Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], September 09, 1909, Page 2, Image 2

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

Image provided by: Boston Public Library

                
2
DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.
The announcement by Dr Frederick A.
Cook, now returning from his Arctic jour
ney, that he has succeeded in reaching the
geographical pole is so unexpected that
it must cause the greatest surprise as well
as sensation in the history of polar explo
ration. The idea that a traveler with a
comparatively small outfit, and going al
most alone, could achieve this stupendous
triumph over the immense obstacles of the
climate and ice pack of the far northern
sea had lately been made to seem entirely
obsolete by the highly organised expedi
tions of such explorers ns Peary in the
Arctic and Shackleton in the Antarctic
zone. Dr Cook's expedition has hitherto
attracted little attention from the public,
and even among those who follow closely
these explorations his performance must
hare seemed foolhardy and almost sure to
fail. Even the one white man with whom
he started returned at an early date, leav
ing Dr Cook with only the few Eskimos
as his supporters and helpers on the per
Rons dash to the mysterious goal. That
he should have reached his destination
within 35 days after leaving Cape Hub
bard is rightly regarded as very remark
able.
These are circumstances, indeed, which
Bray compel Dr Cook to offer the most in
contestable proofs of his reported achieve
ment; and no doubt the friends of Peary,
who is now on his return journey, will
critically scrutinize the evidences that Dr
Cook will offer the world. The facts that
Dr Cook and Comdr Peary have not been
friendly for some years and that Peary s
supporters resented Dr Cook s act in start
ing on an independent polar journey over
much the same route that Peary was to
follow, just prior to the older explorer s
departure for the North, may prove to
be the germs of a controversy of an un
happy nature.
We have hinted, at the outset, at the
possibilities of controversy because the
conditions under which Dr Cook has per
formed his almost incredible task seem to
harbor such possibilities. But we hasten
to add that there is every probability that
the returning explorer has taken the
greatest pains to bring back incontestable
evidence to substantiate his claims. That
he had no other white man to share his
hardships on the journey may be unfor
tunate. if the proof depends mainly upon
human testimony, for it may be asked by
the critical whether ignorant Eskimos
could possibly know, independently of Dr
Cook, whether the geographical pole had
been reached. To determine its location
is a matter of scientific observation and
calculation of which comparatively few
among us, untrained for such work, would
be capable. Dr Cook, however, fully ap
preciating the importance of these points,
has undoubtedly provided himself with
evidence which the most exacting of skep
tics must accept.
Dr Cook's previous career as an ex
plorer may not have led the world to ex
pect so much of hint as he now appear*
to have accomplished at one tremendous,
single-handed stroke, but there has cer
tainly been a steady preparation for the
great achievement. He is still under 45
years of age, ana he possessed unimpaired
physical powers when be started nofth two
years ago. He accompanied Deary's Arc
tic expedition of 1891-92 as surgeon, and
thus laid the foundation of his training
in this field. That Deary taught him the
first principles of Arctic travel, and in
troduced him to the practical phases of a
subject that enthrals all who once succumb
to its boundless fascination, is a fact of
singular interest, now that the pupil has
outstripped the master. Again, Dr Cook
served as surgeon for the Belgian Antarc
tic expedition of 1897-99 and widely ex
tended his knowledge of the conditions of
life in the frozen zones. Still later, his
expeditions to explore and ascend to its
top Mt McKinley in Alaska, in 1908-1906,
made hitn the hero of memorable feats in
mountain climbing. Prof Charles E. Fay.
president of the American Alpine clnb and
a competent judge of mountain climbing,
has lately descrilied Dr Cook's ascent of
that peak as “the most daring" in Ameri
can annals; and, again, said Prof Fay of
tiie same feat: "It may be doubted
‘whether the entire history of mountaineer
ing affords a more remarkable story of
•combined audacity and persistency or of
‘strenuous toil and endurance.” And it is
such qualities that win in enterprises of ex
treme hardship and hazard. Dr Cook's rank
as an explorer, in short, had been high for
some years before be undertook his last
journey; his standing with geographers
and scientific societies had been unques
tioned, and it must be assumed that his
word of honor is aione sufficient to com
pel acceptance of his story —subject a« it
necessarily is, of course, to the tests which
geographical science must impose without
reference to personalities.
A man who has done what Dr Cook an
nounces as the crowning achievement of
bis life—an achievement which has thus
far been the despair of older Arctic ex
plorers working with ampler resources and
which the majority of mankind have prob
ably thought impossible of realization by
means of the older methods of travel, —
such a man deserves from bis countrymen
honors without stint and the most gener
ous recognition of his immortal enterprise.
As a feat of adventure pure and simple,
the first discovery of the north pole is nn
aurpassed, if not uneqnaled, in all time.
The name of the explorer will endure
while the earth continues to be a habita
tion for the human race. Of the scientific
value of the achievement, one cannot si>eak
in such unmeasured terms.
THE RETURN OF PEARY.
The honorable skeptics are most stun
ningly routed, to the extent that they can
no longer deny the discovery of the polo.
For those who doubted Dr Cook will have
faith in Comdr Peary, and everyone must
believe that Peary has reached the utter
most North. His achievement is a glorious
consummation. A lifetime spent in Arctic
travel, exploration and study now finds its
fruition. The labors nnd privations of
years are rewarded. And the crowning
success has come in no measure as the
result of the experience of the explorer
who preceded him hy a year, for the two
expeditions of Cook and Peary were in
dependent of euch other, neither giving nor
receiving aid, while each worked without
knowledge of the other's success or failure.
It is impossible, of course, to write of
Peary's triumph as one would have done
a week ago, although nothing enn detract
from the credit really due him. In a oop-
nlar sense, it has been the most tremen
dous week in the history of exploration.
One might venture to say that the series
of sensations leaves the world inclined to
gasp, if not actually breathless: and this
is obviously due to the unexampled stage
setting which the curious sequence of
events >has so melodramatically provided.
Neither Dr Cook nor Comdr Peary could
have known that the other was so near
the fringe of civilization, and the sudden
return of both within a space of six days,
each the bearer of news calculated to
startle the world, forms one of the most
thrilling episodes of modern times. Inter
est is only hightened in the general situa
tion by Peary's return, because it is evi
dent from his firs; dispatches that he
knows nothing as yet of Dr Cook's claims.
Both Peary and his lieutenant. McMillan,
have made announcements from Indian
bay which indicate their assumption that
Peary was the first white man to reach
the pole.
What Peary will say concerning the one
who now confronts him claiming the honor
of priority is awaited with the deepest in
terest, if not concern. Peary’s situation
at this point is painful. He has made
three attempts to gain the prize which
now seems so dazzling in its spectacular
significance, and he has finally succeeded.
If he must now yield the honor of priority
in discovery to another, and must return
also to enjoy only the shreds of a glory
that otherwise would have been his. the
disappointment will be poignant and pos
sibly his chagrin profound.
As between the two explorers, it will be
immediately asked whether Peary will be
able to throw light upon Dr Cook's per
formance. If he had found evidence at
the pole of Dr Cook's arrival there, con
troversy would at once be stilled. But
Peary's failure to find the metal tube left
at the spot that Cook believed to be the
pole would prove nothing against the oth
er's claims, inasmuch as the pole is evi
dently located on an ice field of the polar
sen, and nothing left on the ice would re
main for long in that particular spot.
Peary did not reach the pole until about a
year after Dr Cook's appearance there,
and in that time the polar ice pack doubt
less passed through various phases. If
Peary, in brief, came upon no signs of
Cook's journey, in the vicinity of the
boreal center, the latter's claims are not
necessarily- damaged, while his astronom
ical observations and diary remain fully as
convincing, no more and no less, under
scientific scrutiny, as before Peary's re
turn. It may even be said that Peary's
own success in reaching the pole and re
turning home within the remarkably short
period of 14 months—a record which is
absolutely unapproached, in point of actual
time elapsed, for a "round trip"—tends to
make Dr Cook's story the more credible.
If Peary had returned with another fail
ure to his credit. Dr Cook's triumph
would now seem the more amazing and
open to doubt.
For the honor of America, we trust that
both men will easily prove the validity of
their claims to having reached the pole.
If it is established that Dr Cook preceded
his rival, the older explorer must still
be credited with a success no less stu
pendous, since it was achieved at almost
the same time and on a thoroughly inde
pendent basis. That Dr Cook built on
Peary's experience in past journeys can
not be doubted. Nor must it be forgotten
that the Peary expedition, because of its
ampler equipment, must have returned tlje
richer in permanent contributions to sci
ence. It is to be hoped, finally, that there
may be generosity on all sides and un
grudging recognition of great deeds by
whomsoever performed.
HOW THE CASE STANDS.
Dresidcnt Taft's message of congratula
tion to Dr Cook seems to constitute a
form of official recognition of the achieve
ment claimed by the explorer, who. if lie
is a fraud, reached the supreme summit
of human audacity in sending directly to
the president an announcement of his dis
covery. The matter has gone so far. with
the official reception to Dr Cook by the
king of Denmark aud President Taft's
congratulations, that the theory of wilful,
deliberate deceit is incredible. There are,
besides, too many men of high character
and scientific standing like Prof Brewer
of Yale university and Mr Lecoihte of
the Brussels observatory, who emphatical
ly indorse from personal knowledge Dr
Cook as a man of veracity and honor, to
warrant aspersions of this nature.
As the case stands, the attack upon. Dr
Cook must be based either upon the theory
of unconscious error in his observations or
upon the theory of insanity. Eitli r of
these furnishes a possible hypothesis. As
to the first. Dr Cook may have been aett
deceived: as to the second, hallucination
may have taken hold of his mind. But
if he was self-deceived in his scientific
data, an examination of his records of ob
servations should quickly reveal the fact.
A man might be 50 miles from the pole
and, on account of mistaken observations
of the latitude, honestly think he was
there; but his daily records should afford
to critical experts an infallible basis of
comparison between the true and the false.
For. if he was honestly in error, he could
have concocted nothing to mislead the
world. The fact, however, that Danish
experts in whom the Danish government
has confidence have thus far detected no
errors of this sort indicates that no such
errors are there to be detected. The Dan
ish explorer Rasmussen, in particular, ap
pears in Greenland to have satisfied him
self as to the truth of the claim made by
the American, and his word is "as good
'as gold,” in the opinion of King Fred
erick's ministers.
The theory of hallucination should be
easily proved or disproved, as time passes,
and Dr Cook is subjected more and more
to the critical cross-fire of countless inter
viewers and learned bodies. A mere de
lusion of this character should be easily de
tected, it would seem, by an examination
of the corroborating evidence offered. For
a tnau insan" on the subject of the pole
would not rook up n deliberate fraud. He
might believe be had been there, but au
examination by alienists should show the
contrary, if he had not.
One can piece together a number of
statements emanating from Dr Cook, or
purporting to have ome from him. which
seeik to require explanation on account
of the inconsistencies they contain, hut lie
ought at this time to be given the benefit
of the doubt whenever a foolish or seem
ingly impoMihle statement is credited to
him. The correspondents are not infalii-
I ble in reporting a man’s words correctly;
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLIC AX: THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 9, 1909.
and Dr Cook is h<lng subjected to count
less interviews, some of which, probably. ’
are themselves Inure fraudulent than any
thing he wnld possibly say about the |
m>rth pole.
Thus far. the balance seems to be i
strongly in Dr Cook’s favor. He certainly '
was known by such men as Prof Brewer ,
of Yale to be contemplating a polar joui
iiey. if the condemns proved to be favor- >
able. There is no possible doubt that lie I
start, <1 well equipped over the ice istck.
with two Eskimo, in an effort Io roach the
inde. The Only qm-stion is how far north
he got. Peary reached a point within
alstut 200 miles, in a season when the
ice pack nos badly broken up. If Dr
Cook found the ice pack in unusually good
shape for sledging, there seems to be no
inherent improbability in tiie assumption
that he at least got nearer to the pole than
any of bis predecessors did. The Danes,
it may be repeated, fully credit the claim
that he went tip' whole distance and ac
tually arrived, Why should we Americans
■now seek to discredit an exploit that the
Danes unqualifiedly concede?
Yet we confess to a lurking uneasiness
and hope that before Dr Cook returns
home he will, subject his claims to the
severest possible examination by the high
est authorities in Europe on Arctic explo
ration. With their verdict in his favor,
an ugly controversy may be prevented in
his own country, which just now has an
embarrassing wealth of Arctic explorers,
whose personal friends are naturally jegl
oas of their fame.
DR COOK'S STORY AND ITS USE. |
By special arrangement with the New
Y’ork Herald, and at a large outlay, The
Republican was enabled to give to its
readers last week the full story
of the discovery of the north pole by Dr
Frederick A. Cook of Brooklyn, written
by the explorer himself and cabled from
Lerwick, in the Shetland islands. It was
one of the New York Herald's famous
“scoops,” the story being copyrighted in
America and Europe, and so the exclusive
property of the New York newspaper.
For once in its experience the Associated
Dress had failed, and was in straits. It
was a tense situation. Seemingly in law,
as in honor, the New York Herald com
manded the situation, and the story of the
intrepid man -who had succeeded in reach
ing the geographical pole, goal of man's
endeavor for so long, was its to use and
to control.
Blit the Herald'S story appeared in its
Paris edition—duly protected by copyright,
it is claimed—and from thence it was taken
by the Associated Press and telegraphed so
as to be of use to its patrons in the late
editions of newspapers in this country.
Of course The Republican had Dr Cook's
graphic narration in season for use in
all its editions. The Herald managers in
New Y’ork complained in advance of this
proposed appropriation of its property, but
the Associated Press people persisted, and
suits at law are expected to follow. It
should in fairness be added that during
the day Thursday Mr Stone of the Asso
ciated Press advised his papers not to use
the Herald's story—but the mischief had
then been done.
The legal points at issue are no doubt
to be threshed out, but the issue of cour
tesy and honor is sufficiently clear as mat
ters stand. The New York Herald was
entitled to the frill benefit of its fore
thought and enterprise, and it is much to
be regretted that anybody connected with
the Associated Press has so far put that
organization in the wrong.
PROBLEM OF THE RICH FARMER.
The great prosperity of western agri
culture during the past 10 years appears
to have developed a problem of farm ten
antry and landlordism quite as bad as. that
which came into agitation in the preceding
years of agricultural depression. Joseph
B. Ross writes about it in the current
number of the North Ameri, an Review.
The -revolution" he describes consists of
the enrichment of large numbers of the
older farm owners, their removal to the
cities on an independent income, and the
rental of their farms to a succeeding gen
eration of agriculturists without money to
buy them. In some cases the farm is left
untenanted, ami in all cases there is of
course a lack, of the interest in upbuilding
of the farm and of ihe farm community
which attaches to the ownership operation
of the farms. It is a perfectly natural
consequence of such a change which Mr
Ross describes;—
The country is no longer his (the farm
owner's! home, to be fostered in its neigh
borhood interests, nor is lie deeply and
vitally concerned in its social and imlitical
institutions. The farm is an investment,
and is to be tested, as every other invest
ment, by its capacities for income produc
tion. The personnel of the country is no
longer that of yeomen—a new personnel
has developed, created by the new eco
nomic conditions. The thoughts, purposes,
interests of the new personages are dis
tinct from those who preceded them. The
result will soon be an entirely new ad
justment of social, political and economic
life.
But this is not all of the trouble. Mr
Ross says that the rich farmers moving
to the cities do not take part' in the serious
interests of their new places of residence.
As the tenants on their farms are sojourn
ers. so they in similar spirit take up their
abode in the city as a more or less tempo
rary location for such enjoyment ns their
incomes can afford. Their larger property
interest is in the tenanted farm which hns
become remote from their daily life. The
visitor to any considerable city in that sec
tion of country will find ample testimony
in confirmation of this. One of the lead
ing professional mon of a north Kansas
city of COHO popirlation or thereabouts re
cently declared (hat the rich or retired
farmer class in that place constituted what
might almost be called undesirable cit
izens. *hcy are antagonistic to any and
all public improvements, and their tran
sient attitude and relatively smaller prop
erty commitments in the city make them
more or less indifferent to local public
causes in general. Is a water system
needed in the new and growing city? They
got along very well without one on the
farm and can do so in the now abode. Is
a gas or electric lighting system desirable?
They found kerosene lamps very satisfac
tory on the farm. Is an extension of the
paved-street district demanded? They
never had paved streets around the farm,
and that suffices to line them up against
this improvement. They constitute a
strong reactionary element in the elector
ates of those western country'cities.
This, however, is much the less serious
aide of the problem. Thg more serious is
the farm or tenant site which may easily
develop grievous political and social con
sequences if conditions should favor its
extension. A situation here appears which
repeats the earlier western experience.
The early settlers took up government
lands at small cost and the incoming of
railroads and other people and industry
o|>erate to enhance land values so far as
to place the- pioneers- in a position of af
fluence. Many of them rented their farms
and moved to the cities as many of their
successors are now doing: and die extent
of the tenantry resulting caused so much
alarming political, discussion that the gov
ernment eChsits of IK9O made a special in
quiry respecting the matter. Many others
sold their farms to those who bought under
a heavy mortgage, and in the great tall
of cereal and other commodity prices fol
lowing the demonetization of silver and
the contracted output of gold, these mort
gages became more and more burdensome,
and figured in politics and the w-s’ern
populistic revolution of the 'Bos equally
with farm landlordism.
Those mortgage-oppressed farmers of the
'Bos and early 90s are the very ones who
are now presenting a renewed problem of
absentee landlordism, with themselves in
the position of landlord.. And the great
factor in their uplifting in their turn with
in so short a time has been the gold dis
coveries of a decade ago and the cense,pj-nt
general and extended rise in prices, de
preciation of the dollar, and lightening of
the burden of farm debt, which weighed
down the agricultural West so distressingly
20 years since. If the dollar depreciation
continues, this new generation of farm ten
ants and mortgagors will get out as have
their predecessors ; ■ otherwise we shall see
a renewal of trouble and political revolu
tion in the West.
THE DOOR DUKES.
“I am not here to defend the dukes,”
protested the tory orator nt a recent anti
budg.vt mass-meeting in Manchester, as
his audience pranced away from him with
ironical jeers at his arguments. But
even qfter unloading the dukes, the speak
er was helpless. The meeting would not
hear him~ and, instead of denouncing the
budget, the 15,(JOO people present stag
gered the promoters of the demonstration
by passing with a shout resolutions in its
favor. It was evident that the dukes
are not air asset of real value, at this
juncture, to the conservative party, and
it is of some interest to ascertain the
reason. The old notion that at bottom
the English people “dearly love a lord”
seems subject to modification. /
There are undoubtedly two sides to the
duke question, as it is now being agitated
in Great Britain. The present unpopular
ity of noblemen of this exalted rank may
be traced, of course, to certain indis
ereet statements by several of them that
if the budget became law they would
have to meet the increased charges upon
their ducal incomes by cutting down, if
not wiping out entirely, their contribu
tions to charity: This was "making the
'poor pay" with a vengeance; and the
working class of the kingdom promptly
identified opposition dfo the budget with
dukes who propose-to' squeeze derelicts
and paupers, rhe Infite. the blind, the sick
end the aged poor; in wdet to -pay the
taxes necessary for S nasy that will whip
the world. A duke is;warrounded by so
much grandeur and r law; he has so
many estates in town and country he
WW so many -castles -and be employs
such an army -of servants, that the lower
clues critic comprehends his position with
difficulty. Yet one-rßiay pity even the
dukes in a time like- this.
Mr Lloyd-George cruelly suggested at
Limehouse that a duke's economic func
tion is to consume the wealth produced
by others, ami it must be admitted that
such is the coid economic fact, in most
cases. Probably no living duke earned
his property. A greut-great-great-grand
father was clever as n courtier, or wns
valiant in war. and the royal master re
warded him tor his services by large
grants of other people's land. If the
land had been confiscated from the
church. Willi the break-up of the system
of monasteries and the spoliation of the
ecclesiastical lords, so much the better,
from the royal point of view. Conceding
that the first duke of the Jine earned
the property by his eminent services to
the crown, we get- no farther in out
analysis of ducal earning power, since
the descendants down to the present day
have had nothing whatever to do but
livff on the proceeds from the estate. For
a duke to earn bis living, or to epgape in
any gainful occupation, would be a gross,
a shocking, violation of the etiquet of the
social system that is adorned by his ex
istence. And it is equally incumbent upon
him, moreover, while keeping his prin
cipal intact, to spend every dollar of his
income. The ethics of the case is well
expressed by the imaginary duke who
said: "I have just done the best I could,—
'lived up to the last penny of my income,
‘because I was told that a duke ought not
'to save, and consumed all the wealth I
‘could, because it was all produced by oth
‘ers, and thought that to consume it was
‘the surest way of preventing unemploy
■ment.”
What is a poor duke to do. consequent
ly, if he finds that heavier taxation of his
income and his land compels him to re
trench on expenditure? If he has spent
it to the full each year, not on debauch
ery and vicious amdscments, but on things
that incidentally, at least, gave employ
ment to others —sqch as racing stables,
gardens, hunting hounds, yachts and the
like—and also upon a few select charities
approved by the archbishop of Canterbury,
he must choose between one class of ex
penditure or the other, when the pinch
comes. Imagine his dilemma. As the duke
of Northumberland recently said, in the
columns of the Times: "I have a herd of
‘deer, two home farms, two or three gar
‘dens. a certain , number of saddle and
‘harness horses, a certain amount of game;
'I subscribe pretty liberally to a pack of
‘hounds. Any or all of the** t ean re
‘dace or abolish, and, for thht matter,
‘without any appreciable personal diaad
| ‘vantage; but I Cannot help seeing that
‘it means want of employment to all those
‘who live by my keeping up these tilings.”
Suppose he decides to cut down his sub
scriptions to charities in order to keep
the old family gardeners, the stable boys
and the game keepers at work. For a mere
duke, with no other experience in life
than that of spending all his income nnd
earning'nothing, he inay not do the wise
thing, but he does something that many
men who.are not dukes, yet would like to
be dukes.; would also do.
Sir Edward Grey has been heartless
enough to suggest that a duke confronted
by the inexorable demands of the tax
gatherer, should, as a last, desperate re
sort, go to work. His grace of North
umberland answers this by intimating that
he himself may be too old—being no less
than 63—to consider what remunerative
employment he could undertake; but the
■principle involved in the -seeking “I a
gainful occupation by a duke remains to
lie considered; How could a duke follow
Sir Edward's advice without shaking the
social system of the realm to its bottom
most levels? Could a dnke become a doc
tor, or a lawyer, or a maker of gasoline
engines: could he even become the pres
ident of an insurance company, without
degrading one of the most venerable in
stitutions of English life? If a nian is
nothing but a lord, certain unmentionable
things are' possible; but a duke? Spare
us.
The most cruel aspect of Sir Edward
Grey's advice, however is that there may
be no other final solution of the problem.
The taxes are sure to be heavier as the
Dreadnoughts grow costlier and more nu
merous ; and if a duke may not work, he
may find himself between the Scylla of
Jacobinian detestation ami the Charybdis
of starvation. No one can envy his fu
ture. AH one can say is. the poor dukes!
INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT.
Charges against the Dressed steel car
company of maintaining a condition of
involuntary servitude or peonage in re
lation to employes hired to take the
place of strikers at the McKees Rock
(Da.) plant are givgn some color of truth
xby the desertions and testimony of many
of these men. The barricades built to keep
out the strikers seem to have been used
also to keep in the strike breakers. Such
barricades have been common in the
American warfare of labor and capital,
but to uses like this they are not known
to have been commonly given. That the
strike was caused by harsh treatment of
the men on the part of the management
had been nsserte^ b/riSutside investigators
before these developments of the past
week; and the wholesale desertions of
strike breakers strongly tend to substan
tiate these claims. The management of
the company cannot then escape all re
sponsibility for the bloody and costly war
fare of eight weeks past with men ren
dered desperate by want and a sense es
having been dealt with unjustly. That
the management should have refused ar
bitration does not appear so strange un
der the circumstances.
The Pressed steel car company is a
concern of $25.<XM1,000 stock capital, which
has paid 7 per cent dividends on half of
this amount since organization in 1899,
and which is now striving to put the $12,-
500,090 of common stock back on a divi
dend-payiug basis where it was before
the panic of 1007. It is evidently for these
stockholders to consider whether such man
agement as this is calculated in the long
run to help their interests. The test of
competency for managerial positions in
industry is no longer the production of
profits at any cost to the employes. The
.community or the state is more aud more
insisting upon the maintenance of indus
trial peace, and employing concerns miist
more and more show gowl and unavoidable
cause in cases of breach of this peace
if they would not place themselves under
a public condemnation which cannot be
helpful to their business. Competency in
modern industrial management therefore
includes capacity for getting along smooth
ly with the great body of the employes
within the utmost bounds of reasonable
ness. That the management of the Pressed
steel car company has failed to meet this
test there are strong reasons for believing;
and this is a matter which the stockhcld
ers cannot hfford to overlook.
BRYANS CHARGE OF BAD FAITH.
William .1. Bryan is critical of President
Taft's attitude respecting the popular elec
tion of United States senators. It will be
recalled that he urged the president last
July to recommend the submission by Con
gress of such an amendment to the con
stitution along with the income tax amend
ment. and he referred the president to his
(Taft's) speech of acceptance nherein he
expressed a personal inclination to favor
this change. Mr Bryan now makes public
President Taft's letter of reply, dated
July 22:-
My Dear Sir: I have your kind letter
of July 13. 1 am not prepared to urge
for an' administration matter the submis
sion of an amendment changing the coUsti
tution with reference to the election of
United States senators by popular vote.
As 1 said in my "speech of acceptance,”
I hardly deem it a party qtieston, and as
there is a very great difference of opinion
in my own party in respect to it, I think
it ought to be presented to Congress not
as a partv or as an administration ques
tion, but as a matter of individual opin
ion. With great respect I am very sin
cerely yours, William H. Taft.
This is not a satisfactory explanation to
Mr Bryan, who says: "It seems that he
‘does not regard his expression of personal
•friendliness a« committing him to any ef
fort to secure the amendment. It is
‘hardly fair to hold out such hopes during
‘the campaign and then disupppint them
‘when the election is over.”
The Nebraskan is unjust. Mr Tnft in
the presidential campaign held out no
hopes that he would use the potver of the
presidential office to forward the adoption
of an amendment providing for the popu
lar election of senators. We question
whether a. single render of bis speech of
acceptance, aside from Mr Bryip, inter
prettaf those remarks differently 1 . He said
then practically no more than he says
now—that, while personally inclined to
favor popular election of senator^ he did
not deem the time or the attitude of his
party favorable for aggressive action on
this issue; nor did he represent himself
ns aggressively in fnvor of the change.
No party leader, no statesman, no presi
dent is hound by any law of politics or
ethics to push forward as immediate issues
al! reforms of a public nature he is in
clined himself to fnvor; he is bound by a
wise expediency not so to act. No presi
dent ever begun to go so far as Theodore
Roosevelt ill making public issue of nil
mutters which struck him favorably, hut
even he, we believe, did not cover quite
the whole ground of possible reforms
which impressed him as desirable.
Furthermore, it must be conceded that
the income tax amendment will fare bet
ter in the state Legislatures if standing
alone than it would if accompanied by
another proposed amendnient such ns this
One; and of the two the income tax change
is much tiie more important and pressing.
Moreover, only two or three more stale
Legislatures are needed to petition Con
gress on the matter to compel that body
to call a eonstitutiomi) convention to sub
mit it to the several states fer action.
President Taft's position in the matter
is evidently unassailable. There is notlZ
ing to support Mr Bryan's charge or im
plication of bad faith, and he should never
have preferred it.
IMPORTED CLERGYMEN.
That the old muivist prejudice against '
the importation of clergymen from abroad I
has largely disappeared in this country
canimt be disputed, perhaps. The demand
expressed by the phrase, "made in Anier
’ica,” has become very feeble in the case
of the college professors, many of whom
in the leading American universities are
German, English or Canadian born and
educated; and the same tendency to draw
occasionally upon foreign resources has
strengthened in the case of the clergy.
But must of us were hardly prepared for
statements going the rounds to the effect
that in our largest eastern cities the native
preachers are fast losing prestige, as well
as their foothold in metropolitan pulpits.
In order to be ns precise as possible, and
to fix responsibility for the facts herein
given circulation, the following is quoted
from the Bost, n Transcript's Saturday re
ligious columns: —
Public religious opinion in New York,
aud in almost ns great measure in Boston
and Philadelphia, has come to regard the
American product in the matter of ministers
as inadequate. At this moment there are
in New Y’ork several large churches of
various names, built up by giant pulpiteers,
now vacant in their pastorates and giving
those responsible for them a groat deal of
worry as to what to do with them. It is
not a question of making them, as proper
ties. yield the returns in religion that they
ought. It is in some cases a question of
keeping their doors open. A search
throughout interior cities for men big
enough to fill the bill is declared by those
who know tn he almost hopeless. The
tight men may ho found, of course, but
the risk is great. Several such risks taken
within the past few years have proved dis
mal failures. But tn go to England and
there secure the man who has proven his
worth solves the difficulty. It is even said
now that the vestry of Grace church. New
York, may go to England for a successor
to the late Rev Dr Huntington.
The condition of affairs thus depicted is
much more serious than a mere question
of the popular taste in preaching, since
one is left to infer that those who control
those city churches are in the depths of
despair concerning the alleged inferiority
of the clergymen of their denominations.
“No one good enov.ga in America” seems
to be the verdict, after weary months of
searching the highways and byways of
ministerial activity. “He doesn't fill the
‘bill” has become the monotonous decision
of the committee on supply, after number
less American candidates have displayed
their powers in thawing out the frozen
atmosphere of the metropolitan temples of
worship. Severe as such an indictment of
American ministerial talent undoubtedly is.
there must be a defense for the home
made clergy which would put a different
light upon the situation, and this should
be promptly attended to for tile sake of
absolute fairness to a sorely harassed pro
fession. The religious press is so well
fitted to undertake tills task that ive will
no more than suggest that there never has
been a time in America when the Protes
tant churches in cities like New York,
Philadelphia and Boston were so difficult
to maintain, as centers of the most stimu
lating religious thought and activity, as
they are to-day.
The rapid shifting of urban population
from section to section on account of ur
ban growth, the immense expansion of the
suburbs, the character and quantity of
immigration, together with the rapidly iu
treasiug laxity of the religious tics of the
people, have literally brought about a revo
lution for those famous city churches of
a generation ago, which were “built up by
‘giant pulpiteers.” It is easy to say that
America produces no more Henry Ward
Beechers—and one must admit the incon
testible fact that for a generation the cler
ical profession has not attracted nearly so
large a proportion of the ablest minds
among American youth as it did in pre
vious times. Yet even the "giants” of a
former period would now find metropoli
tan conditions a st Win upon their powers
such as they rover experienced in the years
of their majestic prime. The rise of the in
stitutional church, with its multiform soci
ological activities, would have found many
of the niero pulpit orators of the 19th
century ns much unfitted for the task as
was the Detroit clergyman who resigned
not long ago because he bad not the ability
to run a factory or a department store.
He had been trained simply to “save
'souls” in the good, old-fashioned way,
and the insatiate demands of the institu
tional methods for "an organizer” finally
left him a limp and futile pillar of the
Master's kingdom.
Because the laymen nre so indifferent
to their own responsibilities might be
charged up to the insufficiency of their
clerical leaders, yet' the clergy have a
grievance that is substantial even at this
point, for who does not know intimately
the pewholder who considers his church
obligations adequately met when he has
paid the quarterly rent for the scats that
are never occupied? A cnll for a cam
paign to reach the ‘‘unchurched,” read in
a number of New York Protestant churches
on Sunday last, distinctly stated that ‘‘the
■fault lies with Protestant laymen, who
‘have imagined that the ministers were
‘sufficient to cope with the task of reach
‘ing everybody." The parson who has to
work with some of the New York congre
gations. which are rapidly vanishing from
nuturni causes, is to be pitied rather than
condemned. He might as well spout ser
mons in the middle of an Arctic glacier
nnd expect to thaw the ice pack by his
burning eloquence. And the managers of
these churches find American ministers in
adequate to the metropolitan task! They
turn hopefully to the foreign talent, im
ported nt the most princely salaries.
The humor of the situation consists in
the fact that the English churches nre
getting to be fully as eager for American
ministers as some of our American
churches are for English ministers. The
article front which quotation Was previ
ously made contains also this illuminating
statement: "A new feature of this inter
‘change situation is the eagerness of Lon
‘don churches to secure American minis
’tors, not for summer supply only, but for
‘permanent pastorates. Several American
'preachers of note have recently been con
sulted about calls to English churches.
‘Precisely the same condition confronts
London churches as does that of New
York, Boston, Philadelphia and even
‘Chicago churches. When London pnlpit
committees present a successful American
minister s name the response is hearty.”
M hat, pray, can this mean? Must we not
conclude that, from the English point of
view, the English clergy is quite as “in
‘adequate” to its task as the American
clergy! This must be the precise condi
tion of affairs. And any consideration of
the subject would be insufficient that did
not bring one to the further conclusion that
the London no less than the New Y’ork
churches are chasing a will-o'-the-wisp in
proceeding on the fantastic assumption
that an imported clergy - will solve their
religious problem.
That we are in the midst of n religions
revolution cannot be disguised even in a
discussion of this apparently frivolous ques
tion of imported clergymen, which at first
might strike one as more a theme for
ironical sallies than for sober thought.
There have been some passionate protests
against Dr Eliot's "new religion” of late,
and his critics have maintained with
truth that no one can exactly forecast the
future of religious development in Chris
tendom. But there is certainly in prog
ress some vast underlying movement in
volving not only this imported clergy of
ours, but the deepest and most pervasive
religious conceptions of the human mind.
SIGNIFICANCE OF TOLPUDDLE.
Tolpuddle is not to be found in most of
the books of reference. It is a remote and
obscure hamlet in the agricultural districts
of southern England, not far from the
channel. Dr M. Eden Paul in the So
cialist Review helps one to locate it, say
ing:—
The road from Bournemouth to Dorches
ter skirts (lie northern border of the great
expanse of heathland known to the read
ers of Thomas Hardy ns "Egdon Heath?’
We pass through Bere Regis—the “Kings
bere” of "Tess of the D'Urberrilles." “Un
der the church of that there parish,” John
Durbeyfieh] tells us, "lie my ancestors —
hundreds of 'em—in coats of mail and
jewels, in gr't lead coffins weighing tons
and tons. There’s not a man in the county
of o’ South-Wessex that's got grander and
nobler skillentons in his family than I.”
A few miles westward of Bfre, the road
passes through the village of Tolpuddle,
the first halting-place on the Roman road
from Dorchester to Old’ Sarum.
The present significance of the place
might be overemphasized, but the truth
is that the history of the modern labor
movement can never he written with Tol
puddle ignored. It was the scene of a his
toric strike. More than three-quarters of
a century ago. when the right of combina
tion among wage-earners was still unrecog
nized by English law and any concerted
quitting of work for whatever purpose was
a criminal conspiracy, six farm laborers in
Tolpuddle formed a union to resist a pro
posed reduction of their wages from seven
to six shillings a week. The immortal six
went on a strike, carrying with them
whomsoever they could among the peas
antry, btit their following was not numer
ous or powerful. Their audacity was
quickly rewarded by arrest and prosecu
tion for the crime of "unlawfully adminis
’tering a secret Oath.” and they were sen
tenced to penal servitude for seven years
in one of the penal colonies. beyond the
seas. After they had been transported, a
popular agitation arose against the sevtw
ity of the punishment, and petitions in
their favor were presented in the House
of Commons. When three years of the
sentence had elapsed, (he government par
doned the culprits and brought them back
to Tolpuddle at its own expense.
The incident begins to loom up across
the lengthening vista of time as a historic
landmark in the history of the labor move
ment in English-speaking countries, for
the old common law of England concern
ing conspiracy has affected all of them in
dealing with trade unionism and the right
to strike. A movement to erect a memo
rial at Tolpuddle to the six farm laborers
is making progress, and several meetings
have been held in various parts of Dorset
to aid in the raising of funds. The local
politicians of all parties show hearty ap
proval of this proposal to immortalize the
Tolpuddle strike and the sufferings of
those humble pioneers of trade unionism,
and all now rejoice because the right of
collective bargaining has been firmly es
tablished in the United Kingdom. The
Tolpuddle memorial fund has a treasurer
at Dorchester. Eng., and doubtless the
plans that have been made will be carried
out successfully.
But while the "Tolpuddle martyrs,” as
they are now called, helped to establish
ultimately the right of combination under
the law, it is a fact that the establishment
of this right has availed directly almost
nothing for agricultural labo(. Trade
unions have never flourished among
wage-earners on the land, notwithstanding
the temporary success of Joseph Arch’s
agricultural laborers’ union in the early
'7os. No elass of labor has been more
difficult to organize, even in England, and
such improvement in the lot of farm work
ers as has come about has been due mainly
to other causes. But in the towns and
cities, where close association among work
men is possible, trade unionism has made
such strides that it is to-day a tramenflous
power in industry, while its influtnea upon
politics has in late years been felt in
every English-speaking country in the
world.
The English farm laborer is now begin
ning to gain ground through the pressure
which trade unionism, hy means of the
labor party, is able to exert upon the gov
ernment; and the small holdings agricul
tural net and old-age pensions are the evi
dences that, with the probable decline ^>f
landlordism and the gradual breaking up
of the great rural estates under the spur
of radical legislation, the historical signifi
cance of Tolpuddle may be more apparent
in the future than it is to-day. For radical
land legislation is probably as sure a de
velopment of coming years in England as
it has been in Ireland during the past gen
eration: and only through this means of
approach caii the cry of “back to the soil"
be in any degree realized. Frederic Har
rison in the current Positivist Review ex
presses radical opinion with much force,
in saying,—
The English hind tenure system, espe
cially ’in towns, but also on every acre of
English soil, is an obsolete conglomeration
of rights and usages ingeninuslv contrived
to give every advantage to the legal owner
of the soil, to all creditors, to rent receiv
ers—ns against occupiers, cultivators, debt
ors nnd workers. It is an ancient system-,-
the tyranny of which is concealed by law