peculiar people. “Ten days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> -of New York, and it’s me for my home town” -in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, or Colorado. This -expresses a very general feeling in the provinces.</p> - -<p>It is far from my purpose to make out a case -for the West as the true home of the Folks in -these newer connotations of that noun, but -rather to record some of the phenomena observable -in those commonwealths where we are -assured the Folks maintain the only true ark -of the covenant of democracy. Certain concessions -may be assumed in the unconvinced -spectator whose path lies in less-favored portions -of the nation. The West does indubitably -coax an enormous treasure out of its soil to be -tossed into the national hopper, and it does exert -a profound influence upon the national life; but -its manner of thought is different: it arrives at -conclusions by processes that strike the Eastern -mind as illogical and often as absurd or dangerous. -The two great mountain ranges are barriers -that shut it in a good deal by itself in spite -of every facility of communication; it is disposed -to be scornful of the world’s experience -where the experience is not a part of its own -history. It believes that forty years of Illinois -or Wisconsin are better than a cycle of Cathay, -and it is prepared to prove it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_006.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">“Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my home town.”</p> - -<p>The West’s philosophy is a compound of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> -Franklin and Emerson, with a dash of Whitman. -Even Washington is a pale figure behind -the Lincoln of its own prairies. Its curiosity is -insatiable; its mind is speculative; it has a supreme -confidence that upon an agreed state of -facts the Folks, sitting as a high court, will hand -down to the nation a true and just decision upon -any matter in controversy. It is a patient listener. -Seemingly tolerant of false prophets, it -amiably gives them hearing in thousands of -forums while awaiting an opportunity to smother -their ambitions on election day. It will not, if -it knows itself, do anything supremely foolish. -Flirting with Greenbackism and Free Silver, it -encourages the assiduous wooers shamelessly and -then calmly sends them about their business. -Maine can approach her election booths as coyly -as Ohio or Nebraska, and yet the younger States -rejoice in the knowledge that after all nothing is -decided until they have been heard from. Politics -becomes, therefore, not merely a matter for -concern when some great contest is forward, -but the year round it crowds business hard for -first place in public affection.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>The people of the Valley of Democracy (I am -indebted for this phrase to Dr. John H. Finley) -do a great deal of thinking and talking; they -brood over the world’s affairs with a peculiar -intensity; and, beyond question, they exchange -opinions with a greater freedom than their fellow -citizens in other parts of America. I have -travelled between Boston and New York on -many occasions and have covered most of New -England in railway journeys without ever being -addressed by a stranger; but seemingly in the -West men travel merely to cultivate the art of -conversation. The gentleman who borrows your -newspaper returns it with a crisp comment on -the day’s events. He is from Beatrice, or Fort -Collins, perhaps, and you quickly find that he -lives next door to the only man you know in his -home town. You praise Nebraska, and he meets -you in a generous spirit of reciprocity and compliments -Iowa, Minnesota, or any other commonwealth -you may honor with your citizenship.</p> - -<p>The West is proud of its talkers, and is at -pains to produce them for the edification of the -visitor. In Kansas a little while ago my host -summoned a friend of his from a town eighty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> -miles away that I might hear him talk. And it -was well worth my while to hear that gentleman -talk; he is the best talker I have ever -heard. He described for me great numbers of -politicians past and present, limning them with -the merciless stroke of a skilled caricaturist, or, -in a benignant mood, presented them in ineffaceable -miniature. He knew Kansas as he -knew his own front yard. It was a delight to -listen to discourse so free, so graphic in its characterizations, -so colored and flavored with the -very soil. Without impropriety I may state -that this gentleman is Mr. Henry J. Allen, of -the Wichita <i>Beacon</i>; the friend who produced -him for my instruction and entertainment is -Mr. William Allen White of the Emporia -<i>Gazette</i>. Since this meeting I have heard Mr. -Allen talk on other occasions without any feeling -that I should modify my estimate of his -conversational powers. In his most satisfying -narrative, “The Martial Adventures of Henry -and Me,” Mr. White has told how he and -Mr. Allen, as agents of the Red Cross, bore the -good news of the patriotism and sympathy of -Kansas to England, France, and Italy, and certainly -America could have sent no more heartening -messengers to our allies.</p> - -<p>I know of no Western town so small that it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> -doesn’t boast at least one wit or story-teller -who is exhibited as a special mark of honor for -the entertainment of guests. As often as not -these stars are women, who discuss public matters -with understanding and brilliancy. The -old superstition that women are deficient in -humor never struck me as applicable to American -women anywhere; certainly it is not true of -Western women. In a region where story-telling -flourishes, I can match the best male anecdotalist -with a woman who can evoke mirth by -neater and defter means.</p> - -<p>The Western State is not only a political but -a social unit. It is like a club, where every one -is presumably acquainted with every one else. -The railroads and interurbans carry an enormous -number of passengers who are solely upon -pleasure bent. The observer is struck by the -general sociability, the astonishing amount of -visiting that is in progress. In smoking compartments -and in day coaches any one who is -at all folksy may hear talk that is likely to prove -informing and stimulating. And this cheeriness -and volubility of the people one meets greatly -enhances the pleasure of travel. Here one is reminded -constantly of the provincial confidence -in the West’s greatness and wisdom in every -department of human endeavor.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>In January of last year it was my privilege to -share with seven other passengers the smoking-room -of a train out of Denver for Kansas City. -The conversation was opened by a vigorous, -elderly gentleman who had, he casually remarked, -crossed Kansas six times in a wagon. -He was a native of Illinois, a graduate of Asbury -(Depauw) College, Indiana, a Civil War -veteran, and he had been a member of the Missouri -Legislature. He lived on a ranch in Colorado, -but owned a farm in Kansas and was -hastening thither to test his acres for oil. The -range of his adventures was amazing; his acquaintance -embraced men of all sorts and conditions, -including Buffalo Bill, whose funeral he -had just attended in Denver. He had known -General George A. Custer and gave us the true -story of the massacre of that hero and his command -on the Little Big Horn. He described -the “bad men” of the old days, many of whom -had honored him with their friendship. At least -three of the company had enjoyed like experiences -and verified or amplified his statements. -This gentleman remarked with undisguised satisfaction -that he had not been east of the Mississippi -for thirty years!</p> - -<p>I fancied that he acquired merit with all the -trans-Mississippians present by this declaration.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> -However, a young commercial traveller who had -allowed it to become known that he lived in -New York seemed surprised, if not pained, by -the revelation. As we were passing from one -dry State to another we fell naturally into a discussion -of prohibition as a moral and economic -factor. The drummer testified to its beneficent -results in arid territory with which he was familiar; -one effect had been increased orders from -his Colorado customers. It was apparent that -his hearers listened with approval; they were -citizens of dry States and it tickled their sense -of their own rectitude that a pilgrim from the -remote East should speak favorably of their -handiwork. But the young gentleman, warmed -by the atmosphere of friendliness created by his -remarks, was guilty of a grave error of judgment.</p> - -<p>“It’s all right for these Western towns,” he -said, “but you could never put it over in New -York. New York will never stand for it. London, -Paris, New York—there’s only one New -York!”</p> - -<p>The deep sigh with which he concluded, expressive -of the most intense loyalty, the most -poignant homesickness, and perhaps a thirst of -long accumulation, caused six cigars, firmly set -in six pairs of jaws, to point disdainfully at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> -ceiling. No one spoke until the offender had -betaken himself humbly to bed. The silence -was eloquent of pity for one so abandoned. -That any one privileged to range the cities of the -West should, there at the edge of the great plain, -set New York apart for adoration, was too impious, -too monstrous, for verbal condemnation.</p> - -<p>Young women seem everywhere to be in motion -in the West, going home from schools, colleges, -or the State universities for week-ends, or -attending social functions in neighboring towns. -Last fall I came down from Green Bay in a train -that was becalmed for several hours at Manitowoc. -I left the crowded day coach to explore -that pleasing haven and, returning, found that -my seat had been pre-empted by a very charming -young person who was reading my magazine -with the greatest absorption. We agreed that -the seat offered ample space for two and that -there was no reason in equity or morals why -she should not finish the story she had begun. -This done, she commented upon it frankly and -soundly and proceeded to a brisk discussion of -literature in general. Her range of reading had -been wide—indeed, I was embarrassed by its -extent and impressed by the shrewdness of her -literary appraisements. She was bound for a -normal school where she was receiving instruction,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> -not for the purpose of entering into the -pedagogical life immediately, but to obtain a -teacher’s license against a time when it might -become necessary for her to earn a livelihood. -Every girl, she believed, should fit herself for -some employment.</p> - -<p>Manifestly she was not a person to ask favors -of destiny: at eighteen she had already made -terms with life and tossed the contract upon the -knees of the gods. The normal school did not -require her presence until the day after to-morrow, -and she was leaving the train at the end of -an hour to visit a friend who had arranged a -dance in her honor. If that species of entertainment -interested me, she said, I might stop -for the dance. Engagements farther down the -line precluded the possibility of my accepting -this invitation, which was extended with the utmost -circumspection, as though she were offering -an impersonal hospitality supported by the -sovereign dignity of the commonwealth of Wisconsin. -When the train slowed down at her -station a commotion on the platform announced -the presence of a reception committee of considerable -magnitude, from which I inferred that -her advent was an incident of importance to the -community. As she bade me good-by she tore -apart a bouquet of fall flowers she had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> -carrying, handed me half of them, and passed -from my sight forever. My exalted opinion of -the young women of Wisconsin was strengthened -on another occasion by a chance meeting -with two graduates of the State University who -were my fellow voyagers on a steamer that -bumped into a riotous hurricane on its way -down Lake Michigan. On the slanting deck -they discoursed of political economy with a zest -and humor that greatly enlivened my respect -for the dismal science.</p> - -<p>The listener in the West accumulates data -touching the tastes and ambitions of the people -of which local guide-books offer no hint. A little -while ago two ladies behind me in a Minneapolis -street-car discussed Cardinal Newman’s -“Dream of Gerontius,” with as much avidity as -though it were the newest novel. Having found -that the apostles of free verse had captured and -fortified Denver and Omaha, it was a relief to -encounter these Victorian pickets on the upper -waters of the Mississippi.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>One is struck by the remarkable individuality -of the States, towns, and cities of the West. -State boundaries are not merely a geographical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> -expression: they mark real differences of opinion, -habit, custom, and taste. This is not a sentimental -idea; any one may prove it for himself -by crossing from Illinois into Wisconsin, or from -Iowa into Nebraska. Kansas and Nebraska, -though cut out of the same piece, not only seem -different but they <i>are</i> different. Interest in -local differentiations, in shadings of the “color” -derived from a common soil, keep the visitor -alert. To be sure the Ladies of the Lakes—Chicago, -Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Toledo, -Duluth—have physical aspects in common, -but the similarity ends there. The literature -of chambers of commerce as to the number -of freight-cars handled or increases of population -are of no assistance in a search for the -causes of diversities in aim, spirit, and achievement.</p> - -<p>The alert young cities watch each other -enviously—they are enormously proud and -anxious not to be outbettered in the struggle for -perfection. In many places one is conscious of -an effective leadership, of a man or a group of -men and women who plant a target and rally -the citizenry to play for the bull’s-eye. A conspicuous -instance of successful individual leadership -is offered by Kansas City, where Mr. William -R. Nelson, backed by his admirable newspaper,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> -<i>The Star</i>, fought to the end of his life to -make his city a better place to live in. Mr. -Nelson was a remarkably independent and courageous -spirit, his journalistic ideals were the -highest, and he was deeply concerned for the -public welfare, not only in the more obvious -sense, but equally in bringing within the common -reach enlightening influences that are likely -to be neglected in new communities. Kansas -City not only profited by Mr. Nelson’s wisdom -and generosity in his lifetime, but the community -will receive ultimately his entire fortune. I -am precluded from citing in other cities men -still living who are distinguished by a like devotion -to public service, but I have chosen Mr. -Nelson as an eminent example of the force that -may be wielded by a single citizen.</p> - -<p>Minneapolis offers a happy refutation of a -well-established notion that a second generation -is prone to show a weakened fibre. The sons -of the men who fashioned this vigorous city -have intelligently and generously supported -many undertakings of highest value. The Minneapolis -art museum and school and an orchestra -of widening reputation present eloquent testimony -to the city’s attitude toward those things -that are more excellent. Contrary to the usual -history, these were not won as the result of laborious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> -effort but rose spontaneously. The public -library of this city not only serves the hurried -business man through a branch in the business -district, equipped with industrial and commercial -reference books, but keeps pace with the -local development in art and music by assembling -the best literature in these departments. -Both Minneapolis and Kansas City are well advertised -by their admirably managed, progressive -libraries. More may be learned from a -librarian as to the trend of thought in his community -than from the secretary of a commercial -body. It is significant that last year, when municipal -affairs were much to the fore in Kansas -City, there was a marked increase in the use of -books on civic and kindred questions. The latest -report of the librarian recites that “as the -library more nearly meets the wants of the community, -the proportion of fiction used grows -less, being but 34 per cent of the whole issue for -the year.” Similar impulses and achievements -are manifested in Cleveland, a city that has -written many instructive chapters in the history -of municipal government. Since her exposition -of 1904 and the splendid pageant of 1914 crystallized -public aspiration, St. Louis has experienced -a new birth of civic pride. Throughout -the West American art has found cordial support.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> -In Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Cincinnati, -Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, -Omaha, and Kansas City there are noteworthy -specimens of the best work of American -painters. The art schools connected with the -Western museums have exercised a salutary influence -in encouraging local talent, not only in -landscape and portraiture, but in industrial designing.</p> - -<p>By friendly co-operation on the part of -Chicago and St. Louis smaller cities are able -to enjoy advantages that would otherwise be -beyond their reach. Lectures, orchestras, and -travelling art exhibits that formerly stopped at -Chicago or jumped thence to California, now -find a hearty welcome in Kansas City, Omaha, -and Denver. Thus Indianapolis was among the -few cities that shared a few years ago in the -comprehensive presentation of Saint Gaudens’s -work. The expense of the undertaking was not -inconsiderable, but merchants and manufacturers -bought tickets for distribution among their -employees and met the demand with a generosity -that left a balance in the art association’s -treasury. These Western cities, with their political -and social problems, their rough edges, -smoke, and impudent intrusions of tracks and -chimneys due to rapid development and phenomenal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> -prosperity, present art literally as the -handmaiden of industry—</p> - -<p class="center">“All-lovely Art, stern Labor’s fair-haired child.”</p> - -<p>If any one thing is quite definitely settled -throughout this territory it is that yesterday’s -leaves have been plucked from the calendar: -this verily is the land of to-morrow. One does -not stand beside the Missouri at Omaha and -indulge long in meditations upon the turbulent -history and waywardness of that tawny stream; -the cattle receipts for the day may have broken -all records, but there are schools that must be -seen, a collection of pictures to visit, or lectures -to attend. I unhesitatingly pronounce Omaha -the lecture centre of the world—reception -committees flutter at the arrival of all trains. -Man does not live by bread alone—not -even in the heart of the corn belt in a city that -haughtily proclaims itself the largest primary -butter-market in the world! It is the great -concern of Kansas that it shall miss nothing; -to cross that commonwealth is to gain the impression -that politics and corn are hard pressed -as its main industries by the cultural mechanisms -that produce sweetness and light. Iowa -goes to bed early but not before it has read an -improving book!</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_020.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Art exhibits ... now find a hearty welcome.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>In those Western States where women have -assumed the burden of citizenship they seem -to lose none of their zeal for art, literature, and -music. Equal suffrage was established in Colorado -in 1893, and the passing pilgrim cannot fail -to be struck by the lack of self-consciousness with -which the women of that State discuss social -and political questions. The Western woman is -animated by a divine energy and she is distinguished -by her willingness to render public -service. What man neglects or ignores she -cheerfully undertakes, and she has so cultivated -the gentle art of persuasion that the masculine -check-book opens readily to her demand -for assistance in her pet causes.</p> - -<p>It must not be assumed that in this land of -pancakes and panaceas interest in “culture” -is new or that its manifestations are sporadic -or ill-directed. The early comers brought with -them sufficient cultivation to leaven the lump, -and the educational forces and cultural movements -now everywhere marked in Western -communities are but the fruition of the labors -of the pioneers who bore books of worth and -a love of learning with them into the wilderness. -Much sound reading was done in log cabins -when the school-teacher was still a rarity, and -amid the strenuous labors of the earliest days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> -many sought self-expression in various kinds -of writing. Along the Ohio there were bards -in abundance, and a decade before the Civil -War Cincinnati had honest claims to being a -literary centre. The numerous poets of those -days—Coggeshall’s “Poets and Poetry of the -West,” published in 1866, mentions one hundred -and fifty-two!—were chiefly distinguished by -their indifference to the life that lay nearest -them. Sentiment and sentimentalism flourished -at a time when life was a hard business, though -Edward Eggleston is entitled to consideration -as an early realist, by reason of “The Hoosier -Schoolmaster,” which, in spite of Indiana’s -repudiation of it as false and defamatory, really -contains a true picture of conditions with which -Eggleston was thoroughly familiar. There followed -later E. W. Howe’s “The Story of a -Country Town” and Hamlin Garland’s “Main -Travelled Roads,” which are landmarks of -realism firmly planted in territory invaded later -by Romance, bearing the blithe flag of Zenda.</p> - -<p>It is not surprising that the Mississippi valley -should prove far more responsive to the chimes -of romance than to the harsh clang of realism. -The West in itself is a romance. Virginia’s -claims to recognition as the chief field of tourney -for romance in America totter before the history<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> -of a vast area whose soberest chronicles -are enlivened by the most inthralling adventures -and a long succession of picturesque characters. -The French voyageur, on his way from -Canada by lake and river to clasp hands with -his kinsmen of the lower Mississippi; the American -pioneers, with their own heroes—George -Rogers Clark, “Mad Anthony” Wayne, and -“Tippecanoe” Harrison; the soldiers of Indian -wars and their sons who fought in Mexico in -the forties; the men who donned the blue in the -sixties; the Knights of the Golden Circle, who -kept the war governors anxious in the border -States—these are all disclosed upon a tapestry -crowded with romantic strife and stress.</p> - -<p>The earliest pioneers, enjoying little intercourse -with their fellows, had time to fashion -many a tale of personal adventure against the -coming of a visitor, or for recital on court days, -at political meetings, or at the prolonged “camp -meetings,” where questions of religion were -debated. They cultivated unconsciously the -art of telling their stories well. The habit of -story-telling grew into a social accomplishment -and it was by a natural transition that here -and there some one began to set down his tales -on paper. Thus General Lew Wallace, who -lived in the day of great story-tellers, wrote<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> -“The Fair God,” a romance of the coming of -Cortez to Mexico, and followed it with “Ben -Hur,” one of the most popular romances ever -written. Crawfordsville, the Hoosier county-seat -where General Wallace lived, was once -visited and its romanticism menaced by Mr. -Howells, who sought local color for the court -scene in “A Modern Instance,” his novel of -divorce. Indiana was then a place where legal -separations were obtainable by convenient processes -relinquished later to Nevada.</p> - -<p>Maurice Thompson and his brother Will, -who wrote “The High Tide at Gettysburg,” -sent out from Crawfordsville the poems and -sketches that made archery a popular amusement -in the seventies. The Thompsons, both -practising lawyers, employed their leisure in -writing and in hunting with the bow and arrow. -“The Witchery of Archery” and “Songs of -Fair Weather” still retain their pristine charm. -That two young men in an Indiana country -town should deliberately elect to live in the -days of the Plantagenets speaks for the romantic -atmosphere of the Hoosier commonwealth. -A few miles away James Whitcomb -Riley had already begun to experiment with a -lyre of a different sort, and quickly won for -himself a place in popular affection shared only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> -among American poets by Longfellow. Almost -coincident with his passing rose Edgar Lee -Masters, with the “Spoon River Anthology,” -and Vachel Lindsay, a poet hardly less distinguished -for penetration and sincerity, to chant -of Illinois in the key of realism. John G. Niehardt -has answered their signals from Nebraska’s -corn lands. Nor shall I omit from the briefest -list the “Chicago Poems” of Carl Sandburg. -The “wind stacker” and the tractor are dangerous -engines for Romance to charge: I should -want Mr. Booth Tarkington to umpire so momentous -a contest. Mr. Tarkington flirts -shamelessly with realism and has shown in -“The Turmoil” that he can slip overalls and -jumper over the sword and ruffles of Beaucaire -and make himself a knight of industry. Likewise, -in Chicago, Mr. Henry B. Fuller has posted -the Chevalier Pensieri-Vani on the steps of the -board of trade, merely, we may assume, to -collect material for realistic fiction. The West -has proved that it is not afraid of its own shadow -in the adumbrations of Mrs. Mary A. Watts, -Mr. Robert Herrick, Miss Willa Sibert Cather, -Mr. William Allen White, and Mr. Brand Whitlock, -all novelists of insight, force, and authority; -nor may we forget that impressive tale of -Chicago, Frank Norris’s “The Pit,” a work<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> -that gains in dignity and significance with the -years.</p> - -<p>Education in all the Western States has not -merely performed its traditional functions, but -has become a distinct social and economic force. -It is a far cry from the day of the three R’s and -the dictum that the State’s duty to the young -ends when it has eliminated them from the -illiteracy columns of the census to the State -universities and agricultural colleges, with their -broad curricula and extension courses, and the -free kindergartens, the manual-training high -schools, and vocational institutions that are socializing -and democratizing education.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>In every town of the great Valley there are -groups of people earnestly engaged in determined -efforts to solve governmental problems. -These efforts frequently broaden into “movements” -that succeed. We witness here constant -battles for reform that are often won only -to be lost again. The bosses, driven out at -one point, immediately rally and fortify another. -Nothing, however, is pleasanter to -record than the fact that the war upon vicious -or stupid local government goes steadily on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> -and that throughout the field under scrutiny -there have been within a decade marked and -encouraging gains. The many experiments -making with administrative devices are rapidly -developing a mass of valuable data. The very -lack of uniformity in these movements adds to -their interest; in countless communities the -attention is arrested by something well done -that invites emulation. Constant scandals in -municipal administration, due to incompetence, -waste, and graft, are slowly penetrating to the -consciousness of the apathetic citizen, and sentiment -favorable to the abandonment of the -old system of partisan local government has -grown with remarkable rapidity. The absolute -divorcement of municipalities from State and -national politics is essential to the conduct of -city government on business principles. This -statement is made with the more confidence -from the fact that it is reinforced by a creditable -literature on the subject, illustrated by countless -surveys of boss-ridden cities where there is -determined protest against government by the -unfit. That cities shall be conducted as stock -companies with reference solely to the rights -and needs of the citizen, without regard to -party politics, is the demand in so many quarters -that the next decade is bound to witness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> -striking transformations in this field. Last -March Kansas City lost a splendidly conducted -fight for a new charter that embraced the city-manager -plan. Here, however, was a defeat -with honor, for the results proved so conclusively -the contention of the reformers, that the bosses -rule, that the effort was not wasted. In Chicago, -Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis, the -leaven is at work, and the bosses with gratifying -density are aiding the cause by their hostility -and their constant illustration of the evils -of the antiquated system they foster.</p> - -<p>The elimination of the saloon in States that -have already adopted prohibition promises political -changes of the utmost importance in municipal -affairs. The saloon is the most familiar -and the most mischievous of all the outposts -and rallying centres of political venality. Here -the political “organization” maintains its faithful -sentinels throughout the year; the good -citizen, intent upon his lawful business and -interested in politics only when election day -approaches, is usually unaware that hundreds of -barroom loafers are constantly plotting against -him. The mounting “dry wave” is attributable -quite as much to revolt against the saloon as -the most formidable of political units as to a -moral detestation of alcohol. Economic considerations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> -also have entered very deeply into -the movement, and prohibition advocated as a -war measure developed still another phase. -The liquor interests provoked and invited the -drastic legislation that has overwhelmed their -traffic and made dry territory of a large area -of the West. By defying regulatory laws and -maintaining lobbies in legislatures, by cracking -the whip over candidates and office-holders, -they made of themselves an intolerable nuisance. -Indiana’s adoption of prohibition was -very largely due to antagonism aroused by the -liquor interests through their political activities -covering half a century. The frantic efforts of -breweries and distilleries there and in many -other States to persuade saloon-keepers to obey -the laws in the hope of spiking the guns of the -opposition came too late. The liquor interests -had counselled and encouraged lawlessness too -long and found the retailer spoiled by the immunity -their old political power had gained for -him.</p> - -<p>A sweeping Federal law abolishing the traffic -may be enacted while these pages are on the -press.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Without such a measure wet and dry -forces will continue to battle; territory that is -only partly dry will continue its struggle for -bone-dry laws, and States that roped and tied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> -John Barleycorn must resist attempts to put -him on his feet again. There is, however, -nothing to encourage the idea that the strongly -developed sentiment against the saloon will lose -its potency; and it is hardly conceivable that -any political party in a dry State will write a -wet plank into its platform, though stranger -things have happened. Men who, in Colorado -for example, were bitterly hostile to prohibition -confess that the results convince them of its -efficacy. The Indiana law became effective last -April, and in June the workhouse at Indianapolis -was closed permanently, for the interesting reason -that the number of police-court prisoners -was so reduced as to make the institution unnecessary.</p> - -<p>The economic shock caused by the prostration -of this long-established business is absorbed -much more readily than might be imagined. -Compared with other forms of manufacturing, -brewing and distilling have been enormously -profitable, and the operators have usually taken -care of themselves in advance of the destruction -of their business. I passed a brewery near -Denver that had turned its attention to the -making of “near” beer and malted milk, and -employed a part of its labor otherwise in the -manufacture of pottery. The presence of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> -herd of cows on the brewery property to supply -milk, for combination with malt, marked, with -what struck me as the pleasantest of ironies, a -cheerful acquiescence in the new order. Denver -property rented formerly to saloon-keepers -I found pretty generally occupied by shops of -other kinds. In one window was this alluring -sign:</p> - -<p class="center"> -<span class="smcap">Buy Your Shoes<br /> -Where You Bought Your Booze</span></p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>The West’s general interest in public affairs is -not remarkable when we consider the history of -the Valley. The pioneers who crossed the Alleghanies -with rifle and axe were peculiarly jealous -of their rights and liberties. They viewed every -political measure in the light of its direct, concrete -bearing upon themselves. They risked -much to build homes and erect States in the -wilderness and they insisted, not unreasonably, -that the government should not forget them in -their exile. Poverty enforced a strict watch -upon public expenditures, and their personal -security entered largely into their attitude toward -the nation. Their own imperative needs, -the thinly distributed population, apprehensions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> -created by the menace of Indians, stubbornly -hostile to the white man’s encroachments—all -contributed to a certain selfishness in the settlers’ -point of view, and they welcomed political -leaders who advocated measures that promised -relief and protection. As they listened to the -pleas of candidates from the stump (a rostrum -fashioned by their own axes!) they were intensely -critical. Moreover, the candidate himself -was subjected to searching scrutiny. Government, -to these men of faith and hardihood, -was a very personal thing: the leaders they -chose to represent them were in the strictest -sense their representatives and agents, whom -they retired on very slight provocation.</p> - -<p>The sharp projection of the extension of -slavery as an issue served to awaken and crystallize -national feeling. Education, internal -improvements to the accompaniment of wildcat -finance, reforms in State and county governments, -all yielded before the greater issue. The -promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -had led the venturous husbandmen into -woods and prairies, and they viewed with abhorrence -the idea that one man might own another -and enjoy the fruits of his labor. Lincoln -was not more the protagonist of a great cause -than the personal spokesman of a body of freemen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> -who were attracted to his standard by the -facts of his history that so largely paralleled -their own.</p> - -<p>It is not too much to say that Lincoln and -the struggle of which he was the leader roused -the Middle West to its first experience of a -national consciousness. The provincial spirit -vanished in an hour before the beat of drums -under the elms and maples of court-house yards. -The successful termination of the war left the -West the possessor of a new influence in national -affairs. It had not only thrown into the conflict -its full share of armed strength but had -sent Grant, Sherman, and many military stars -of lesser magnitude flashing into the firmament. -The West was thenceforth to be reckoned with -in all political speculations. Lincoln was the -precursor of a line of Presidents all of whom -were soldiers: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, -McKinley; and there was no marked disturbance -in the old order until Mr. Cleveland’s advent in -1884, with a resulting flare of independence not -wholly revealed in the elections following his -three campaigns.</p> - -<p>My concern here is not with partisan matters, -nor even with those internal upheavals that in -the past have caused so much heartache to the -shepherds of both of the major political flocks.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> -With only the greatest delicacy may one refer -to the Democratic schism of 1896 or to the -break in the Republican ranks of 1912. But -the purposes and aims of the Folks with respect -to government are of national importance. -The Folks are not at all disposed to relinquish -the power in national affairs which they have -wielded with growing effectiveness. No matter -whether they are right or wrong in their judgments, -they are far from being a negligible force, -and forecasters of nominees and policies for -the future do well to give heed to them.</p> - -<p>The trend toward social democracy, with -its accompanying eagerness to experiment with -new devices for confiding to the people the power -of initiating legislation and expelling unsatisfactory -officials, paralleled by another tendency -toward the short ballot and the concentration -of power—these and kindred tendencies are -viewed best in a non-partisan spirit in those -free Western airs where the electorate is fickle, -coy, and hard to please. A good deal of what -was called populism twenty years ago, and associated -in the minds of the contumelious with -long hair and whiskers, was advocated in 1912 -by gentlemen who called themselves Progressives -and were on good terms with the barber. -In the Progressive convention of 1916 I was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> -struck by the great number of Phi Beta Kappa -keys worn by delegates and sympathetic spectators. -If they were cranks they were educated -cranks, who could not be accused of ignorance -of the teachings of experience in their political -cogitations. They were presumably acquainted -with the history of republics from the beginning -of time, and the philosophy to be deduced -from their disasters. It was because the Progressive -party enlisted so many very capable -politicians familiar with organization methods -that it became a formidable rival of the old -parties in 1912. In 1916 it lost most of these -supporters, who saw hope of Republican success -and were anxious to ride on the band-wagon. -Nothing, however, could be more reassuring -than the confidence in the people, <i>i. e.</i>, the Folks -manifested by men and women who know their -Plato and are familiar with Isaiah’s distrust of -the crowd and his reliance upon the remnant.</p> - -<p>The isolation of the independent who belongs -to no organization and is unaware of the -number of voters who share his sentiments, -militates against his effectiveness as a protesting -factor. He waits timidly in the dark for -a flash that will guide him toward some more -courageous brother. The American is the most -self-conscious being on earth and he is loath<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> -to set himself apart to be pointed out as a crank, -for in partisan camps all recalcitrants are viewed -contemptuously as erratic and dangerous persons. -It has been demonstrated that a comparatively -small number of voters in half a -dozen Western States, acting together, can -throw a weight into the scale that will defeat -one or the other of the chief candidates for the -presidency. If they should content themselves -with an organization and, without nominating -candidates, menace either side that aroused -their hostility, their effectiveness would be increased. -But here again we encounter that -peculiarity of the American that he likes a crowd. -He is so used to the spectacular demonstrations -of great campaigns, and so enjoys the thunder -of the captains and the shouting, that he is -overcome by loneliness when he finds himself -at small conferences that plot the overthrow -of the party of his former allegiance.</p> - -<p>The West may be likened to a naughty boy -in a hickory shirt and overalls who enjoys pulling -the chair from under his knickerbockered, Eton-collared -Eastern cousins. The West creates a -new issue whenever it pleases, and wearying of -one plaything cheerfully seeks another. It -accepts the defeat of free silver and turns joyfully -to prohibition, flattering itself that its chief<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> -concern is with moral issues. It wants to make -the world a better place to live in and it believes -in abundant legislation to that end. It -experiments by States, points with pride to -the results, and seeks to confer the priceless -boon upon the nation. Much of its lawmaking -is shocking to Eastern conservatism, but no -inconsiderable number of Easterners hear the -window-smashing and are eager to try it at -home.</p> - -<p>To spank the West and send it supperless -to bed is a very large order, but I have conversed -with gentlemen on the Eastern seaboard -who feel that this should be done. They go -the length of saying that if this chastisement is -neglected the republic will perish. Of course, -the West doesn’t want the republic to perish; it -honestly believes itself preordained of all time -to preserve the republic. It sits up o’ nights -to consider ways and means of insuring its -preservation. It is very serious and doesn’t at -all like being chaffed about its hatred of Wall -Street and its anxiety to pin annoying tick-tacks -on the windows of ruthless corporations. -It is going to get everything for the Folks that -it can, and it sees nothing improper in the idea -of State-owned elevators or of fixing by law -the height of the heels on the slippers of its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> -emancipated women. It is in keeping with -the cheery contentment of the West that it -believes that it has “at home” or can summon -to its R. F. D. box everything essential to human -happiness.</p> - -<p>Across this picture of ease, contentment, and -complacency fell the cloud of war. What I am -attempting is a record of transition, and I have -set down the foregoing with a consciousness -that our recent yesterdays already seem remote; -that many things that were true only a few -months ago are now less true, though it is none -the less important that we remember them. It -is my hope that what I shall say of that period -to which we are even now referring as “before -the war” may serve to emphasize the sharpness -of America’s new confrontations and the yielding, -for a time at least, of the pride of sectionalism -to the higher demands of nationality.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER II<br /> - - -TYPES AND DIVERSIONS</h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="first">“O I see flashing that this America is only you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Its Congress is you and me, the officers, capitols, armies, ships, are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Its endless gestations of new States are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">The war (that war so bloody and grim, the war I will henceforth forget), was you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Natural and artificial are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Freedom, language, poems, employments, are you and me,</div> -<div class="verse">Past, present, future, are you and me.”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verseright"><span class="smcap">Whitman.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p class="drop-cap2">AT the end of a week spent in a Middle -Western city a visitor from the East -inquired wearily: “Does no one work -in this town?” The answer to such a question -is that of course everybody works; the town -boasts no man of leisure; but on occasions the -citizens play, and the advent of any properly -certified guest affords a capital excuse for a -period of intensified sociability. “Welcome” -is writ large over the gates of all Western cities—literally -in letters of fire at railway-stations.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> -Approaching a town the motorist finds himself -courteously welcomed and politely requested -to respect the local speed law, and as he departs -a sign at the postern thanks him and urges -his return. The Western town is distinguished -as much by its generous hospitality as by its enterprise, -its firm purpose to develop new territory -and widen its commercial influence. The -visitor is bewildered by the warmth with which -he is seized and scheduled for a round of exhausting -festivities. He may enjoy all the delights -that attend the triumphal tour of a débutante -launched upon a round of visits to the -girls she knew in school or college; and he will -be conscious of a sincerity, a real pride and -joy in his presence, that warms his heart to -the community. Passing on from one town to -another, say from Cincinnati to Cleveland, -from Kansas City to Denver, from Omaha to -Minneapolis, he finds that news of his approach -has preceded him. The people he has met at -his last stopping-place have wired everybody -they know at the next point in his itinerary to -be on the lookout for him, and he finds that instead -of entering a strange port there are friends—veritable -friends—awaiting him. If by -chance he escapes the eye of the reception committee -and enters himself on the books of an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> -inn, he is interrupted in his unpacking by offers -of lodging in the homes of people he never saw -before.</p> - -<p>There is no other region in America where -so much history has been crowded into so brief -a period, where young commonwealths so quickly -attained political power and influence as in the -Middle West; but the founding of States and -the establishment of law is hardly more interesting -than the transfer to the wilderness of -the dignities and amenities of life. From the -verandas of country clubs or handsome villas -scattered along the Great Lakes, one may almost -witness the receding pageant of discovery -and settlement. In Wisconsin and Michigan -the golfer in search of an elusive ball has been -known to stumble upon an arrow-head, a significant -reminder of the newness of the land; -and the motorist flying across Ohio, Indiana, -and Illinois sees log cabins that survive from -the earliest days, many of them still occupied.</p> - -<p>Present comfort and luxury are best viewed -against a background of pioneer life; at least -the sense of things hoped for and realized in -these plains is more impressive as one ponders -the self-sacrifice and heroism by which the soil -was conquered and peopled. The friendliness, -the eagerness to serve that are so charming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> -and winning in the West date from those times -when one who was not a good neighbor was a -potential enemy. Social life was largely dependent -upon exigencies that brought the busy -pioneers together, to cut timber, build homes, -add a barn to meet growing needs, or to assist -in “breaking” new acres. The women, eagerly -seizing every opportunity to vary the monotony -of their lonely lives, gathered with the men, -and while the axes swung in the woodland -or the plough turned up the new soil, held a -quilting, spun flax, made clothing, or otherwise -assisted the hostess to get ahead with her never-ending -labors. To-day, throughout the broad -valley the grandchildren and great-grandchildren -of the pioneers ply the tennis-racket and -dance in country club-houses beside lakes and -rivers where their forebears drove the plough -or swung the axe all day, and rode miles to dance -on a puncheon floor. There was marrying and -giving in marriage; children were born and -“raised” amid conditions that cause one to -smile at the child-welfare and “better-baby” -societies of these times. The affections were -deepened by the close union of the family in the -intimate association of common tasks. Here, -indeed, was a practical application of the dictum -of one for all and all for one.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>The lines of contact between isolated clearings -and meagre settlements were never wholly -broken. Months might pass without a household -seeing a strange face, but always some -one was on the way—an itinerant missionary, -a lost hunter, a pioneer looking for a new field -to conquer. Motoring at ease through the -country, one marvels at the journeys accomplished -when blazed trails were the only highways. -A pioneer railroad-builder once told -me of a pilgrimage he made on horseback from -northern Indiana to the Hermitage in Tennessee -to meet Old Hickory face to face. Jackson -had captivated his boyish fancy and this -arduous journey was a small price to pay for -the honor of viewing the hero on his own acres. -I may add that this gentleman achieved his -centennial, remaining a steadfast adherent of -Jacksonian democracy to the end of his life. -Once I accompanied him to the polls and he -donned a silk hat for the occasion, as appropriate -to the dignified exercise of his franchise.</p> - -<p>There was a distinct type of restless, adventurous -pioneer who liked to keep a little ahead -of civilization; who found that he could not -breathe freely when his farm, acquainted for -only a few years with the plough, became the -centre of a neighborhood. Men of this sort<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> -persuaded themselves that there was better -land to be had farther on, though, more or less -consciously, it was freedom they craved. The -exodus of the Lincolns from Kentucky through -Indiana, where they lingered fourteen years -before seeking a new home in Illinois, is typical -of the pioneer restlessness. In a day when the -effects of a household could be moved in one -wagon and convoyed by the family on horseback, -these transitions were undertaken with -the utmost light-heartedness. Only a little -while ago I heard a woman of eighty describe -her family’s removal from Kentucky to Illinois, -a wide détour being made that they might visit -a distant relative in central Indiana. This, -from her recital, must have been the jolliest -of excursions, for the children at least, with the -daily experiences of fording streams, the constant -uncertainties as to the trail, and the camping -out in the woods when no cabin offered -shelter.</p> - -<p>It was a matter of pride with the housewife -to make generous provision for “company,” -and the pioneer annalists dwell much upon the -good provender of those days, when venison -and wild turkeys were to be had for the killing -and corn pone or dodger was the only bread. -The reputation of being a good cook was quite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> -as honorable as that of being a successful farmer -or a lucky hunter. The Princeton University -Press has lately resurrected and republished -“The New Purchase,” by Baynard Rush Hall, -a graduate of Union College and of Princeton -Theological Seminary, one of the raciest and -most amusing of mid-Western chronicles. Hall -sought “a life of poetry and romance amid the -rangers of the wood,” and in 1823 became principal -of Indiana Seminary, the precursor of the -State University. Having enjoyed an ampler -experience of life than his neighbors, he was -able to view the pioneers with a degree of detachment, -though sympathetically.</p> - -<p>No other contemporaneous account of the -social life of the period approaches this for -fulness; certainly none equals it in humor. -The difficulties of transportation, the encompassing -wilderness all but impenetrable, the -oddities of frontier character, the simple menage -of the pioneer, his food, and the manner of its -preparation, and the general social spectacle, -are described by a master reporter. One of -his best chapters is devoted to a wedding and -the subsequent feast, where a huge potpie was -the pièce de résistance. He estimates that at -least six hens, two chanticleers, and four pullets -were lodged in this doughy sepulchre, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> -was encircled by roast wild turkeys “stuffed” -with Indian meal and sausages. Otherwise -there were fried venison, fried turkey, fried -chicken, fried duck, fried pork, and, he adds, -“for anything I knew, even fried leather!”</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>The pioneer adventure in the trans-Mississippi -States differed materially from that of -the timbered areas of the old Northwest Territory. -I incline to the belief that the forest -primeval had a socializing effect upon those -who first dared its fastnesses, binding the lonely -pioneers together by mysterious ties which the -open plain lacked. The Southern infusion in -the States immediately north of the Ohio undoubtedly -influenced the early social life greatly. -The Kentuckian, for example, carried his passion -for sociability into Indiana, and pages of -pioneer history in the Hoosier State might have -been lifted bodily from Kentucky chronicles, -so similar is their flavor. The Kentuckian was -always essentially social; he likes “the swarm,” -remarks Mr. James Lane Allen. To seek a -contrast, the early social picture in Kansas is -obscured by the fury of the battle over slavery -that dominates the foreground. Other States<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> -fought Indians and combated hunger, survived -malaria, brimstone and molasses and calomel, -and kept in good humor, but the settlement of -Kansas was attended with battle, murder, and -sudden death. The pioneers of the Northwest -Territory began life in amiable accord with -their neighbors; Kansas gained Statehood after -a bitter war with her sister Missouri, though -the contest may not be viewed as a local disturbance, -but as a “curtain raiser” for the -drama of the Civil War. When in the strenuous -fifties Missouri undertook to colonize the Kansas -plains with pro-slavery sympathizers, New England -rose in majesty to protest. She not only -protested vociferously but sent colonies to hold -the plain against the invaders. Life in the -Kansas of those years of strife was unrelieved -by any gayeties. One searches in vain for traces -of the comfort and cheer that are a part of the -tradition of the settlement of the Ohio valley -States. Professor Spring, in his history of Kansas, -writes: “For amusement the settlers were -left entirely to their own resources. Lectures, -concert troupes, and shows never ventured far -into the wilderness. Yet there was much broad, -rollicking, noisy merrymaking, but it must be -confessed that rum and whiskey—lighter -liquors like wine and beer could not be obtained—had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> -a good deal to do with it.... -Schools, churches, and the various appliances -of older civilization got under way and made -some growth; but they were still in a primitive, -inchoate condition when Kansas took her place -in the Union.”</p> - -<p>There is hardly another American State in -which the social organization may be observed as -readily as in Kansas. For the reason that its -history and the later “social scene” constitute -so compact a picture I find myself returning -to it frequently for illustrations and comparisons. -Born amid tribulation, having indeed -been subjected to the ordeal of fire, Kansas -marks Puritanism’s farthest west; her people -are still proud to call their State “The Child -of Plymouth Rock.” The New Englanders -who settled the northeastern part of the Territory -were augmented after the Civil War by -men of New England stock who had established -themselves in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa when -the war began, and having acquired soldiers’ -homestead rights made use of them to pre-empt -land in the younger commonwealth. The influx -of veterans after Appomattox sealed the -right of Kansas to be called a typical American -State. “Kansas sent practically every able-bodied -man of military age to the Civil War,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> -says Mr. William Allen White, “and when they -came back literally hundreds of thousands of -other soldiers came with them and took homesteads.” -For thirty years after Kansas attained -Statehood her New Englanders were a dominating -factor in her development, and their influence -is still clearly perceptible. The State -may be considered almost as one vast plantation, -peopled by industrious, aspiring men and -women. Class distinctions are little known; -snobbery, where it exists, hides itself to avoid -ridicule; the State abounds in the “comfortably -well off” and the “well-to-do”; millionaires -are few and well tamed; every other family -boasts an automobile.</p> - -<p>While the political and economic results of -the Civil War have been much written of, its -influence upon the common relationships of -life in the border States that it so profoundly -affected are hardly less interesting. The pioneer -period was becoming a memory, the conditions -of life had grown comfortable, and there was -ease in Zion when the young generation met -a new demand upon their courage. Many were -permanently lifted out of the sphere to which -they were born and thrust forth into new avenues -of opportunity. This was not of course peculiar -to the West, though in the Mississippi valley<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> -the effects were so closely intermixed with those -of the strenuous post-bellum political history -that they are indelibly written into the record. -Local hostilities aroused by the conflict were of -long duration; the copperhead was never forgiven -for his disloyalty; it is remembered to -this day against his descendants. Men who, -in all likelihood, would have died in obscurity -but for the changes and chances of war rose -to high position. The most conspicuous of such -instances is afforded by Grant, whose circumstances -and prospects were the poorest when -Fame flung open her doors to him.</p> - -<p>Nothing pertaining to the war of the sixties -impresses the student more than the rapidity -with which reputations were made or lost or -the effect upon the participants of their military -experiences. From farms, shops, and -offices men were flung into the most stirring -scenes the nation had known. They emerged -with the glory of battle upon them to become -men of mark in their communities, wearing a -new civic and social dignity. It would be interesting -to know how many of the survivors -attained civil office as the reward of their valor; -in the Western States I should say that few -escaped some sort of recognition on the score -of their military services. In the city that I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> -know best of all, where for three decades at -least the most distinguished citizens—certainly -the most respected and honored—were -veterans of the Civil War, it has always seemed -to me remarkable and altogether reassuring as -proof that we need never fear the iron collar -of militarism, that those men of the sixties so -quickly readjusted themselves in peaceful occupations. -There were those who capitalized -their military achievements, but the vast number -had gone to war from the highest patriotic motives -and, having done their part, were glad to -be quit of it. The shifting about and the new -social experiences were responsible for many -romances. Men met and married women of -whose very existence they would have been -ignorant but for the fortunes of war, and in -these particulars history was repeating itself -last year before our greatest military adventure -had really begun!</p> - -<p>The sudden appearance of thousands of khaki-clad -young men in the summer and fall of 1917 -marked a new point of orientation in American -life. Romance mounted his charger again; -everywhere one met the wistful war bride. The -familiar academic ceremonials of college commencements -in the West as in the East were -transformed into tributes to the patriotism of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> -the graduates and undergraduates already under -arms and present in their new uniforms. These -young men, encountered in the street, in clubs, -in hurried visits to their offices as they transferred -their affairs to other hands, were impressively -serious and businesslike. In the -training-camps one heard familiar college songs -rather than battle hymns. Even country-club -dances and other functions given for the -entertainment of the young soldiers were lacking -in light-heartedness. In a Minneapolis -country club much affected by candidates for -commissions at Fort Snelling, the Saturday-night -dances closed with the playing of “The -Star-Spangled Banner”; every face turned instantly -toward the flag; every hand came to -salute; and the effect was to send the whole -company, young and old, soberly into the night. -In the three training and mobilizing camps that -I visited through the first months of preparation—Forts -Benjamin Harrison, Sheridan, and -Snelling—there was no ignoring the quiet, -dogged attitude of the sons of the West, who -had no hatred for the people they were enlisted -to fight (I heard many of them say this), but -were animated by a feeling that something -greater even than the dignity and security of -this nation, something of deep import to the -whole world had called them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>In “The American Scene” Mr. James ignored -the West, perhaps as lacking in those backgrounds -and perspectives that most strongly -appealed to him. It is for the reason that “polite -society,” as we find it in Western cities, -has only the scant pioneer background that I -have indicated that it is so surprising in the -dignity and richness of its manifestations. If -it is a meritorious thing for people in prosperous -circumstances to spend their money generously -and with good taste in the entertainment of -their friends, to effect combinations of the congenial -in balls, dinners, musicals, and the like, -then the social spectacle in the Western provinces -is not a negligible feature of their activities. If -an aristocracy is a desirable thing in America, -the West can, in its cities great and small, produce -it, and its quality and tone will be found -quite similar to the aristocracy of older communities. -We of the West are not so callous -as our critics would have us appear, and we -are only politely tolerant of the persistence with -which fiction and the drama are illuminated -with characters whose chief purpose is to illustrate -the raw vulgarity of Western civilization. -Such persons are no more acceptable socially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> -in Chicago, Minneapolis, or Denver than they -are in New York. The country is so closely -knit together that a fashionable gathering in -one place presents very much the appearance -of a similar function in another. New York, -socially speaking, is very hospitable to the -Southerner; the South has a tradition of aristocracy -that the West lacks. In both New -York and Boston a very different tone characterizes -the mention of a Southern girl and -any reference to a daughter of the West. The -Western girl may be every bit as “nice” and -just as cultivated as the Southern girl: they -would be indistinguishable one from the other -save for the Southern girl’s speech, which we -discover to be not provincial but “so charmingly -Southern.”</p> - -<p>Perhaps I may here safely record my impatience -of the pretension that provincialism is -anywhere admirable. A provincial character -may be interesting and amusing as a type; he -may be commendably curious about a great number -of things and even possess considerable information, -without being blessed with the vision -to correlate himself with the world beyond the -nearest haystack. I do not share the opinion -of some of my compatriots of the Western -provinces that our speech is really the standard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> -English, that the Western voice is impeccable, -or that culture and manners have attained -among us any noteworthy dignity that entitles -us to strut before the rest of the world. Culture -is not a term to be used lightly, and culture, -as, say, Matthew Arnold understood it -and labored to extend its sphere, is not more -respected in these younger States than elsewhere -in America. We are offering innumerable -vehicles of popular education; we point with -pride to public schools, State and privately -endowed universities, and to smaller colleges -of the noblest standards and aims; but, even -with these so abundantly provided, it cannot -be maintained that culture in its strict sense -cries insistently to the Western imagination. -There are people of culture, yes; there are -social expressions both interesting and charming; -but our preoccupations are mainly with -the utilitarian, an attitude wholly defensible -and explainable in the light of our newness, -the urgent need of bread-winning in our recent -yesterdays. However, with the easing in the -past fifty years of the conditions of life there -followed quite naturally a restlessness, an eagerness -to fill and drain the cup of enjoyment, that -was only interrupted by our entrance into the -world war. There are people, rich and poor,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> -in these States who are devotedly attached to -“whatsoever things are lovely,” but that they -exert any wide influence or color deeply the -social fabric is debatable. It is possible that -“sweetness and light,” as we shall ultimately -attain them, will not be an efflorescence of literature -or the fine arts, but a realization of justice, -highly conceived, and a perfected system of -government that will assure the happiness, -contentment, and peace of the great body of -our citizenry.</p> - -<p>In the smaller Western towns, especially -where the American stock is dominant, lines -of social demarcation are usually obscure to -the vanishing-point. Schools and churches are -here a democratizing factor, and a woman who -“keeps help” is very likely to be apologetic -about it; she is anxious to avoid the appearance -of “uppishness”—an unpardonable sin. -It is impossible for her to ignore the fact that -the “girl” in her kitchen has, very likely, gone -to school with her children or has been a member -of her Sunday-school class. The reluctance -of American girls to accept employment as -house-servants is an aversion not to be overcome -in the West. Thousands of women in -comfortable conditions of life manage their -homes without outside help other than that of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> -a neighborhood man or a versatile syndicate -woman who “comes in” to assist in a weekly -cleaning.</p> - -<p>There is a type of small-town woman who -makes something quite casual and incidental -of the day’s tasks. Her social enjoyments are -in no way hampered if, in entertaining company, -she prepares with her own hands the -viands for the feast. She takes the greatest -pride in her household; she is usually a capital -cook and is not troubled by any absurd feeling -that she has “demeaned” herself by preparing -and serving a meal. She does this exceedingly -well, and rises without embarrassment to change -the plates and bring in the salad. The salad is -excellent and she knows it is excellent and submits -with becoming modesty to praise of her -handiwork. In homes which it is the highest -privilege to visit a joke is made of the housekeeping. -The lady of the house performs the -various rites in keeping with maternal tradition -and the latest approved text-books. You may, -if you like, accompany her to the kitchen and -watch the broiling of your chop, noting the perfection -of the method before testing the result, -and all to the accompaniment of charming talk -about life and letters or what you will. Corporate -feeding in public mess-halls will make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> -slow headway with these strongly individualistic -women of the new generation who read prodigiously, -manage a baby with their eyes on -Pasteur, and are as proud of their biscuits -as of their club papers, which we know to be -admirable.</p> - -<p>Are women less prone to snobbishness than -men? Contrary to the general opinion, I think -they are. Their gentler natures shrink from unkindness, -from the petty cruelties of social differentiation -which may be made very poignant -in a town of five or ten thousand people, where -one cannot pretend with any degree of plausibility -that one does not know one’s neighbor, or -that the daughter of a section foreman or the -son of the second-best grocer did not sit beside -one’s own Susan or Thomas in the public school. -The banker’s offspring may find the children of -the owner of the stave-factory or the planing-mill -more congenial associates than the children -on the back streets; but when the banker’s -wife gives a birthday party for Susan the invitations -are not limited to the children of the -immediate neighbors but include every child in -town who has the slightest claim upon her hospitality. -The point seems to be established -that one may be poor and yet be “nice”; and -this is a very comforting philosophy and no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> -mean touchstone of social fitness. I may add -that the mid-Western woman, in spite of her -strong individualism in domestic matters, is, -broadly speaking, fundamentally socialistic. She -is the least bit uncomfortable at the thought of -inequalities of privilege and opportunity. Not -long ago I met in Chicago an old friend, a man -who has added greatly to an inherited fortune. -To my inquiry as to what he was doing in town -he replied ruefully that he was going to buy his -wife some clothes! He explained that in her -preoccupation with philanthropy and social -welfare she had grown not merely indifferent -to the call of fashion, but that she seriously -questioned her right to adorn herself while -her less-favored sisters suffered for life’s necessities. -This is an extreme case, though I can -from my personal acquaintance duplicate it -in half a dozen instances of women born to -ease and able to command luxury who very -sincerely share this feeling.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>The social edifice is like a cabinet of file-boxes -conveniently arranged so that they may be -drawn out and pondered by the curious. The -seeker of types is so prone to look for the eccentric,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> -the fantastic (and I am not without -my interest in these varieties), which so astonishingly -repeat themselves, that he is likely -to ignore the claims of the normal, the real -“folksy” bread-and-butter people who are, after -all, the mainstay of our democracy. They are -not to be scornfully waved aside as bourgeoisie, -or prodded with such ironies as Arnold applied -to the middle class in England. They -constitute the most interesting and admirable -of our social strata. There is nothing quite -like them in any other country; nowhere else -have comfort, opportunity, and aspiration produced -the same combination.</p> - -<p>The traveller’s curiosity is teased constantly, -as he cruises through the towns and cities of -the Middle West, by the numbers of homes -that cannot imaginably be maintained on less -than five thousand dollars a year. The -economic basis of these establishments invites -speculation; in my own city I am ignorant of -the means by which hundreds of such homes -are conducted—homes that testify to the -West’s growing good taste in domestic architecture -and shelter people whose ambitions are -worthy of highest praise. There was a time -not so remote when I could identify at sight -every pleasure vehicle in town. A man who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> -kept a horse and buggy was thought to be -“putting on” a little; if he set up a carriage -and two horses he was, unless he enjoyed public -confidence in the highest degree, viewed with -distrust and suspicion. When in the eighties -an Indianapolis bank failed, a cynical old citizen -remarked of its president that “no wonder -Blank busted, swelling ’round in a carriage -with a nigger in uniform”! Nowadays thousands -of citizens blithely disport themselves -in automobiles that cost several times the value -of that banker’s equipage. I have confided -my bewilderment to friends in other cities and -find the same ignorance of the economic foundation -of this prosperity. The existence, in -cities of one, two, and three hundred thousand -people of so many whom we may call non-producers—professional -men, managers, agents—offers -a stimulating topic for a doctoral thesis. -I am not complaining of this phenomenon—I -merely wonder about it.</p> - -<p>The West’s great natural wealth and extraordinary -development is nowhere more strikingly -denoted than in the thousands of comfortable -homes, in hundreds of places, set on forty or -eighty foot lots that were tilled land or forest -fifty or twenty years ago. Cruising through -the West, one enters every city through new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> -additions, frequently sliced out of old forests, -with the maples, elms, or beeches carefully -retained. Bungalows are inadvertently jotted -down as though enthusiastic young architects -were using the landscape for sketch-paper. I -have inspected large settlements in which no -two of these habitations are alike, though the -difference may be only a matter of pulling the -roof a little lower over the eyes of the veranda -or some idiosyncrasy in the matter of the chimney. -The trolley and the low-priced automobile -are continually widening the urban arc, so that -the acre lot or even a larger estate is within -the reach of city-dwellers who have a weakness -for country air and home-grown vegetables. -A hedge, a second barricade of hollyhocks, a -flower-box on the veranda rail, and a splash -of color when the crimson ramblers are in bloom—here -the hunter of types keeps his note-book -in hand and wishes that Henry Cuyler Bunner -were alive to bring his fine perceptions and -sympathies to bear upon these homes and their -attractive inmates.</p> - -<p>The young woman we see inspecting the -mignonette or admonishing the iceman to -greater punctuality in his deliveries, would -have charmed a lyric from Aldrich. The new -additions are, we know, contrived for her special<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> -delight. She and her neighbors are not to be -confounded with young wives in apartments -with kitchenette attached who lean heavily -upon the delicatessen-shop and find their sole -intellectual stimulus in vaudeville or the dumb -drama. It is inconceivable that any one should -surprise the mistresses of these bungalows in -a state of untidiness, that their babies should -not be sound and encouraging specimens of -the human race, or that the arrival of unexpected -guests should not find their pantries -fortified with delicious strawberries or transparent -jellies of their own conserving. These -young women and their equally young husbands -are the product of the high schools, or -perhaps they have been fellow students in a -State university. With all the world before -them where to choose and Providence their -guide, they have elected to attack life together -and they go about it joyfully. Let no one -imagine that they lead starved lives or lack -social diversion. Do the housekeepers not -gather on one another’s verandas every summer -afternoon to discuss the care of infants or wars -and rumors of wars; and is there not tennis -when their young lords come home? On occasions -of supreme indulgence the neighborhood -laundress watches the baby while they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> -go somewhere to dance or to a play, lecture, or -concert in town. They are all musical; indeed, -the whole Middle West is melodious with -the tinklings of what Mr. George Ade, with -brutal impiety, styles “the upright agony box.” -Or, denied the piano, these habitations at least -boast the tuneful disk and command at will -the voices of Farrar and Caruso.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>It is in summer that the Middle Western -provinces most candidly present themselves, -not only because the fields then publish their -richness but for the ease with which the people -may be observed. The study of types may -then be pursued along the multitudinous avenues -in which the Folks disport themselves in -search of pleasure. The smoothing-out processes, -to which schools, tailors, dressmakers, and -“shine-’em” parlors contribute, add to the perils -of the type-hunter. Mr. Howells’s remark of -twenty years ago or more, that the polish slowly -dims on footgear as one travels westward, has -ceased to be true; types once familiar are so -disguised or modified as to be unrecognizable. -Even the Western county-seat, long rich in -“character,” now flaunts the smartest apparel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> -in its shop-windows, and when it reappears in -Main Street upon the forms of the citizens one -is convinced of the local prosperity and good -taste. The keeper of the livery-stable, a stout -gentleman, who knows every man, woman, -and child in the county and aspires to the -shrievalty, has bowed before the all-pervasive -automobile. He has transformed his stable -into a garage (with a plate-glass “front” exposing -the latest model) and hides his galluses -(shamelessly exhibited in the day of the horse) -under a coat of modish cut, in deference to -the sensibilities of lady patrons. The country -lawyer is abandoning the trailing frock -coat, once the sacred vestment of his profession, -having found that the wrinkled tails -evoked unfavorable comment from his sons -and daughters when they came home from -college. The village drunkard is no longer -pointed out commiseratingly; local option and -State-wide prohibition have destroyed his usefulness -as an awful example, and his resourcefulness -is taxed to the utmost that he may keep -tryst with the skulking bootlegger.</p> - -<p>Every town used to have a usurer, a merchant -who was “mean” (both of these were -frequently pillars in the church), and a dishevelled -photographer whose artistic ability<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> -was measured by the success of his efforts to -make the baby laugh. He solaced himself with -the flute or violin between “sittings,” not wholly -without reference to the charms of the milliner -over the way. In the towns I have in mind -there was always the young man who would -have had a brilliant career but for his passion -for gambling, the aleatory means of his destruction -being an all-night poker-game in the -back room of his law-office opposite the court-house. -He may appropriately be grouped with -the man who had been ruined by “going security” -for a friend, who was spoken of pityingly -while the beneficiary of his misplaced confidence, -having gained affluence, was execrated. The race -is growing better and wiser, and by one means -and another these types have been forced from the -stage; or perhaps more properly it should be said -that the stage and the picture-screen alone seem -unaware that they have passed into oblivion.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_066.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">The Municipal Recreation Pier, Chicago.</p> - -<p>The town band remains, however, and it is -one of the mysteries of our civilization that -virtuosi, capable of performing upon any instrument, -exist in the smallest hamlet and meet -every Saturday night for practice in the lodge-room -over the grocery. I was both auditor and -spectator of such a rehearsal one night last -summer, in a small town in Illinois. From the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> -garage across the street it was possible to hear -and see the artists, and to be aware of the leader’s -zeal and his stern, critical attitude toward the -performers. He seized first the cornet and then -the trombone (Hoosierese, sliphorn) to demonstrate -the proper phrasing of a difficult passage. -The universal Main Street is made festive -on summer nights by the presence of the -town’s fairest daughters, clothed in white samite, -mystic, wonderful, who know every one and -gossip democratically with their friend the white-jacketed -young man who lords it at the druggist’s -soda-fountain. Such a group gathered -and commented derisively upon the experiments -of the musicians. That the cornetist was in -private life an assistant to the butcher touched -their humor; the evocation of melody and the -purveying of meat seemed to them irreconcilable. -In every such town there is a male quartette -that sings the old-time melodies at church -entertainments and other gatherings. These -vocalists add to the joy of living, and I should -lament their passing. Their efforts are more -particularly pleasing when, supplemented by -guitar and banjo, they move through verdurous -avenues thrumming and singing as they go. -Somewhere a lattice opens guardedly—how -young the world is!</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>The adventurous boy who, even in times of -peace, was scornful of formal education and -ran away to enlist in the navy or otherwise -sought to widen the cramped horizons of home—and -every town has this boy—still reappears -at intervals to report to his parents and -submit to the admiration and envy of his old -schoolmates in the Main Street bazaars. This -type endures and will, very likely, persist while -there are seas to cross and battles to be won. -The trumpetings of war stir the blood of such -youngsters, and since our entrance into the war -it has been my fortune to know many of them, -who were anxious to dare the skies or play with -death in the waters under the earth. The West -has no monopoly of courage or daring, but it -was reassuring to find that the best blood of -the Great Valley thrilled to the cry of the bugle. -On a railway-train I fell into talk with a young -officer of the national army. Finding that I -knew the president of the Western college that -he had attended, he sketched for me a career -which, in view of his twenty-six years, was almost -incredible. At eighteen he had enlisted in -the navy in the hope of seeing the world, but -had been assigned to duty as a hospital orderly. -Newport had been one of his stations; there -and at other places where he had served he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> -spent his spare hours in study. When he was -discharged he signed papers on a British merchant -vessel. The ship was short-handed and -he was enrolled as an able seaman, which, he -said, was an unwarranted compliment, as he -proved to the captain’s satisfaction when he -was sent to the wheel and nearly (as he put it) -bowled over a lighthouse. His voyages had -carried him to the Orient and the austral seas. -After these wanderings he was realizing an -early ambition to go to college when the war-drum -sounded. He had taken the training at -an officer’s reserve camp and was on his way to -his first assignment. The town he mentioned -as his home is hardly more than a whistling-point -for locomotives, and I wondered later, -as I flashed through it, just what stirring of the -spirit had made its peace intolerable and sent -him roaming.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> At a club dinner I met another -man, born not far from the town that produced -my sailor-soldier, who had fought with the -Canadian troops from the beginning of the -war until discharged because of wounds received -on the French front. His pocketful of -medals—he carried them boyishly, like so -many marbles, in his trousers pocket!—included -the <i>croix de guerre</i>, and he had been -decorated at Buckingham Palace by King<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> -George. He had been a wanderer from boyhood, -his father told me, visiting every part of -the world that promised adventure and, incidentally, -was twice wounded in the Boer War.</p> - -<p>The evolution of a type is not, with Mother -Nature, a hasty business, and in attempting -to answer an inquiry for a definition of the -typical mid-Western girl, I am disposed to -spare myself humiliating refutations by declaring -that there is no such thing. In the -Rocky Mountain States and in California, we -know, if the motion-picture purveyors may -be trusted, that the typical young woman of -those regions always wears a sombrero and -lives upon the back of a bronco. However, in -parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, where there -has been a minimum of intermixture since the -original settlements, one is fairly safe in the -choice of types. I shall say that in this particular -territory the typical young woman is brown-haired, -blue or brown of eye, of medium height, -with a slender, mobile face that is reminiscent -of Celtic influences. Much Scotch-Irish blood -flowed into the Ohio valley in the early immigration, -and the type survives. In the streets -and in public gatherings in Wisconsin and -Minnesota the German and Scandinavian infusion -is clearly manifest. On the lake-docks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> -and in lumber-camps the big fellows of the -North in their Mackinaw coats and close-fitting -knit caps impart a heroic note to the landscape. -In January, 1917, having gone to St. Paul to -witness the winter carnival, I was struck by the -great number of tall, fair men who, in their gay -holiday attire, satisfied the most exacting ideal -of the children of the vikings. They trod the -snow with kingly majesty, and to see their performances -on skis is to be persuaded that the -sagas do not exaggerate the daring of their -ancestors.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="first">“What was that?” said Olaf, standing</div> -<div class="indent">On the quarter deck.</div> -<div class="first">“Something heard I like the stranding</div> -<div class="indent">Of a shattered wreck.”</div> -<div class="verse">Einar then, the arrow taking</div> -<div class="indent">From the loosened string,</div> -<div class="verse">Answered “that was Norway breaking</div> -<div class="indent">From thy hand, O king!”</div> -</div></div> - -<p>The search for characteristic traits is likely -to be more fruitful of tangible results than the -attempt to fix physical types, and the Western -girl who steps from the high schools to the State -universities that so hospitably open their doors -to her may not be <i>the</i> type, but she is indubitably -<i>a</i> type, well defined. The lore of the ages -has been preserved and handed down for her -special benefit and she absorbs and assimilates<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> -it with ease and grace. Man is no enigma to -her; she begins her analysis of the male in high -school, and the university offers a post-graduate -course in the species. Young men are not more -serious over the affairs of their Greek-letter -societies than these young women in the management -of their sororities, which seem, after school-days, -to call for constant reunions. It is not -surprising that the Western woman has so valiantly -fought for and won recognition of her -rights as a citizen. A girl who has matched -her wits against boys in the high school and -again in a State university, and very likely has -surpassed them in scholarship, must be forgiven -for assuming that the civil rights accorded them -cannot fairly be withheld from her. The many -thousands of young women who have taken -degrees in these universities have played havoc -with the Victorian tradition of womanhood. -They constitute an independent, self-assured -body, zealous in social and civic service, and -not infrequently looking forward to careers.</p> - -<p>The State university is truly a well-spring -of democracy; this may not be said too emphatically. -There is evidence of the pleasantest -comradeship between men and women students, -and one is impressed in classrooms by the prevailing -good cheer and earnestness.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="first">“And one said, smiling, Pretty were the sight</div> -<div class="verse">If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt</div> -<div class="verse">With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans,</div> -<div class="verse">And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.”</div> -</div></div> - -<p>Mild flirtations are not regarded as detrimental -to the attainment of sound or even -distinguished scholarship. The university’s social -life may be narrow, but it is ampler than -that of the farm or “home town.” Against -the argument that these institutions tend to -the promotion of provincial insularity, it may -be said that there is a compensating benefit -in the mingling of students drawn largely from -a single commonwealth. A gentleman whose -education was gained in one of the older Eastern -universities and in Europe remarked to me -that, as his son expected to succeed him in the -law, he was sending him to the university of -his own State, for the reason that he would -meet there young men whose acquaintance -would later be of material assistance to him -in his profession.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>The value of the Great Lakes as a social and -recreational medium is hardly less than their -importance as commercial highways. The saltless -seas are lined with summer colonies and in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> -all the lake cities piers and beaches are a boon -to the many who seek relief from the heat which -we of the West always speak of defensively as -essential to the perfecting of the corn that is -our pride. Chicago’s joke that it is the best of -summer resorts is not without some foundation; -certainly one may find there every variety of -amusement except salt-water bathing. The -salt’s stimulus is not missed apparently by the -vast number of citizens—estimated at two -hundred thousand daily during the fiercest -heat—who disport themselves on the shore. -The new municipal pier is a prodigious structure, -and I know of no place in America where -the student of mankind may more profitably -plant himself for an evening of contemplation.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_074.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Types and diversions.<br /> - -A popular bathing beach on Lake Erie, near the -town of Sandusky.</p> - -<p>What struck me in a series of observations -of the people at play, extending round the lakes -from Chicago to Cleveland, was the general -good order and decorum. At Detroit I was introduced -to two dancing pavilions on the riverside, -where the prevailing sobriety was most -depressing in view of my promise to the illustrator -that somewhere in our pilgrimage I -should tax his powers with scenes of depravity -and violence. A quarter purchased a string of -six tickets, and one of these deposited in a box -entitled the owner to take the floor with a partner.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> -As soon as a dance and its several encores -was over the floor cleared instantly and one -was required to relinquish another ticket. There -and in a similar dance-hall in a large Cleveland -amusement park fully one-third of the patrons -were young women who danced together -throughout the evening, and often children -tripped into the picture. Chaperonage was afforded -by vigilant parents comfortably established -in the balcony. The Cleveland resort, -accessible to any one for a small fee, interested -me particularly because the people were so -well apparelled, so “good-looking,” and the -atmosphere was so charged with the spirit of -neighborliness. The favorite dances there were -the waltz (old style), the fox-trot, and the -schottische. I confess that this recrudescence -of the schottische in Cleveland, a progressive -city that satisfies so many of the cravings of -the aspiring soul—the home of three-cent car-fares -and a noble art museum—greatly astonished -me. But for the fact that warning of -each number was flashed on the wall I should -not have trusted my judgment that what I -beheld was, indeed, the schottische. Frankly -I do not care for the schottische, and it may -have been that my tone or manner betokened -resentment at its revival; at any rate a policeman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> -whom I interviewed outside the pavilion -eyed me with suspicion when I expressed surprise -that the schottische was so frequently announced. -When I asked why the one-step was -ignored utterly he replied contemptuously that -no doubt I could find places around Cleveland -where that kind of rough stuff was permitted, -but “it don’t go <i>here</i>!” I did not undertake -to defend the one-step to so stern a moralist, -though it was in his eye that he wished me to -do so that he might reproach me for my worldliness. -I do not believe he meant to be unjust -or harsh or even that he appraised me at once -as a seeker of the rough stuff he abhorred; I -had merely provided him with an excuse for -proclaiming the moral standards of the city -of Cleveland, which are high. I made note of -the persistence of the Puritan influence in the -Western Reserve and hastily withdrew in the -direction of the trolley.</p> - -<p>Innumerable small lakes lie within the far-flung -arms of the major lakes adding variety -and charm to a broad landscape, and offering -summer refuge to a host of vacationists. -Northern Indiana is plentifully sprinkled with -lakes and ponds; in Michigan, Wisconsin, and -Minnesota there are thousands of them. I am -moved to ask—is a river more companionable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> -than a lake? I had always felt that a river -had the best of the argument, as more neighborly -and human, and I am still disposed to -favor those streams of Maine that are played -upon by the tides; but an acquaintance with -a great number of these inland saucerfuls of -blue water has made me their advocate. Happy -is the town that has a lake for its back yard! -The lakes of Minneapolis (there are ten within -the municipal limits) are the distinguishing -feature of that city. They seem to have been -planted just where they are for the sole purpose -of adorning it, and they have been protected -and utilized with rare prevision and -judgment. To those who would chum with a -river, St. Paul offers the Mississippi, where -the battlements of the University Club project -over a bluff from which the Father of Waters -may be admired at leisure, and St. Paul will, -if you insist, land you in one of the most delightful -of country clubs on the shore of White -Bear Lake. I must add that the country club -has in the Twin Cities attained a rare state of -perfection. That any one should wing far afield -from either town in summer seems absurd, so -blest are both in opportunities for outdoor -enjoyment.</p> - -<p>Just how far the wide-spread passion for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> -knitting has interfered with more vigorous -sports among our young women I am unable -to say, but the loss to links and courts in the -Western provinces must have been enormous. -The Minikahda Club of Minneapolis was illuminated -one day by a girls’ luncheon. These -radiant young beings entered the dining-room -knitting—knitting as gravely as though they -were weaving the destinies of nations—and -maybe they were! The small confusions and -perplexities of seating the party of thirty were -increased by the dropping of balls of yarn—and -stitches! The round table seemed to be looped -with yarn, as though the war overseas were -tightening its cords about those young women, -whose brothers and cousins and sweethearts -were destined to the battle-line.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_078.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">On a craft plying the waters of Erie I found all of the conditions of a happy<br /> -outing and types that it is always a joy to meet.</p> - -<p>Longfellow celebrated in song “The Four -Lakes of Madison,” which he apostrophized -as “lovely handmaids.” I treasure the memory -of an approach round one of these lakes to -Wisconsin’s capitol (one of the few American -State-houses that doesn’t look like an appropriation!) -through a mist that imparted to the -dome an inthralling illusion of detachment -from the main body of the building. The -first star twinkled above it; perhaps it was -Wisconsin’s star that had wandered out of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> -galaxy to symbolize for an hour the State’s -sovereignty!</p> - - - -<p>Whatever one may miss on piers and in -amusement parks in the way of types may be -sought with confidence on the excursion steamers -that ply the lakes—veritable arks in which -humanity in countless varieties may be observed. -The voyager is satisfied that the banana -and peanut and the innocuous “pop” are the -ambrosia and nectar of our democracy. Before -the boat leaves the dock the deck is littered; -one’s note-book bristles with memoranda of -the untidiness and disorder. On a craft plying -the waters of Erie I found all the conditions -of a happy outing and types that it is always a -joy to meet. The village “cut-up,” dashingly -perched on the rail; the girl who is never so -happy as when organizing and playing games; -the young man who yearns to join her group, -but is prevented by unconquerable shyness; -the child that, carefully planted in the most -crowded and inaccessible part of the deck, develops -a thirst that results in the constant agitation -of half the ship as his needs are satisfied. -There is, inevitably, a woman of superior breeding -who has taken passage on the boat by mistake, -believing it to be first-class, which it so -undeniably is not; and if you wear a sympathetic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> -countenance she will confide to you her -indignation. The crunching of the peanut-shell, -the poignant agony of the child that has loved -the banana not wisely but too well, are an affront -to this lady. She announces haughtily -that she’s sure the boat is overcrowded, which -it undoubtedly is, and that she means to report -this trifling with human life to the authorities. -That any one should covet the cloistral calm -of a private yacht when the plain folks are so -interesting and amusing is only another proof -of the constant struggle of the aristocratic ideal -to fasten itself upon our continent.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_080.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">The Perry monument at Put-in Bay.<br /> - -A huge column of concrete erected in commemoration<br /> -of Commodore Perry’s victory.</p> - -<p>Below there was a dining-saloon, but its -seclusion was not to be preferred to an assault -upon a counter presided over by one of the -most remarkable young men I have ever seen. -He was tall and of a slenderness, with a -wonderful mane of fair hair brushed straight -back from his pale brow. As he tossed sandwiches -and slabs of pie to the importunate he -jerked his hair into place with a magnificent -fling of the head. In moments when the appeals -of starving supplicants became insistent, -and he was confused by the pressure for attention, -he would rake his hair with his fingers, -and then, wholly composed, swing round and -resume the filling of orders. The young man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> -from the check-room went to his assistance, -but I felt that he resented this as an impertinence, -a reflection upon his prowess. He needed -no assistance; before that clamorous company -he was the pattern of urbanity. His locks were -his strength and his consolation; not once was -his aplomb shaken, not even when a stocky -gentleman fiercely demanded a whole pie!</p> - - - -<p>While Perry’s monument, a noble seamark -at Put-in-Bay, is a reminder that the lakes -have played their part in American history, it -is at Mackinac that one experiences a sense of -antiquity. The white-walled fort is a link between -the oldest and the newest, and the imagination -quickens at the thought of the first -adventurous white man who ever braved the -uncharted waters; while the eye follows the -interminable line of ore barges bound for the -steel-mills on the southern curve of Michigan -or on the shores of Erie. Commerce in these -waters began with the fur-traders travelling in -canoes; then came sailing vessels carrying -supplies to the new camps and settlements -and returning with lumber or produce; but -to-day sails are rare and the long leviathans, -fascinating in their apparent unwieldiness and -undeniable ugliness, are the dominant medium -of transportation.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>One night, a few years ago, on the breezy -terrace of one of the handsomest villas in the -lake region, I talked with the head of a great -industry whose products are known round the -world. His house, furnished with every comfort -and luxury, was gay with music and the -laughter of young folk. Through the straits -crawled the ships, bearing lumber, grain, and -ore, signalling their passing in raucous blasts -to the lookout at St. Ignace. My host spoke -with characteristic simplicity and deep feeling -of the poverty of his youth (he came to America -an immigrant) and of all that America had -meant to him. He was near the end of his days -and I have thought often of that evening, of -his seigniorial dignity and courtesy, of the portrait -he so unconsciously drew of himself against -a background adorned with the rich reward -of his laborious years. And as he talked it -seemed that the power of the West, the prodigious -energies of its forests and fields and -hills, its enormous potentialities of opportunity, -became something concrete and tangible, that -flowed in an irresistible tide through the heart -of the nation.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III<br /> - - -THE FARMER OF THE MIDDLE WEST</h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>That it may please Thee to give and preserve to our use the -kindly fruits of the earth, so that in due time we may enjoy -them.—<i>The Litany.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p class="drop-cap">WHEN spring marches up the Mississippi -valley and the snows of the -broad plains find companionship with -the snows of yesteryear, the traveller, journeying -east or west, is aware that life has awakened -in the fields. The winter wheat lies green upon -countless acres; thousands of ploughshares turn -the fertile earth; the farmer, after the enforced -idleness of winter, is again a man of action.</p> - -<p>Last year (1917), that witnessed our entrance -into the greatest of wars, the American farmer -produced 3,159,000,000 bushels of corn, 660,000,000 -bushels of wheat, 1,587,000,000 bushels of -oats, 60,000,000 bushels of rye. From the day -of our entrance into the world struggle against -autocracy the American farm has been the -subject of a new scrutiny. In all the chancelleries -of the world crop reports and estimates -are eagerly scanned and tabulated, for while -the war lasts and far into the period of rehabilitation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> -and reconstruction that will follow, -America must bear the enormous responsibility, -not merely of training and equipping -armies, building ships, and manufacturing munitions, -but of feeding the nations. The farmer -himself is roused to a new consciousness of his -importance; he is aware that thousands of -hands are thrust toward him from over the -sea, that every acre of his soil and every ear -of corn and bushel of wheat in his bins or in -process of cultivation has become a factor in -the gigantic struggle to preserve and widen -the dominion of democracy.</p> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>“Better be a farmer, son; the corn grows -while you sleep!”</p> - -<p>This remark, addressed to me in about my -sixth year by my great-uncle, a farmer in central -Indiana, lingered long in my memory. There -was no disputing his philosophy; corn, intelligently -planted and tended, undoubtedly grows -at night as well as by day. But the choice of -seed demands judgment, and the preparation -of the soil and the subsequent care of the growing -corn exact hard labor. My earliest impressions -of farm life cannot be dissociated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> -from the long, laborious days, the monotonous -plodding behind the plough, the incidental -“chores,” the constant apprehensions as to -drought or flood. The country cousins I visited -in Indiana and Illinois were all too busy to -have much time for play. I used to sit on the -fence or tramp beside the boys as they drove -the plough, or watch the girls milk the cows or -ply the churn, oppressed by an overmastering -homesickness. And when the night shut down -and the insect chorus floated into the quiet -house the isolation was intensified.</p> - -<p>My father and his forebears were born and -bred to the soil; they scratched the earth all -the way from North Carolina into Kentucky -and on into Indiana and Illinois. I had just -returned, last fall, from a visit to the grave of -my grandfather in a country churchyard in -central Illinois, round which the corn stood in -solemn phalanx, when I received a note from -my fifteen-year-old boy, in whom I had hopefully -looked for atavistic tendencies. From -his school in Connecticut he penned these depressing -tidings:</p> - -<p>“I have decided never to be a farmer. -Yesterday the school was marched three miles -to a farm where the boys picked beans all afternoon -and then walked back. Much as I like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> -beans and want to help Mr. Hoover conserve -our resources, this was rubbing it in. I never -want to see a bean again.”</p> - -<p>I have heard a score of successful business -and professional men say that they intended -to “make farmers” of their boys, and a number -of these acquaintances have succeeded in sending -their sons through agricultural schools, but -the great-grandchildren of the Middle Western -pioneers are not easily persuaded that farming -is an honorable calling.</p> - -<p>It isn’t necessary for gentlemen who watch -the tape for crop forecasts to be able to differentiate -wheat from oats to appreciate the -importance to the prosperous course of general -business of a big yield in the grain-fields; but -to the average urban citizen farming is something -remote and uninteresting, carried on by -men he never meets in regions that he only -observes hastily from a speeding automobile -or the window of a limited train. Great numbers -of Middle Western city men indulge in farming -as a pastime—and in a majority of cases it is, -from the testimony of these absentee proprietors, -a pleasant recreation but an expensive one. -However, all city men who gratify a weakness -for farming are not faddists; many such land-owners -manage their plantations with intelligence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> -and make them earn dividends. Mr. -George Ade’s Indiana farm, Hazelden, is one -of the State’s show-places. The playwright -and humorist says that its best feature is a -good nine-hole golf-course and a swimming-pool, -but from his “home plant” of 400 acres -he cultivates 2,000 acres of fertile Hoosier soil.</p> - -<p>A few years ago a manufacturer of my acquaintance, -whose family presents a clear urban -line for a hundred years, purchased a farm on -the edge of a river—more, I imagine, for the -view it afforded of a pleasant valley than because -of its fertility. An architect entered -sympathetically into the business of making -habitable a century-old log house, a transition -effected without disturbing any of the timbers -or the irregular lines of floors and ceilings. So -much time was spent in these restorations and -readjustments that the busy owner in despair -fell upon a mail-order catalogue to complete -his preparations for occupancy. A barn, tenant’s -house, poultry-house, pump and windmill, fencing, -and every vehicle and tool needed on the -place, including a barometer and wind-gauge, -he ordered by post. His joy in his acres was -second only to his satisfaction in the ease with -which he invoked all the apparatus necessary -to his comfort. Every item arrived exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> -as the catalogue promised; with the hired man’s -assistance he fitted the houses together and -built a tower for the windmill out of concrete -made in a machine provided by the same establishment. -His only complaint was that the -catalogue didn’t offer memorial tablets, as he -thought it incumbent upon him to publish in -brass the merits of the obscure pioneer who -had laboriously fashioned his cabin before the -convenient method of post-card ordering had -been discovered.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>Imaginative literature has done little to invest -the farm with glamour. The sailor and -the warrior, the fisherman and the hunter are -celebrated in song and story, but the farmer -has inspired no ringing saga or iliad, and the -lyric muse has only added to the general joyless -impression of the husbandman’s life. Hesiod -and Virgil wrote with knowledge of farming; -Virgil’s instructions to the ploughman only -need to be hitched to a tractor to bring them -up to date, and he was an authority on weather -signs. But Horace was no farmer; the Sabine -farm is a joke. The best Gray could do for -the farmer was to send him homeward plodding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> -his weary way. Burns, at the plough, apostrophized -the daisy, but only by indirection -did he celebrate the joys of farm life. Wordsworth’s -“Solitary Reaper” sang a melancholy -strain; “Snow-Bound” offers a genial picture, -but it is of winter-clad fields. Carleton’s “Farm -Ballads” sing of poverty and domestic infelicity. -Riley made a philosopher and optimist of his -Indiana farmer, but his characters are to be -taken as individuals rather than as types. There -is, I suppose, in every Middle Western county -a quizzical, quaint countryman whose sayings -are quoted among his neighbors, but the man -with a hundred acres of land to till, wood to -cut, and stock to feed is not greatly given to -poetry or humor.</p> - -<p>English novels of rural life are numerous -but they are usually in a low key. I have a -lingering memory of Hardy’s “Woodlanders” -as a book of charm, and his tragic “Tess” is -probably fiction’s highest venture in this field. -“Lorna Doone” I remember chiefly because -it established in me a distaste for mutton. -George Eliot and George Meredith are other -English novelists who have written of farm -life, nor may I forget Mr. Eden Phillpotts. -French fiction, of course, offers brilliant exceptions -to the generalization that literature<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> -has neglected the farmer; but, in spite of the -vast importance of the farm in American life, -there is in our fiction no farm novel of distinction. -Mr. Hamlin Garland, in “Main Traveled -Roads” and in his autobiographical chronicle -“A Son of the Middle Border,” has thrust his -plough deep; but the truth as we know it to -be disclosed in these instances is not heartening. -The cowboy is the jolliest figure in our -fiction, the farmer the dreariest. The shepherd -and the herdsman have fared better in all literatures -than the farmer, perhaps because their -vocations are more leisurely and offer opportunities -for contemplation denied the tiller of -the soil. The Hebrew prophets and poets were -mindful of the pictorial and illustrative values -of herd and flock. It is written, “Our cattle -also shall go with us,” and, journeying across -the mountain States, where there is always a -herd blurring the range, one thinks inevitably -of man’s long migration in quest of the Promised -Land.</p> - -<p>The French peasant has his place in art, but -here again we are confronted by joylessness, -though I confess that I am resting my case -chiefly upon Millet. What Remington did for -the American cattle-range no one has done for -the farm. Fields of corn and wheat are painted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> -truthfully and effectively, but the critics have -withheld their highest praise from these performances. -Perhaps a corn-field is not a proper -subject for the painter; or it may be that the -Maine rocks or a group of birches against a -Vermont hillside “compose” better or are supported -by a nobler tradition. The most alluring -pictures I recall of farm life have been advertisements -depicting vast fields of wheat through -which the delighted husbandman drives a reaper -with all the jauntiness of a king practising for -a chariot-race.</p> - -<p>I have thus run skippingly through the catalogues -of bucolic literature and art to confirm -my impression as a layman that farming is -not an affair of romance, poetry, or pictures, -but a business, exacting and difficult, that may -be followed with success only by industrious -and enlightened practitioners. The first settlers -of the Mississippi valley stand out rather more -attractively than their successors of what I -shall call the intermediate period. There was -no turning back for the pioneers who struck -boldly into the unknown, knowing that if they -failed to establish themselves and solve the -problem of subsisting from the virgin earth -they would perish. The battle was to the strong, -the intelligent, the resourceful. The first years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> -on a new farm in wilderness or prairie were a -prolonged contest between man and nature, -nature being as much a foe as an ally. That the -social spark survived amid arduous labor and -daily self-sacrifice is remarkable; that the earth -was subdued to man’s will and made to yield -him its kindly fruits is a tribute to the splendid -courage and indomitable faith of the settlers.</p> - -<p>These Middle Western pioneers were in the -fullest sense the sons of democracy. The -Southern planter with the traditions of the -English country gentleman behind him and, -in slavery time, representing a survival of the -feudal order, had no counterpart in the West, -where the settler was limited in his holdings to -the number of acres that he and his sons could -cultivate by their own labor. I explored, last -year, much of the Valley of Democracy, both -in seed-time and in harvest. We had been -drawn at last into the world war, and its demands -and conjectures as to its outcome were -upon the lips of men everywhere. It was impossible -to avoid reflecting upon the part these -plains have played in the history of America -and the increasing part they are destined to -play in the world history of the future. Every -wheat shoot, every stalk of corn was a new -testimony to the glory of America. Not an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> -acre of land but had been won by intrepid -pioneers who severed all ties but those that -bound them to an ideal, whose only tangible -expression was the log court-house where they -recorded the deeds for their land or the military -post that afforded them protection. At -Decatur, Illinois, one of these first court-houses -still stands, and we are told that within its walls -Lincoln often pleaded causes. American democracy -could have no finer monument than -this; the imagination quickens at the thought of -similar huts reared by the axes of the pioneers -to establish safeguards of law and order on -new soil almost before they had fashioned their -habitations. It seemed to me that if the Kaiser -had known the spirit in which these august -fields were tamed and peopled, or the aspirations, -the aims and hopes that are represented -in every farmhouse and ranch-house between -the Alleghanies and the Rockies, he would not so -contemptuously have courted our participation -against him in his war for world domination.</p> - -<p>What I am calling, for convenience, the intermediate -period in the history of the Mississippi -valley, began when the rough pioneering -was over, and the sons of the first settlers came -into an inheritance of cleared land. In the -Ohio valley the Civil War found the farmer at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> -ease; to the west and northwest we must set -the date further along. The conditions of this -intermediate period may not be overlooked in -any scrutiny of the farmer of these changed -and changing times. When the cloud of the -Civil War lifted and the West began asserting -itself in the industrial world, the farmer, viewing -the smoke-stacks that advertised the entrance -of the nearest towns and cities into manufacturing, -became a man with a grievance, who -bitterly reflected that when rumors of “good -times” reached him he saw no perceptible change -in his own fortunes or prospects, and in “bad -times” he felt himself the victim of hardship -and injustice. The glory of pioneering had -passed with his father and grandfather; they -had departed, leaving him without their incentive -of urgent necessity or the exultance of -conquest. There may have been some weakening -of the fibre, or perhaps it was only a lessening -of the tension now that the Indians had been -dispersed and the fear of wild beasts lifted from -his household.</p> - -<p>There were always, of course, men who were -pointed to as prosperous, who for one reason -or another “got ahead” when others fell behind. -They not only held their acres free of -mortgage but added to their holdings. These<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> -men were very often spoken of as “close,” or -tight-fisted; in Mr. Brand Whitlock’s phrase -they were “not rich, but they had money.” -And, having money and credit, they were sharply -differentiated from their neighbors who were -forever borrowing to cover a shortage. These -men loomed prominently in their counties; -they took pride in augmenting the farms inherited -from pioneer fathers; they might sit -in the State legislature or even in the national -Congress. But for many years the farmer was -firmly established in the mind of the rest of the -world as an object of commiseration. He occupied -an anomalous position in the industrial -economy. He was a landowner without enjoying -the dignity of a capitalist; he performed -the most arduous tasks without recognition by -organized labor. He was shabby, dull, and -uninteresting. He drove to town over a bad -road with a load of corn, and, after selling or -bartering it, negotiated for the renewal of his -mortgage and stood on the street corner, an -unheroic figure, until it was time to drive home. -He symbolized hard work, hard luck, and discouragement. -The saloon, the livery-stable, -and the grocery where he did his trading were -his only loafing-places. The hotel was inhospitable; -he spent no money there and the proprietor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> -didn’t want “rubes” or “jays” hanging -about. The farmer and his wife ate their midday -meal in the farm-wagon or at a restaurant -on the “square” where the frugal patronage -of farm folk was not despised.</p> - -<p>The type I am describing was often wasteful -and improvident. The fact that a degree of -mechanical skill was required for the care of -farm-machinery added to his perplexities; and -this apparatus he very likely left out-of-doors -all winter for lack of initiative to build a shed -to house it. I used to pass frequently a farm -where a series of reapers in various stages of -decrepitude decorated the barn-lot, with always -a new one to heighten the contrast.</p> - -<p>The social life of the farmer centred chiefly -in the church, where on the Sabbath day he -met his neighbors and compared notes with -them on the state of the crops. Sundays on -the farm I recall as days of gloom that brought -an intensification of week-day homesickness. -The road was dusty; the church was hot; the -hymns were dolorously sung to the accompaniment -of a wheezy organ; the sermon was long, -strongly flavored with brimstone, and did -nothing to lighten</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="indent4">“the heavy and the weary weight</div> -<div class="verse">Of all this unintelligible world.”</div> -</div></div> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>The horses outside stamped noisily in their -efforts to shake off the flies. A venturous bee -might invade the sanctuary and arouse hope -in impious youngsters of an attack upon the -parson—a hope never realized! The preacher’s -appetite alone was a matter for humor; I once -reported a Methodist conference at which the -succulence of the yellow-legged chickens in a -number of communities that contended for the -next convocation was debated for an hour. -The height of the country boy’s ambition was -to break a colt and own a side-bar buggy in -which to take a neighbor’s daughter for a drive -on Sunday afternoon.</p> - -<p>Community gatherings were rare; men lived -and died in the counties where they were born, -“having seen nothing, still unblest.” County -and State fairs offered annual diversion, and -the more ambitious farmers displayed their -hogs and cattle, or mammoth ears of corn, and -reverently placed their prize ribbons in the -family Bibles on the centre-tables of their sombre -parlors. Cheap side-shows and monstrosities, -horse-races and balloon ascensions were -provided for their delectation, as marking the -ultimate height of their intellectual interests. -A characteristic “Riley story” was of a farmer -with a boil on the back of his neck, who spent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> -a day at the State fair waiting for the balloon -ascension. He inquired repeatedly: “Has the -balloon gone up yit?” Of course when the -ascension took place he couldn’t lift his head -to see the balloon, but, satisfied that it really -had “gone up,” he contentedly left for home. -(It may be noted here that the new status of -the farmer is marked by an improvement in -the character of amusements offered by State-fair -managers. Most of the Western States -have added creditable exhibitions of paintings -to their attractions, and in Minnesota these -were last year the subject of lectures that proved -to be very popular.)</p> - -<p>The farmer, in the years before he found -that he must become a scientist and a business -man to achieve success, was the prey of a great -variety of sharpers. Tumble-down barns bristled -with lightning-rods that cost more than -the structures were worth. A man who had -sold cooking-ranges to farmers once told me of -the delights of that occupation. A carload of -ranges would be shipped to a county-seat and -transferred to wagons. It was the agent’s game -to arrive at the home of a good “prospect” -shortly before noon, take down the old, ramshackle -cook-stove, set up the new and glittering -range, and assist the womenfolk to prepare<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> -a meal. The farmer, coming in from the fields -and finding his wife enchanted, would order a -range and sign notes for payment. These obligations, -after the county had been thoroughly -exploited, would be discounted at the local bank. -In this way the farmer’s wife got a convenient -range she would never have thought of buying -in town, and her husband paid an exorbitant -price for it.</p> - -<p>The farmer’s wife was, in this period to which -I am referring, a poor drudge who appeared at -the back door of her town customers on Saturday -mornings with eggs and butter. She was -copartner with her husband, but, even though -she might have “brought” him additional acres -at marriage, her spending-money was limited -to the income from butter, eggs, and poultry, -and even this was dependent upon the generosity -of the head of the house. Her kitchen -was furnished with only the crudest housewifery -apparatus; labor-saving devices reached -her slowly. In busy seasons, when there were -farm-hands to cook for, she might borrow a -neighbor’s daughter to help her. Her only -relief came when her own daughters grew old -enough to assist in her labors. She was often -broken down, a prey to disease, before she -reached middle life. Her loneliness, the dreary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> -monotony of her existence, the prevailing hopelessness -of never “catching up” with her sewing -and mending, often drove her insane. The -farmhouse itself was a desolate place. There -is a mustiness I associate with farmhouses—the -damp stuffiness of places never reached by -the sun. With all the fresh air in the world to -draw from, thousands of farmhouses were ill-lighted -and ill-ventilated, and farm sanitation -was of the most primitive order.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_100.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">A typical old homestead of the Middle West.<br /> - -The farm on which Tecumseh was born.</p> - -<p>I have dwelt upon the intermediate period -merely to heighten the contrast with the new -era—an era that finds the problem of farm -regeneration put squarely up to the farmer.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>The new era really began with the passage -of the Morrill Act, approved July 2, 1862, -though it is only within a decade that the effects -of this law upon the efficiency and the -character of the farmer have been markedly -evident. The Morrill Act not only made the -first provision for wide-spread education in -agriculture but lighted the way for subsequent -legislation that resulted in the elevation of -the Department of Agriculture to a cabinet -bureau, the system of agriculture experiment-stations,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> -the co-operation of federal and State -bureaus for the diffusion of scientific knowledge -pertaining to farming and the breeding and -care of live-stock, and the recent introduction of -vocational training into country schools.</p> - - - -<p>It was fitting that Abraham Lincoln, who had -known the hardest farm labor, should have -signed a measure of so great importance, that -opened new possibilities to the American farmer. -The agricultural colleges established under his -Act are impressive monuments to Senator Morrill’s -far-sightedness. When the first land-grant -colleges were opened there was little upon which -to build courses of instruction. Farming was -not recognized as a science but was a form of -hard labor based on tradition and varied only -by reckless experiments that usually resulted in -failure. The first students of the agricultural -schools, drawn largely from the farm, were discouraged -by the elementary character of the -courses. Instruction in ploughing, to young -men who had learned to turn a straight furrow -as soon as they could tiptoe up to the plough-handles, -was not calculated to inspire respect -for “book farming” either in students or their -doubting parents.</p> - -<p>The farmer and his household have found -themselves in recent years the object of embarrassing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> -attentions not only from Washington, -the land-grant colleges, and the experiment-stations, -but countless private agencies have -“discovered” the farmer and addressed themselves -determinedly to the amelioration of his -hardships. The social surveyor, having analyzed -the city slum to his satisfaction, springs from -his automobile at the farmhouse door and -asks questions of the bewildered occupants that -rouse the direst apprehensions. Sanitarians -invade the premises and recommend the most -startling changes and improvements. Once it -was possible for typhoid or diphtheria to ravage -a household without any interference from the -outside world; now a health officer is speedily -on the premises to investigate the old oaken -bucket, the iron-bound bucket, that hangs in -the well, and he very likely ties and seals the -well-sweep and bids the farmer bore a new well, -in a spot kindly chosen for him, where the barn-lot -will not pollute his drinking-water. The -questionnaire, dear to the academic investigator, -is constantly in circulation. Women’s -clubs and federations thereof ponder the plight -of the farmer’s wife and are eager to hitch her -wagon to a star. Home-mission societies, -alarmed by reports of the decay of the country -church, have instituted surveys to determine<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> -the truth of this matter. The consolidation of -schools, the introduction of comfortable omnibuses -to carry children to and from home, the -multiplication of country high schools, with a -radical revision of the curriculum, the building -of two-story schoolhouses in place of the old one-room -affair in which all branches were taught at -once, and the use of the schoolhouse as a community -centre—these changes have dealt a -blow to the long-established ideal of the red-mittened -country child, wading breast-high -through snow to acquaint himself with the three -R’s and, thus fortified, enter into the full enjoyment -of American democracy. Just how Jefferson -would look upon these changes and this benignant -paternalism I do not know, nor does it -matter now that American farm products are -reckoned in billions and we are told that the -amount must be increased or the world will -starve.</p> - -<p>The farmer’s mail, once restricted to an occasional -letter, began to be augmented by other -remembrances from Washington than the hollyhock-seed -his congressman occasionally conferred -upon the farmer’s wife. Pamphlets in -great numbers poured in upon him, filled with -warnings and friendly counsel. The soil he -had sown and reaped for years, in the full confidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> -that he knew all its weaknesses and -possibilities, he found to be something very -different and called by strange names. His -lifelong submission to destructive worms and -hoppers was, he learned, unnecessary if not -criminal; there were ways of eliminating these -enemies, and he shyly discussed the subject -with his neighbors.</p> - -<p>In speaking of the farmer’s shyness I have -stumbled into the field of psychology, whose -pitfalls are many. The psychologists have as -yet played their search-light upon the farm -guardedly or from the sociologist’s camp. I -here condense a few impressions merely that -the trained specialist may hasten to convict me -of error. The farmer of the Middle West—the -typical farmer with approximately a quarter-section -of land—is notably sensitive, timid, -only mildly curious, cautious, and enormously -suspicious. (“The farmer,” a Kansas friend -whispers, “doesn’t vote his opinions; he votes -his suspicions!”) In spite of the stuffing of his -rural-route box with instructive literature designed -to increase the productiveness of his -acres and lighten his own toil, he met the first -overtures of the “book-l’arnin’” specialist -warily, and often with open hostility. The -reluctant earth has communicated to the farmer,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> -perhaps in all times and in all lands, something -of its own stubbornness. He does not like to -be driven; he is restive under criticism. The -county agent of the extension bureau who seeks -him out with the best intentions in the world, -to counsel him in his perplexities, must approach -him diplomatically. I find in the report -of a State director of agricultural extension -a discreet statement that “the forces of -this department are organized, not for purposes -of dictation in agricultural matters but for -service and assistance in working out problems -pertaining to the farm and the community.” -The farmer, unaffected as he is by crowd psychology, -is not easily disturbed by the great -movements and tremendous crises that rouse -the urban citizen. He reads his newspaper -perhaps more thoroughly than the city man, -at least in the winter season when the distractions -of the city are greatest and farm duties -are the least exacting. Surrounded by the -peace of the fields, he is not swayed by mighty -events, as men are who scan the day’s news on -trains and trolleys and catch the hurried comments -of their fellow citizens as they plunge -through jostling throngs. Professor C. J. Galpin, -of Wisconsin University, aptly observes -that, while the farmer trades in a village, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> -shares the invisible government of a township, -which “scatters and mystifies” his community -sense.</p> - -<p>It was a matter of serious complaint that -farmers responded very slowly in the first -Liberty Loan campaigns. At the second call -vigorous attempts were made through the corn -belt to rouse the farmer, who had profited so -enormously by the war’s augmentation of prices. -In many cases country banks took the minimum -allotment of their communities and then sent -for the farmers to come in and subscribe. The -Third Loan, however, was met in a much better -spirit. The farmer is unused to the methods -by which money-raising “drives” are conducted -and he resents being told that he must do this, -that, or the other thing. Townfolk are beset -constantly by demands for money for innumerable -causes; there is always a church, a hospital, -a social-service house, a Y. M. C. A. building, -or some home or refuge for which a special -appeal is being made. There is a distinct psychology -of generosity based largely on the inspiration -of thoroughly organized effort, where -teams set forth with a definite quota to “raise” -before a fixed hour, but the farmer was long -immune from these influences.</p> - -<p>In marked contrast with the small farmer,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> -who wrests a scant livelihood from the soil, is -his neighbor who boasts a section or a thousand -acres, who is able to utilize the newest machinery -and to avail himself of the latest disclosures -of the laboratories, to increase his -profits. One visits these large farms with admiration -for the fruitful land, the perfect equipment, -the efficient method, and the alert, wide-awake -owner. He lives in a comfortable house, -often electric-lighted and “plumbed,” visits the -cities, attends farm conferences, and is keenly -alive to the trend of public affairs. If the frost -nips his corn he is aware of every means by -which “soft” corn may be handled to the best -advantage. He knows how many cattle and -hogs his own acres will feed, and is ready with -cash to buy his neighbors’ corn and feed it to -stock he buys at just the right turn of the -market. It is possible for a man to support -himself and a family on eighty acres; I have -talked with men who have done this; but they -“just about get by.” The owner of a big farm, -whose modern house and rich demesne are admired -by the traveller, is a valued customer of -a town or city banker; the important men of -his State cultivate his acquaintance, with resulting -benefits in a broader outlook than his -less-favored neighbors enjoy. Farmers of this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> -class are themselves usually money-lenders or -shareholders in country banks, and they watch -the trend of affairs from the view-point of the -urban business man. They live closer to the -world’s currents and are more accessible and -responsive to appeals of every sort than their -less-favored brethren.</p> - -<p>But it is the small farmer, the man with the -quarter-section or less, who is the special focus -of the search-light of educator, scientist, and -sociologist. During what I have called the intermediate -period—the winter of the farmer’s -discontent—the politicians did not wholly ignore -him. The demagogue went forth in every -campaign with special appeals to the honest -husbandman, with the unhappy effect of driving -the farmer more closely into himself and -strengthening his class sense. For the reason -that the security of a democracy rests upon -the effacement to the vanishing-point of class -feeling, and the establishment of a solidarity -of interests based upon a common aim and -aspiration, the effort making to dignify farming -as a calling and quicken the social instincts -of the farmer’s household are matters of national -importance.</p> - -<p>It may be said that in no other business is -there a mechanism so thoroughly organized<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> -for guarding the investor from errors of omission -or commission. I am aware of no “service” -in any other field of endeavor so excellent -as that of the agricultural colleges and their -auxiliary experiment and extension branches, -and it is a pleasure to testify to the ease with -which information touching the farm in all -its departments may be collected. Only the -obtuse may fail these days to profit by the -newest ideas in soil-conservation, plant-nutrition, -animal-husbandry, and a thousand other -subjects of vital importance to the farmer. To -test the “service” I wrote to the Department -of Agriculture for information touching a number -of subjects in which my ignorance was profound. -The return mail brought an astonishing array -of documents covering all my inquiries and -other literature which my naïve questions had -suggested to the Department as likely to prove -illuminative. As the extent of the government’s -aid to the farmer and stockman is known -only vaguely to most laymen, I shall set down -the titles of some of these publications:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“Management of Sandy Land Farms in Northern Indiana -and Southern Michigan.”</p> - -<p>“The Feeding of Grain Sorghums to Live Stock.”</p> - -<p>“Prevention of Losses of Live Stock from Plant Poisoning.”</p> - -<p>“The Feeding of Dairy Cows.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>“An Economic Study of the Farm Tractor in the Corn -Belt.”</p> - -<p>“Waste Land and Wasted Land on Farms.”</p> - -<p>“How to Grow an Acre of Corn.”</p> - -<p>“How to Select a Sound Horse.”</p> - -<p>“The Chalcis Fly in Alfalfa Seed.”</p> - -<p>“Homemade Fireless Cookers and Their Use.”</p> - -<p>“A Method of Analyzing the Farm Business.”</p> - -<p>“The Striped Peach Worm.”</p> - -<p>“The Sheep-Killing Dog.”</p> - -<p>“Food Habits of the Swallows, a Family of Valuable -Native Birds.”</p> -</div> - -<p>As most of these bulletins may be had free -and for others only a nominal price of five or -ten cents is charged, it is possible to accumulate -an extensive library with a very small expenditure. -Soil-fertilization alone is the subject -of an enormous literature; the field investigator -and the laboratory expert have subjected the -earth in every part of America to intensive -study and their reports are presented clearly -and with a minimum use of technical terms. -Many manufacturers of implements or materials -used on farms publish and distribute -books of real dignity in the advertisement of -their wares. I have before me a handsome -volume, elaborately illustrated, put forth by -a Wisconsin concern, describing the proper -method of constructing and equipping a dairy-barn. -To peruse this work is to be convinced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> -that the manger so alluringly offered really -assures the greatest economy of feeding, and -the kine are so effectively photographed, so -clean, and so contented that one is impelled -to an immediate investment in a herd merely -for the joy of housing it in the attractive manner -recommended by the sagacious advertiser.</p> - -<p>Agricultural schools and State extension bureaus -manifest the greatest eagerness to serve -the earnest seeker for enlightenment. “The -Service of YOUR College Brought as Near as -Your Mail-Box,” is the slogan of the Kansas -State Agricultural College. Once upon a time -I sought the answer to a problem in Egyptian -hieroglyphics and learned that the only American -who could speak authoritatively on that -particular point was somewhere on the Nile -with an exploration party. In the field of agriculture -there is no such paucity of scholarship. -The very stupidity of a question seems to awaken -pity in the intelligent, accommodating persons -who are laboring in the farmer’s behalf. Augustine -Birrell remarks that in the days of the -tractarian movement pamphlets were served -upon the innocent bystander like sheriffs’ processes. -In like manner one who manifests only -the tamest curiosity touching agriculture in -any of its phases will find literature pouring in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> -upon him; and he is distressed to find that it -is all so charmingly presented that he is beguiled -into reading it!</p> - -<p>The charge that the agricultural school is -educating students away from the farm is not -substantiated by reports from representative -institutions of this character. The dean of -the College of Agriculture of the University of -Illinois, Dr. Eugene Davenport, has prepared -a statement illustrative of the sources from -which the students of that institution are derived. -Every county except two is represented -in the agricultural department in a registration -of 1,200 students, and, of 710 questioned, 242 -are from farms; 40 from towns under 1,000; -87 from towns of 1,000 to 1,500; 262 from towns -of 5,000 and up; and 79 from Chicago. Since -1900 nearly 1,000 students have completed the -agricultural course in this institution, and of this -number 69 per cent are actually living on farms -and engaged in farming; 17 per cent are teaching -agriculture, or are engaged in extension work; -10 per cent entered callings related to farming, -such as veterinary surgery, landscape-gardening, -creamery-management, etc.; less than 4 per -cent are in occupations not allied with agriculture. -It should be explained that the Illinois -school had only a nominal existence until seventeen -years ago. The number of students has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> -steadily increased from 7 registrations in 1890 -to 1,201 in 1916-17. At the Ohio College of -Agriculture half the freshman classes of the last -three years came from the cities, though this -includes students in landscape architecture and -horticulture. In Iowa State College the reports -of three years show that 54.5 per cent of the -freshmen were sons of farmers, and of the graduates -of a seven-year period (1907-1914) 34.8 are -now engaged in farming.</p> - -<p>The opportunities open to the graduates of -these colleges have been greatly multiplied by -the demand for teachers in vocational schools, -and the employment of county agents who -must be graduates of a school of agriculture or -have had the equivalent in practical farm experience. -The influence of the educated farmer -upon his neighbors is very marked. They may -view his methods with distrust, but when he -rolls up a yield of corn that sets a new record -for fields with which they are familiar they -cannot ignore the fact that, after all, there may -be something in the idea of school-taught farming. -By the time a farm boy enters college he -is sufficiently schooled in his father’s methods, -and well enough acquainted with the home -acres, to appreciate fully the value of the instruction -the college offers him.</p> - -<p>The only difference between agricultural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> -colleges and other technical schools is that to -an unscientific observer the courses in agronomy -and its co-ordinate branches deal with vital -matters that are more interesting and appealing -than those in, let us say, mechanical engineering. -If there is something that stirs the -imagination in the thought that two blades of -grass may be made to grow where only one -had grown before, how much more satisfying -is the assurance that an acre of soil, properly -fertilized and thoroughly tended, may double -its yield of corn; that there is a choice well -worth the knowing between breeds of beef or -dairy cattle, and that there is a demonstrable -difference in the energy of foods that may be -converted into pork, particularly when there is -a shortage and the government, to stimulate -hog production, fixes a minimum price (November, -1917) of $15.50 per hundredweight in the -Chicago market; and even so stabilized the -price is close upon $20 in July, 1918.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Students of agriculture in the pageant that celebrated the fortieth<br /> -anniversary of the founding of Ohio State University.</p> - -<p>The equipment of these institutions includes, -with the essential laboratories, farms under cultivation, -horses, cattle, sheep, and swine of all -the representative breeds. Last fall I spent -two days in the agricultural school of a typical -land-grant college of the corn belt (Purdue University), -and found the experience wholly edifying.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> -The value of this school to the State of -Indiana is incalculable. Here the co-ordinate -extension service under Professor G. I. Christie -is thoroughly systematized, and reaches every -acre of land in the commonwealth. “Send for -Christie” has become a watchword among -Indiana farmers in hours of doubt or peril. -Christie can diagnose an individual farmer’s -troubles in the midst of a stubborn field, and -fully satisfy the landowner as to the merit of -the prescribed remedy; or he can interest a -fashionable city audience in farm problems. -He was summoned to Washington a year ago -to supervise farm-labor activities, and is a member -of the recently organized war policies board.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> -The extension service in all the corn and wheat -States is excellent; it must be in capable hands, -for the farmer at once becomes suspicious if the -State agent doesn’t show immediately that he -knows his business.</p> - -<p>The students at Purdue struck me as more -attentive and alert than those I have observed -from time to time in literature classes of schools -that stick to the humanities. In an entomology -class, where I noted the presence of one -young woman, attention was riveted upon -a certain malevolent grasshopper, the foe of -vegetation and in these years of anxious conservation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> -an enemy of civilization. That a -young woman should elect a full course in -agronomy and allied branches seemed to me -highly interesting, and, to learn her habitat in -the most delicate manner possible, I asked for -a census of the class, to determine how many -students were of farm origin. The young lady -so deeply absorbed in the grasshopper was, I -found, a city girl. Women, it should be noted, -are often very successful farmers and stock-breeders. -They may be seen at all representative -cattle-shows inspecting the exhibits with sophistication -and pencilling notes in the catalogues.</p> - -<p>To sit in the pavilion of one of these colleges -and hear a lecture on the judging of cattle is -to be persuaded that much philosophy goes -into the production of a tender, juicy beefsteak -or a sound, productive milch cow. In a class -that I visited a Polled Angus steer and a shorthorn -were on exhibition; the instructor might -have been a sculptor, conducting a class in -modelling, from the nice points of “line,” the -distribution of muscle and fat, that he dilated -upon. He invited questions, which led to a -discussion in which the whole class participated. -At the conclusion of this lecture a drove of -swine was driven in that a number of young -gentlemen might practise the fine art of “judging”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> -this species against an approaching competitive -meeting with a class from another -school. In these days of multiplying farm-implements -and tractors, the farmer is driven perforce -to know something of mechanics. Time is -precious and the breaking down of a harvester -may be calamitous if the owner must send to -town for some one to repair it. These matters -are cared for in the farm-mechanics laboratories -where instruction is offered in the care, adjustment, -and repair of all kinds of farm-machinery. -While in the summer of 1917 only 40,000 tractors -were in use on American farms, it is estimated -that by the end of the current year the -number will have increased to 200,000, greatly -minimizing the shortage in men and horses. -The substitution of gasolene for horse-power is -only one of the many changes in farm methods -attributable to the imperative demand for -increased production of foodstuffs. Whitman -may have foreseen the coming of the tractor -when he wrote:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="first">“Well-pleased America, thou beholdest,</div> -<div class="verse">Over the fields of the West those crawling monsters;</div> -<div class="verse">The human-divine inventions, the labor-saving implements”;</div> -</div></div> - -<p>for “crawling monster” happily describes the -tractor.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>The anxiety to serve, to accommodate the -instruction to special needs, is illustrated in -the length of courses offered, which include a -week’s intensive course in midwinter designed -for farmers, two-year and four-year courses, -and post-graduate work. Men well advanced -in years attend the midwinter sessions, eager -to improve their methods in a business they -have followed all their lives. They often bring -their wives with them, to attend classes in dairying, -poultry-raising, or home economics. It is -significant of the new movement in farming -that at the University of Wisconsin, an institution -whose services to American agriculture -are inestimable, there is a course in agricultural -journalism, “intended,” the catalogue recites, -“to be of special service to students who will -engage in farming or who expect to be employed -in station work or in some form of demonstration -or extension service and who therefore may -have occasion to write for publication and certainly -will have farm produce and products -to sell. To these ends the work is very largely -confined to studies in agricultural writing.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>The easing of the farmer’s burdens, through -the development of labor-saving machinery, -and the convenience of telephones, trolley-lines, -and the cheap automobile that have vastly -improved his social prospects, has not overcome -a growing prejudice against close kinship -with the soil. We have still to deal with the -loneliness and the social barrenness that have -driven thousands of the children of farms to -the cities. The son of a small farmer may make -a brilliant record in an agricultural college, -achieve the distinction of admission to the -national honorary agricultural fraternity (the -Alpha Zeta, the little brother of the Phi Beta -Kappa), and still find the old home crippling -and stifling to his awakened social sense.</p> - -<p>There is general agreement among the authorities -that one of the chief difficulties in -the way of improvement is the lack of leadership -in farm communities. The farmer is not -easily aroused, and he is disposed to resent as -an unwarranted infringement upon his constitutional -rights the attempts of outsiders to -meddle with his domestic affairs. He has found -that it is profitable to attend institutes, consult -county agents, and peruse the literature distributed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> -from extension centres, but the invasion -of his house is a very different matter. -Is he not the lord of his acres, an independent, -self-respecting citizen, asking no favors of society? -Does he not ponder well his civic duty -and plot the destruction of the accursed middleman, -his arch-enemy? The benevolently inclined -who seek him out to persuade him of -the error of his ways in any particular are often -received with scant courtesy. He must be -“shown,” not merely “told.” The agencies -now so diligently at work to improve the farmer’s -social status understand this and the methods -employed are wisely tempered in the light of -abundant knowledge of just how much crowding -the farmer will stand.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_120.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">A feeding-plant at “Whitehall,” the farm of Edwin S. Kelly, near<br /> -Springfield, Ohio.</p> - -<p>Nothing is so essential to his success as the -health of his household; yet inquiries, more -particularly in the older States of the Mississippi -valley, lead to the conclusion that there -is a dismaying amount of chronic invalidism on -farms. A physician who is very familiar with -farm life declares that “all farmers have stomach -trouble,” and this obvious exaggeration is rather -supported by Dr. John N. Hurty, secretary of -the Indiana State Board of Health, who says -that he finds in his visits to farmhouses that -the cupboards are filled with nostrums warranted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> -to relieve the agonies of poor digestion. -Dr. Hurty, who has probably saved more lives -and caused more indignation in his twenty -years of public service than any other Hoosier, -has made a sanitary survey of four widely separated -Indiana counties. In Blackford County, -where 1,374 properties were inspected, only 15 -per cent of the farmhouses were found to be -sanitary. Site, ventilation, water-supply, the -condition of the house, and the health of its -inmates entered into the scoring. In Ohio -County, where 441 homes were visited, 86 per -cent were found to be insanitary. The tuberculosis -rate for this county was found to be 25 -per cent higher than that of the State. In -Scott County 97.6 per cent of the farms were -pronounced insanitary, and here the tuberculosis -rate is 48.3 per cent higher than that of the -State. In Union County, where only 2.3 per -cent of the farms were found to be sanitary, the -average score did not rise above 45 per cent on -site, ventilation, and health. Here the tuberculosis -death-rate was 176.3 in 100,000, against -the State rate of 157. In all these counties the -school population showed a decrease.</p> - -<p>It should be said that in the communities -mentioned, old ones as history runs in this -region, many homes stand practically unaltered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> -after fifty or seventy-five years of continuous -occupancy. Thousands of farmers who would -think it a shameless extravagance to install a -bathtub boast an automobile. A survey by -Professor George H. von Tungeln, of Iowa -College, of 227 farms in two townships of -northern Iowa, disclosed 62 bathtubs, 98 -pianos, and 124 automobiles. The number of -bathtubs reported by the farmers of Ohio is -so small that I shrink from stating it.</p> - -<p>Here, again, we may be sure that the farmer -is not allowed to dwell in slothful indifference -to the perils of uncleanliness. On the heels of -the sanitarian and the sociologist come the -field agents of the home-economics departments -of the meddlesome land-grant colleges, -bent upon showing him a better way of life. -I was pondering the plight of the bathless farmhouse -when a document reached me showing -how a farmhouse may enjoy running water, -bathroom, gas, furnace, and two fireplaces for -an expenditure of $723.97. One concrete story -is better than many treatises, and I cheerfully -cite, as my authority, “Modernizing an Old -Farm House,” by Mrs. F. F. Showers, included -among the publications of the Wisconsin College -of Agriculture. The home-economics departments -do not wait for the daughters of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> -the farm to come to them, but seek them out -with the glad tidings that greater ease and comfort -are within their reach if only their fathers -can be made to see the light. In many States -the extension agents organize companies of -countrywomen and carry them junketing to -modern farmhouses.</p> - -<p>Turning to Nebraska, whose rolling cornfields -are among the noblest to be encountered -anywhere, home-demonstration agents range -the commonwealth organizing clubs, which are -federated where possible to widen social contacts, -better-babies conferences, and child-welfare -exhibits. The Community Welfare Assembly, -as conducted in Kansas, has the merit -of offering a varied programme—lectures on -agriculture and home economics, civics, health, -and rural education by specialists, moving pictures, -community music, and folk games and -stories for the children. In Wisconsin the rural-club -movement reaches every part of the State, -and a State law grants the use of schoolhouses -for community gatherings. Seymour, Indiana, -boasts a Farmer’s Club, the gift of a citizen, -with a comfortably appointed house, where -farmers and their families may take their ease -when in town.</p> - -<p>The organization of boys’ and girls’ clubs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> -among farm youth is a feature of the vocational-training -service offered under the Smith-Lever -Act of 1914, and already the reports of its progress -are highly interesting. These organizations -make possible the immediate application -of the instruction in agriculture and home economics -received in the schools. In Indiana -more than 25,000 boys and girls were enlisted -last year in such club projects as the cultivation -of corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables, canning, -sewing, and home-craft, and the net profit -from these sources was $105,100. In my prowlings -nothing has delighted me more than the -discovery of the Pig Club. This is one of Uncle -Sam’s many schemes for developing the initiative -and stimulating the ambition of farm children. -It might occur to the city boy, whose acquaintance -with pork is limited to his breakfast -bacon, that the feeding of a pig is not a matter -worthy of the consideration of youth of intelligence -and aspiration. Uncle Sam, however, -holds the contrary opinion. From a desk in -the Department of Agriculture he has thrown -a rosy glamour about the lowly pig. Country -bankers, properly approached and satisfied of -the good character and honorable intentions -of applicants, will advance money to farm boys -to launch them upon pig-feeding careers. My<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> -heart warms to Douglas Byrne, of Harrison -County, Indiana, who, under the guidance of a -club supervisor, fed 17 hogs with a profit of -$99.30. Another young Hoosier, Elmer Pearce, -of Vanderburgh County, fed 2 pigs that made a -daily gain of 1.38 pounds for four months, and -sold them at a profit of $12.36. We learn from -the official report that this young man’s father -warned him that the hogs he exercised his talents -upon would make no such gains as were -achieved. Instead of spanking the lad for his -perverseness, as would have been the case in -the olden golden days, this father made him the -ruler over 30 swine. There are calf and pig -clubs for girls, and a record has been set for -Indiana by twelve-year-old Pauline Hadley, of -Mooresville, who cared for a Poland China hog -for 110 days, increasing its weight from 65 to -256 pounds, and sold it at a profit of $20.08.</p> - -<p>The farmer of yesterday blundered through -a year and at the end had a very imperfect idea -of his profits and losses. He kept no accounts; -if he paid his taxes and the interest on the omnipresent -mortgage, and established credit for -the winter with his grocer, he was satisfied. -Uncle Sam, thoroughly aroused to the importance -of increasing the farmer’s efficiency, now -shows him how to keep simple accounts and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> -returns at the end of the season to analyze -the results. (Farm-management is the subject -of many beguiling pamphlets; it seems incredible -that any farmer should blindly go on -wasting time and money when his every weakness -is anticipated and prescribed for by the -Department of Agriculture and its great army -of investigators and counsellors!)</p> - -<p>If there is little cheerful fiction dealing with -farm life, its absence is compensated for by the -abundance of “true stories” of the most stimulating -character, to be found in the publications -of the State agricultural extension bureaus. -Professor Christie’s report of the Indiana -Extension Service for last year recites the result -of three years’ observation of a southern -Indiana farm of 213 acres. In 1914 the owner -cleared $427 above interest on his capital, in -addition to his living. This, however, was -better than the average for the community, -which was a cash return of $153. This man -had nearly twice as much land as his neighbors, -carried more live-stock, and his crop yields -were twice as great as the community average. -His attention was called to the fact that he -was investing $100 worth of feed and getting -back only $82 in his live-stock account. He -was expending 780 days in the care of his farm<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> -and stock, which the average corn-belt farmer -could have managed with 605 days of labor. -Acting on the advice of the Extension Department, -he added to his live-stock, built a silo, -changed his feeding ration, and increased his -live-stock receipts to $154 per $100 of feed. -The care of the additional live-stock through -the winter resulted in a better reward for his -labor and the amount accredited to labor income -for the year was $1,505. The third year -he increased his live-stock and poultry, further -improved the feeding ration, and received $205 -per $100 of feed. By adding to the conveniences -of his barn, he was able to cut down his expenditure -for hired labor; or, to give the exact -figures, he reduced the amount expended in -this way from $515 to $175. His labor income -for the third year was $3,451. “Labor income,” -as the phrase is employed in farm bookkeeping, -is the net sum remaining after the farm-owner -has paid all business expenses of the farm and -deducted a fair interest on the amount invested -in his plant.</p> - -<p>I have mentioned the 80-acre farm as affording -a living for a family; but there is no ignoring -the testimony of farm-management surveys, -covering a wide area, that this unit is too small -to yield the owner the best results from his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> -labor. In a Nebraska survey it is demonstrated -that farms of from 200 to 250 acres -show better average returns than those of larger -or smaller groups, but rainfall, soil conditions, -and the farmer’s personal qualifications are -factors in all such studies that make generalizations -difficult. A diversified farm of 160 acres -requires approximately 3,000 hours’ labor a -year. Forty-five acres of corn, shocked and -husked, consume 270 days of labor; like acreages -of oats and clover, 90 and 45 days respectively; -care of live-stock and poultry, 195 days. -In summer a farmer often works twelve or fourteen -hours a day, while in winter, with only -his stock to look after, his labor is reduced to -three or four hours.</p> - -<p>The Smith-Hughes Act (approved February, -1917) appropriates annually sums which will -attain, in 1926, a maximum of $3,000,000 “for -co-operation with the States in the promotion -of education in agriculture and the trades and -industries, and in the preparation of teachers -of vocational subjects, the sums to be allotted -to the States in the proportion which their rural -population bears to the total rural population -of the United States.” Washington is only -the dynamic centre of inspiration and energy -in the application of the laws that make so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> -generous provision for the farmer’s welfare. -The States must enter into a contract to defray -their share of the expense and put the -processes into operation.</p> - -<p>There was something of prophecy in the -message of President Roosevelt (February 9, -1909) transmitting to Congress the report of -his Country Life Commission. He said: “Upon -the development of country life rests ultimately -our ability, by methods of farming requiring -the highest intelligence, to continue to feed -and clothe the hungry nations; to supply the -city with fresh blood, clean bodies, and clear -brains that can endure the terrific strain of -modern life; we need the development of men -in the open country, who will be in the future, -as in the past, the stay and strength of the nation -in time of war, and its guiding and controlling -spirit in time of peace.” The far-reaching -effect of the report, a remarkably thorough -and searching study of farm conditions, is perceptible -in agencies and movements that were -either suggested by it or that were strengthened -by its authoritative utterances.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span></p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>Much has been written of the decline of -religion in rural communities, and melancholy -statistics have been adduced as to the abandonment -of churches. But here, as in the matter -of farm efficiency and kindred rural problems, -vigorous attempts are making to improve conditions. -“The great spiritual needs of the country -community just at present are higher personal -and community ideals,” the Country Life -Commission reported. “Rural people have -need to have an aspiration for the highest possible -development of the community. There -must be an ambition on the part of the people -themselves constantly to progress in all those -things that make the community life wholesome, -satisfying, educative, and complete. -There must be a desire to develop a permanent -environment for the country boy and girl, of -which they will become passionately fond. As -a pure matter of education, the countryman -must learn to love the country and to have an -intellectual appreciation of it.” In this connection -I wish that every farm boy and girl in -America might read “The Holy Earth,” by -L. H. Bailey (a member of the commission), a -book informed with a singular sweetness and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> -nobility, and fit to be established as an auxiliary -reading-book in every agricultural college in -America.</p> - -<p>There is abundant evidence that the religious -bodies are not indifferent to the importance of -vitalizing the country church, and here the general -socializing movement is acting as a stimulus. -Not only have the churches, in federal and -State conferences, set themselves determinedly -to improve the rural parish, but the matter has -been the subject of much discussion by educational -and sociological societies with encouraging -gains. The wide-spread movement for the -consolidation of country schools suggests inevitably -the combination of country parishes, -assuring greater stability and making possible -the employment of permanent ministers of a -higher intellectual type, capable of exercising -that intelligent local leadership which all commentators -on the future of the farm agree is -essential to progress.</p> - -<p>By whatever avenue the rural problem is approached -it is apparent that it is not sufficient -to persuade American youth of the economic -advantages of farming over urban employments, -but that the new generation must be convinced -in very concrete ways that country life affords -generous opportunities for comfort and happiness,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> -and that there are compensations for all -it lacks. The farmer of yesterday, strongly individualistic -and feeling that the world’s rough -hand was lifted against him, has no longer an -excuse for holding aloof from the countless -forces that are attempting to aid him and give -his children a better chance in life. No other -figure in the American social picture is receiving -so much attention as the farmer. A great -treasure of money is expended annually by -State and federal governments to increase his -income, lessen his labor, educate his children, -and bring health and comfort to his home. If -he fails to take advantage of the vast machinery -that is at work in his behalf, it is his own fault; -if his children do not profit by the labors of -the State to educate them, the sin is at his own -door. In his business perplexities he has but -to telephone to a county agent or to the extension -headquarters of his State to receive -the friendly counsel of an expert. If his children -are dissatisfied and long for variety and -change, it is because he has concealed from -them the means by which their lives may be -quickened and brightened.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_132.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Judging graded shorthorn herds at the American Royal Live Stock Show<br /> -in Kansas City.</p> - -<p>With the greatest self-denial I refrain from -concluding this chapter with a ringing peroration -in glorification of farm life. From a desk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> -on the fifteenth floor of an office-building, with -an outlook across a smoky, clanging industrial -city, I could do this comfortably and with an -easy conscience. But the scientist has stolen -farming away from the sentimentalist and the -theorist. Farming, I may repeat, is a business, -the oldest and the newest in the world. No -year passes in which its methods and processes -are not carried nearer to perfection. City boys -now about to choose a vocation will do well to -visit an agricultural college and extension plant, -or, better still, a representative corn-belt farm, -before making the momentous decision. Perhaps -the thousands of urban lads who this year -volunteered to aid the farmers as a patriotic -service will be persuaded that the soil affords -opportunities not lightly to be passed by. No -one can foretell the vast changes that will be -precipitated when the mighty war is ended; but -one point is undebatable: the world, no matter -how low its fortunes may sink, must have bread -and meat. Tremendous changes and readjustments -are already foreshadowed; but in all -speculations the productiveness of the American -farm will continue to be a factor of enormous -importance.</p> - -<p>A wide-spread absorption of land by large -investors, the increase of tenantry, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> -passing of the farm family are possibilities of -the future not to be overlooked by those who -have at heart the fullest and soundest development -of American democracy. For every 100 -acres of American land now under cultivation -there are about 375 acres untilled but susceptible -of cultivation. Here is a chance for American -boys of the best fibre to elect a calling that -more and more demands trained intelligence. -All things considered, the rewards of farming -average higher than those in any other occupation, -and the ambitious youth, touched with the -new American passion for service, for a more -perfect realization of the promise of democracy, -will find in rural communities a fallow field -ready to his hand.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV<br /> - - -CHICAGO</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="first">“And yonder where, gigantic, wilful, young,</div> -<div class="verse">Chicago sitteth at the northwest gates,</div> -<div class="verse">With restless violent hands and casual tongue</div> -<div class="verse">Moulding her mighty fates——”</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verseright"><span class="smcap">William Vaughn Moody.</span></div> -</div></div></div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p class="drop-cap">A FATEFUL Titan, brooding over a mammoth -chess-board, now cautious in his -moves as he shifts his myriad pigmies, -now daring, but always resolute, clear-eyed, -steady of hand, and with no thought but victory—as -such a figure Rodin might have -visualized twentieth-century Chicago.</p> - -<p>Chicago is not a baby and utters no bleating -cry that it is “misunderstood,” and yet a great -many people have not only misunderstood or -misinterpreted it but have expressed their dislike -with hearty frankness. To many visitors -Chicago is a city of dreadful night, to be explored -as hurriedly as possible with outward-bound -ticket clenched tightly in hand. But -Chicago may not be comprehended in the usual -scamper of the tourist; for the interesting thing -about this city is the people, and they require<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> -time. I do not, of course, mean that they are -all worthy of individual scrutiny, but rather -that the very fact of so many human beings collecting -there, living cheerfully and harmoniously, -laboring and aspiring and illustrating the -pressing, changing problems of our democracy -awakens at once the beholder’s sympathetic -interest. Chicago is not New York, nor is it -London or Paris: Chicago is different. The -Chicagoan will convince you of this if you fail -to see it; the point has been conceded by a -great number of observers from all quarters, -but not in just the same spirit in which the citizen -speaks of it.</p> - -<p>Both inspired and uninspired critics have -made Chicago the subject of a considerable -literature that runs the gamut of anxious concern, -dismal apprehension, dismay, and disgust. -Mr. Kipling saw the city embodied as a -girl arrayed in a costume of red and black, shod -in red shoes sauntering jauntily down the gory -aisle of a slaughter-house. Mr. H. G. Wells -boasts that he refrained from visiting the packing-houses -owing to what he describes as his -immense “repugnance to the killing of fixed -and helpless animals.” He reports that he saw -nothing of those “ill-managed, ill-inspected -establishments,” though he “smelt the unwholesome<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> -reek from them over and over again,” -and observed with trepidation “the enormous -expanse and intricacy of railroads that net this -great industrial desolation.” Chicago’s pressing -need, he philosophizes, is discipline—a -panacea which he generously prescribes not -only for all that displeased him in America, but -for Lancashire, South and East London, and -the Pas de Calais. “Each man,” he ruminates, -“is for himself, each enterprise; there is no -order, no prevision, no common and universal -plan.” I have cheerfully set down this last -statement to lighten my own burdens, for by -reversing it one may very happily express the -real truth about Chicago. Instead of the -“shoving unintelligent proceedings of under-bred -and morally obtuse men,” great numbers -of men and women of the highest intelligence -are constantly directing their talents toward -the amelioration of the very conditions that -grieved Mr. Wells.</p> - -<p>Chicago may, to be sure, be dismissed in a -few brilliant phrases as the black pit of perdition, -the jumping-off place of the world; but to -the serious-minded American the effort making -there for the common uplift is too searching, -too intelligent, too sincere, for sneers. I fancy -that in view of events that have occurred in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> -Europe since his visit to America Mr. Wells -would be less likely to rest his case against Chicago -on the need of discipline alone. All that -discipline may do for a people had been achieved -by the Imperial German Government when -the Kaiser started for Paris in 1914; but subjection, -obedience, even a highly developed -efficiency are not the whole of the law and the -prophets. Justice and mercy are finer things, -and nothing in Chicago is more impressive or -encouraging than the stubborn purpose of many -citizens who are neither foolish nor ignorant to -win and establish these twain for the whole. -It is an unjust and ungenerous assumption that -Chicago is unaware of its needs and dangers, -or that from year to year no gains are made -in the attempt to fuse and enlighten the mass. -It is the greatest laboratory that democracy -has known. The very fact that so much effort -must go into experiment, that there are more -than two and a half million distinct units to -deal with, with a resulting confusion in needs -and aims, adds not merely to the perplexity -but to the fascination of the social and political -enigma. There is, quite definitely, a thing -called the Chicago spirit, a thing compounded -of energy, faith, and hope—and again energy! -Nor is the energy all spent upon the material<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> -and sordid, for the fine, arresting thing is the -tremendous vim this lusty young giant among -the world’s cities brings to the solution of its -problems—problems that deserve to be printed -in capitals out of respect for their immensity -and far-reaching importance to the national -life. Chicago does not walk around her problems, -but meets them squarely and manfully. -The heart of the inquirer is won by the perfect -candor with which the Chicagoan replies to -criticism; the critic is advised that for every -evil there is a remedy; indeed, that some agency -is at work on that particular thing at that particular -moment. This information is conveyed -with a smile that expresses Chicago’s faith and -hope—a smile that may be a little sad and -wistful—but the faith and the hope are inescapably -there.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Chicago is the industrial and financial clearing-house, -the inspirational centre of the arts, -and the playground for 50,000,000 people. The -pilgrim who lands on the lake shore with an -open mind and a fair understanding of what -America is all about—the unprejudiced traveller—is -immediately conscious that here, indeed, -is a veritable capital of democracy.</p> - -<p>Every night three hundred or more sleeping-cars<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> -bear approximately 4,500 persons toward -this Western metropolis on journeys varying -from five to twelve hours in length. From innumerable -points it is a night’s run, and any -morning one may see these pilgrims pouring -out of the railway-stations, dispersing upon a -thousand errands, often concluded in time for -the return trip between six o’clock and midnight. -At times one wonders whether all the -citizens of the tributary provinces have not -gathered here at once, so great is the pressure -upon hotel space, so thronged the streets. The -sleeping-car holds no terrors for the Westerner. -He enjoys the friendship of the train-crews; -the porters—many of them veterans of the -service—call him by name and in addressing -them he avoids the generic “George,” which -the travelling salesman applies to all knights -of the whisk-broom, and greets them by their -true baptismal appellations of Joshua or Obadiah. -Mr. George Ade has threatened to organize -a “Society for the Prevention of the -Calling of Sleeping-Car Porters George”!</p> - -<p>The professional or business man rises from -his meagre couch refreshed and keen for adventure -and, after a strenuous day, returns to -it and slumbers peacefully as he is hurled homeward. -The man from Sioux City or Saint Joe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> -who spends a day here does not crawl into his -berth weary and depressed, but returns inspired -and cheered and determined to put more vim -into his business the next morning. On the -homeward trail, eating supper in company with -the neighbors he finds aboard, he dilates eloquently -upon the wonders of the city, upon its -enterprise, upon the heartiness with which its -business men meet their customers. Chicago -men work longer hours than their New York -brethren and take pride in their accessibility. -It is easier to get a hearing in high quarters in -any field of endeavor in Chicago than in New -York; there is less waiting in the anteroom, -and a better chance of being asked out for -lunch.</p> - -<p>The West is proud of Chicago and loves it -with a passionate devotion. Nor is it the purpose -of these reflections to hint that this mighty -Mecca is unworthy of the adoration of the millions -who turn toward it in affection and reverence. -Chicago not only draws strength from -a vast territory but, through myriad agencies -and avenues, sends back a mighty power from -its huge dynamo. It is the big brother of all -lesser towns, throwing an arm about Davenport -and Indianapolis, Springfield and Columbus, -and manifesting a kindly tolerance toward St.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> -Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Minneapolis, and -Cleveland, whose growth and prosperity lift -them to a recognized and respected rivalry.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_142.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Chicago is the big brother of all lesser towns.</p> - -<p>The intense loyalty of the Chicagoan to his -city is one of his most admirable characteristics -and the secret of his city’s greatness. He is -proud even of the Chicago climate, which offers -from time to time every variety of weather -known to meteorology and is capable of effecting -combinations utterly new to this most fascinating -of sciences. Chicago’s coldest day of -record was in 1872, when the minus registration -was 23; the hottest in 1901, when the mercury -rose to 103. Such excesses are followed by -contrition and repentance and days of ethereal -mildness. The lake serves as a funnel down -which roar icy blasts direct from the hyperboreans. -The wind cuts like a scythe of ice swung -by a giant. In summer the hot plains pour in -their burning heat; or, again, when it pleases the -weather-god to produce a humid condition, the -moisture-charged air is stifling. But a Chicagoan -does not mind the winter, which he declares to -be good for body and soul; and, as for the heat, -he maintains—and with a degree of truth to -sustain him—that the nights are always cool. -The throngs that gathered in Chicago for the -Republican and the Progressive conventions in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> -June, 1916, were treated to a diversity of -weather, mostly bad. It was cold; it rained -hideously. There were dismal hours of waiting -for reports of the negotiations between the -two bodies of delegates in which the noblest -oratory failed to bring warmth and cheer. -Chicago did her worst that week, but without -serious impairment of her prestige as the greatest -convention city in the world. Every one said, -“Isn’t this just like Chicago!” and inquired -the way to the nearest quinine.</p> - - - -<p>“The Windy City” is a descriptive sobriquet. -There are not only cold winds and hot winds -of the greatest intensity, but there are innumerable -little gusts that spring up out of nowhere -for no other conceivable purpose than to deposit -dust or cinders in the human eye. There is a -gesture acquired by all Chicagoans—a familiar -bit of calisthenics essential to the preservation -of head-gear. If you see a man pursuing his -hat in a Chicago street you may be sure that -he is an outsider; the native knows by a kind -of prescience just when the fateful breeze is -coming, prepares for it, and is never caught -unawares. In like manner the local optic seems -to be impregnable to persistent attacks of the -omnipresent cinder. By what means the eyeball -of a visitor becomes the haven for flying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> -débris, while the native-born walks unscathed, -is beyond my philosophy. It must be that the -eye of the inhabitant is trained to resist these -malevolent assaults and that the sharp-edged -cinder spitefully awaits an opportunity to impinge -upon the defenseless optic of passing -pilgrims. The pall of smoke miraculously disappears -at times and the cinder abandons its -depredations. The sky may be as blue over -Chicago as anywhere else on earth. The lake -shimmers like silk and from brown, near shore, -runs away to the horizon through every tint -of blue and green and vague, elusive purples.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>Chicago still retained, in the years of my -first acquaintance, something of the tang of -the wild onion which in the Indian vernacular -was responsible for its name. (I shudderingly -take refuge in this parenthesis to avoid collision -with etymological experts who have spent their -lives sherlocking the word’s origin. The genesis -of “Chicago” is a moot question, not likely to -be settled at this late day. Whether it meant -leek, polecat, skunkweed, or onion does not -greatly matter. I choose the wild onion from -the possibilities, for the highly unscientific<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> -reason that it seems to me the most appropriate -and flavorsome of all accessible suggestions.)</p> - -<p>In the early eighties one might stand by the -lakeside and be very conscious of a West beyond -that was still in a pioneer stage. At the -department headquarters of the army might -be met hardy campaigners against the Indians -of mountain and plain who were still a little -apprehensive that the telegraph might demand -orders for the movement of troops against hostile -red men along the vanishing frontiers. The -battle of Wounded Knee, in which 100 warriors -and 120 women and children were found dead -on the field (December 29, 1890), might almost -have been observed from a parlor-car window. -It may have been that on my visits I chanced -to touch circles dominated by Civil War -veterans, but great numbers of these diverted -their energies to peaceful channels in Chicago -at the end of the rebellion, and they gave color -to the city life. It was a part of the upbringing -of a mid-Western boy of my generation to reverence -the heroes of the sixties, and it was fitting -that in the land of Lincoln and in a State that -gave Grant a regiment and started him toward -immortality there should be frequent reunions -of veterans, and political assemblages and agitations -in which they figured, to encourage hero-worship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> -in the young. Unforgettable among -the more distinguished of these Civil War veterans -was General John A. Logan, sometime -senator in Congress and Blaine’s running mate -in 1884. In life he was a gallant and winning -figure, and Saint Gaudens’s equestrian statue -in Grant Park preserves his memory in a city -that delighted to honor him.</p> - -<p>Chicago’s attractions in those days included -summer engagements of Theodore Thomas’s -orchestra, preceding Mr. Thomas’s removal to -the city and the founding of the orchestra that -became his memorial. Concerts were given in -an exposition hall on the site now occupied -by the Art Institute, with railway-trains gayly -disporting on the lake side of the building. So -persistent is the association of ideas, that to -this day I never hear the Fifth Symphony or -the Tannhäuser Overture free of the rumble -and jar and screech of traffic. It was in keeping -with Chicago’s good-humored tolerance of the -incongruous and discordant in those years that -the scores of Beethoven and Wagner should be -punctuated by locomotive whistles, and that -<i>pianissimo</i> passages should be drowned in the -grinding of brakes.</p> - -<p>At this period David Swing stood every Sunday -morning in Central Music Hall addressing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> -large audiences, and he looms importantly in -the Chicago of my earliest knowledge. Swing -was not only a fine classical scholar—he lectured -charmingly on the Greek poets—but -he preached a gospel that harmonized with the -hopeful and liberal Chicago spirit as it gathered -strength and sought the forms in which it has -later declared itself. He was not an orator in -the sense that Ingersoll and Beecher were; as -I remember, he always read his sermons or -addresses; but he was a strikingly individual -and magnetic person, whose fine cultivation -shone brilliantly in his discourses. In the retrospect -it seems flattering to the Chicago of -that time that it recognized and appreciated -his quality in spite of an unorthodoxy that had -caused his retirement from the formal ministry.</p> - -<p>The third member of a trinity that lingers -agreeably in my memory is Eugene Field. -Journalism has known no more versatile genius, -and his column of “Sharps and Flats” in -the <i>Morning News</i> (later the <i>Record</i>) voiced the -Chicago of his day. Here indubitably was -the flavor of the original wild-onion beds of the -Jesuit chronicles! Field became an institution -quite as much as Thomas and Swing, and reached -an audience that ultimately embraced the whole -United States. The literary finish of his paragraphs,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> -their wide range of subject, their tone, -varying from kindly encouraging comment on -a new book of verse that had won his approval -to a mocking jibe at some politician, his hatred -of pretense, the plausibility of the hoaxes he -was constantly perpetrating, gave an infinite -zest to his department. The most devoted of -Chicagoans, he nevertheless laid a chastening -hand upon his fellow citizens. In an ironic -vein that was perhaps his best medium he would -hint at the community’s lack of culture, though -he would be the first to defend the city from -such assaults from without the walls. He prepared -the way for the coming of Edmund Clarence -Stedman with announcements of a series -of bizarre entertainments in the poet’s honor, -including a street parade in which the meat-packing -industry was to be elaborately represented. -He gave circulation to a story, purely -fanciful, that Joel Chandler Harris was born in -Africa, where his parents were missionaries, -thus accounting for “Uncle Remus’s” intimate -acquaintance with negro characters and folklore. -His devotion to journalism was such that -he preferred to publish his verses in his newspaper -rather than in magazines, often hoarding -them for weeks that he might fill a column with -poems and create the impression that they were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> -all flung off as part of the day’s work, though, -as a matter of fact, they were the result of the -most painstaking labor. With his legs thrown -across a table he wrote, on a pad held in his -lap, the minute, perpendicular hand, with its -monkish rubrications, that gave distinction to -all his “copy.” Among other accomplishments -he was a capital recitationist and mimic. There -was no end to the variety of ways in which he -could interest and amuse a company. He was -so pre-eminently a social being that it was difficult -to understand how he produced so much -when he yielded so readily to any suggestion -to strike work for any enterprise that promised -diversion. I linger upon his name not because -of his talents merely but because he was in a -very true sense the protagonist of the city in -those years; a veritable <i>genius loci</i> who expressed -a Chicago, “wilful, young,” that was disposed -to stick its tongue in its cheek in the presence -of the most exalted gods.</p> - -<p>My Chicago of the consulship of Plancus -was illuminated also by the National League -ball club, whose roster contained “names to -fill a Roman line”—“Pop” Anson, Clarkson, -Williamson, Ryan, Pfeffer, and “Mike” Kelley. -Chicago displayed hatchments of woe on her -portals when Kelley was “sold to Boston” for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> -$10,000! In his biography of Field Mr. Slason -Thompson has preserved this characteristic -paragraph—only one of many in which the -wit, humorist, and poet paid tribute to Kelley’s -genius:</p> - -<p>“Benjamin Harrison is a good, honest, -patriotic man, and we like him. But he never -stole second base in all his life and he could -not swat Mickey Welch’s down curves over -the left-field fence. Therefore, we say again, -as we have said many times before, that, much -as we revere Benjamin Harrison’s purity and -amiability, we cannot but accord the tribute -of our sincerest admiration to that paragon -of American manhood, Michael J. Kelley.”</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>It must be said for Chicago that to the best -of her ability her iniquities are kept in the open; -she conceals nothing; it is all there for your -observation if you are disposed to pry into the -heart of the matter. The rectilinear system -of streets exposes the whole city to the sun’s -eye. One is struck by the great number of -foreign faces, and by faces that show a blending -of races—a step, perhaps, toward the evolution -of some new American type. On Michigan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> -Avenue, where on fair afternoons something of -the brilliant spectacle of Fifth Avenue is reproduced, -women in bright turbans, men in modifications -of their national garb—Syrians, Greeks, -Turks, Russians and what-not—are caught up -and hurried along in the crowd. In the shopping -centres of Wabash Avenue and State Street the -foreign element is present constantly, and even -since the war’s abatement of immigration these -potential citizens are daily in evidence in the -railway-stations. Yet one has nowhere the sense -of congestion that is so depressing in New York’s -East Side; the overcrowding is not so apparent -even where the conditions are the worst Chicago -has to offer.</p> - -<p>My search for the picturesque had been disappointing -until, quite undirected, I stumbled -into Maxwell Street one winter morning and -found its Jewish market to my liking. The -“Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian -loot, but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve! -Here we have squalor, perhaps, and yet a pretty -clean and a wholly orderly squalor. Innumerable -booths litter the sidewalks of this thoroughfare -between Halstead and Jefferson Streets, -and merchandise and customers overflow into -the streets until traffic is blocked. Fruits, vegetables, -meats, fowls, raiment of every kind are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> -offered. Bushel-baskets are the ordained receptacle -for men’s hats. A fine leisure characterizes -the movements and informs the -methods of the cautious purchaser. Cages of -pigeons proudly surmounting coops of fowls -suggested that their elevation might be attributable -to some special sanctity or reservation -for sacrificial rites. A cynical policeman (I saw -but one guardian of the peace in the course of -three visits) rudely dispelled this illusion with -a hint that these birds, enjoying a free range of -the air, had doubtless been feloniously captured -for exposure to sale in the market-place—an -imputation upon the bearded keepers of the -bird bazaars that I reject with scorn. Negroes -occasionally cross the bounds of their own -quarter to shop among these children of the -Ghettos—I wonder whether by some instinctive -confidence in the good-will of a people who -like themselves do daily battle with the most -deeply planted of all prejudices.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_152.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian loot,<br /> -but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve!</p> - -<p>Chicago is rich in types; human nature is -comprehensively represented with its best and -worst. It should be possible to find here, midway -of the seas, the typical American, but I -am mistrustful of my powers of selection in so -grave a matter. There are too many men observable -in office-buildings and in clubs who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> -might pass as typical New Yorkers if they were -encountered in Fifth Avenue, to make possible -any safe choice for the artist’s pencil. There is -no denying that the average Chicagoan is less -“smart” than the New Yorker. The pressing -of clothes and nice differentiations in haberdashery -seem to be less important to the male -here than to his New York cousin. I spent an -anxious Sunday morning in quest of the silk -hat, and reviewed the departing worshippers in -the neighborhood of many temples in this search, -but the only toppers I found were the crowning -embellishments of two colored gentlemen in -South State Street.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the typical Chicagoan is the commuter -who, after the day’s hurry and fret, -ponders the city’s needs calmly by the lake -shore or in prairie villages. Chicago’s suburbs -are felicitously named—Kenilworth, Winnetka, -Hubbard Woods, Ravinia, Wilmette, Oak Park, -and Lake Forest. But neither the opulence of -Lake Forest and Winnetka, nor polo and a -famous golf-course at Wheaton can obscure -the merits of Evanston. The urban Chicagoan -becomes violent at the mention of Evanston, -yet here we find a reservoir of the true Western -folksiness, and Chicago profits by its propinquity. -Evanston goes to church, Evanston<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> -reads, Evanston is shamelessly high-brow with -a firm substratum of evangelicanism. Here, -on spring mornings, Chopin floats through -many windows across the pleasantest of hedges -and Dostoyefsky is enthroned by the evening -lamp. The girl who is always at the tennis-nets -or on the golf-links of Evanston is the same -girl one has heard at the piano, or whose profile -is limned against the lamp with the green shade -as she ponders the Russians. She is symbolic -and evocative of Chicago <i>in altissimo</i>. Her -father climbs the heights perforce that he may -not be deprived of her society. Fitted by nature -to adorn the bright halls of romance, she is -the sternest of realists. She discusses politics -with sophistication, and you may be sure she -belongs to many societies and can wield the -gavel with grace and ease. She buries herself -at times in a city settlement, for nothing is so -important to this young woman as the uplift -of the race; and in so far as the race’s destiny -is in her hands I cheerfully volunteer the opinion -that its future is bright.</p> - -<p>I hope, however, to be acquitted of ungraciousness -if I say that the most delightful -person I ever met in Chicago, where an exacting -social taste may find amplest satisfaction, -and where, in the academic shades of three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> -universities (Northwestern, Lake Forest, and -Chicago), one may find the answer to a question -in any of the arts or sciences—the most refreshing -and the most instructive of my encounters -was with a lady who followed the -vocation of a pickpocket and shoplifter. A -friend of mine who is engaged in the detection -of crime in another part of the universe had -undertaken to introduce me to the presence of -a “gunman,” a species of malefactor that had -previously eluded me. Meeting this detective -quite unexpectedly in Chicago, he made it possible -for me to observe numbers of gangsters, -or persons he vouched for as such—gentlemen -willing to commit murder for a fee so ridiculously -low that it would be immoral for me to -name it.</p> - -<p>It is enough that I beheld and even conversed -with a worthy descendant of the murderers of -Elizabethan tragedy—one who might confess, -with the Second Murderer in Macbeth:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="indent2">“I am one, my liege,</div> -<div class="verse">Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world</div> -<div class="verse">Have so incens’d that I am reckless what</div> -<div class="verse">I do to spite the world.”</div> -</div></div> - -<p>But it was even more thrilling to be admitted, -after a prearranged knock at the back door, -into the home of a woman of years whose life<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> -has been one long battle with the social order. -Assured by my friend that I was a trustworthy -person, or, in the vernacular, “all right,” she -entered with the utmost spirit into the discussion -of larceny as she had practised it. Only -a week earlier she had been released from the -Bridewell after serving a sentence for shoplifting, -and yet her incarceration—only one -of a series of imprisonments—had neither -embittered her nor dampened her zest for life. -She met my inquiries as to the hazards of the -game with the most engaging candor. I am -ashamed to confess that as she described her -adventures I could understand something of -the lawless joy she found in the pitting of her -wits against the law. She had lived in Chicago -all her life and knew its every corner. The -underworld was an open book to her; she patiently -translated for my benefit the thieves’ -argot she employed fluently. She instructed -me with gusto and humor in the most approved -methods of shoplifting, with warnings as to -the machinery by which the big department -stores protect themselves from her kind. She -was equally wise as to the filching of purses, -explaining that this is best done by three conspirators -if a crowded street-car be the chosen -scene of operations. Her own function was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> -usually the gentle seizure of the purse, to be -passed quickly back to a confederate, and he -in turn was charged with the responsibility of -conveying it to a third person, who was expected -to drop from the rear platform and escape. -Having elucidated this delicate transaction, she -laughed gleefully. “Once on a Wabash Avenue -car I nipped a purse from a woman’s lap and -passed it back, thinking a girl who was working -with me was right there, but say—I handed it -to a captain of police!” Her husband, a burglar -of inferior talents, sitting listlessly in the -dingy room that shook under the passing elevated -trains, took a sniff of cocaine. When I -professed interest in the proceeding she said she -preferred the hypodermic, and thereupon mixed -a potion for herself and thrust the needle into -an arm much swollen from frequent injections. -Only the other day, a year after this visit, I -learned that she was again in durance, this -time for an ingenious attempt to defraud an -insurance company.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>In the field of social effort Chicago has long -stood at the fore, and the experiments have -continued until a good many debatable points<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> -as to method have been determined. Hull -House and Miss Jane Addams are a part of -American history. There are those in Chicago -who are skeptical as to the value of much of -the machinery employed in social betterment, -but they may be silenced effectively by a question -as to just what the plight of the two and -a half million would be if so many high-minded -people had not consecrated themselves to the -task of translating America into terms of service -for the guidance and encouragement of the -poor and ignorant. The spirit of this endeavor -is that expressed in Arnold’s lines on Goethe:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="first">“He took the suffering human race,</div> -<div class="verse">He read each wound, each weakness clear;</div> -<div class="verse">And struck his finger on the place</div> -<div class="verse">And said: Thou ailest here and here!”</div> -</div></div> - -<p>And when the diagnosis has been made some -one in this city of hope is ready with a remedy.</p> - -<p>When I remarked to a Chicago alderman -upon the great number of agencies at work in -Chicago for social betterment, he said, with -manifest pride: “This town is full of idealists!” -What strikes the visitor is that so many of these -idealists are practical-minded men and women -who devote a prodigious amount of time, energy, -and money to the promotion of social welfare. -It is impossible to examine a cross-section anywhere<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> -without finding vestigia of welfare effort, -or traces of the movements for political reform -represented in the Municipal Voters’ League, -the Legislative League, or the City Club.</p> - -<p>It is admitted (grudgingly in some quarters) -that the strengthening of the social fabric has -carried with it an appreciable elevation of political -ideals, though the proof of this is less impressive -than we should like to have it. It is -unfortunately true that an individual may -be subjected to all possible saving influences—transformed -into a clean, reputable being, yet -continue to view his political obligations as -through a glass darkly. Nor is the average -citizen of old American stock, who is satisfied, -very often, to accept any kind of local government -so long as he is not personally annoyed -about it, a wholly inspiring example to the -foreign-born. The reformer finds it necessary -to work coincidentally at both ends of the social -scale. The preservation of race groups in Chicago’s -big wards (the vote in these political -units ranges from eight to thirty-six thousand), -is essential to safe manipulation. The bosses -are not interested in the successful operation -of the melting-pot. It is much easier for them -to buy votes collectively from a padrone than -to negotiate with individuals whose minds have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> -been “corrupted” by the teachers of political -honesty in settlements and neighborhood -houses. However, the Chicago bosses enjoy -little tranquillity; some agency is constantly -on their heels with an impudent investigation -that endangers their best-laid devices for “protection.”</p> - -<p>As an Americanizing influence, important as -a means of breaking-up race affiliations that -facilitate the “delivery” of votes, Chicago has -developed a type of recreation park that gives -promise of the best results. The first of these -were opened in the South Park district in 1905. -There are now thirty-five such centres, which, -without paralleling or infringing upon the work -of other social agencies, greatly widen the scope -of the city’s social service. These parks comprise -a playground with baseball diamond, -tennis-courts, an outdoor swimming-pool, playgrounds -for young children, and a field-house -containing a large assembly-hall, club-rooms, a -branch library, and shower-baths with locker-rooms -for men and women. Skating is offered -as a winter diversion, and the halls may be used -for dances, dramatic, musical, and other neighborhood -entertainments. Clubs organized for -the study of civic questions meet in these houses; -there are special classes for the instruction of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> -foreigners in the mystery of citizenship; and -schemes of welfare work are discussed in the -neighborhood councils that are encouraged to -debate municipal problems and to initiate new -methods of social service. A typical centre is -Dvorák Park, ninety-five per cent of whose -patrons are Bohemians. Among its organizations -are a Bohemian Old Settlers’ Club and a -Servant Girls’ Chorus. Colonel H. C. Carbaugh, -of the Civil Service Board of South -Park Commissioners, in an instructive volume, -“Human Welfare Work in Chicago,” calls these -park centres “public community clearing-houses.” -They appeal the more strongly to -the neighborhoods they serve from the fact -that they are provided by the municipality, -and, while under careful and sympathetic supervision, -are in a very true sense the property -of the people. Visits are exchanged by the -musical, gymnastic, or other societies of the -several communities, with a view to promoting -fellowship between widely separated neighborhoods.</p> - -<p>One has but to ask in Chicago whether some -particular philanthropic or welfare work has -been undertaken to be borne away at once to -observe that very thing in successful operation. -It is a fair statement that no one need walk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> -the streets of the city hungry. Many doors -stand ajar for the despairing. A common indictment -of the churches, that they have neglected -the practical application of Christianity -to humanity’s needs, hardly holds against Chicago’s -churches. The Protestant Episcopal -Church has long been zealous in philanthropic -and welfare work, and Methodists, Presbyterians -and Baptists are conspicuously active in -these fields. The Catholic Church in Chicago -extends a helping hand through forty-five alert -and well-managed agencies. The total disbursement -of the Associated Jewish Charities -for the year ending May, 1916, was $593,466, -and the Jewish people of Chicago contribute -generously to social-welfare efforts outside their -fold. The Young Men’s Christian Association -conducts a great number of enterprises, including -a nineteen-story hotel, built at a cost of -$1,350,000, which affords temporary homes to -the thousands of young men who every year -seek employment in Chicago. This huge structure -contains 1,821 well-ventilated rooms that -are rented at from thirty to fifty cents a day. -The Chicago Association has twenty-nine widely -distributed branches, offering recreation, vocational -instruction, and spiritual guidance. The -Salvation Army addresses itself tirelessly to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span> -Chicago’s human problem. Colonel Carbaugh -thus summarizes the army’s work for the year -ending in September, 1916: “At the various -institutions for poor men and women 151,501 -beds and meals were worked for; besides which -$38,779.98 in cash was paid to the inmates for -work done. To persons who were not in a position -to work, or whom it was impossible to -supply with work, 111,354 beds and meals, 11,330 -garments and pairs of shoes, and 123 tons -of coal were given without charge.”</p> - -<p>The jaunty inquirer for historical evidences—hoary -ruins “out of fashion, like a rusty mail -in monumental mockery”—is silenced by the -multiplicity of sentry-houses that mark the line -of social regeneration and security. Chicago is -carving her destiny and in no small degree -moulding the future of America by these laborious -processes brought to bear upon humanity -itself. Perhaps the seeker in quest of the spirit -of Chicago better serves himself by sitting for -an hour in a community centre, in a field-house, -in the juvenile court, in one of the hundreds of -places where the human problem is met and -dealt with hourly than in perusing tables of -statistics.</p> - -<p>At every turn one is aware that no need, no -abuse is neglected, and an immeasurable patience<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> -characterizes all this labor. One looks at -Chicago’s worst slum with a sense that after all -it is not so bad, or that at any rate it is not -hopeless. Nothing is hopeless in a city where -the highest reach down so constantly to the -lowest, where the will to protect, to save, to -lift is everywhere so manifest. This will, this -determination is well calculated to communicate -a certain awe to the investigator: no other expression -of the invincible Chicago spirit is so -impressive as this.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p><i>Anno Urbis Conditæ</i> may not be appended -to any year in the chronicles of a city that has -so repeatedly rebuilt itself and that goes cheerfully -on demolishing yesterday’s structures to -make way for the nobler achievements of to-morrow. -While the immediate effect of the -World’s Columbian Exposition of 1892-3 was -to quicken the civic impulse and arouse Chicago -to a sense of her own powers, a lasting and concrete -result is found in the ambition inspired -by the architectural glories of the fair to invoke -the same arts for the city’s permanent beautification. -The genius of Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, -who waved the magic wand that summoned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> -“pillared arch and sculptured dome” out of flat -prairie and established “the White City” to -live as a happy memory for many millions in -all lands, was enlisted for the greater task. -Without the fair as a background the fine talents -of Mr. Burnham and his collaborator, Mr. Edward -H. Bennett, might never have been exercised -upon the city. Chicago thinks in large -terms, and being properly pleased with the -demonstration of its ability to carry through -an undertaking of heroic magnitude it immediately -sought other fields to conquer. The -fair had hardly closed its doors before Mr. Burnham -and Mr. Bennett were engaged by the -Commercial Club to prepare comprehensive -plans for the perpetuation of something of the -charm and beauty of the fairy city as a permanent -and predominating feature of Chicago. -Clearly what served so well as a temporary -matter might fill the needs of all time. The -architects boldly attacked the problem of establishing -as the outer line, the façade of the city, -something distinctive, a combination of landscape -and architecture such as no other American -city has ever created out of sheer pride, -determination, and sound taste. Like the -æsthetic problems, the practical difficulties imposed -by topography, commercial pre-emptions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span> -and legal embarrassments were intrusted only -to competent and sympathetic hands. The -whole plan, elaborated in a handsome volume -published in 1909, with the effects contemplated -happily anticipated in the colored drawings of -Mr. Jules Guérin, fixed definitely an ideal and -a goal.</p> - -<p>This programme was much described and -discussed at the time of its inception, and I -had ignorantly assumed that it had been neglected -in the pressure of matters better calculated -to resound in bank clearings, but I had -grossly misjudged the firmness of the Chicago -fibre. The death of Mr. Burnham left the -architectural responsibilities of the work in -the very capable hands of Mr. Bennett. The -Commercial Club, an organization of highest -intelligence and influence, steadfastly supported -the plan until it was reinforced by a strong -public demand for its fulfilment. The movement -has been greatly assisted by Mr. Charles -H. Wacker, president of the plan commission -and the author of a primer on the subject that -is used in the public schools. Mr. Wacker’s -vigorous propaganda, through the press and -by means of illustrated lectures in school and -neighborhood houses, has tended to the democratizing -of what might have passed as a fanciful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> -scheme of no interest to the great body of -the people.</p> - -<p>With singular perversity nature vouchsafed -the fewest possible aids to the architect for the -embellishment of a city that had grown to -prodigious size before it became conscious of -its artistic deficiencies. The lake washes a -flat beach, unbroken by any islanded bay to -rest the eye, and the back door is level with -limitless prairie. There is no hill on which to -plant an acropolis, and the Chicago River (transformed -into a canal by clever engineering) offered -little to the landscape-architect at any -stage of its history. However, the distribution -of parks is excellent, and they are among the -handsomest in the world. These, looped together -by more than eighty miles of splendid -boulevards, afford four thousand acres of open -space. The early pre-emption of the lake front -by railroad-tracks added to the embarrassments -of the artist, but the plan devised by Messrs. -Burnham and Bennett conceals them by a -broadening of Grant Park that cannot fail to -produce an effect of distinction and charm. -Chicago has a playful habit of driving the lake -back at will, and it is destined to farther recessions. -When the prodigious labors involved -in the plan are completed the lake may be contemplated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> -across green esplanades, broken by -lagoons; peristyles and statuary will be a feature -of the transformed landscape. The new Field -Museum is architecturally consonant with the -general plan; a new art museum and other -buildings are promised that will add to the -variety and picturesqueness of the whole. With -Michigan Avenue widened and brought into -harmony with Grant Park, thus extended and -beautified and carried across the river northward -to a point defined at present by the old -water-tower (one of Chicago’s few antiquities), -landscape architecture will have set a new mark -in America. The congestion of north and -south bound traffic on Michigan Avenue will be -relieved by a double-decked bridge, making possible -the classification of traffic and the exclusion -of heavy vehicles from the main thoroughfare. -All this is promised very soon, now that necessary -legislation and legal decisions are clearing -the way. The establishment of a civic centre, -with a grouping of public buildings that would -make possible further combinations in keeping -with those that are to lure the eye at the lakeside -is projected, but may be left for another -generation to accomplish.</p> - -<p>Chicago’s absorption in social service and -well-planned devices for taking away the reproach<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> -of its ugliness is not at the expense of -the grave problems presented by its politics. -Here again the inquirer is confronted by a -formidable array of citizens, effectively organized, -who are bent upon making Chicago a -safe place for democracy. That Chicago shall -be the best-governed city in America is the -aspiration of great numbers of men and women, -and one is struck once more not merely by the -energy expended in these matters but by the -thoroughness and far-sightedness of the efforts -for political betterment. Illinois wields so great -an influence in national affairs that strictly -municipal questions suffer in Chicago as in -every other American city where the necessities -of partisan politics constantly obscure local -issues. The politics of Chicago is bewilderingly -complicated by the complexity of its governmental -machinery.</p> - -<p>It is staggering to find that the city has not -one but, in effect, twenty-two distinct governing -agencies, all intrusted with the taxing power! -These include the city of Chicago, a board of -education, a library board, the Municipal Tuberculosis -Sanitarium, the county government of -Cook County, the sanitary district of Chicago, -and sixteen separate boards of park commissioners. -The interests represented in these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> -organizations are, of course, identical in so far -as the taxpaying citizen is concerned. An -exhaustive report of the Chicago Bureau of -Public Efficiency published in January, 1917, -reaches the conclusion that “this community -is poorly served by its hodgepodge of irresponsible -governing agencies, not only independent -of one another but often pulling and hauling -at cross-purposes. A single governing agency, -in which should be centred all the local administrative -and legislative functions of the community, -but directly responsible to the voters, -would be able to render services which existing -agencies could not perform nearly so well, if -at all, even if directed by officials of exceptional -ability. The present system, however, instead -of attracting to public employment men of -exceptional ability, tends to keep them out, -with the result that the places are left at the -disposal of partisan-spoils political leaders.”</p> - -<p>The waste entailed by this multiplication of -agencies and resulting diffusion of power and -responsibility is illustrated by the number of -occasions on which the citizen is called upon -to register and vote. The election expenses of -Chicago and Cook County for 1916 were more -than two million dollars, an increase of one -hundred per cent in four years. This does not, -of course, take account of the great sums expended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> -by candidates and party organizations, -or the waste caused by the frequent interruptions -to normal business. Chicago’s calendar -of election events for 1918 includes opportunities -for registration in February, March, August, -and October; city primaries in February; -general primaries in September; a city election -in April; and a general election in November.</p> - -<p>Under the plan of unified government proposed -by the Bureau of Efficiency there would -be but three regular elections in each four-year -period, two biennial elections for national and -State officials, and one combined municipal -and judicial election. A consolidation and -reform of the judicial machinery of Cook County -and Chicago is urged by the bureau, which -complains that the five county courts and the -municipal court of Chicago, whose functions -are largely concurrent, cost annually two and -a quarter million. There are six separate clerks’ -offices and a small army of deputy sheriffs and -bailiffs to serve these courts, with an evident -paralleling of labor. While the city and county -expend nearly a million dollars annually for -legal services, this is not the whole item, for -the library board, the board of education, and -committees of the city council may, on occasion, -employ special counsel.</p> - -<p>The policing of so large a city, whose very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> -geographical position makes it a convenient -way station for criminals of every sort, where -so many races are to be dealt with, and where -the existing form of municipal government -keeps politics constantly to the fore, is beset -with well-nigh insuperable obstacles. Last year -the police department passed through a fierce -storm with what seems to be a resulting improvement -in conditions. An investigator of -the Committee of Fifteen, a citizens’ organization, -declared in May, 1917, that ten per cent -of the men on the police force are “inherently -crooked and ought to be driven from the department.” -To which a police official retorted -that for every crooked policeman there are -500 crooked citizens, an ill-tempered aspersion -too shocking for acceptance. The <i>Chicago Daily -News Almanac</i> records 114,625 arrests in 1915. -Half of the total are set down as Americans; -there were 9,508 negroes, 4,739 Germans, 2,144 -Greeks, 7,644 Polanders, 5,577 Russians, 2,981 -Italians, and 2,565 Irish. In that year there -were 194 murders—35 fewer than in 1914. -Comparisons in such matters are not profitable -but it may be interesting to note that in 1915 -there were 222 murders in New York; 244 in -1914; 265 in 1913. Over 3,000 keepers and inmates -of Chicago gaming-houses were arrested<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> -in 1915. The cost of the police department is -in excess of $7,000,000—an amount just about -balanced by the license fee paid by the city’s -seven thousand saloons. Until recently the -State law closing saloons on Sunday was ignored, -but last year the city police department -undertook to enforce it, with (to the casual eye) -a considerable degree of success.</p> - -<p>The report of the Bureau of Efficiency recommends -the consolidation of the existing governing -agencies into a single government headed -by an executive of the city-manager type. Instead -of a political mayor elected by popular -vote the office would be filled by the city council -for an indefinite tenure. The incumbent would -be the executive officer of the council and he -might be given a seat in that body without a -vote. The council would be free to go outside -the city if necessary in its search for a competent -mayor under this council-manager plan. One -has but to read the Chicago newspapers to be -satisfied that some such change as here indicated -is essential to the wise and economical government -of the city. Battles between the mayor -and the council, upheavals in one city department -or another occur constantly with a serious -loss of municipal dignity. With deep humility -I confess my incompetence for the task of describing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> -the present mayor of Chicago, Mr. -William Hale Thompson, whose antics since he -assumed office have given Chicago a vast -amount of painful publicity. As a public official -his manifold infelicities (I hope the term is -sufficiently delicate) have at least served to -strengthen the arguments in favor of the recall -as a means of getting rid of an unfit office-holder.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> -Last year a general shaking up of the -police department had hardly faded from the -head-lines before the city’s school system, a frequent -storm-centre, caught the limelight. The -schools are managed by a board of trustees appointed -by the mayor. On a day last spring -(1917) the board met and discharged the superintendent -of schools (though retaining him temporarily), -and, if we may believe the news columns -of the Chicago <i>Tribune</i>, “Chicago’s mayor -was roped, thrown, and tied so rapidly that the -crowd gasped, laughed, and broke into a cheer -almost in one moment.” I mention this episode, -which was followed in a few weeks by the reinstatement -of the superintendent with an increase -of salary, as justifying the demand for a form -of government that will perform its functions -decently and in order and without constant disturbances -of the public service that result only -in the encouragement of incompetence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>The politicians will not relinquish so big a -prize without a struggle; but one turns from -the dark side of the picture to admire the many -hopeful, persistent agencies that are addressing -themselves to the correction of these evils. The -best talents of the city are devoted to just these -things. The trustees of the Bureau of Public -Efficiency are Julius Rosenwald, Alfred L. -Baker, Onward Bates, George G. Tunnell, -Walter L. Fisher, Victor Elting, Allen B. Pond, -and Frank I. Moulton, whose names are worthy -of all honor as typical of Chicago’s most successful -and public-spirited citizens. The City -Club, with a membership of 2,400, is a wide-awake -organization whose 27 civic committees, -enlisting the services of 500 members, are constantly -studying municipal questions, instituting -inquiries, and initiating “movements” well -calculated to annoy and alarm the powers that -prey.</p> - -<p>Space that I had reserved for some note of -Chicago’s industries, the vastness of the stock-yards, -the great totals in beasts and dollars -represented in the meat-packing business, the -lake and railroad tonnage, and like matters, -shrinks under pressure of what seem, on the -whole, to be things of greater interest and -significance. That the total receipts of live-stock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> -for one year exceeded 14,000,000 with a -cash value of $370,938,156 strikes me as less -impressive than the fact that a few miles distant -from the packing-houses exists an art institute, -visited by approximately a million persons annually, -and an art school that affords capable -instruction to 3,000 students. Every encouragement -is extended to these pupils, nor is the artist, -once launched upon his career, neglected by -the community. The city provides, through a -Commission for the Encouragement of Local -Art, for the purchase of paintings by Chicago -artists. There are a variety of private organizations -that extend a helping hand to the tyro, -and lectures and concerts are abundantly provided. -A few years ago the National Institute -of Arts and Letters met for the first time in -Chicago. It must have been with a certain -humor that the citizens spread for the members, -who came largely from the East, a royal banquet -in the Sculpture Hall of the Institute, as -though to present Donatello and Verrocchio as -the real hosts of the occasion. It is by such -manifestations that Chicago is prone to stifle -the charge of philistinism.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_176.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">Banquet given for the members of the National Institute of Arts and -Letters.</p> - -<p>With a noteworthy absence of self-consciousness, -Chicago assimilates a great deal of music. -The symphony orchestra, founded by Theodore<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> -Thomas and conducted since his death by -Frederic Stock, offers a series of twenty-eight -concerts a year. Eight thousand contributors -made possible the building of Orchestra Hall, -the organization’s permanent home. Boston is -not more addicted to symphonies than Chicago. -Indeed, on afternoons when concerts are -scheduled the agitations of the musically minded -in popular refectories, the presence in Michigan -Avenue of suburban young women, whom one -identifies at sight as devotees of Bach and -Brahms, suggest similar scenes that are a part -of the life of Boston. The luxury of grand opera -is offered for ten weeks every winter by artists -of first distinction; and it was Chicago, we shall -frequently be reminded, that called New York’s -attention to the merits of Mme. Galli-Curci. -Literature too is much to the fore in Chicago, -but I shall escape from the task of enumerating -its many practitioners by pleading that only a -volume would do justice to the subject. The -contributors to Mr. Bert Leston Taylor’s “Line -o’ Type” column in the <i>Tribune</i> testify daily to -the prevalence of the poetic impulse within the -city and of an alert, mustang, critical spirit.</p> - -<p>With all its claims to cosmopolitanism one is -nevertheless conscious that Chicago is only a -prairie county-seat that is continually outgrowing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> -its bounds, but is striving to maintain its -early fundamental devotion to decency and -order, and develop among its millions the respect -for those things that are more excellent -that is so distinguishing a trait of the Folks -throughout the West. Chicago’s strength is -the strength of the soil that was won for civilization -and democracy by a great and valorous -body of pioneer freemen; and the Chicago spirit -is that of the men and women who plunged into -the West bearing in their hearts that “something -pretty fine” (in Lincoln’s phrase), which -was the ideal of the founders of the republic. -“The children of the light” are numerous -enough to make the materialists and the philistines -uncomfortable if not heartily ashamed of -themselves; for it is rather necessary in Chicago -to have “interests,” to manifest some degree of -curiosity touching the best that has been thought -and done in the world, and to hold a commission -to help and to serve the community and -the nation, to win the highest esteem.</p> - -<p>Every weakness and every element of strength -in democracy, as we are experimenting with it, -has definite and concrete presentment in Chicago. -In the trying months preceding and -following the declaration of war with Germany -the city repeatedly asserted its intense patriotism.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> -The predominating foreign-born population -is German, yet once the die was cast these -citizens were found, except in negligible instances, -supporting the American cause as loyally -as their neighbors of old American stock. -The city’s patriotic ardor was expressed repeatedly -in popular demonstrations—beginning -with a preparedness parade in June, 1916, in -which 150,000 persons participated; in public -gatherings designed to unify sentiment, not least -noteworthy of these being the meeting in the -stock-yards pavilion in May, of last year, when -12,000 people greeted Colonel Roosevelt. The -visit of M. Viviani and Field-Marshal Joffre -afforded the city another opportunity to manifest -its devotion to the cause of democracy. -Every responsibility entailed by America’s entrance -into the war was met immediately with -an enthusiasm so hearty that the Chicago press -was to be pardoned for indulging in ironic flings -at the East, which had been gloomily apprehensive -as to the attitude of the Middle West.</p> - -<p>The flag flies no more blithely or securely -anywhere in America than in the great city -that lies at the northern edge of the prairies -that gave Lincoln to be the savior of the nation. -Those continuing experiments and that struggle -for perfection that are the task of democracy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> -have here their fullest manifestation, and the -knowledge that these processes and undertakings -are nobly guided must be a stimulus and an inspiration -to all who have at heart the best that -may be sought and won for America.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V<br /> - - -THE MIDDLE WEST IN POLITICS</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><i>The great interior region bounded east by the Alleghanies, north -by the British dominions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and -south by the line along which the culture of corn and cotton meets -... already has above 10,000,000 people, and will have 50,000,000 -within fifty years if not prevented by any political folly or mistake. -It contains more than one-third of the country owned by the United -States—certainly more than 1,000,000 square miles. Once half -as populous as Massachusetts already is, it would have more than -75,000,000 people. A glance at the map shows that, territorially -speaking, it is the great body of the republic. The other parts are -but marginal borders to it.—Lincoln: Annual Message to Congress, -December, 1862.</i></p> -</div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p class="drop-cap">IF a general participation in politics is essential -to the successful maintenance of a -democracy, then the people of the West -certainly bear their share of the national burden. -A great deal of history has been made -in what Lincoln called “the great body of the -republic,” and the election of 1916 indicated -very clearly the growing power of the West in -national contests, and a manifestation of independence -that is not negligible in any conjectures -as to the issues and leadership of the -immediate future.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>A few weeks before the last general election I -crossed a Middle Western State in company -with one of its senators, a veteran politician, -who had served his party as State chairman and -as chairman of the national committee. In the -smoking compartment was a former governor of -an Eastern State and several others, representing -both the major parties, who were bound for -various points along the line where they were to -speak that night. In our corner the talk was -largely reminiscent of other times and bygone -statesmen. Republicans and Democrats exchanged -anecdotes with that zest which distinguishes -the Middle Western politician, men of -one party paying tribute to the character and -ability of leaders of the other in a fine spirit of -magnanimity. As the train stopped, from time -to time, the United States senator went out upon -the platform and shook hands with friends and -acquaintances, or received reports from local -leaders. Everybody on the train knew him; -many of the men called him by his first name. -He talked to the women about their children -and asked about their husbands. The whole -train caught the spirit of his cheer and friendliness, -and yet he had been for a dozen years the -most abused man in his State. This was all in -the day’s work, a part of what has been called<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> -the great American game. The West makes -something intimate and domestic of its politics, -and the idea that statesmen must “keep close -to the people” is not all humbug, not at least -in the sense that they hold their power very -largely through their social qualities. They -must, as we say, be “folks.”</p> - -<p>Apart from wars, the quadrennial presidential -campaigns are America’s one great national -expression in terms of drama; but through -months in which the average citizen goes about -his business, grateful for a year free of political -turmoil, the political machinery is never idle. -No matter how badly defeated a party may be, -its State organization must not be permitted to -fall to pieces; for the perfecting of an organization -demands hard work and much money. -There is always a great deal of inner plotting -preliminary to a State or national contest, and -much of this is wholly without the knowledge of -the quiet citizen whose active interests are -never aroused until a campaign is well launched. -In State capitals and other centres men meet, -as though by chance, and in hotel-rooms debate -matters of which the public hears only when -differences have been reconciled and a harmonious -plan of action has been adopted. Not a -day passes even in an “off year” when in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> -corn belt men are not travelling somewhere on -political errands. There are fences to repair, -local conditions to analyze, and organizations -to perfect against the coming of the next campaign. -In a Western State I met within the -year two men who had just visited their governor -for the purpose of throwing some “pep” -into him. They had helped to elect him and -felt free to beard him in the capitol to caution -him as to his conduct. It is impossible to step -off a train anywhere between Pittsburgh and -Denver without becoming acutely conscious -that much politics is forward. One campaign -“doth tread upon another’s heel, so fast they -follow.” This does not mean merely that the -leaders in party organizations meet constantly -for conferences, or that candidates are plotting a -long way ahead to secure nominations, but that -the great body of the people—the Folks themselves—are -ceaselessly discussing new movements -or taking the measure of public servants.</p> - -<p>The politician lives by admiration; he likes -to be pointed out, to have men press about him -to shake his hand. He will enter a State convention -at just the right moment to be greeted -with a cheer, of which a nonchalant or deprecatory -wave of the hand is a sufficient recognition. -Many small favors of which the public never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> -dreams are granted to the influential politician, -even when he is not an office-holder—favors that -mean much to him, that contribute to his self-esteem. -A friend who was secretary for several -years of one of the national committees had a -summer home by a quiet lake near an east-and-west -railway-line. When, during a campaign, -he was suddenly called to New York or Chicago -he would wire the railway authorities to order -one of the fast trains to pick him up at a lonely -station, which it passed ordinarily at the highest -speed. My friend derived the greatest satisfaction -from this concession to his prominence -and influence. Men who affect to despise politicians -of the party to which they are opposed -are nevertheless flattered by any attention from -them, and they will admit, when there is no -campaign forward, that in spite of their politics -they are mighty good fellows. And they <i>are</i> -good fellows; they have to be to retain their -hold upon their constituents. There are exceptions -to the rule that to succeed in politics one -must be a good fellow, a folksy person, but they -are few. Cold, crafty men who are not “good -mixers” may sometimes gain a great deal of -power, but in the Western provinces they make -poor candidates. The Folks don’t like ’em!</p> - -<p>Outside of New York and Pennsylvania,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> -where much the same phenomena are observable, -there is no region where the cards are so -tirelessly shuffled as in the Middle Western commonwealths, -particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, -and Kansas, which no party can pretend to -carry jauntily in its pocket. Men enjoy the -game because of its excitement, its potentialities -of preferment, the chance that a few votes -delivered in the right quarter may upset all -calculations and send a lucky candidate for governor -on his way to the Federal Senate or even -to the White House. And in country towns -where there isn’t much to do outside of routine -business the practice of politics is a welcome -“side-line.” There is a vast amount of fun to -be got out of it; and one who is apt at the game -may win a county office or “go” to the legislature.</p> - -<p>To be summoned from a dull job in a small -town to a conference called suddenly and mysteriously -at the capital, to be invited to sit -at the council-table with the leaders, greatly -arouses the pride and vanity of men to whom, -save for politics, nothing of importance ever -happens. There are, I fancy, few American -citizens who don’t hug the delusion that they -have political “influence.” This vanity is responsible -for much party regularity. To have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span> -influence a man must keep his record clear of -any taint of independence, or else he must be -influential enough as an independent to win the -respect of both sides, and this latter class is exceedingly -small. At some time in his life every -citizen seeks an appointment for a friend, or -finds himself interested in local or State or national -legislation. It is in the mind of the contributor -to a campaign fund that the party of -his allegiance has thus a concrete expression of -his fidelity, and if he “wants something” he -has opened a channel through which to make a -request with a reasonable degree of confidence -that it will not be ignored. There was a time -when it was safe to give to both sides impartially -so that no matter who won the battle -the contributor would have established an obligation; -but this practice has not worked so -satisfactorily since the institution of publicity -for campaign assessments.</p> - -<p>It is only immediately after an election that -one hears criticisms of party management from -within a party. A campaign is a great time-eater, -and when a man has given six months -or possibly a year of hard work to making an -aggressive fighting machine of his party he is -naturally grieved when it goes down in defeat. -In the first few weeks following the election of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> -1916 Western Republicans complained bitterly -of the conduct of the national campaign. Unhappily, -no amount of <i>a posteriori</i> reasoning -can ever determine whether, if certain things -had been handled differently, a result would -have been changed. If Mr. Hughes had not -visited California, or, venturing into that commonwealth, -he had shaken the hand of Governor -Hiram Johnson, or if he had remained quietly -on his veranda at home and made no speeches, -would he have been elected President? Speculations -of this kind may alleviate the poignancy -of defeat, but as a political situation is rarely -or never repeated they are hardly profitable.</p> - -<p>There are phases of political psychology that -defy analysis. For example, in doubtful States -there are shifting moods of hope and despair -which are wholly unrelated to tangible events -and not reconcilable with “polls” and other pre-election -tests. Obscure influences and counter-currents -may be responsible, but often the politicians -do not attempt to account for these alternations -of “feeling.” When, without warning, -the barometer at headquarters begins to fall, -even the messengers and stenographers are -affected. The gloom may last for a day or two -or even for a week; then the chairman issues a -statement “claiming” everything, every one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> -takes heart of hope, and the dread spectre of -defeat steals away to the committee-rooms of -the opposition.</p> - -<p>An interesting species are the oracles whose -views are sought by partisans anxious for trustworthy -“tips.” These “medicine-men” may -not be actively engaged in politics, or only -hangers-on at headquarters, but they are supposed -to be endowed with the gift of prophecy. -I know several such seers whose views on no -other subject are entitled to the slightest consideration, -and yet I confess to a certain respect -for their judgment as to the outcome of an election. -Late in the fall of 1916, at a time when the -result was most uncertain, a friend told me that -he was wagering a large sum on Mr. Wilson’s -success. Asked to explain his confidence, he -said he was acting on the advice of an obscure -citizen, whom he named, who always “guessed -right.” This prophet’s reasoning was wholly -by inspiration; he had a “hunch.” State and -county committee-rooms are infested with -elderly men who commune among themselves -as to old, unhappy, far-off things and battles -long ago, and wait for a chance to whisper some -rumor into the ear of a person of importance. -Their presence and their misinformation add -little to the joy of the engrossed, harassed strategists,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> -who spend much time dodging them, but -appoint a subordinate of proved patience to -listen to their stories.</p> - -<p>To be successful a State chairman must -possess a genius for organization and administration, -and a capacity for quick decision and -action. While he must make no mistakes himself, -it is his business to correct the blunders of -his lieutenants and turn to good account the -errors of his adversary. He must know how -and where to get money, and how to use it to -the best advantage. There are always local -conditions in his territory that require judicious -handling, and he must deal with these -personally or send just the right man to smooth -them out. Harmony is the great watchword, -and such schisms as that of the Sound Money -Democrats in 1896, the Progressive split of -1912, and the frequent anti-organization fights -that are a part of the great game leave much -harsh jangling behind.</p> - -<p>The West first kicked up its heels in a national -campaign in the contest of 1840, when -William Henry Harrison, a native of Virginia -who had won renown as a soldier in the Ohio -Valley and served as governor of the Northwest -Territory, was the Whig candidate. The campaign -was flavored with hard cider and keyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> -to the melody of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” -The log cabin, with a raccoon on the roof or -with a pelt of the species nailed to the outer -wall, and a cider-barrel seductively displayed -in the foreground, were popular party symbols. -The rollicking campaign songs of 1840 reflect -not only the cheery pioneer spirit but the bitterness -of the contest between Van Buren and -Harrison. One of the most popular ballads was -a buckeye-cabin song sung to the tune of “The -Blue Bells of Scotland”:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="first">“Oh, how, tell me how does your buckeye cabin go?</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, how, tell me how does your buckeye cabin go?</div> -<div class="verse">It goes against the spoilsman, for well its builders know</div> -<div class="verse">It was Harrison who fought for the cabins long ago.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, who fell before him in battle, tell me who?</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, who fell before him in battle, tell me who?</div> -<div class="verse">He drove the savage legions and British armies, too,</div> -<div class="verse">At the Rapids and the Thames and old Tippecanoe.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh, what, tell me what will little Martin do?</div> -<div class="verse">Oh, what, then, what will little Martin do?</div> -<div class="verse">He’ll follow the footsteps of Price and Swartout, too,</div> -<div class="verse">While the log cabins ring again with Tippecanoe!”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The spirit of the ’40’s pervaded Western -politics for many years after that strenuous -campaign. Men who had voted for “Tippecanoe” -Harrison were pointed out as citizens -of unusual worth and dignity in my youth; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> -organizations of these veterans were still in existence -and attentive to politics when Harrison’s -grandson was a candidate for the Presidency.</p> - -<p>I find myself referring frequently to the continuing -influence of the Civil War in the social -and political life of these Western States. The -“soldier vote” was long to be reckoned with, -and it was not until Mr. Cleveland brought a -new spirit into our politics that the war between -the States began to fade as a political factor; and -even then we were assured that if the Democrats -succeeded they would pension Confederate soldiers -and redeem the Confederate bonds. There -were a good many of us in these border States -who, having been born of soldier fathers, and -with Whig and Republican antecedents, began -to resent the continued emphasis of the war in -every campaign; and I look back upon Mr. -Cleveland’s rise as of very great importance in -that he was a messenger of new and attractive -ideals of public service that appealed strongly -to young men. But my political apostasy (I -speak of my own case because it is in some -sense typical) was attended with no diminution -of reverence for that great citizen army that -defended and saved the Union. The annual -gatherings of the Grand Army of the Republic -have grown pathetically smaller, but this organization<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> -is not a negligible expression of -American democracy. The writing of these -pages has been interrupted constantly by bugle-calls -floating in from the street, by the cheers -of crowds wishing Godspeed to our young army -in its high adventure beyond the Atlantic, and -at the moment, by stirring news of American -valor and success in France. In my boyhood -I viewed with awe and admiration the veterans -of ’61-’65 and my patriotism was deeply influenced -by the atmosphere in which I was -born, by acquaintance with my father’s comrades, -and quickened through my formative -years by attendance at encampments of the -Grand Army of the Republic and cheery -“camp-fires” in the hall of George H. Thomas -Post, Indianapolis, where privates and generals -met for story-telling and the singing of war-songs. -The honor which it was part of my -education should be accorded those men will, I -reflect, soon be the portion of their grandsons, -the men of 1917-18, and we shall have -very likely a new Grand Army of the Republic, -with the difference that the descendants of men -who fought under Grant and Sherman will meet -at peaceful “camp-fires” with grandsons of the -soldiers of Lee and Jackson, quite unconscious -that this was ever other than a united nation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_194.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at every political -meeting.</p> - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>The West has never lost its early admiration -for oratory, whether from the hustings, the pulpit, -or the lecture-platform. Many of the -pioneer preachers of the Ohio valley were orators -of distinguished ability, and their frequent -joint debates on such subjects as predestination -and baptism drew great audiences from the -countryside. Both religious and political meetings -were held preferably out of doors to accommodate -the crowds that collected from the -far-scattered farms. A strong voice, a confident -manner, and matter so composed as to -hold the attention of an audience which would -not hesitate to disperse if it lost interest were -prerequisites of the successful speaker. Western -chronicles lay great stress upon the oratorical -powers of both ministers and politicians. -Henry Ward Beecher, who held a pastorate at -Indianapolis (1839-47), was already famed as -an eloquent preacher before he moved to -Brooklyn. Not long ago I heard a number of -distinguished politicians discussing American -oratory. Some one mentioned the addresses -delivered by Beecher in England during the -Civil War, and there was general agreement -that one of these, the Liverpool speech, was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> -probably the greatest of American orations—a -sweeping statement, but its irresistible logic -and a sense of the hostile atmosphere in which -it was spoken may still be felt in the printed -page.</p> - - - -<p>The tradition of Lincoln’s power as an orator -is well fortified by the great company of -contemporaries who wrote of him, as well as by -the text of his speeches, which still vibrate with -the nobility, the restrained strength, with which -he addressed himself to mighty events. Neither -before nor since his day has the West spoken -to the East with anything approaching the -majesty of his Cooper Union speech. It is -certainly a far cry from that lofty utterance to -Mr. Bryan’s defiant cross-of-gold challenge of -1896.</p> - -<p>The Westerner will listen attentively to a -man he despises and has no intention of voting -for, if he speaks well; but the standards are -high. There is a death-watch that occupies -front seats at every political meeting, composed -of veterans who compare all later performances -with some speech they heard Garfield or “Dan” -Voorhees, Oliver P. Morton or John J. Ingalls -deliver before the orator spouting on the platform -was born. Nearly all the national conventions -held in the West have been marked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> -by memorable oratory. Colonel Robert G. -Ingersoll’s speech nominating Blaine at the Republican -convention of 1876 held at Cincinnati -(how faint that old battle-cry has become: -“Blaine, Blaine, Blaine of Maine!”) is often -cited as one of the great American orations. -“He swayed and moved and impelled and restrained -and worked in all ways with the mass -before him,” says the Chicago <i>Times</i> report, -“as if he possessed some key to the innermost -mechanism that moves the human heart, and -when he finished, his fine, frank face as calm as -when he began, the overwrought thousands -sank back in an exhaustion of unspeakable -wonder and delight.”</p> - -<p>Even making allowance for the reporter’s -exuberance, this must have been a moving utterance, -with its dramatic close:</p> - -<p>“Like an armed warrior, like a plumed -knight, James G. Blaine marched down the -halls of the American Congress and threw his -shining lance full and fair against the brazen -foreheads of the defamers of his country and -the maligners of his honor. For the Republican -party to desert this gallant leader now is as -though an army should desert their gallant -general upon the field of battle.... Gentlemen -of the convention, in the name of the great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> -republic, the only republic that ever existed -upon this earth; in the name of all her defenders -and of all her supporters; in the name of all her -soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the -name of those who perished in the skeleton -clutch of famine at Andersonville and Libby, -whose sufferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois, -Illinois nominates for the next President -of this country that prince of parliamentarians, -that leader of leaders—James G. Blaine.”</p> - -<p>In the fall of the same year Ingersoll delivered -at Indianapolis an address to war veterans that -is still cited for its peroration beginning: “The -past rises before me like a dream.”</p> - -<p>The political barbecue, common in pioneer -days, is about extinct, though a few such gatherings -were reported in the older States of the -Middle West in the last campaign. These functions, -in the day of poor roads and few settlements, -were a means of luring voters to a meeting -with the promise of free food; it was only -by such heroic feats of cookery as the broiling -of a whole beef in a pit of coals that a crowd -could be fed. The meat was likely to be either -badly burnt, or raw, but the crowds were not -fastidious, and swigs of whiskey made it more -palatable. Those were days of plain speech -and hard hitting, and on such occasions orators<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> -were expected to “cut loose” and flay the enemy -unsparingly.</p> - -<p>Speakers of the rabble-rouser type have -passed out, though there are still orators who -proceed to “shell the woods” and “burn the -grass” in the old style in country districts -where they are not in danger of being reported. -This, however, is full of peril, as the farmer’s -credulity is not so easily played upon as in the -old days before the R. F. D. box was planted at -his gate. The farmer is the shrewdest, the most -difficult, of auditors. He is little given to applause, -but listens meditatively, and is not -easily to be betrayed into demonstrations of -approval. The orator’s chance of scoring a -hit before an audience of country folk depends -on his ability to state his case with an appearance -of fairness and to sustain it with arguments -presented in simple, picturesque phraseology. -Nothing could be less calculated to -win the farmer’s franchise than any attempt to -“play down” to him. In old times the city -candidate sometimes donned his fishing-clothes -before venturing into country districts, but some -of the most engaging demagogues the West has -known appeared always in their finest raiment.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_198.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption">The Political Barbecue.</p> - -<p>There has always been a considerable sprinkling -of women at big Indiana rallies and also at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span> -State conventions, as far back as my memory -runs; but women, I am advised, were rarely in -evidence at political meetings in the West -until Civil War times. The number who attended -meetings in 1916 was notably large, -even in States that have not yet granted general -suffrage. They are most satisfactory auditors, -quick to catch points and eagerly responsive -with applause. The West has many women -who speak exceedingly well, and the number is -steadily growing. I have never heard heckling -so cleverly parried as by a young woman who -spoke on a Chicago street corner, during the -sessions of the last Republican convention, to -a crowd of men bent upon annoying her. She -was unfailingly good-humored, and her retorts, -delivered with the utmost good nature, gradually -won the sympathy of her hearers.</p> - -<p>The making of political speeches is exhausting -labor, and only the possessor of great bodily -vigor can make a long tour without a serious -drain upon his physical and nervous energy. -Mr. Bryan used to refer with delight to the -manner in which Republicans he met, unable -to pay him any other compliment, expressed -their admiration for his magnificent constitution, -which made it possible for him to speak -so constantly without injury to his health.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> -The fatiguing journeys, the enforced adjustment -to the crowds of varying size in circumstances -never twice alike, the handshaking and -the conferences with local committees to which -prominent speakers must submit make speaking-tours -anything but the triumphal excursions -they appear to be to the cheering audiences. -The weary orator arrives at a town to find -that instead of snatching an hour’s rest he must -yield to the importunity of a committee intrusted -with the responsibility of showing him -the sights of the city, with probably a few brief -speeches at factories; and after a dinner, where -he will very likely be called upon to say “just -a few words,” he must ride in a procession -through the chill night before he addresses the -big meeting. One of the most successful of -Western campaigners is Thomas R. Marshall, -of Indiana, twice Mr. Wilson’s running mate -on the presidential ticket. In 1908 Mr. Marshall -was the Democratic candidate for governor -and spoke in every county in the State, avoiding -the usual partisan appeals, but preaching a -political gospel of good cheer, with the result -that he was elected by a plurality of 14,453, -while Mr. Taft won the State’s electoral vote -by a plurality of 10,731. Mr. Marshall enjoys -a wide reputation as a story-teller, both for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> -humor of his narratives and the art he brings -to their recital.</p> - -<p>A few dashes of local color assist in establishing -the visiting orator on terms of good-fellowship -with his audience. He will inform himself -as to the number of broom-handles or refrigerators -produced annually in the town, or the -amount of barley and buckwheat that last year -rewarded the toil of the noble husbandmen of -the county. It is equally important for him to -take counsel of the local chairman as to things -to avoid, for there are sore spots in many districts -which must be let alone or touched with a -healing hand. The tyro who prepares a speech -with the idea of giving it through a considerable -territory finds quickly that the sooner he forgets -his manuscript the better, so many are the -concessions he must make to local conditions.</p> - -<p>In the campaign of 1916 the Democrats made -strenuous efforts to win the Progressive vote. -Energetic county chairmen would lure as many -Progressives as possible to the front seats at all -meetings that they might learn of the admiration -in which they were held by forward-looking -Democrats—the bond of sympathy, the common -ideals, that animated honest Democrats -and their brothers, those patriotic citizens who, -long weary of Republican indifference to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> -rights of freemen, had broken the ties of a lifetime -to assert their independence. Democratic -orators, with the Progressives in mind, frequently -apostrophized Lincoln, that they might -the better contrast the vigorous, healthy Republicanism -of the ’60’s with the corrupt, -odious thing the Republican party had become. -This, of course, had to be done carefully, so that -the Progressive would not experience twinges of -homesickness for his old stamping-ground.</p> - -<p>There is agreement among political managers -as to the doubtful value of the “monster meetings” -that are held in large centres. With -plenty of money to spend and a thorough organization, -it is always possible to “pull off” -a big demonstration. Word passed to ward -and precinct committeemen will collect a vast -crowd for a parade adorned with fireworks. -The size and enthusiasm of these crowds is -never truly significant of party strength. One -such crowd looks very much like another, and I -am betraying no confidence in saying that its -units are often drawn from the same sources. -The participants in a procession rarely hear the -speeches at the meeting of which they are the -advertisement. When they reach the hall it -is usually filled and their further function is to -march down the aisles with bands and drum-corps<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> -to put the crowd in humor for the speeches. -Frequently some belated phalanx will noisily -intrude after the orator has been introduced, -and he must smile and let it be seen that he -understands perfectly that the interruption is -due to the irrepressible enthusiasm of the intelligent -voters of the grand old blank district -that has never failed to support the principles -of the grand old blank party.</p> - -<p>The most satisfactory meetings are small -ones, in country districts, where one or two hundred -people of all parties gather, drawn by an -honest curiosity as to the issues. Such meetings -impose embarrassments upon the speaker, who -must accommodate manner and matter to auditors -disconcertingly close at hand, of whose -reaction to his talk he is perfectly conscious. -In an “all-day” meeting, held usually in groves -that serve as rural social centres, the farmers -remain in their automobiles drawn into line -before the speakers’ stand, and listen quietly -to the programme arranged by the county chairman. -Sometimes several orators are provided -for the day; Republicans may take the morning, -the Democrats the afternoon. Here, with the -audience sitting as a jury, we have one of the -processes of democracy reduced to its simplest -terms.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>The West is attracted by statesmen who are -“human,” who impress themselves upon the -Folks by their amiability and good-fellowship. -Benjamin Harrison was recognized as one of -the ablest lawyers of the bar of his day, but he -was never a popular hero and his defeat for re-election -was attributable in large degree to his -lack of those qualities that constitute what I -have called “folksiness.” In the campaign -of 1888 General Harrison suffered much from -the charge that he was an aristocrat, and attention -was frequently called to the fact that -he was the grandson of a President. Among -other cartoons of the period there was one that -represented Harrison as a pigmy standing in -the shadow of his grandfather’s tall hat. This -was probably remembered by an Indiana politician -who called at the White House repeatedly -without being able to see the President. After -several fruitless visits the secretary said to him -one day: “The President cannot be seen.” -“My God!” exclaimed the enraged office-seeker, -“has he grown as small as that?”</p> - -<p>Probably no President has ever enjoyed -greater personal popularity than Mr. McKinley. -He would perform an act of kindness with -a graciousness that doubled its value and he -could refuse a favor without making an enemy.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> -Former Governor Glynn of New York told me -not long ago an incident illuminative of the -qualities that endeared Mr. McKinley to his -devoted followers. Soon after his inauguration -a Democratic congressman from an Eastern -State delivered in the House a speech filled -with the bitterest abuse of the President. A -little later this member’s wife, not realizing -that a savage attack of this sort would naturally -make its author <i>persona non grata</i> at the White -House, expressed a wish to take her young -children to call on the President. The youngsters -were insistent in their demand to make the -visit and would not be denied. The offending -representative confessed his embarrassment to -Mr. Glynn, a Democratic colleague, who said -he’d “feel out” the President. Mr. McKinley, -declaring at once with the utmost good humor -that he would be delighted to receive the lady -and her children, named a day and met them -with the greatest cordiality. He planted the -baby on his desk to play, put them all at ease, -and as they left distributed among them a huge -bouquet of carnations that he had ordered -specially from the conservatory. In this connection -I am reminded of a story of Thomas B. -Reed, who once asked President Harrison to -appoint a certain constituent collector at Portland.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> -The appointment went to another candidate -for the office, and when one of Reed’s -friends twitted him about his lack of influence -he remarked: “There are only two men in the -whole State of Maine who hate me: one of -them I landed in the penitentiary, and the other -one Harrison has appointed collector of the port -in my town!”</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>Statesmen of the “picturesque” school, who -attracted attention by their scorn of conventions, -or their raciness of speech, or for some -obsession aired on every occasion, are well-nigh -out of the picture. The West is not without its -sensitiveness, and it has found that a sockless -congressman, or one who makes himself ridiculous -by advocating foolish measures, reflects -upon the intelligence of his constituents or upon -their sense of humor, and if there is anything the -West prides itself upon it is its humor. We are -seeing fewer statesmen of the type so blithely -represented by Mr. Cannon, who enjoy in -marked degree the affections of their constituents; -who are kindly uncles to an entire district, -not to be displaced, no matter what their -shortcomings, without genuine grief. One is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> -tempted far afield in pursuit of the elements of -popularity, of which the West offers abundant -material for analysis. “Dan” Voorhees, “the -tall sycamore of the Wabash,” was prominent -in Indiana politics for many years, and his fine -figure, his oratorical gifts, his sympathetic -nature and reputation for generosity endeared -him to many who had no patience with his -politics. He was so effective as an advocate -in criminal cases that the Indiana law giving -defendants the final appeal was changed so that -the State might counteract the influence of -his familiar speech, adjustable to any case, -which played upon the sympathy and magnanimity -of the jurors. Allen G. Thurman, of -Ohio, a man of higher intellectual gifts, was -similarly enshrined in the hearts of his constituency. -His bandanna was for years the -symbol of Buckeye democracy, much as “blue -jeans” expressed the rugged simplicity of the -Hoosier democracy when, in 1876, the apparel -of James D. Williams, unwisely ridiculed by the -Republicans, contributed to his election to the -governorship over General Harrison, the “kid-glove” -candidate. Kansas was much in evidence -in those years when it was so ably represented -in the Senate by the brilliant John J. -Ingalls. Ingalls’s oratory was enriched by a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> -fine scholarship and enlivened by a rare gift of -humor and a biting sarcasm. Once when a -Pennsylvania colleague attacked Kansas Ingalls -delivered a slashing reply. “Mr. President,” -he said, “Pennsylvania has produced but two -great men: Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts, -and Albert Gallatin, of Switzerland.” -On another occasion Voorhees of the blond -mane aroused Ingalls’s ire and the Kansan -excoriated the Hoosier in a characteristic deliverance, -an incident thus neatly epitomized -by Eugene F. Ware, (“Ironquill”), a Kansas -poet:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="first">“Cyclone dense,</div> -<div class="indent">Lurid air,</div> -<div class="indent">Wabash hair,</div> -<div class="verse">Hide on fence.”</div> -</div></div> - -<p>Nothing is better calculated to encourage -humility in young men about to enter upon a -political career than a study of the roster of -Congress for years only lightly veiled in “the -pathos of distance.” Among United States -senators from the Middle West in 1863-9 were -Lyman Trumbull, Richard J. Oglesby, and Richard -Yates, of Illinois; Henry S. Lane, Oliver P. -Morton, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana; -James Harlan and Samuel J. Kirkwood, of -Iowa; Samuel C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> -of Kansas; Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. -Howard, of Michigan; Alexander Ramsey and -Daniel S. Norton, of Minnesota; Benjamin F. -Wade and John Sherman, of Ohio.</p> - -<p>In the lower house sat Elihu B. Washburne, -Owen Lovejoy, and William R. Morrison, of -Illinois; Schuyler Colfax, George W. Julian, -Daniel W. Voorhees, William S. Holman, and -Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana; William B. Allison, -Josiah B. Grinnell, John A. Kasson, and -James F. Wilson, of Iowa; James A. Garfield, -Rutherford B. Hayes, and Robert C. Schenck, -of Ohio. In the same group of States in the -’80’s we find David Davis, John A. Logan, -Joseph E. McDonald, Benjamin Harrison, -Thomas W. Ferry, Henry P. Baldwin, William -Windom, Samuel J. R. McMillan, Algernon S. -Paddock, Alvin Saunders, M. H. Carpenter, -John J. Ingalls, and Preston B. Plumb, all -senators in Congress. In this same period the -Ohio delegation in the lower house included -Benjamin Butterworth, A. J. Warner, Thomas -Ewing, Charles Foster, Frank H. Hurd, J. Warren -Keifer, and William McKinley.</p> - -<p>How many students in the high schools and -colleges of these States would recognize any -considerable number of these names or have any -idea of the nature of the public service these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> -men performed? To be sure, three representatives -in Congress from Ohio in the years indicated, -and one senator from Indiana, reached -the White House; but at least two-thirds of -the others enjoyed a wide reputation, either -as politicians or statesmen or as both. In the -years preceding the Civil War the West certainly -did not lack leadership, nor did all who -rendered valuable service attain conspicuous -place. For example, George W. Julian, an -ardent foe of slavery, a member of Congress, -and in 1852 a candidate for Vice-President on -the Free Soil ticket, was a political idealist, independent -and courageous, and with the ability -to express his opinions tersely and effectively.</p> - -<p>It is always hazardous to compare the statesmen -of one period with those of another, and -veteran observers whose judgments must be -treated with respect insist that the men I have -mentioned were not popularly regarded in their -day as the possessors of unusual abilities. -Most of these men were prominent in my youth, -and in some cases were still important factors -when I attained my majority, and somehow -they seem to “mass” as their successors do not. -The fierce passions aroused in the Middle West -by the slavery issue undoubtedly brought into -the political arena men who in calmer times<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> -would have remained contentedly in private -life. The restriction of slavery and the preservation -of the Union were concrete issues that -awakened a moral fervor not since apparent in -our politics. Groups of people are constantly -at work in the social field, to improve municipal -government, or to place State politics upon a -higher plane; but these movements occasion -only slight tremors in contrast with the quaking -of the earth through the free-soil agitation, -Civil War, and reconstruction.</p> - -<p>The men I have mentioned were, generally -speaking, poor men, and the next generation -found it much more comfortable and profitable -to practise law or engage in business than to -enter politics. I am grieved by my inability -to offer substantial proof that ideals of public -service in the Western provinces are higher than -they were fifty or twenty years ago. I record -my opinion that they are not, and that we are -less ably served in the Congress than formerly, -frankly to invite criticism; for these times call -for a great searching for the weaknesses of democracy -and, if the best talent is not finding -its way into the lawmaking, administrative, and -judicial branches of our State and federal governments, -an obligation rests upon every citizen -to find the reason and supply the remedy.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>No Westerner who is devoted to the best interests -of his country will encourage the belief -that there is any real hostility between East -and West, or that the West is incapable of viewing -social and political movements in the light -of reason and experience. It stood steadfastly -against the extension of slavery and for the -Union through years of fiery trial, and its -leaders expressed the national thought and held -the lines firm against opposition, concealed and -open, that was kept down only by ceaseless -vigilance. Even in times of financial stress it -refused to hearken to the cry of the demagogue, -and Greenbackism died, just as later Populism -died. More significant was the failure of Mr. -Bryan to win the support of the West that was -essential to his success in three campaigns. We -may say that it was a narrow escape, and that -the West was responsible for a serious menace -and a peril not too easily averted, but Mr. -Bryan precipitated a storm that was bound to -break and that left the air clearer. He “threw -a scare” into the country just when it needed -to be aroused, and some of his admonitions have -borne good fruit on soil least friendly to him.</p> - -<p>The West likes to be “preached at,” and it -admires a courageous evangelist even when it -declines his invitation to the mourners’ bench.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span> -The West liked and still likes Mr. Roosevelt, -and no other American can so instantly gain the -ear of the West as he. In my pilgrimages of -the past year nothing has been more surprising -than the change of tone with reference to the -former President among Western Republicans, -who declared in 1912 and reiterated in 1916 that -never, never again would they countenance him.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>One may find in the Mississippi valley, as in -the Connecticut valley or anywhere else in -America, just about what one wishes to find. -A New England correspondent complains with -some bitterness of the political conservatism he -encountered in a journey through the West; -he had expected to find radicalism everywhere -rampant, and was disappointed that he was -unable to substantiate his preconceived impression -by actual contacts with the people.</p> - -<p>If I may delicately suggest the point without -making too great a concession, the West is really -quite human. It has its own “slant”—its -tastes and preferences that differ in ways from -those of the East, the South, or the farther -West; and radicals are distributed through the -corn belt in about the same proportion as elsewhere.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> -The bread-and-butter Western Folks -are pretty sensible, taken in the long run, and -not at all anxious to pull down the social pillars -just to make a noise. They will impiously carve -them a little—yes, and occasionally stick an incongruous -patch on the wall of the sanctuary -of democracy; but they are never wilfully destructive. -And it cannot be denied that some -of their architectural and decorative efforts have -improved the original design. The West has -saved other sections a good deal of trouble by -boldly experimenting with devices it had -“thought up” amid the free airs of the plains; -but the West, no more than the East, will give -storage to a contrivance that has been proved -worthless.</p> - -<p>The vindictive spirit that was very marked in -the Western attitude toward the railroads for -many years was not a gratuitous and unfounded -hatred of corporations, but had a real basis in -discriminations that touched vitally the life -of the farmer and the struggling towns to which -he carried his products. The railroads were the -only corporations the West knew before the -great industrial development. A railroad represented -“capital,” and “capital” was therefore -a thing to chastise whenever opportunity -offered. It has been said in bitterness of late<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> -that the hostile legislation demanded by the -West “ruined the railroads.” This is not a -subject for discussion here, but it can hardly be -denied that the railroads invited the war that -was made upon them by injustices and discriminations -of which the obscure shipper had a -right to complain. The antagonism to railroads -inspired a great deal of radicalism aimed -at capital generally, and “corporate greed,” -“the encroachments of capital,” “the money -devils of Wall Street,” and “special privilege” -burned fiercely in our political terminology. -Our experiment with government control as a -war measure has, of course, given a new twist -to the whole transportation problem.</p> - -<p>The West likes to play with novelties. It has -been hospitable to such devices as the initiative, -the referendum, and the recall, multiplied -agencies for State supervision in many directions, -and it has shown in general a confidence in automatic -machinery popularly designed to correct -all evils. The West probably infected the rest -of the country with the fallacy that the passing -of a law is a complete transaction without -reference to its enforcement, and Western -statute-books are littered with legislation often -frivolous or ill considered. There has, however, -been a marked reaction and the demand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> -is rather for less legislation and better administration. -A Western governor said to me despairingly -that his State is “commissioned” to -death, and that he is constantly embarrassed -by the difficulty of persuading competent men to -accept places on his many bipartisan regulative -boards.</p> - -<p>There is a virtue in our very size as a nation -and the multiplicity of interests represented by -the one hundred million that make it possible -for the majority to watch, as from a huge amphitheatre, -the experiments in some particular -arena. A new agrarian movement that originated -in North Dakota in 1915 has attained formidable -proportions. The Non-Partisan League -(it is really a political party) seems to have -sprung full-panoplied from the Equity Society, -and is a successor of the Farmers’ Alliance and -Populism. The despised middleman was the -first object of its animosity, and it began with a -comprehensive programme of State-owned elevators -and flour-mills, packing-houses and cold-storage -plants. The League carried North -Dakota in 1916, electing a governor who immediately -vetoed a bill providing for a State-owned -terminal elevator because the League leaders -“raised their sights” as soon as they got into -the trenches. They demanded unlimited bonding-power<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> -and a complete new programme embodying -a radical form of State socialism. -“Class struggle,” says Mr. Elmer T. Peterson, -an authority on the League’s history, “is the -key-note of its propaganda.” The student of -current political tendencies will do well to keep -an eye on the League, as it has gained a strong -foothold in the Northwest, and the co-operative -features of its platform satisfy an old craving -of the farmer for State assistance in the management -of his business.</p> - -<p>The League is now thoroughly organized in -the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, -Idaho, and Colorado and is actively at work -in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. -Governor Burnquist of Minnesota addressed a -letter to its executive secretary during the -primary campaign last summer in which he said:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>At the time of our entrance into the European conflict -your organization condemned our government for -entering the war. When it became evident that this -course would result in disaster for their organization they -changed their course and made an eleventh-hour claim to -pure loyalty, but notwithstanding this claim the National -Non-Partisan League is a party of discontent. It has -drawn to it the pro-German element of our State. Its -leaders have been closely connected with the lawless -I. W. W. and with Red Socialists. Pacifists and peace -advocates whose doctrines are of benefit to Germany are -among their number.</p> -</div> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>The League’s activities in obstructing conscription -and other war measures have been -the subject of investigation by military and -civil authorities. The <i>Leader</i>, the official organ -of the party, recently printed, heavily capitalized, -this sentiment, “The Government of the -People by the Rascals for the Rich,” as the key-note -of its hostility to America’s participation -in the war.</p> - -<p>The West is greatly given to sober second -thoughts. Hospitable to new ideas as it has -proved itself to be, it will stop short of a leap -in the dark. There is a point at which it becomes -extremely conservative. It will run like -a frightened rabbit from some change which it -has encouraged. But the West has a passion -for social justice, and is willing to make sacrifices -to gain it. The coming of the war found -this its chief concern, not under the guidance of -feverish agitators but from a sense that democracy, -to fulfil its destiny, must make the -conditions of life happy and comfortable for -the great body of the people. It is not the “pee-pul” -of the demagogue who are to be reckoned -with in the immediate future of Western political -expression, but an intelligent, earnest citizenry, -anxious to view American needs with the new -vision compelled by the world struggle in the -defense of democracy.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>The rights and privileges of citizenship long -enjoyed by women of certain Western States -ceased to be a vagary of the untutored wilds -when last year New York adopted a constitutional -amendment granting women the ballot. -The fight for a federal amendment was won in -the House last winter by a narrow margin, but -at this writing the matter is still pending in the -Senate. Many of the old arguments against -the enfranchisement of women have been pretty -effectually disposed of in States that were pioneers -in general suffrage. I lived for three years -in Colorado without being conscious of any of -those disturbances to domesticity that we used -to be told would follow if women were projected -into politics. I can testify that a male voter -may register and cast his ballot without any feeling -that the women he encounters as he performs -these exalted duties have relinquished -any of the ancient prerogatives of their womanhood.</p> - -<p>There is nothing in the experience of suffrage -States to justify a suspicion that women are -friendlier to radical movements than men, but -much to sustain the assertion that they take -their politics seriously and are as intelligent in -the exercise of the ballot as male voters. The -old notion that the enfranchisement of women -would double the vote without changing results<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> -is another fallacy; I am disposed to think them -more independent than their male fellow citizens -and less likely to submit meekly to party dictation.</p> - -<p>In practically every American court- and State-house -and city hall there are women holding -responsible clerical positions, and, if the keeping -of important records may be intrusted to women, -the task of defending their exclusion from elective -offices is one that I confess to be beyond -my powers. Nor is there anything shocking in -the presence of a woman on the floor of a legislative -body. Montana sent a woman to the -national Congress, and already her fellow members -hear her voice without perturbation. Mrs. -Agnes Riddle, a member of the Colorado Senate, -is a real contributor, I shall not scruple to say, -to the intelligence and wisdom of that body. -Mrs. Riddle, apart from being a stateswoman, -manages a dairy to its utmost details, and during -the session answers the roll-call after doing a -pretty full day’s work on her farm. The schools -of Colorado are admirably conducted by Mrs. -C. C. Bradford, who has thrice been re-elected -superintendent of public instruction. The deputy -attorney-general of Colorado, Miss Clara -Ruth Mozzor, sits at her desk as composedly as -though she were not the first woman to gain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> -this political and professional recognition in the -Centennial Commonwealth. I am moved to -ask whether we shall not find for the enfranchised -woman who becomes active in public affairs -some more felicitous and gallant term than -politician—a word much soiled from long application -to the corrupt male, and perhaps the -Federation of Women’s Clubs will assist in -this matter.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>As the saying became trite, almost before -news of our entrance into the world war had -reached the nation’s farthest borders, that we -should emerge from the conflict a new and a -very different America, it becomes of interest -to keep in mind the manner and the spirit in -which we entered into the mighty struggle. It -was not merely in the mind of people everywhere, -on the 2d of April, 1917, that the nation was face -to face with a contest that would tax its powers -to the utmost, but that our internal affairs would -be subjected to serious trial, and that parties -and party policies would inevitably experience -changes of greatest moment before another general -election. When this is read the congressional -campaign will be gathering headway;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> -as I write, public attention is turning, rather -impatiently it must be said, to the prospects of -a campaign that is likely to pursue its course to -the accompaniment of booming cannon overseas. -How much the conduct of the war by -the administration in power will figure in the -pending contest is not yet apparent; but as -the rapid succession of events following Mr. -Wilson’s second inauguration have dimmed -the issues of 1916, it may be well to summarize -the respective attitudes of the two major -parties two years ago to establish a point of -orientation.</p> - -<p>It was the chief Republican contention that -the Democratic administration had failed to -preserve the national honor and security in its -dealings with Mexico and Germany. As political -platforms are soon forgotten, it may be of -interest to reproduce this paragraph of the -Republican declaration of 1916:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The present administration has destroyed our influence -abroad and humiliated us in our own eyes. The Republican -party believes that a firm, consistent, and courageous -foreign policy, always maintained by Republican Presidents -in accordance with American traditions, is the best, -as it is the only true way to preserve our peace and restore -us to our rightful place among the nations. We believe -in the pacific settlement of international disputes -and favor the establishment of a world court for that -purpose.</p> -</div> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>The concluding sentence is open to the criticism -that it weakens what precedes it; but the -Mexican plank, after denouncing “the indefensible -methods of interference employed by -this administration in the internal affairs of -Mexico,” promises to “our citizens on and near -our border, and to those in Mexico, wherever -they may be found, adequate and absolute -protection in their lives, liberty, and property.”</p> - -<p>General Pershing had launched his punitive -expedition on Mexican soil in March, and the -Democratic platform adopted at St. Louis in -June justifies this move; but it goes on to add:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Intervention, implying as it does military subjugation, -is revolting to the people of the United States, notwithstanding -the provocation to that course has been great, -and should be resorted to, if at all, only as a last resort. -The stubborn resistance of the President and his advisers -to every demand and suggestion to enter upon it, is -creditable alike to them and to the people in whose name -he speaks.</p> -</div> - -<p>As to Germany, this paragraph of the Democratic -platform might almost have been written -into President Wilson’s message to Congress of -April 2, 1917, so clearly does it set forth the -spirit in which America entered into the war:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>We believe that every people has the right to choose -the sovereignty under which it shall live; that the small -states of the world have a right to enjoy from other nations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span> -the same respect for their sovereignty and for their -territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect -and insist upon, and that the world has a right to -be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its -origin in aggression or disregard of the rights of peoples -and nations, and we believe that the time has come when -it is the duty of the United States to join with the other -nations of the world in any feasible association that will -effectively serve these principles, to maintain inviolate -the complete security of the highway of the seas for the -common and unhindered use of all nations.</p> -</div> - -<p>The impression was very general in the East -that the West was apathetic or indifferent both -as to the irresponsible and hostile acts of Mexicans -and the growing insolence of the Imperial -German Government with reference to American -rights on the seas. Any such assumption was -unfair at the time, and has since been disproved -by the promptness and vigor with which the -West responded to the call to arms. But the -West had no intention of being stampeded. A -Democratic President whose intellectual processes -and manner of speech were radically different -from those at least of his immediate predecessors, -was exercising a Lincoln-like patience -in his efforts to keep the country out of war. -From the time the Mexican situation became -threatening one might meet anywhere in the -West Republicans who thought that the honor -and security of the nation were being trifled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> -with; that the President’s course was inconsistent -and vacillating; and even that we -should have whipped Mexico into subjection -and maintained an army on her soil until a -stable government had been established. These -views were expressed in many parts of the West -by men of influence in Republican councils, and -there were Democrats who held like opinions.</p> - -<p>The Republicans were beset by two great -difficulties when the national convention met. -The first of these was to win back the Progressives -who had broken with the party and contributed -to the defeat of Mr. Taft in 1912; the -second was the definition of a concrete policy -touching Germany and Mexico that would appeal -to the patriotic voter, without going the -length of threatening war. The standpatters -were in no humor to make concessions to the -Progressives, who, in another part of Chicago, -were unwilling to receive the olive-branch except -on their own terms. Denied the joy of -Mr. Roosevelt’s enlivening presence to create a -high moment, the spectators were aware of his -ability to add to the general gloom by his telegram -suggesting Senator Lodge as a compromise -candidate acceptable to the Progressives. The -speculatively inclined may wonder what would -have happened if in one of the dreary hours of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> -waiting Colonel Roosevelt had walked upon -the platform and addressed the convention. -Again, those who have leisure for political solitaire -may indulge in reflections as to whether -Senator Lodge would not have appealed to the -West quite as strongly as Mr. Hughes. The -West, presumably, was not interested in Senator -Lodge, though I timidly suggest that if a New -Jersey candidate can be elected and re-elected -with the aid of the West, Massachusetts need not -so modestly hang in the background when a -national convention orders the roll-call of the -States for favorite sons.</p> - -<p>There was little question at any time from -the hour the convention opened that Mr. -Hughes would be the nominee, and I believe -it is a fair statement that he was the candidate -the Democrats feared most. The country had -formed a good opinion of him as a man of independence -and courage, and, having strictly observed -the silence enjoined by his position on -the bench during the Republican family quarrel -of four years earlier, he was looked upon as a -candidate well fitted to rally the Progressives -and lead a united party to victory.</p> - -<p>The West waited and listened. While it had -seemed a “safe play” for the Republicans to -attack the Democratic administration for its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> -course with Mexico and Germany, the presentation -of the case to the people was attended with -serious embarrassments. The obvious alternative -of Mr. Wilson’s policy was war. The -West was not at all anxious for war; it certainly -did not want two wars. If war could be averted -by negotiation the West was in a mood to be -satisfied with that solution. Republican campaigners -were aware of the danger of arraigning -the administration for not going to war and -contented themselves with attacks upon what -they declared to be a shifty and wobbly policy. -The West’s sense of fair play was, I think, roused -by the vast amount of destructive criticism -launched against the administration unaccompanied -by any constructive programme. The -President had grown in public respect and confidence; -the West had seen and heard him since -he became a national figure, and he did not -look or talk like a man who would out of sheer -contrariness trifle with the national security -and honor. It may be said with truth that the -average Western Democrat was not “keen” -about Mr. Wilson when he first loomed as a -presidential possibility. I heard a good deal -of discussion by Western Democrats of Mr. -Wilson’s availability in 1910-11, and he was -not looked upon with favor. He was “different”;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span> -he didn’t invoke the Democratic gods -in the old familiar phraseology, and he was -suspected of entertaining narrow views as to -“spoils,” such as caused so much heartache -among the truly loyal in Mr. Cleveland’s two administrations.</p> - -<p>The Democratic campaign slogan, “He has -kept us out of war!” was not met with the -definite challenge that he should have got us into -war. Jingoism was well muffled. What passed -for apathy was really a deep concern as to the -outcome of our pressing international difficulties, -an anxiety to weigh the points at issue -soberly. Western managers constantly warned -visiting orators to beware of “abusing the opposition,” -as there were men and women of all -political faiths in the audiences. Both sides -were timid where the German vote was concerned, -the Democrats alarmed lest the “strict -accountability” attitude of the President toward -the Imperial German Government would damage -the party’s chances, and the Republicans -embarrassed by the danger of openly appealing -to the hyphenates when the Republican campaign -turned upon an arraignment of the President -for not dealing drastically enough with -German encroachment upon American rights. -In view of the mighty sweep of events since the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> -election, all this seems tame and puerile, and -reminds us that there is a vast amount of punk -in politics.</p> - -<p>In the West there are no indications that an -effect of the war will be to awaken new radical -movements or strengthen tendencies that were -apparent before America sounded the call to -arms. I have dwelt upon the sobriety with -which the West approached the election of 1916 -merely as an emphasis of this. We shall have -once more a “soldier vote” to reckon with in -our politics, and the effect of their participation -in the world struggle upon the young men -who have crossed the sea to fight for democracy -is an interesting matter for speculation. One -thing certain is that the war has dealt the -greatest blow ever administered to American -sectionalism. We were prone for years to -consider our national life in a local spirit, and -the political parties expended much energy -in attempts to reconcile the demands and needs -of one division of the States with those of another. -The prolonged debate of the tariff as -a partisan issue is a noteworthy instance of -this. The farmer, the industrial laborer, the -capitalist have all been the objects of special -consideration. One argument had to be prepared -for the cotton-grower in the South;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> -another for the New England mill-hands who -spun his product; still another for the mill-owner. -The farm-hand and the mechanic in -the neighboring manufacturing town had to -be reached by different lines of reasoning. Our -statesmanship, East and West, has been of the -knot-hole variety—rarely has a man risen to the -top of the fence for a broad view of the whole -field. What will be acceptable to the South? -What does the West want? We have had this -sort of thing through many years, both as to -national policies and as to candidates for the -presidency, and its effect has been to prevent -the development of sound national policies.</p> - -<p>The Republican party has addressed itself -energetically to the business of reorganization. -The national committee met at St. Louis in -February to choose a new chairman in place of -Mr. William R. Willcox, and the contest for -this important position was not without its -significance. The standpatters yielded under -pressure, and after a forty-eight-hour deadlock -the election of Mr. Will H. Hays, of Indiana, -assured a hospitable open-door policy toward -all prodigals. In 1916 Mr. Hays, as chairman -of the Republican State committee, carried Indiana -against heavy odds and established himself -as one of the ablest political managers the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span> -West has known. As the country is likely to -hear a good deal of him in the next two years, -I may note that he is a man of education, high-minded, -resourceful, endowed with prodigious -energy and trained and tested executive ability. -A lawyer in a town of five thousand people, he -served his political apprenticeship in all capacities -from precinct committeeman to the State -chairmanship. Mr. Hays organized and was -the first chairman of the Indiana State Council -of Defense, and made it a thoroughly effective -instrument for the co-ordination of the State’s -war resources and the diffusion of an ardent -patriotism. Indeed the methods of the Indiana -Council were so admirable that they were -adopted by several other States. It is in the -blood of all Hoosiers to suspect partisan motives -where none exists, but it is to Mr. Hays’s -credit that he directed Indiana’s war work, until -he resigned to accept the national chairmanship, -with the support and to the satisfaction -of every loyal citizen without respect to party. -Mr. Hays is essentially a Westerner, with the -original Wabash tang; and his humor and a -knack of coining memorable phrases are not -the least important items of his equipment for -politics. He is frank and outspoken, with no -affectations of mystery, and as his methods are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> -conciliatory and assimilative the chances are -excellent for a Republican rejuvenation.</p> - -<p>The burden of prosecuting the war to a conclusive -peace that shall realize the American -aims repeatedly set forth by President Wilson is -upon the Democratic administration. The West -awaits with the same seriousness with which it -pondered the problems of 1916 the definition -of new issues touching vitally our social, industrial, -and financial affairs, and our relations -with other nations, that will press for attention -the instant the last shot is fired. In the mid-summer -of 1918 only the most venturesome -political prophets are predicting either the -issues or the leaders of 1920. Events which it -is impossible to forecast will create issues and -possibly lift up new leaders not now prominent -in national politics. A successful conclusion -of the war before the national conventions meet -two years hence would give President Wilson -and his party an enormous prestige. On the -other hand, if the war should be prolonged we -shall witness inevitably the development of a -sentiment for change based upon public anxiety -to hasten the day of peace. These things are -on the knees of the gods.</p> - -<p>In both parties there is to-day a melancholy -deficiency of presidential timber. It cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> -be denied that Republican hopes, very generally, -are centred in Mr. Roosevelt; this is -clearly apparent throughout the West. In the -Democratic State convention held at Indianapolis, -June 18, tumultuous enthusiasm was -awakened by the chairman, former Governor -Samuel M. Ralston, who boldly declared for -Wilson in 1920—the first utterance of the -kind before any body of like representative -character. However, the immediate business -of the nation is to win the war, and there is evident -in the West no disposition to suffer this predominating -issue to be obscured by partisanship. -Indeed since America took up arms -nothing has been more marked in the Western -States than the sinking of partisanship in a -whole-hearted support of the government and -a generous response to all the demands of the -war. In meetings called in aid of war causes -Democrats and Republicans have vied with -each other in protestations of loyalty to the -government. I know of no exception to the -rule that every request from Washington has -been met splendidly by Republican State governors. -Indeed, there has been a lively rivalry -among Middle Western States to exceed the -prescribed quotas of dollars and men.</p> - -<p>Already an effect of the war has been a closer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> -knitting together of States and sections, a -contemplation of wider horizons. It is inevitable -that we shall be brought, East and West, -North and South, to the realization of a new -national consciousness that has long been the -imperative need of our politics. And in all the -impending changes, readjustments, and conciliations -the country may look for hearty co-operation -to a West grown amazingly conservative -and capable of astonishing manifestations -of independence.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI<br /> - - -THE SPIRIT OF THE WEST</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which -perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and not -lead, the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest -usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, -build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails -is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population -which permits it.—<span class="smcap">Emerson.</span></p> -</div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p class="drop-cap">MUCH water has flowed under the -bridge since these papers were undertaken, -and I cheerfully confess that -in the course of the year I have learned a great -deal about the West. My observations began -at Denver when the land was still at peace, -and continued through the hour of the momentous -decision and the subsequent months of -preparation. The West is a place of moods -and its changes of spirit are sometimes puzzling. -The violence has gone out of us; we went -upon a war footing with a minimum amount of -noise and gesticulation. Deeply preoccupied -with other matters, the West was annoyed that -the Kaiser should so stupidly make it necessary -for the American Republic to give him a thrashing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span> -but as the thing had to be done the West -addressed itself to the job with a grim determination -to do it thoroughly.</p> - -<p>We heard, after the election of 1916, that the -result was an indication of the West’s indifference -to the national danger; that the Middle -Western people could not be interested in a -war on the farther side of the Atlantic and -would suffer any indignities rather than send -their sons to fight in Europe. It was charged -in some quarters that the West had lost its -“pep”; that the fibre had softened; that the -children and the grandchildren of “Lincoln’s -men” were insensible to the national danger; -and that thoughts of a bombardment of New -York or San Francisco were not disturbing to a -people remote from the sea. I am moved to -remark that we of the West are less disposed to -encourage the idea that we are a people apart -than our friends to the eastward who often seem -anxious to force this attitude upon us. We like -our West and may boast and strut a little, but -any intimation that we are not loyal citizens of -the American Republic, jealous of its honor and -security and responsive to its every call upon -our patriotism and generosity, arouses our indignation.</p> - -<p>Many of us were favored in the first years of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> -the war with letters from Eastern friends anxious -to enlighten us as to America’s danger -and her duty with respect to the needs of the -sufferers in the wake of battle. On a day when -I received a communication from New York -asking “whether nothing could be done in -Indiana to rouse the people to the sore need of -France,” a committee for French relief had just -closed a week’s campaign with a fund of $17,000, -collected over the State in small sums and contributed -very largely by school children. The -Millers’ Belgian Relief movement, initiated in -the fall of 1914 by Mr. William C. Edgar, of -Minneapolis, publisher of <i>The Northwestern -Miller</i>, affords a noteworthy instance of the -West’s response to appeals in behalf of the -people in the trampled kingdom. A call was -issued November 4 for 45,000 barrels of flour, -but 70,000 barrels were contributed; and this -cargo was augmented by substantial gifts of -blankets, clothing for women and children, -and condensed milk. These supplies were distributed -in Belgium under Mr. Edgar’s personal -direction, in co-operation with Mr. Herbert -C. Hoover, chairman of the Commission -for the Relief of Belgium.</p> - -<p>Many Westerners were fighting under the -British and French flags, or were serving in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span> -French ambulance service before our entrance -into the war, and the opening of the officers’ -training-camps in 1917 found young Westerners -of the best type clamoring for admission. The -Western colleges and universities cannot be too -strongly praised for the patriotic fervor with -which they met the crisis. One president said -that if necessary he would nail up the doors -of his college until the war was over. The eagerness -to serve is indicated in the Regular Army -enlistments for the period from June to December, -1917, in which practically all of the Middle -Western States doubled and tripled the -quota fixed by the War Department; and any -assumption that patriotism diminishes the -farther we penetrate into the interior falls before -the showing of Colorado, whose response -to a call for 1,598 men was answered by 3,793; -and Utah multiplied her quota by 5 and Montana -by 7. This takes no account of men who, -in the period indicated, entered training-camps, -or of naval and marine enlistments, or of the -National Guard or the selective draft. More -completely than ever before the West is merged -into the nation. The situation when war was -declared is comparable to that of householders, -long engrossed with their domestic affairs and -heeding little the needs of the community,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span> -who are brought to the street by a common peril -and confer soberly as to ways and means of -meeting it.</p> - -<p>“The West,” an Eastern critic complains, -“appears always to be demanding something!” -The idea of the West as an Oliver Twist with -a plate insistently extended pleases me and I -am unable to meet it with any plausible refutation. -The West has always wanted and it will -continue to want and to ask for a great many -things; we may only pray that it will more and -more hammer upon the federal counter, not for -appropriations but for things of value for the -whole. “We will try anything once!” This -for long was more or less the Western attitude -in politics, but we seem to have escaped from -it; and the war, with its enormous demands -upon our resources, its revelation of national -weaknesses, caused a prompt cleaning of the -slate of old, unfinished business to await the outcome.</p> - -<p>It is an element of strength in a democracy -that its political and social necessities are continuing; -there is no point of rest. Obstacles, -differences, criticism are all a necessary part -of the eternal struggle toward perfection. What -was impossible yesterday is achieved to-day and -may be abandoned to-morrow. Democracy, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span> -we have thus far practised it, is a series of experiments, -a quest.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>The enormous industrial development of the -Middle West was a thing undreamed of by the -pioneers, whose chief concern was with the soil; -there was no way of anticipating the economic -changes that have been forced upon attention -by the growth of cities and States. Minnesota -had been a State thirteen years when in -1871 Proctor Knott, in a speech in Congress, -ridiculed the then unknown name of Duluth: -“The word fell upon my ear with a peculiar and -indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of -a low fountain stealing forth in the midst of -roses, or the soft, sweet accent of an angel’s -whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping -innocence.” And yet Duluth has become indeed -a zenith city of the saltless seas, and the -manufactured products of Minnesota have an -annual value approximating $500,000,000.</p> - -<p>The first artisans, the blacksmiths and wagon-makers, -and the women weaving cloth and -fashioning the garments for their families in -Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, never -dreamed that the manufactures of these States<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span> -alone would attain a value of $5,500,000,000, -approximately a fifth of the nation’s total. The -original social and economic structure was not -prepared for this mighty growth. States in -which the soil was tilled almost wholly by the -owners of the land were unexpectedly confronted -with social and economic questions foreign to all -their experience. Rural legislators were called -upon to deal with questions of which they had -only the most imperfect understanding. They -were bewildered to find the towns nearest them, -which had been only trading centres for the -farmer, asking for legislation touching working -hours, housing, and child labor, and for modifications -of local government made necessary by -growth and radical changes in social conditions. -I remember my surprise to find not long ago -that a small town I had known all my life had -become an industrial centre where the citizens -were gravely discussing their responsibilities to -the laborers who had suddenly been added to -the population.</p> - -<p>The preponderating element in the original -occupation of the Middle Western States was -American, derived from the older States; and -the precipitation into the Mississippi valley industrial -centres of great bodies of foreigners, -many of them only vaguely aware of the purposes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> -and methods of democracy, added an element -of confusion and peril to State and national -politics. The perplexities and dangers -of municipal government were multiplied in the -larger cities by the injection into the electorate -of the hordes from overseas that poured into -States whose government and laws had been -fashioned to meet the needs of a homogeneous -people who lived close to the soil.</p> - -<p>The war that has emphasized so many needs -and dangers has sharply accentuated the growing -power of labor. Certain manifestations of -this may no longer be viewed in the light of -local disturbances and agitations but with an -eye upon impending world changes. Whatever -the questions of social and economic reconstruction -that Europe must face, they will be -hardly less acutely presented in America; and -these matters are being discussed in the West -with a reassuring sobriety. The Industrial -Workers of the World has widely advertised itself -by its lawlessness, in recent years, and its -obstructive tactics with respect to America’s -preparations for war have focussed attention -upon it as an organization utterly inconsonant -with American institutions. An arresting incident -of recent years was the trial, in 1912, in -the United States Court for the District of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span> -Indiana, of forty-two officers and members of -the International Association of Structural Iron -Workers for the dynamiting of buildings and -bridges throughout the country. The trial -lasted three months, and the disclosures, pointing -to a thoroughly organized conspiracy of destruction, -were of the most startling character. -Thirty-eight of the defendants were convicted. -The influence of labor in the great industrial -States of the West is very great, and not a negligible -factor in the politics of the immediate -future. What industrial labor has gained has -been through constant pressure of its organizations; -and yet the changes of the past fifty years -have been so gradual as to present, in the retrospect, -the appearance of an evolution.</p> - -<p>There is little to support an assumption that -the West in these critical hours will not take -counsel of reason; and it is an interesting circumstance -that the West has just now no one -who may be pointed to as its spokesman. No -one is speaking for the West; the West has -learned to think and to speak for itself. “Organized -emotion” (I believe the phrase is -President Lowell’s) may again become a power -for mischief in these plains that lend so amiable -an ear to the orator; but the new seriousness of -which I have attempted to give some hint in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span> -the progress of these papers, and the increasing -political independence of the Western people, -encourage the belief that whatever lies before -us in the way of momentous change, the West -will not be led or driven to ill-considered action.</p> - -<p>In spite of many signs of a drift toward social -democracy, individualism is still the dominant -“note” in these Middle Western States, apart -from the industrial centres where socialism has -indisputably made great headway. It may be -that American political and social phenomena -are best observed in States whose earliest settlement -is so recent as to form a background for -contrast. We have still markedly in the Mississippi -valley the individualistic point of view of -the pioneer who thought out his problems alone -and was restrained by pride from confessing his -needs to his neighbors. In a region where -capital has been most bitterly assaulted it has -been more particularly in the pursuit of redress -for local grievances. The agrarian attacks upon -railroads are an instance of this. The farmer -wants quick and cheap access to markets, and -he favors co-operative elevators because he has -felt for years that the middleman poured too -many grains out of the bushel for his services. -In so far as the farmer’s relations with the State -are concerned, he has received from the government<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> -a great many things for which, broadly -speaking, he has not asked, notably in the development -of a greater efficiency of method -and a widening of social horizons.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>When the New Englander, the Southeasterner, -and the Pennsylvanian met in the Ohio valley -they spoke a common language and were animated -by common aims. Their differences -were readily reconcilable; Southern sentiment -caused tension in the Civil War period and was -recognizable in politics through reconstruction -and later, but it was possible for one to be -classed as a Southern sympathizer or even to -bear the opprobrious epithet of copperhead -without having his fundamental Americanism -questioned. Counties through this belt of -States were named for American heroes and -statesmen—Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, -Hamilton, Marion, Clark, Perry—varied by -French and Indian names that tinkle musically -along lakes and rivers.</p> - -<p>There was never any doubt in the early days -that all who came were quickly assimilated into -the body of the republic, and certainly there -was no fear that any conceivable situation could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span> -ever cause the loyalty of the newly adopted -citizen to be questioned. The soil was too -young in the days of Knownothingism and the -body of the population too soundly American -for the West to be greatly roused by that -movement. Nevertheless we have had in the -West as elsewhere the political recognition of -the race group—a particular consideration for -the Irish vote or the German vote, and in the -Northwestern States for the Scandinavian. The -political “bosses” were not slow to throw their -lines around the increasing race groups with a -view to control and manipulation. Our political -platforms frequently expressed “sympathy with -the Irish people in their struggle for home rule,” -and it had always been considered “good politics” -to recognize the Irish and the Germans in -party nominations.</p> - -<p>Following Germany’s first hostile acts against -American life and property, through the long -months of waiting in which America hoped for a -continuation of neutrality, we became conscious -that the point of view held by citizens of American -stock differed greatly from that of many—of, -indeed, the greater number—of our citizens -of German birth or ancestry. Until America -became directly concerned it was perfectly explicable -that they should sympathize with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span> -people, if not with the government, of the German -Empire. The <i>Lusitania</i> tragedy, defended -in many cases openly by German sympathizers; -the disclosure of the duplicity of the German -ambassador, and revelations of the insidious -activity and ingenious propaganda that had been -in progress under the guise of pacifism—all -condoned by great numbers of German-Americans—brought -us to a realization of the fact -that even unto the third and fourth generation -the fatherland still exercised its spell upon those -we had accepted unquestioningly as fellow citizens. -And yet, viewed in the retrospect, the -phenomenon is not so remarkable. More than -any other people who have enjoyed free access -to the “unguarded gates,” of which Aldrich -complained many years ago, the Germans have -settled themselves in both town and country in -colonies. Intermarriage has been very general -among them, and their social fife has been circumscribed -by ancestral tastes and preferences. -As they prospered they made frequent visits -to Germany, strengthening ties never wholly -broken.</p> - -<p>It was borne in upon us in the months following -close upon the declaration of war against -Germany, that many citizens of German birth, -long enjoying the freedom and the opportunities<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span> -of the Valley of Democracy, had not really been -incorporated into the body of American citizenship, -but were still, in varying degrees, loyal to -the German autocracy. That in States we had -proudly pointed to as typically American there -should be open disloyalty or only a surly acceptance -of the American Government’s position -with reference to a hostile foreign Power was -profoundly disturbing. That amid the perils -of war Americanism should become the issue in -a political campaign, as in Wisconsin last April, -brought us face to face with the problem of a -more thorough assimilation of those we have -welcomed from the Old World—a problem -which when the urgent business of winning the -war has been disposed of, we shall not neglect -if we are wise. Wisconsin nobly asserted her -loyalty, and it should be noted further that her -response in enlistments, in loan subscriptions, in -contributions to the Red Cross and other war -benevolences have been commensurate with her -wealth and in keeping with her honorable record -as one of the sturdiest of American commonwealths. -The rest of America should know that -as soon as Wisconsin realized that she had a problem -with reference to pro-Germanism, disguised -or open, her greatly preponderating number of -loyal citizens at once set to work to deal with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span> -situation. It was met promptly and aggressively, -and in the wide-spread campaign of -education the University of Wisconsin took an -important part. A series of pamphlets, straight-forward -and unequivocal, written by members -of the faculty and published by the State, -set forth very clearly America’s position and -the menace to civilization of Germany’s programme -of frightfulness.</p> - -<p>Governor Philipp, in a patriotic address at -Sheboygan in May, on the seventieth anniversary -of Wisconsin’s admission to the Union, -after reviewing the State’s war preparations, -evoked great applause by these utterances:</p> - -<p>“There is a great deal said by some people -about peace. Don’t you permit yourselves to -be led astray by men who come to you with -some form of peace that they advocate that -would be an everlasting disgrace to the American -people. We cannot subscribe to any peace -treaty, my friends, that does not include -within its provisions an absolute and complete -annihilation of the military autocracy that we -have said to the world we are going to destroy. -We have enlisted our soldiers with that understanding. -We have asked our boys to go to -France to do that, and if we quit short of fulfilling -that contract with our own soldiers, those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span> -boys on the battlefield will have given their -lives in vain.”</p> - -<p>In the present state of feeling it is impossible -to weigh from available data the question of -how far there was some sort of “understanding” -between the government at Berlin and persons -of German sympathies in the United States -that when <i>Der Tag</i> dawned for the precipitation -of the great scheme of world domination -they would stand ready to assist by various -processes of resistance and interference. For -the many German-Americans who stood steadfastly -for the American cause at all times it is -unfortunate that much testimony points to -some such arrangement. At this time it is -difficult to be just about this, and it is far from -my purpose to support an indictment that is -an affront to the intelligence and honor of the -many for the offenses of scattered groups and -individuals; and yet through fifty years German -organizations, a German-language press, -the teaching of German in public schools fostered -the German spirit, and the efforts made to -preserve the solidarity of the German people -lend color to the charge. It cannot be denied -that systematic German propaganda, either -open or in pacifist guise, was at work energetically -throughout the West from the beginning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span> -of the war to arouse sentiment against -American resistance to German encroachments.</p> - -<p>Americans of German birth have been controlled -very largely by leaders, often men of -wealth, who directed them in their affairs great -and small. This “system” took root in times -when the immigrant, finding himself in a strange -land and unfamiliar with its language, naturally -sought counsel of his fellow countrymen who -had already learned the ways of America. -This form of leadership has established a curious -habit of dependence, and makes against freedom -of thought and action in the humble while -augmenting the power of the strong. It has -been a common thing for German parents to encourage -in their children the idea of German -superiority and Germany’s destiny to rule the -world. A gentleman whose parents, born in -Germany, came to the Middle West fifty years -ago told me recently that his father, who -left Germany to escape military service, had -sought to inculcate these ideas in the minds of -his children from their earliest youth. The -sneer at American institutions has been very -common among Germans of this type. Another -young man of German ancestry complained -bitterly of this contemptuous attitude toward -things American. There was, he said, a group<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span> -of men who met constantly in a German clubhouse -to belittle America and exalt the joys of -the fatherland. Their attitude toward their -adopted country was condensed into an oft-repeated -formula: “What shall we think of a -people whose language does not contain an -equivalent for <i>Gemütlichkeit</i>!”</p> - -<p>As part of the year’s record I may speak -from direct knowledge of a situation with which -we were brought face to face in Indianapolis, -a city of three hundred thousand people, in a -State in which the centre of population for the -United States has been fixed by the federal -census for two decades. Indiana’s capital, we -like to believe, is a typical American city. -Here the two tides of migration from the East -and the Southeast met in the first settlement. -A majestic shaft in the heart of the town testifies -to the participation of Indiana in all the -American wars from the Revolution; in no -other State perhaps is political activity so vigorous -as here. It would seem that if there exists -anywhere a healthy American spirit it might be -sought here with confidence. The phrase “He’s -an honest German” nowhere conveyed a deeper -sense of rectitude and probity. Men of German -birth or ancestry have repeatedly held -responsible municipal and county offices. And<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span> -yet this city affords a striking instance of the -deleterious effect of the preservation of the race -group. It must be said that the community’s -spirit toward these citizens was the friendliest -in the world; that in the first years of the -European War allowances were generously made -for family ties that still bound many to the -fatherland and for pride and prejudice of race. -There had never been any question as to the -thorough assimilation of the greater number -into the body of American democracy until the -beginning of the war in 1914.</p> - -<p>When America joined with the Allies a silence -fell upon those who had been supporting the -German cause. The most outspoken of the -German sympathizers yielded what in many -cases was a grudging and reluctant assent -to America’s preparations for war. Others -made no sign one way or the other. There -were those who wished to quibble—who said -that they were for America, of course, but that -they were not for England; that England had -begun the war to crush Germany; that the -stories of atrocities were untrue. As to the -<i>Lusitania</i>, Americans had no business to disregard -the warning of the Imperial German -Government; and America “had no right” -to ship munitions to Germany’s enemies. Reports<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span> -of disloyal speech or of active sedition on -the part of well-known citizens were freely -circulated.</p> - -<p>German influence in the public schools had -been marked for years, and the president of the -school board was a German, active in the -affairs of the National German-American Alliance. -The teaching of German in the grade -schools was forbidden by the Indianapolis -school commissioners last year, though it is -compulsory under a State law where the parents -of twenty-five children request it. It was -learned that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was -sung in German in at least one public school as -part of the instruction in the German language, -and this was defended by German-Americans -on the ground that knowledge of their national -anthem in two languages broadened the children’s -appreciation of its beauties. One might -wonder just how long the singing of “Die -Wacht am Rhein” in a foreign language would -be tolerated in Germany!</p> - -<p>We witnessed what in many cases was a -gradual and not too hearty yielding to the -American position, and what in others was a -refusal to discuss the matter with a protest -that any question of loyalty was an insult. -Suggestions that a public demonstration by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span> -German-Americans, at a time when loyalty -meetings were being held by American citizens -everywhere, would satisfy public clamor and -protect innocent sufferers from business boycott -and other manifestations of disapproval -were met with indignation. The situation became -acute upon the disclosure that the Independent -Turnverein, a club with a handsome -house that enrolled many Americans in its membership, -had on New Year’s Eve violated the -government food regulations. The president, -who had been outspoken against Germany -long before America was drawn into the war, -made public apology, and as a result of the flurry -steps were taken immediately to change the -name of the organization to the Independent -Athletic Club. On Lincoln’s Birthday a patriotic -celebration was held in the club. On -Washington’s Birthday <i>Das Deutsche Haus</i>, the -most important German social centre in the -State, announced a change of its name to the -Athenæum. In his address on this occasion Mr. -Carl H. Lieber said:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>With mighty resolve we have taken up arms to gain -recognition for the lofty principles of a free people in unalterable -opposition to autocracy and military despotism. -Emerging from the mists and smoke of battle, these American -principles, like brilliant handwriting in the skies, have -been clearly set out by our President for the eyes of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span> -world to see. Our country stands undivided for their -realization. Impartially and unselfishly we are fighting, -we feel, for justice in this world and the rights of mankind.</p> -</div> - -<p>This from a representative citizen of the second -generation satisfactorily disposed of the question -of loyalty, both as to the renamed organization -and the majority of its more influential members. -A little later the Männerchor, another German -club, changed its name to the Academy of -Music.</p> - -<p>It is only just to say that, as against many -evidences of a failure to assimilate, there is -gratifying testimony that a very considerable -number of persons of German birth or ancestry -in these States have neither encouraged nor -have they been affected by attempts to diffuse -and perpetuate German ideas. Many German -families—I know conspicuous instances in -Western cities—are in no way distinguishable -from their neighbors of American stock. -In one Middle Western city a German mechanic, -who before coming to America served in the -German army and is without any illusions as to -the delights of autocracy, tells me that attachment -to the fatherland is confined very largely -to the more prosperous element, and that he -encountered little hostility among the humbler -people of German antecedents whom he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span> -attempted to convince of the justice of the -American position.</p> - -<p>The National German-American Alliance, -chartered by special act of Congress in 1901, -was one of the most insidious and mischievous -agencies for German propaganda in America. -It was a device for correlating German societies -of every character—turnvereins, music societies, -church organizations, and social clubs, and it -is said that the Alliance had 2,500,000 members -scattered through forty-seven American States. -“Our own prestige,” recites one of its publications, -“depends upon the prestige of the fatherland, -and for that reason we cannot allow any -disparagement of Germany to go unpunished.” -It was recited in the Alliance’s statement of its -aims that one of its purposes was to combat -“nativistic encroachments.” I am assured by -a German-American that this use of “nativistic” -does not refer to the sense in which it was -used in America in the Know-Nothing period, -but that it means merely resistance to puritanical -infringements upon personal freedom, -with special reference to prohibition.</p> - -<p>The compulsory teaching of German in the -public schools was a frank item of the Alliance’s -programme. In his book, “Their True Faith -and Allegiance” (1916), Mr. Gustavus Ohlinger,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span> -of Toledo, whose testimony before the Judiciary -Committee of the United States Senate attracted -much attention last February, describes -the systematic effort to widen the sphere of the -teaching of German in Western States. Ohio -and Indiana have laws requiring German to be -taught upon the petition of parents. Before -the repeal of a similar law in Nebraska last -April we find that in Nebraska City the school -board had been compelled by the courts to -obey the law, though less than one-third of the -petitioners really intended to have their children -receive instruction in German. Mr. Ohlinger -thus describes the operation of the law in -Omaha:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>In the city of Omaha ... the State organizer of the -Nebraska federation of German societies visited the -schools recently and was more than pleased with what -he found: the children were acquiring a typically Berlin -accent, sung a number of German songs to his entire -approval, and finally ended by rendering “Die Wacht -am Rhein” with an enthusiasm and a gusto which could -not be excelled among children of the fatherland. Four -years ago Nebraska had only 90 high schools which offered -instruction in German. To-day, so the Alliance reports, -German is taught in 222 high schools and in the grade -schools of nine cities. Omaha alone has 3,500 pupils -taking German instruction. In addition to this, the -State federation has been successful in obtaining an appropriation -for the purchase of German books for the -State circulating library. Germans have been urged to -call for such books, in order to convince the State librarian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span> -that there is a popular demand and to induce further -progress in this direction.</p> -</div> - -<p>These conditions have, of course, passed, and -it is for those of us who would guard jealously -our rights, and honestly fulfil our obligations, -as American citizens to see to it that they do -not recur. The Alliance announced its voluntary -dissolution some time before its charter -was annulled, but the testimony before the King -committee, which the government has published, -will be an important source of material for the -historian of the war. German propaganda and -activity in the Middle West did little for the -Kaiser but to make the word “German” an -odious term. “German” in business titles and -in club names has disappeared and German -language newspapers have in many instances -changed their names or gone out of business. -I question whether the end of the war will witness -any manifestations of magnanimity that -will make possible a restoration of the teaching -of German in primary and high schools.</p> - -<p>We of the Middle West, who had thought -ourselves the especial guardians of American -democracy, found with dismay that the mailed -fist of Berlin was clutching our public schools. -In Chicago, where so much time, money, and -thought are expended in the attempt to Americanize<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span> -the foreign accretions, the spelling-book -used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and -eighth grades consisted wholly of word-lists, -with the exception of two exercises—one of -ten lines, describing the aptness of the natives -of Central Australia in identifying the tracks of -birds and animals, and another which is here -reproduced:</p> - - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="center">THE KAISER IN THE MAKING</p> - -<p>In the <i>gymnasium</i> at Cassel the German <i>Kaiser</i> spent -three years of his boyhood, a <i>diligent</i> but not a <i>brilliant</i> -pupil, ranking tenth among <i>seventeen candidates</i> for the -<i>university</i>.</p> - -<p>Many tales are told of this <i>period</i> of his life, and one -of them, at least, is <i>illuminating</i>.</p> - -<p>A <i>professor</i>, it is said, wishing to curry favor with his -royal pupil, informed him <i>overnight</i> of the chapter in Greek -that was to be made the <i>subject</i> of the next day’s lesson.</p> - -<p>The young <i>prince</i> did what many boys would not have -done. As soon as the classroom was <i>opened</i> on the following -morning, he entered and wrote <i>conspicuously</i> on -the blackboard the <i>information</i> that had been given him.</p> - -<p>One may say <i>unhesitatingly</i> that a boy capable of such -an action has the root of a fine <i>character</i> in him, <i>possesses</i> -that <i>chivalrous</i> sense of fair play which is the nearest thing -to a <i>religion</i> that may be looked for at that age, hates -<i>meanness</i> and <i>favoritism</i>, and will, <i>wherever possible</i>, expose -them. There is in him a <i>fundamental</i> bent toward -what is clean, manly, and aboveboard.</p> -</div> - -<p>The copy of the book before me bears the imprint, -“Board of Education, City of Chicago, -1914.” The Kaiser’s “chivalrous sense of fair<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span> -play” has, of course, ceased to be a matter of -public instruction in the Western metropolis.</p> - -<p>“Im Vaterland,” a German reading-book -used in a number of Western schools, states -frankly in its preface that it was “made in Germany,” -and that “after the manuscript had -been completed it was manifolded and copies -were criticised by teachers in Prussia, Saxony, -and Bavaria.”</p> - -<p>In contrast with the equivocal loyalty of -Germans who have sought to perpetuate and -accentuate the hyphen, it is a pleasure to testify -to the admirable spirit with which the Jewish -people in these Western States have repeatedly -manifested their devotion to America. -Many of these are of German birth or the children -of German immigrants, and yet I am aware -of no instance of a German Jew in the region -most familiar to me who has not warmly supported -the American cause. They have not -only given generously to the Red Cross and to -funds for French and Belgian relief, quite independently -of their efforts in behalf of people of -their own race in other countries, but they have -rendered most important aid in all other branches -of war activities. No finer declaration of whole-hearted -Americanism has been made by any -American of German birth than that expressed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span> -(significantly at Milwaukee) by Mr. Otto H. -Kahn, of New York, last January:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Until the outbreak of the war, in 1914, I maintained -close and active personal and business relations in Germany. -I was well acquainted with a number of the leading -personages of the country. I served in the German -army thirty years ago. I took an active interest in furthering -German art in America. I do not apologize for, -nor am I ashamed of, my German birth. But I am -ashamed—bitterly and grievously ashamed—of the -Germany which stands convicted before the high tribunal -of the world’s public opinion of having planned and -willed war, of the revolting deeds committed in Belgium -and northern France, of the infamy of the <i>Lusitania</i> murders, -of innumerable violations of The Hague conventions -and the law of nations, of abominable and perfidious plotting -in friendly countries, and shameless abuse of their -hospitality, of crime heaped upon crime in hideous defiance -of the laws of God and man.</p> -</div> - -<p>A curious phase of this whole situation is the -fact that so many thousands of Germans who -found the conditions in their own empire intolerable -and sought homes in America, should -have fostered a sentimental attachment for the -fatherland as a land of comfort and happiness, -and of its ruler as a glorious Lohengrin afloat -upon the river of time in a swan-boat, in an -atmosphere of charm and mystery, to the -accompaniment of enchanting music. In their -clubs and homes they so dreamed of this Germany -and talked of it in the language of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span> -land of their illusion that the sudden transformation -of their knight of the swan-boat into -a war lord of frightfulness and terror, seeking -to plant his iron feet upon an outraged world, -has only slowly penetrated to their comprehension. -It is clear that there has been on -America’s part a failure, that cannot be minimized -or scouted, to communicate to many of -the most intelligent and desirable of all our -adopted citizens, the spirit of that America -founded by Washington and saved by Lincoln, -and all the great host who in their train—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="indent4">“spread from sea to sea</div> -<div class="verse">A thousand leagues the zone of liberty,</div> -<div class="verse">And gave to man this refuge from his past,</div> -<div class="verse">Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered.”</div> -</div></div> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>In closing these papers it seems ungenerous -to ignore the criticisms with which they were -favored during their serial publication. To a -gentleman in Colorado who insists that my -definition and use of Folks and “folksiness” -leave him in the dark as to my meaning, I can -only suggest that a visit to certain communities -which I shall be glad to choose for him, in the -States of our central basin, will do much for his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span> -illumination. An intimation from another -quarter that those terms as I have employed -them originated in Kentucky does not distress -me a particle, for are not we of Ohio, Indiana, -and Illinois first cousins of the people across the -Ohio? At once some one will rise to declare -that all that is truly noble in the Middle West -was derived from the Eastern States or from -New England, and on this question I might with -a good conscience write a fair brief on either side. -With one Revolutionary great-grandfather, a -native of Delaware, buried in Ohio, and another, -a Carolinian, reposing in the soil of Kentucky, -I should be content no matter where fell the -judgment of the court.</p> - -<p>To the complaint of the Chicago lady who -assailed the editor for his provincialism in permitting -an Easterner to abuse her city, I demur -that I was born and have spent most of -the years of my life within a few hours of Chicago, -a city dear to me from long and rather -intimate acquaintance and hallowed by most -agreeable associations. The <i>Evening Post</i> of -Chicago, having found the fruits of my note-book -“dull” as to that metropolis, must permit -me to plead that in these stirring times -the significant things about a city are not its -clubs, its cabarets, or its galloping “loop-hounds,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span> -but the efforts of serious-minded -citizens of courage and vision to make it a -better place to live in. The cynicism of those -to whom the contemplation of such efforts is -fatiguing, lacks novelty and is only tolerable in -so far as it is a stimulus to the faithful workers -in the vineyard.</p> - -<p>I have spoken of The Valley of Democracy -as being in itself a romance, and the tale as -written upon hill and plain and along lake and -river is well-nigh unequalled for variety and interest -in the annals of mankind. I must plead -that the sketchiness of these papers is due not -to any lack of respect for the work of soberer -chroniclers, but is attributable rather to the -humility with which I have traversed a region -laboriously explored by the gallant company -of scholars who have established Middle Western -history upon so firm a foundation. It is -the view of persons whose opinions are entitled -to all respect that the winning of the West is -the most significant and important phase of -American history. Certain it is that the story -wherever one dips into it immediately quickens -the heart-beat, and it is a pleasure to note the -devotion and intelligence with which materials -for history have been assembled in all the States -embraced in my general title.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>The great pioneer collector of historical material -was Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, who -made the Wisconsin Historical Society the most -efficient local organization of its kind in the -country. “He was the first,” writes Dr. Clarence -W. Alvord, of the University of Illinois, -“to unite the State historical agent and the -university department of history so that they -give each other mutual assistance—a union -which some States have brought about only -lately with great difficulty, while others are still -limping along on two ill-mated crutches.” Dr. -Thwaites was an indefatigable laborer in his -chosen field, and an inspiring leader. He not -only brought to light a prodigious amount of -material and made it accessible to other scholars, -but he communicated his enthusiasm to a noteworthy -school of historians who have specialized -in “sections” of the broad fertile field into -which he set the first plough. Where the land -is so new it is surprising and not a little amusing -that there should be debatable points of -history, and yet the existence of these adds -zest to the labors of the younger school of historical -students and writers. State historical -societies have in recent years assumed a new -dignity and importance, due in great measure -to the fine example set by Wisconsin under -Dr. Thwaites’s guidance.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>Frederick Jackson Turner is another historian -whose interest in the West has borne fruit in -works of value, and he has established new -points of orientation for explorers in this field. -He must always be remembered as one of the -first to appreciate the significance of the Western -frontier in American history, and by his -writings and addresses he has done much to -arouse respect for the branch in which he has -specialized. Nor shall I omit Dr. John H. -Finley’s “The French in the Heart of America” -as among recent valuable additions to historical -literature. There is a charming freshness and -an infectious enthusiasm in Dr. Finley’s pages, -attributable to his deep poetic feeling for the -soil to which he was born. All writers of the -history of the Northwest, of course, confess their -indebtedness to Parkman, and it should not be -forgotten that before Theodore Roosevelt became -a distinguished figure in American public -life he had written “The Winning of the West,” -which established a place for him among American -historians.</p> - -<p>A historical society was formed in Indiana in -1830, but as no building was ever provided for -its collection, many valuable records were lost -when the State capitol was torn down thirty -years ago. Many documents that should have -been kept within the State found their way to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span> -Wisconsin—an appropriation by the tireless -Thwaites of which Indiana can hardly complain -in view of the fact that she has never provided -for the proper housing of historical material. -Still, interest in local history, much of it having -an important bearing on the national life, has -never wholly died, and in recent years the -<i>Indiana Historical Magazine</i> and the labors of -Jacob P. Dunn, James A. Woodburn, Logan -Esarey, Daniel Waite Howe, Harlow Lindley, -and other students and writers have directed -attention to the richness of the local field.</p> - -<p>Illinois, slipping this year into her second century -of statehood, is thoroughly awake to the -significance of the Illinois country in Western -development. Dr. Alvord, who, by his researches -and writings, has illuminated many -dark passages of Middle Western history, has -taken advantage of the centenary to rouse the -State to a new sense of its important share in -American development. The investigator in -this field is rewarded by the unearthing of -treasures as satisfying as any that may fall -to the hand of a Greek archæologist. The -trustees of the Illinois Historical Library sent -Dr. Alvord to “sherlock” an old French document -reported to be in the court-house of -St. Clair county. Not only was this document<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span> -found but the more important Cahokia papers -were discovered, bearing upon the history of the -Illinois country during the British occupation -and the American Revolution. Illinois has undertaken -a systematic survey of county archives, -which includes also a report upon manuscript -material held by individuals, and the centenary -is to have a fitting memorial in a five-volume -State history to be produced by authoritative -writers.</p> - -<p>Iowa, jealous of her history and traditions, -has a State-supported historical society with a -fine list of publications to its credit. Under the -direction of the society’s superintendent, Dr. -Benjamin F. Shambaugh, the search for material -is thorough and persistent, and over -forty volumes of historical material have been -published. The Iowa public and college libraries -are all branches of the society and depositories -of its publications. The Mississippi Valley -Historical Association held its eleventh -annual meeting this year in St. Paul to mark the -dedication of the new building erected by the -State for the use of the Minnesota Historical -Society.</p> - -<p>The wide scope of Western historical inquiry -is indicated in the papers of the Mississippi Valley -Association, and its admirable quarterly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span> -review, in which we find monographs by the -ethnologist, the specialist in exploration, and -the student of political crises, such as the -Lincoln-Douglas contest and the Greenback -movement. Not only are the older Middle -Western States producing historical matter of -national importance but Montana and the -Dakotas are inserting chapters that bind the -Mississippi Valley to the picturesque annals of -California in a continuous narrative. Minnesota, -Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, and -Indiana have established an informal union -for the prosecution of their work, one feature -of which is the preparation of a “finding list” -of documents in Washington. This co-ordination -prevents duplication of labor and makes -for unity of effort in a field of common interest.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>I had hoped that space would permit a review -in some detail of municipal government in a -number of cities, but I may now emphasize -only the weakness of a mere “form,” or “system,” -where the electorate manifest too great a -confidence in a device without the “follow-up” -so essential to its satisfactory employment; -and I shall mention Omaha, whose municipal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span> -struggle has been less advertised than that of -some other Western cities. Omaha was fortunate -in having numbered among its pioneers a -group of men of unusual ability and foresight. -First a military outpost and a trading centre -for adventurous settlements, the building of the -Union Pacific made it an important link between -East and West, and, from being a market for -agricultural products of one of the most fertile -regions in the world, its interests have multiplied -until it now offers a most interesting study -in the interdependence and correlation of economic -factors.</p> - -<p>Like most other Western cities, Omaha grew -so rapidly and was so preoccupied with business -that its citizens, save for the group of the faithful -who are to be found everywhere, left the matter -of local government to the politicians. Bossism -became intolerable, and with high hopes the -people in 1912 adopted commission government; -but the bosses, with their usual adaptability -and resourcefulness, immediately captured the -newly created offices. It is a fair consensus of -local opinion that there has been little if any -gain in economy or efficiency. Under the old -charter city councilmen were paid $1,800; the -commissioners under the new plan receive $4,500, -with an extra $500 for the one chosen mayor.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span> -Several of the commissioners are equal to their -responsibilities, but a citizen who is a close -student of such matters says that “while in -theory we were to get a much higher grade of -public servants, in fact we merely elected men -content to work for the lower salary and doubled -and tripled their pay. We still have $1,800 men -in $4,500 jobs.” However, at the election last -spring only one of the city commissioners was -re-elected, and Omaha is hoping that the present -year will show a distinct improvement in the -management of its public business. Local pride -is very strong in these Western cities, and from -the marked anxiety to show a forward-looking -spirit and a praiseworthy sensitiveness to criticism -we may look confidently for a steady gain -in the field of municipal government.</p> - -<p>It is to be hoped that in the general awakening -to our imperfections caused by the war, there -may be a widening of these groups of patient, -earnest citizens, who labor for the rationalization -of municipal government. The disposition -to say that “as things have been they remain” -is strong upon us, but it is worth remembering -that Clough also bids us “say not the struggle -naught availeth.” The struggle goes on courageously, -and the number of those who concern -themselves with the business of strengthening<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span> -the national structure by pulling out the rotten -timbers in our cities proceeds tirelessly.</p> - -<p>Western cities are constantly advertising -their advantages and resources, and offering -free sites and other inducements to manufacturers -to tempt them to move; but it occurs -to me that forward-looking cities may present -their advantages more alluringly by perfecting -their local government and making this the -burden of their appeal. We shall get nowhere -with commission government or the city-manager -plan until cities realize that no matter -how attractive and plausible a device, it is worthless -unless due consideration is given to the -human equation. It is very difficult to find -qualified administrators under the city-manager -plan. A successful business man or even a -trained engineer may fail utterly, and we seem -to be at the point of creating a new profession -of great opportunities for young men (and -women too) in the field of municipal administration. -At the University of Kansas and perhaps -elsewhere courses are offered for the training of -city managers. The mere teaching of municipal -finance and engineering will not suffice; the -courses should cover social questions and kindred -matters and not neglect the psychology involved -in the matter of dealing fairly and justly with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span> -the public. By giving professional dignity to -positions long conferred upon the incompetent -and venal we should at least destroy the cynical -criticism that there are no men available for -the positions created; and it is conceivable -that once the idea of fitness has become implanted -in a careless and indifferent public a -higher standard will be set for all elective offices.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>No Easterner possessed of the slightest delicacy -will read what follows, which is merely a -memorandum for my friends and neighbors of -the great Valley. We of the West have never -taken kindly to criticism, chiefly because it has -usually been offered in a spirit of condescension, -or what in our extreme sensitiveness we have -been rather eager to believe to be such. In our -comfortable towns and villages we may admit -weaknesses the mention of which by our cousins -<i>in partibus infidelium</i> arouses our deepest ire. -We shall not meekly suffer the East in its disdainful -moods to play upon us with the light -lash of its irony; but among ourselves we may -confess that at times we have profited by Eastern -criticism. After all, there is no spirit of -the West that is very different from the spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span> -of the East. Though I only whisper it, we -have, I think, rather more humor. We are -friendlier, less snobbish, more sanguine in our -outlook upon public matters, and have a greater -confidence in democracy than the East. I have -indicated with the best heart in the world certain -phases and tendencies of our provinces that -seem to me admirable, and others beside which -I have scratched a question-mark for the contemplation -of the sober-minded. I am disposed -to say that the most interesting thing about us -is our politics, but that, safely though we have -ridden the tempest now and again, these be -times when it becomes us to ponder with a new -gravity the weight we carry in the national scale. -Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, -Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin -wield 145 votes of the total of 531 in the -electoral college; and in 1916 Mr. Wilson’s -majority was only 23. The political judgment -of the nation is likely, far into the future, to be -governed by the West. We dare not, if we -would, carry our responsibilities lightly. We -have of late been taking our politics much more -seriously; a flexibility of the vote, apparent in -recent contests, is highly encouraging to those -of us who see a hope and a safety in the multiplication -of the independents. But even with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span> -this we have done little to standardize public -service; the ablest men of the West do not -govern it, and the fact that this has frequently -been true of the country at large can afford -us no honest consolation. There is no reason -why, if we are the intelligent, proud sons of -democracy we imagine ourselves to be, we -should not so elevate our political standards as -to put other divisions of the republic to shame. -There are thousands of us who at every election -vote for candidates we know nothing about, or -for others we would not think of intrusting with -any private affair, and yet because we find -their names under a certain party emblem we -cheerfully turn over to such persons important -public business for the honest and efficient -transaction of which they have not the slightest -qualification. What I am saying is merely a -repetition of what has been said for years without -marked effect upon the electorate. But -just now, when democracy is fighting for its life -in the world, we do well to give serious heed to -such warnings. If we have not time or patience -to perform the services required of a citizen who -would be truly self-governing, then the glory of -fighting for free institutions on the battle-fields -of Europe is enormously diminished.</p> - -<p>The coming of the war found the West rather<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span> -hard put for any great cause upon which to -expend its energy and enthusiasm. We need -a good deal of enthusiasm to keep us “up to -pitch,” and I shall not scruple to say that, in -spite of our fine showing as to every demand -thus far made by the war, the roll of the drums -really found us inviting the reproach passed by -the prophet upon them “that lie upon beds of -ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, -and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves -out of the midst of the stall.” Over and over -again, as I have travelled through the West -in recent years, it has occurred to me that -sorely indeed we needed an awakening. Self-satisfaction -and self-contemplation are little -calculated to promote that clear thinking and -vigorous initiative that are essential to triumphant -democracy. Yes; this may be just as true -of East or South; but it is of the West that we -are speaking. I shall go the length of saying -that any failure of democracy “to work” here -in America is more heavily chargeable upon us -of these Middle Western States than upon our -fellow Americans in other sections. For here -we are young enough to be very conscious of all -those processes by which States are formed -and political and social order established. Our -fathers or our grandfathers were pioneers; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span> -from them the tradition is fresh of the toil -and aspiration that went to the making of these -commonwealths. We cannot deceive ourselves -into believing that they did all that was necessary -to perpetuate the structure, and that it is -not incumbent upon us to defend, strengthen, -and renew what they fashioned. We had, like -many of those who have come to us from over -the sea to share in our blessings, fallen into the -error of assuming that America is a huge corporation -in which every one participates in the -dividends without reference to his part in earning -them. Politically speaking, we have too -great a number of those who “hang on behind” -and are a dead weight upon those who bear the -yoke. We must do better about this; and in -no way can the West prove its fitness to wield -power in the nation than through a quickening -of all those forces that tend to make popular -government an intelligently directed implement -controlled by the fit, and not a weapon caught -up and exercised ignorantly by the unfit.</p> - -<p>Again, still speaking as one Westerner to another, -our entrance into the war found us dangerously -close to the point of losing something that -was finely spiritual in our forebears. I am -aware that an impatient shrug greets this -suggestion. The spires and towers of innumerable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span> -churches decorate the Western sky-line, and -I accept them for what they represent, without -discussing the efficiency of the modern church -or its failure or success in meeting the problems -of modern life. There was apparent in the first -settlers of the Mississippi valley a rugged spirituality -that accounted for much in their achievements. -The West was a lonesome place and religion—Catholic -and Protestant—filled a need -and assisted greatly in making wilderness and -plain tolerable. The imagination of the pioneer -was quickened and brightened by the -promise of things that he believed to be eternal; -the vast sweep of prairie and woodland deepened -his sense of reliance upon the Infinite. -This sense so happily interpreted and fittingly -expressed by Lincoln is no longer discernible—at -least it is not obtrusively manifest—and -this seems to me a lamentable loss. Here, -again, it may be said that this is not peculiar -to the West; that we have only been affected -by the eternal movement of the time spirit. -And yet this elementary confidence in things -of the spirit played an important part in the -planting of the democratic ideal in the heart of -America, and we can but deplore the passing of -what to our immediate ancestors was so satisfying -and stimulating. And here, as with other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span> -problems that I have passed with only the most -superficial note, I have no solution, if indeed -any be possible. I am fully conscious that I -fumble for something intangible and elusive; -and it may be that I am only crying vainly for -the restoration of something that has gone forever. -Perhaps this war came opportunely to -break our precipitate rush toward materialism, -and the thing we were apparently losing, the -old enthusiasm for higher things, the greater -leisure for self-examination and self-communion, -may come again in the day of peace.</p> - -<p>“There is always,” says Woodberry, “an -ideality of the human spirit” visible in all the -works of democracy, and we need to be reminded -of this frequently, for here in the -heart of America it is of grave importance that -we remain open-minded and open-hearted to -that continuing idealism which must be the -strength and stay of the nation.</p> - -<p>Culture, as we commonly use the term, -may properly be allowed to pass as merely another -aspect of the idealism “deep in the general -heart of man” that we should like to believe to -be one of the great assets of the West. Still -addressing the Folks, my neighbors, I will -temerariously repeat an admission tucked into -an earlier chapter, that here is a field where we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span> -do well to carry ourselves modestly. There was -an impression common in my youth that culture -of the highest order was not only possible -in the West but that we Westerners were peculiarly -accessible to its benignant influences -and very likely to become its special guardians -and apostles. Those were times when life was -less complex, when the spirituality stirred by -the Civil War was still very perceptible, when -our enthusiasms were less insistently presented -in statistics of crops and manufactures. We -children of those times were encouraged to keep -Emerson close at hand, for his purifying and -elevating influence, and in a college town which -I remember very well the professor of Greek was -a venerated person and took precedence in any -company over the athletic director.</p> - -<p>In those days, that seem now so remote, it -was quite respectable to speak of the humanities, -and people did so without self-consciousness. -But culture, the culture of the humanities, -never gained that foothold in the West that had -been predicted for it. That there are few signs -of its permanent establishment anywhere does -not conceal our failure either to implant it -or to find for it any very worthy substitute. -We have valiantly invested millions of dollars -in education and other millions in art museums<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span> -and in libraries without any resulting diffusion -of what we used to be pleased to call culture. -We dismiss the whole business quite characteristically -by pointing with pride to handsome -buildings and generous endowments in much -the same spirit that we call attention to a new -automobile factory. There are always the few -who profit by these investments; but it is not -for the few that we design them; it is for the -illumination of the great mass that we spend -our treasure upon them. The doctrine of the -few is the old doctrine of “numbers” and “the -remnant,” and even at the cost of reconstructing -human nature we promised to show the world -that a great body of people in free American -States could be made sensitive and responsive -to beauty in all its forms. The humanities still -struggle manfully, but without making any -great headway against adverse currents. The -State universities offer an infinite variety of -courses in literature and the fine arts, and they -are served by capable and zealous instructors, -but with no resulting progress against the tide -of materialism. “Culture,” as a friend of mine -puts it, “is on the blink.” We hear reassuring -reports of the State technical schools where the -humanities receive a niggardly minimum of attention, -and these institutions demand our heartiest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span> -admiration for the splendid work they are -doing. But our development is lamentably one-sided; -we have merely groups of cultivated -people, just as older civilizations had them, not -the great communities animated by ideals of -nobility and beauty that we were promised.</p> - -<p>In the many matters which we of the West -shall be obliged to consider with reference to -the nation and the rest of the world as soon as -<i>Kultur</i> and its insolent presumptions have been -disposed of, culture, in its ancient and honorable -sense, is quite likely to make a poor fight -for attention. And yet here are things, already -falling into neglect, which we shall do well to -scan once and yet again before parting company -with them forever. There are balances as between -materialism and idealism which it is desirable -to maintain if the fineness and vigor of -democracy and its higher inspirational values -are to be further developed. Our Middle Western -idealism has been expending itself in channels -of social and political betterment, and it -remains to be seen whether we shall be able to -divert some part of its energy to the history, -the literature, and the art of the past, not for -cultural reasons merely but as part of our combat -with provincialism and the creation of a -broad and informed American spirit.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>“Having in mind things true, things elevated, -things just, things pure, things amiable, -things of good report—having these in mind, -studying and loving these, is what saves States,” -wrote Matthew Arnold thirty years ago. In -the elaboration of a programme for the future of -America that shall not ignore what is here connoted -there is presented to the Middle West -abundant material for new enthusiasms and -endeavors, commensurate with its opportunities -and obligations not merely as the Valley of -Democracy but as the Valley of Decision.</p> - - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The End.</span></p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">FOOTNOTES:</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[A]</a> The matter has been disposed of by the adoption of a prohibition -amendment to the Federal Constitution.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[B]</a> Kenneth Victor Elliott, of Sheridan, Indiana. He died in battle, -giving his youth and his high hope of life for the America he loved -with a passionate devotion.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[C]</a> Now the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[D]</a> Mr. Thompson was re-elected April 1, 1919, by a plurality of 17,600.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[E]</a> Colonel Roosevelt died January 6, 1919.</p> - -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="transnote"> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph2">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p> -</div> - - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> - -<p>Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.</p> - -<p>The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain.</p> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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