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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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