Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], March 05, 1910, Image 1

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

                
I Goodwin's Weekly E
Vol. XVI SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MARCH 5, 1910 No. 20 H
i
1 The Couer d'Alene Tragedy
I t-EIEIPBST sorrow for the dead and profound
I j sympathy for the living, for all the victims
? of the appalling avalanches in northern
Idaho and their friends is due. The tragedy has
shocked the whole west. It was a thunderbolt as
. from a clear sky. No one, on the outside at least,
' ever dreamed of any danger there. Those had
, been prosperous towns for more than twenty
years; no hint of danger had ever been given,
and our sister state stands bowed in the pres
ence of a greater calamity than it ever suffered
before. More pitiable still, some brave men. who
fc went to the work of rescue, on returning home
were overtaken by the same fate. Nature is cruel
in many of her moods, and all her elements seem
' to be murderous, when they start on their raids.
All sympathy is due the survivors In northern
Idaho, and whatever material help is needed
f surely waits only the call.
I The Careless Voter
( N this time of dissatisfaction with parties and
J with the government, very many citizens find
- fault with the authorities and with party news-
f papers and continue this almost as though a per-
k sonal wrong was being done to themselves. Still,
r it is true, that the greatest wrong a free people
ever suffer, is perpetrated by themselves. Free
l and enlightned government Is not something
which comes unasked to men; there has to be a
. struggle to obtain it, then a perpetual struggle to
I retain it. Men every day speak contemptuously
of the small politician, forgetting that if he per
forms his duty each citizen in a free country
I must be something of a politician and "must do
his part not only to his country generally, but to
r his town or city, and even to his ward in the city.
Indeed, local self-government is the first-essential,
for when the local self-governments are all car
ried on with wisdom and Integrity, the aggregate
t extending over the whole, make the whole system
perfect. Then, too, when a corrupt legislature
! or congress or even a city council, has control,
then we know that a majority of the voters of
that state or country or city are corrupt at least
in this, they have neglected their duty at prima-
, ries and on election days and have thus permitted
unworthy men to obtain the offices.
The Hon. James Bryce, Great Britain's am
I bassador to this country, delivered a lecture re-
Icently in an eastern city, his theme being: "The
I Hindrances to Good Citizenship." In the course
, v of it, he said: "London, while governed for cer
tain common purposes by a body called the coun
ty council, is divided for other local purposes into
a large number of boroughs, each administered
by its borough council. The candidates for seats
on these councils are mostly men of so little per
sonal eminence that one may reside in a borough
through a lifetime and may have never heard
their names. Not long ago for an election for the
London borough, in which I had lived for many
. years, a long list of candidates was issued which
I studied carefully thinking, seeking as a citizen
ought, to vote for the best men. There was but
one name I had ever seen before. It was that of
- a man who had won fame by his classical attain-
firt merits at Cambridge University and had after-
t wards become one of our leading Homeric schol-
If ars. Having nothing else to guide me, no sug-
l gestions from private acquaintances or from" any
party organization, I voted for him, and for some
t
u
of those other men on the same list who appeared,
so far as I could gather to be associated with his
candidacy. I happened to know that he was a
man, not only of learning, but of the highest per
sonal character, but had I known nothing except
that he was distinguished Homeric scholar, I
should have had to vote for him just the same in
default of all other data for a judgment."
Now this London borough is a small area,
which was the Ancient City, now within modern
London, and it retains its ancient government,
and is not subject to the city council. So we see
what precautions are taken in the very heart of
London to secure good government. Even
the great James Bryce, though he had
lived in that circumscribed "district for
years, did not know one of the candi
dates that had been named for the people to
vote for, had never heard of but one, and he as
a classical scholar at Cambridge, and later that
he had become famous because of his studies of
Homeric literature. Anyone can imagine how
those studies must have fitted this book-worm,
filled with asthetic Greek poetical imaginings for
his duties of looking after the police, fire depart
ment, sewage, sanitation and the work generally
of a city councilman.
We do not believe that things are quite
so bad as that in America. Some newspaper
here would have told the people about these
candidates and given a little idea of what
a burlesque, it would be to elect them to
offlce. But think of a list of candidates in
a little district in London where a man
like James Bryce had lived for years and
never had seen one of them, never heard of but
one and he when a boy in college. Yet should any
scandal develop under the rule of these men, it
is safe to say "the citizens" of that district would
declaim aloud against the giving of offices to such
men. But that goes on in England and in Ameri
ca, and about once in so often the people, over
some outrage, rise up and cry out against cor
rupt politicians. "Who is really to blame for such
men ever being elected to office? What safety
is there in a country when such election farces
are played upon the people, apparently with their
full consent, or rather because they have not
the courage, principle and sense of duty to arouse
them on election day; to see that only good and
competent men are given office, and to further
see that any failure of duty by office-holders, shall
be met at once and rebuked in a way to make
a repetion of the wrong improbable?
South America
ARGENTINA is to have a great exposition in
the coming autumn their spring and sum
mer. We hope that the United States will
be superbly represented; that a fleet of war ships
will be sent there, each class of fighting craft
represented. After Admiral Dewey destroyed the
Spanish fleet and captured Manila and the islands,
China's purchases from our country doubled in a
year. By a subtle Free Masonry, the whisper
went from man to man through the millions in
that country that the United States had become
invincible, and good policy dictated closer trade
relations. Admiral Evans, when he rounded
South America with his battle ships, passed Bue
nos Ayres by with the big' ships, but the fame of
his fleet sounded through all those lands, and
within a few" weeks past the government of that
country has let contracts to American ship-build- H
ers to build two of the foremost battle ships in H
the world. It Is clear enough that it was the fame M
of Admiral Evans' fleet that made the 13,000-mile fl
voyage and arrived on the we3t coast in better ' M
form than it was in when it sailed from Hampton H
Roads, that determined where the contract was
to be let. On account of trade, on account of good M
fellowship we hope that our country will be ap- M
propriately represented at Beunos Ayres. Then M
there is more to it. We expect that, within the iM
next few years there will come a sort of passion l
upon our countrymen to explore and settle many 'M
of the waste places of that continent. It will M
come as soon as anything like an accurate knowl- M
edge of that country, its resources and history 'M
shall be known. Its story is a fascinating one. M
An empire existed there more enlightened than M
was England at the time of Alfred the Great. A M
race of temple-builders; an empire that held do- M
minion over many kindred nations, occupied the M
crest and both flanks of the Andes. M
The central seat was the throne of the Incas, M
extended from the sources of the Ucayale and the M
basin of Lake TIticaca to the river Apurimac. It l
included all climates and all soils; wild mountain H
fastnesses, wide tracts of upland, grassy slopes, H
lofty valleys, as the one in which Cuzco is situ- H
ated and fertile ravines, all including scenery as H
lovely as ever was stretched out to the gaze of H
man. The inhabitants included four tribes, but all H
were subject to the Incas; one in the valley of the H
Vilcamayes, the Quichuas along the Apuriamac's H
tributaries; and the Canas and Cauchis in the H
mountains above the basin of Tilicaca. They were H
sturdy and graceful men. They averaged 5 feet H
4 inches in height. All had acquillne noses, the H
eyes deep brown or black, bright and deep set H
with lashes. Their hair was abundant, soft and H
silky and deep brown or black, but the men had H
no beards. Their skin was light copper-color, H
their necks were thick, shoulders broad with H
great depth of chest. Their nether limbs were H
fine, their hands and feet small, they had the H
build and movements of mountaineers. South of H
these dwelt in Collas. They lived in stone huts, H
tended their flocks of llamas and cultivated ocas, H
quinoas and potatoes. There were many tribes of H
the Collas and their feuds would bave done credit H
to eastern Kentucky. There was another race, H
darker and more savage, that lived in the reeds H
around Lake TIticaca, caller the Urus. North H
of Cuzco were several allied tribes, who were H
rivals of the Incas; still further north and west H
were the Chancas, still further north and west H
were the Huncus, agricultural people and shep- H
herds. Then there were three or four strong na- H
tions along the mighty Maranon, which all travel- H
ers unite in describing as one of the very grand- H
eat of rivers. The above and others are sup- H
posed to have made up, at least in part, the H
mighty prehistoric empire of the Pirhuas, and to fl
have retained much of the civilization of their H
far-back ancestors. Centuries of war re went on
but the Incas finally became the" masters. Then ' H
the Spaniards mastered the Incas, and the wave fl
having passed over that land, it has settled into jfl
a seeming lethargy, and seems to be waiting for H
a new race. Will it bo the Anglo Saxon, or the
Japanese? We think it will be our own people I
that will restore more than the ancient glories I
and will add enlightenment, even as was done in
California. U