Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], January 08, 1916, Image 1

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

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1 Goodwins WecMj , I
Vol. 26 SALT LAKE Q1TY, UTAH, JANUARY 8, 1916 No 4
7M An Independent Paper Published Under
km :: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
B EDITORIALS B Y JUDGE C. C. GOOD WIN
if Utah Twenty Years Ago
T T TAH has been twenty years a state. There
f ' was much anguish and sorrow over Its birth.
' A great many people at the time believed they had
a right to hate their next door neighbors. Some
stubborn natures had gathered here. Then there,
too, was a vast undercurrent of provincialism,
which had been nursed for thirty years, and which
1 caused many people to believe that it was only
their good heartedness which prevented them
from resorting to violence. Then there was the
' intolerance of religious beliefs, which some
times broke out in open wrath, and sometimes
in self pity. When a person sincerely believes he
is right in his religion, it seems to be perfectly
! natural for him to take up the idea that anyone
who disagrees with him must be wrong, and when
tins is carried on year after year, the result can
t not help but be something vastly near to hate.
. When added to all this there is a conflict of au-
) thority, when the sovereign government asserts
! itself and on the other hand fanatical men believe
r that any assertion that trenches upon the faith,
that they have elected to live and to die by, there
is such a churning up as makes it most uncom-
fortable all around. This was the situation
t v twenty-one and twenty-two years ago and had
i been gravitating up to a climax for fifteen pre-
( vious years. It was then the proposition was"
made to shake off territorial dependency, and as-
'' sume all the rights and prerogatives of a sover-
( eign state. At last delegates from all over the
territory met in constitutional convention. That
. was the finest educational institution that had
i ever, convened in this region. About the first
thing that became apparent was the fact that
those who had met there to frame that constitu
I tion wanted to do the right thing. No one seemed
to be playing for advantages. "No one seemed to
want to call up unpleasant recollections, rather
the thought seemed to be to frame an instru-
ment which would put the state's machinery in
such working order that no friction would at-
' tend its running and no regrets await the effects
i of the change. No other state ever had a consti
tution prepared under such conditions, and one
of the most splendid results of it all was the
giving of the impression that earnest men striving
to accomplish a holy purpose carried with them
a power which was potential. When the dele
i gates, their work completed, adjourned, and re
turned home, they had materially grown in what
true citizenship implies, and they started the state
I' with an impetus which has never slackened. No
: other state ever started with more incentives
I for good than did Utah, and it has held its way
I without one single reaction. At the time of its ad-
l mission, a great many people doubted the ability
T of the state to pay its way. It was provided in
the constitution that no state house should be
ibuiljfor a term of years; but now one of the
most striking capitols in the union stands on Cap
itol Hill. The area under cultivation has doubled.
The mines last year gave notice that while Utah
has nearly all other advantages that any other
state has, her mines are one vast trust company
for the good of the people. Manufactures have
increased until their product exceeds that of
the mines. This city has been transformed with
splendid structures, sewers, and all the attach
ments of a city, in the way of hospitals, hotels,
theatres and magnificent school structures, and
we believe it is fair to state that the patriotism
of the state has advanced more than any one
other thing. Twenty years ago it would have
been proper to say: "The night is long," but now
after twenty years it is right to say: "Joy cometh
in the morning." With renewed energy, and with
a great exultation the people look joyously for
ward to still greater triumphs, and for more glory
and power for the state.
William Waldorf Astor
SOMETIMES great honors attach to titles.
When a hero goes out and offers his life in
defense of a holy cause, and he receives a. title
for his services, his deeds make that title sacred.
When a man by his brain performs some glor
ious work which advances the prestige and honor
of his country and for it receives a title, the
world is glad of the honor that has come to him.
At times there come to men higher honors than
a title can give.
Some two hundred years ago a quiet man In
England bequeathed $400,000 with which to found
a school on the edge of the settlements in New
England the ocean rolling on the east, three
thousand miles of wilderness stretching away to
the unexplored west. Ever since, with every In
coming year, a contingent of educated young
men have gone out from that school into that
wilderness to help subdue it, to help round now
states into form, to help frame the laws, to help
fight the country's battles; and the glory that has
come to them, reflected back, rests like a halo
around the memory of old John Harvard.
In the long ago a shrewd merchant landed
from Europe in New York. He was a far seeing,
brave man. He engaged in trade and was most
successful. He built ships and sailed them so
far that it required years for them to return. But
when they did return, they were loaded with
Bpoils of the wilderness. He became very wealthy.
Ho invested the bulk of his fortune in realty in
New York City, when that city was little more
than a village. The unearned increment of his
estate has multiplied into many millions. The
first thing his children learned was that each was
born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
They were brought up to nothing high or true,
and with the idea that nothing counted except
wealth; nothing worth a struggle for save such
returns as wealth can give. In the soul of the
man whose name heads this article, the higher
emotions have been bred out; in his narrowed
nature, in his dwarfed ideas, he finally grew to
think that there was nothing so much to be cov-
eted as a title; to be called "My Lord," to have mW
It said that he was of the aristocracy. For this H
he long ago expatriated himself, and since then mM
has been waiting for the bestowal of the bauble. mM
Now he has obtained it and Ave are glad. We
do not care to think any more of him as an W
American. H
When one thinks what he might have accom- M
plished here in any of a dozen fields, had there mM
been a high motive in his soul and a determina- mM
tion to inaugurate and perform some glorious
work, and then thinks of his purchased title, to
fill the narrow round of a brief life and then dls-
appear into forgetfulness, something akin to pity m
is felt for him. It seems like a soul emasculation, mm
the unmaking of a man who might "have been H
an honor to his race and a blessing to a great
contingent of his fellow men. H
All that can be said of him after a little more H
will be that he lived a butterfly life; he lived H
without benefit to his fellow men; he died not H
only unregretted,. but with a consciousness that H
for a life like his there was nothing to awaken H
his own self-respect or the respect of othors. H
Our Long-Neglected Shipping M
OUPPOSE our country had done what Germany H
did for twenty-five years previous to the com- H
ing on of the present war, in the matter of our H
foreign trade, what would have been the situa- H
tion now? Rm
Take, for example, the east coast of South H
America. Rm
Suppose with the regularity of the stars our H
ships had called at every principal port going and H
coming. H
It would not have been long before our great H
merchants and manufacturers would have had H
trading stations at Para, Pernambuco, Bahai, Rio, H
Santos, Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. They H
would have been obliged to exchange what they
had for rubber at Para and Pernambuco, for sugar
at Bahai, Rio and Santos, for hides and meats H
and grain at Rio, but the grain would have been H
disposed of in the more tropical ports. All the
employees resident there would have acquired the H
language talked and written. They would have
written home where a railroad was needed, or H
an electric power and lighting plant or bridge,
or the nucleus of a city and United States com-
panies would have been doing that work. Long H
ago the people there would have learned that if
they wanted anything our country was the best
land in all the world to apply to. M
As it has been they have sent us more than M
half of all they exported, but how? M
An English or German ship has loaded in a M
home port and found its way to one of the east- M
era ports of South America. M
Arriving there the people wanted the cargo, M
and they have had nothing to exchange for it M
save their own products. M
"Very good," says the German or English ship
master. Thereupon he marks up the goods to M
cover the freight from the home port, and takes H
in exchange rubber, or coffee, or sugar or what- H
ever the people can give him. Then he sails for H
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