Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], February 20, 1909, Page 2, Image 2

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
2 GOODWIN'S WEEKLY. a
BL. C. C. GOODWIN, Editor
Hfl PUBLISHED EVERY 8ATURDAY.
Blfff SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OF GOODWIN'S WEEKLY.
ii Including: postage in tho United States, Canada and
iHlf Mexico, $2.00 per year; $1.00 for six months. Sub
By? ucrlptlons to all foreign countries within the Postal
Brltl Union. $3.50 per year.
full Single copies, 6 cents.
fyll Payments should bo made by Check, Money
TR Order or Registered Letter, payable to Goodvrtn'a
B. r Weekly.
11 . Address all communications to Goodwin's
H b$ Weekly
H frt ; . Entered at tho Postofilco at Salt Lake City.
f Utah, U. S. A., as second-class matter.
Eft P. O. Boxes, 1274 and 1772.
W Telephones: Bell, 301; Ind., 302.
Ltt , 221-232-233 Commercial Club Bldff., Salt Lake City
ft anywhere in the world. I know these boys and
. know them well. I have lived with them for
W years. I have rubbed elbows with, them for
years. I know what they are thinking about.
B j , We started out with about one-third of our
B 1 I crews green, farmer boys from the west,
B 1 I and when we began our target practice iu Mag
B j dalena Bay, two days after we entered that bay,
B we broko every record ever made in gun firing."
B ; Those few words show the spirit that keeps
B tho navy on the alert and makes the men ready
B , for any emergency that calls for men to risk for
1 I tune, honor and life for native land. Some plan
m should be adopted to make all American boys
m I that way, and prizes for excellence in any needed
B 1 line would make most of them all that Is needed.
H !
ft Mr. Holman's Speech
1' ' r-r-iHE SPEECH of Mr. Holman in the assem-
By J bly on Monday, was a fierce arraignment,
K but it was deserved. The action ot the
K House on tho Cannon bill since its first lntroduc-
flfl , tion, was not the procedure of tree men, not
M ' comparablo to anything that was ever seen in
B f any legislative body on earth.
B' It was a Punch and Judy show rrom the hrt,
Hj pulled off by a poorly concealed apostolic string.
B; Cannot the high churchmen see that it is time
B to stop that work? Can they not see that it
B persisted in a little longer they will lose their
B j hold upon their people? This is in the twentieth
B century; tho school house is in full force; the
B electric lights are blazing; the wireless is carry-
B ing the messages of priestly oppression into
B every home and the old flag "full high advanced,"
B. is over all.
B The constitution and laws of Utah, adopted
B and passed with the consent of these same priests
B forbid such work as they have been engaged in
B since before election; the laws of the republic
B and civilization forbid it, and the people who
B'f have so far been obedient are chafing unrip tuo
B tyranny as never before. The bent bow breaks at
B 3 last, and the danger that stares these cruel
BB 1i priests in tho face Is that if they continue to dic-
Bi tato the policies of their people, they will not only
B bo derided, but will lose their hold upon them
B , altogether.
B$ Last Taps on the Maine
B r-piHAT WAS a startlingly dramatic and pathe-
B I J tc picture that Admiral SIgsby drew of the
B' last hour of tho Maine. Taps were sound-
B ed, the signal for sleep and peace, and in half an
I hour tho peace of tho grave, the hush of eternity,
had come to the fighting crew of that fighting
ship, and with tho crew, tho great ship itself
had found its grave. In a foreign port, the guest
of a power which was supposed to be a protecting
Bf one, taps were sounded which meant sleep and
B peace; the echoes brought back the trumphet call
Bl to sleep, and then came the assassination of ship
Bl and crew. It is not much satisfaction that rep-
Bj) aration was enforced, for that was nothing to the
B brave men in their final sleep in the ooze; the only
B real satisfaction is in the thought that the cruel
BBf arm of Spain was broken forever in her island
BBr possessions, and a long suffering people were
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made free. In that thought, the sounding of the
last taps on the Maine, which tne ecnoes took
up and carried far inland, was a promise of peace
to the fair laud, a promise that the pestilence
should be driven away, a promise of schc "o, a
promise of bread to the starving, a promise ot
that peace which comes when a people are free,
and where every opportunity of a fair land Is open
to them all.
In( that thought one 'can be reconciled to the
sacrifice of the brave men and the brave ship,
if such a sacrifice was necessary. If the people
are not yet fitted! to be free, that is no matter,
the time was ripe to strike down their oppressors.
And yet it was most pitiable. Had death come
in battle, with trumpets sounding and great guns
roaring, with tho flag above them on which to fix
their dying eyes, they would have passed on
with smiles upon their faces; for they had con
secrated their lives to that end, if necessary;
but the foul assassin's blow to strike them in
their sleep, that) was infamous.
The last sound they heard was tho signal for
sleep and peace. Sweet be their sleep and may
the soft mantle of everlasting peace wrap them
round.
An Original Great American
IN GALLING up great names in this month in
which so many illustrious Americans were
born, one Instinctively calls in review the
names of men who have been potential forces
in our country from the first. Among them one
name stands out close to the head of the list. He
was not born in February, but came very near
it, on the 29th of January. Because he would
not subscribe to any of the creeds of his day he
has been discounted for almost six score years,
but he surely was a master spirit among men.We
refer to Thomas Paine. He was among the first
to cry out for a declaration of independence and
outlined what that declaration should contain.
In 1775 he urged the creation of a navy and gave
reasons which were unanswerable why the people
on this side of the Atlantic should build ships.
He pointed ouc that all the materials for ship
building were here in abundance, while other na
tions had to imrort most of theirs, and de
clared that if we were to accumulate more
ships than were needed, other nations would
be glad to purchase them "and by that means re
place our paper money with gold and silver." He
advised the giving of premiums to merchants,
to build and employ in their service ships mount
ed with twenty, thirty, forty or fifty guns, and
declared that most of Great Britain's fleet was
worthless, that our country with a fifth of her
ships could beat her at sea, for we would have but
one coast to defend while she had provinces ev
erywhere, and then would have to come across
a stormy 3,000 miles to attack us. But he was
greatest in urging independence. Here is one
extract from his pen in 1775:
'When William the Conqueror subdued England,
he gave them law at the point of tne sworu, md,
until we consent that the seat of government In
America be legally and authoritatively occupied
we shall be in danger of having it filled by some
fortunate ruffian who may treat us in the samo
manner, and then, where will be our freedom;
where our property? ,,
As to religion, I hold' it to'be the indispen
sible duty of all governments to protect all con
sciencious professors t eof, and I know no othtsr
business which government hath to do there
with." Just in the above we see the germs of all that
materialized in the creation of our government.
The next year he joined the army, declaring
that the" people were strong enough to achieve
their Independence, that were they stronger,
there would be danger of tholi( splitting up Into
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separate governments, whereas a united whole
was the only safe plan. Wherever we And his
words in referring to the country and 'any of its i
needs, they not only ring trtfe) but they are filled '
with a rare wisdom which offfen takes on the
form of prophecy. ,
Moreover, many of the thoughts he gave ex
pression to crystalized in the minds of the peo
ple and are cardinal principles of the Republic
today. J
Surely there were giants in those days.
- j,
Not a Restricted Field
REFERRING to Mr. Lincoln, the New York '
Sun says he was "trained politically in
- a narrow though important field, with rough
associations and apparently unread in politics."
That is not quite fair. For thirty years be-,
fore Mr. Lincoln became president Illinois had
a multitude of the strongest men in the nation.
There was Douglas, who held his own and led
his party for years. There was Col. E. D. Baker,
who made a splendid name as a soldier in the
Mexican war, who was a fine lawyer and, we
believe, the foremost orator of his day, who was 1
always a close friend of Mr. Lincoln. There was
Stephen Logan, whom a fine lawyer declared was
the greatest lawyer he ever saw. There was
Mr. Trumbull, who held a national fame as a law
yer and a statesman. There was General John
Logan, whey while not a scholar, had no end oi!
hard sense, who, by the force of his brain and
his magnificence courage, won the stars
of a major general in the great war. There was
the war governor of Illinois, old Dick Yates, who
had the levelest of heads, there was Col. Hardy,
who went down at Buena Vista. It was in Illi
nois that Lovejoy was killed.
Illinois was filled with men who, like Lin- ,
coin, had come from the- south. Political issues i
were fought fiercely in that state. From the time
of the Mexican war to the time of Mr. Lincoln's
election no state in the union understood the
situation better than Illinois, or fought it out on
stronger lines, and one of tho greatest evidences
of Mr. Lincoln's greatness is, that in that state,
surrounded by such men, he naturally gravitated
to the head.
Location makes a great difference with men. t
The assertion of Gilpin that when it came into
its own, the Mississippi valley would dominate
this country, was already in the minds of men
and the great men of that day took on the large
ness of their surroundings. In Now York Mr.
Lincoln might have been lost. As Punch said:
"His gaunt, gnarled hands, the unkempt, bristling I
hair, I
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, '
Hi3 lack of all we prize as debonair,
Of power, or will to shine, of art to please "
might have kept him in tho background of New
York City, but out on the prairie,
"He went about his work such work as few
Ever had laid on head and heart! and hand
As one who knows where there's a task to do,
Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace
command."
I
And so, with all the strength of his brain, and
careless of surroundings he wont to Washington
to do the work there and he did not go from a
restricted field, rather ho wont from a field that j
had no fences around it, and he filled the forties
that fell upon him there in his own quiet way, but
with a prescience that those around him could not
understand; he knew what ho was doing and he
had faith that it would come out right.
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