Garber Sentinel. (Garber, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1916 Page: 2 of 8
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THE SENTINEL. GARBER. OKLAHOMA.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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M JJERE'S AN INTRODUCTION
TO JOSEPH EDWARD ?
DAVIES, WHO IS CHAIRMAN
OF THE FEDERAL TRADE
COMMISSION AND COUSIN OF
LLOYD-GEORGE, BRITISH
CABLNET MEMBER.
11
W?4&7&jYr or OQ/ZVZ7PC4: BVZU£Y<?—
By EDWARD B. CLARK.
For he, to whom we had applied
Our shopman'* te«t of age and worth,
Was elemental when he died,
As he waa ancient at hit birth :
The saddest among kings of earth.
Bowed with a galling crown, thi« man
Met rancor with a cryptic mirth.
Laconic—and Olympian.
—E. A. Robinton
OSEPH EDWARD DAVIES.
one time commissioner of
corporations, and now the
chairman of the federal
characteristic is concerned, but there
are times when the fires break loose
and expend their flames on the bead
of the offender. It is said that one
or two such things have happened in
the career of Joseph F Davies. 1 here
are a good many men in public life
and in business lif i who are likely to
become offenders against the proper-
ties of government and business, and
on such as these the Celtic temper
sometimes breaks.
There is one thing that is certain,
Joseph E. Davies loves his home state,
and he has an abiding affection for his
educational alma mater. He attended
the public schools of Watertown. Wis.,
graduated from the high school in
1894 with a class of which he was the
valedictorian. He at once entered the
University of Wisconsin and was
chosen president of the freshman
class. On graduation he was both
Of THE PEOPLE
Many Reasons Why He Has Just-
ly Been Given the Title of
Typical American.
Firm Believer Always in the Concep-
tion of Democracy Which Is the
Foundation of Our Nation—Hi«
Many High Qualities Worthy
of Emulation.
TO Bav<! Abraham Lincoln from
deathly apotheosis of the steel
engraving has been a laudable
effort of recent years. Of 'jourae
It will not prevent the process of leg-
end making which wnrkB up.ia the
earthly reality of every great man. and
in due time leaves nit, a desiccated
abstraction existing for the heavy
iKjredom cf chtldh std. Even Lincoln,
with lila vital, homely outlines, his
Intimate, endearing faults, and strong
flavor of hl« lay, must <• i:.e tt, this
turn. But the process may be retard-
ed and ought to be as long as we can
contrive.
One hundred and seven years ago
Lincoii. was b..rn. Fifty-one years ago
be was shot by John Wilkes Booth,
and in the next dav he died, the first
"martyred president." \ great wave
of passionate jorrow, gratitude and af-
fection swept the North. The process
of Apotheosis began. Tndav it may be
observed in the sanctified generalities
of Lincoln orations, editorials, poems
and articles.
Moved by Flattery.
The central Idea of the overwhelm-
ing t jajorlty of these tributes Is Lin-
coln. the man of the people, the typi-
cal American. Year after year on
February 12 and frequently through
out the year wo hear this confident
summary and without examining it Is
this mental inertia or are we uncon-
sciously moved by the flattsry Implicit
In this Idea' An editorial In the New
HepuMIe suggests the latter. The real
purpose of Lincoln-day speakers Is not
sc much to eulogize Lincoln, this Jour-
nal declares, as to flatter the audlonce.
"If Mr. Lincoln was ao entirely a man
of the people, the people must be very
like to Lincoln."
New View of Great President.
The reproach has more of Justice
than we like to think. Tbo orator Is
the courtier of democracy flattering
the sovereign citizen as groaaly as
evor an emperor was flattered. The
flattery of Indirect praise 1* unusually
delicate and insidious, and it is well
for us to examine it coolly. The New
Republic puts It sharply away. "In
point of fact Mr. Lincoln was super-
ficially a man of the people, and funda-
mentally a unique, distinguished and
wholly exceptional individual. In cer-
tain salient respects be was the least
typical of Americans. Americans, par-
ticularly those of Lincoln s own gener-
ation and neighborhood, were essen-
tially a< tlve, aggressive and objective
men. whose lives were given over to
practical external affairs who sub-
ordinated everything else to the de-
mands of practical achievement, and
whose individuality consisted in living
ordinary lives in an extraordinarily
energetic manner. Th v were super-
ficial. discursive, easy going quarrel-
some, and wholly Incapable of prepar-
ing In advance for any task or respon-
sibility. In all these respects Lincoln
differed from his fellow countrymen,
and upon these differences his emi-
nence depends. He was not particu-
larly ambitious, aggressive or practi-
cal. In spite of his lively social feel-
ings, he lived a contemplative life, in
which the intellectual interest ob-
tained full expression and which at-
tained a high degree of Internal con-
centration. Ho f' light hard and well,
but he nover quarreled. During his
formative years he quietly but unos-
tentatiously prepared himself for great
enterprises He trained his mind be-
cause he enjoyed hard Intellectual ex-
ertion. His style Bhaped Itself imder
the Influence of the IllMe and Shake-
speare. Thus at n pc-i >d and In a
country favorable to the cheap per-
formance and the easy victory, Mr.
Lincoln tempered his reason and his
spirit for a great performance ami a
costly victory. Was there anything
typically American about that*"
Ideas W-.rth Consideration.
This Is refreshing variation from
tho "canned eloquence" of the Lincoln
day utterance, and it will repay con-
sideration and emphasis, since we are
Out of the shadows we ace him rise-
Face that Is haunting and sorrowful eyes.
, .Scarred by his burden and bowed 'neath
Its weight;
' Hlave to n m'aslon and aharkl# d bv fntc
| Poor was the soil where Itle eel, ollng be-
gan:
Kuggt-d the boyhood that molded the
man.
Prone with his book by the flickering
blase,
What saw he there In the hearth's ruddy
blaze?
Slowly he rose while the Fat's gave ro
sign,
Kitting himself for that labor divine
Deep In the ahadows we see him again—
Savior and martyr and brother oMmen!
—'W. R Hose lo Cleveland Plain Dealer,
very like our forbears as to just the
defects the New Republic here pun
gently outlines. If we thought more
of Lincoln's extraordinary disinterest
edness, of his heroic patience, of hie
deeply brooding spirit, and less ol
those qualities with which we estah
lish all too readily a rough resem-
blance to our daily selves we might
get a wholesome and much-needed re-
action from our rattling, self-satisfied
and shallow life without losing our
Bense of his reality as a human being
having human weaknesses. Especially
keen is the thrust delivered at our
tendency to "the cheap performance
and the easy victory" and its contrast
with Lincoln's tempting reason and
spirit "for a great performance ant*
a costly victory."
No great victory was ever pur
chased cheaply. It has always been
paid for in long and costly, though
>ften unconscious preparation Our
national optimism, our impatience and
superficiality obscure that truth.
As Typical American.
But, after all, in the legend we ar-t
making of Lincoln as typical Ameri-
can there is an instinct and a truth
that are not superficial. AH legend
making is a p~ofound process of na-
tlonal self-realization, an intuitive In-
carnation of national ideals, and in the
case of Lincoln It Is based upon the
sincere, the religious democracy of
this great man. The high distinction
of mind, as shown, for example. In the
prose of the Gettysburg oration, the
moral nobility, the introspective aloof
ness which were an essential part of
him, only accentuate for us the warm
nearness of his nature to the common
man and the common life. Lincoln
himself held to the mystical concep-
tion of democracy which Whitman ex-
pressed In his poetry and which la the
dream In the heart of Americanism.
The essential brotherhood of man
was an intimate and glowing reality to
Lincoln, not a lofty abstraction, and
though we betray it and misread it we
must cling to it If we are to save the
national soul.
Idealizing ourselves through Lincoln
is m'>re than self-flattery. It la a crude
but not Igt.oble effort to express the
deepoFt and moat norvaslve element of
American idealism
the best known women among the
people of her race in America, and her
fame reached outside of racial terri-
tory. She was an ordained minister.
becoming one at the age of twenty-
two years She came to this country
trade commission. Is a Celt, i many years ago on a lecture tour. \t
He shows it in his face, his Watertown, Wis., she met and married i class day and commencement orate.
the father of the present chief of the j While he was attending the university
federal trade commissioner. 1 he 'as made athletlc instructor e
There is one incident in the career was one of the winning team in the
of Joseph E. Davies which Washington Illinois-\\ isconsin intercollegiate c-
politicians account remarkable. The I bate. He graduated in law in 1901,
chairman of the trade commission, as I aml 'n 'be year following he was ma e
everybody knows. Is a Democrat, temporary chairman of the Democrat-
After Mr. Wilson had been elected j 'c state convention.
men all over the country began to I At the beginning of his adminislra
write to him urging the appointment | tion President Wilson gave Mr. Davies
of the Wisconsin man 'o a cabinet po- j an opportunity to accept or decline
sitlon. Mr. Davies knew nothing two bigh offices of government, the
about these efforts in hiB behalf. His
mother was in England and ill. The
mannerisms and his meth-
ods of work. His father was
a Welshman who came to
this country sixty odd years
ago. Joining a Welsh colony in south-
ern Wisconsin, a colony hardly sec-
ond, it is said, in size and in the
mark which it made on the state, to
that which entered into the life of
central New York much more thai
half a century ago.
The Celtic people are more or less
emotional, and perhapB the accent
should be placed on the more rather
than on the less. In the greater men
whom the Celts have contributed to
public life, the emotionalism while
marked, has always shown the effect
of the steadying hands of thought and
of conscience. Emotionalism does not
run away with Lloyd-Ueorge of Wales
and of England, nor does it run away
with his cousin. Joseph E Davies of
Washington and Wisconsin, for this
chieftain of the federal trade commis-
sion is a cousin of the man now most
in the public eye in the British
islands.
It is within the range of possibilities
that if two or three vears ago some
great corporation official of the United
States should have consulted a for-
tune teller she would have looked at
his palm and said: "Look out, for a
dark, handsome man is about to stand
in your path." Mr. Davies is a dark
man, and it Is no flattery at all to
say that be is a handsome one. He
became the commissioner of corpora-
tions soon after Mr. Wilson was in-
augurated president if the United
States Many men had picked Joseph
E, Davies for a cabinet position, and
there are those to say that the proph-
ecy of such a place for him event-
son went abroad to care for ber and
to bring her back to this country as
soon as she was able to travel. He
was compelled to stay in England for
months and was entirely out of di-
rect touch with political affairs and
his own concerns In this land.
At that time the Wisconsin legisla-
ture was Republican. In the body
were a good many former students of
assistant secretaryship of war and
the governor generalship of the Phil-
ippines. Both of these offices the Wis-
consin man declined. Later, however,
he accepted the position of commis-
sioner of corporations, a place which
his record in the law made him seem
peculiarly fit.
Into the campaign of 1912 in behalf
of Woodrow Wilson Mr. Davies en-
tered as a battling figure. He was as
prominent in the Wilson movement
the University of Wisconsin, of which j in the middle West and the West as
Mr. Davies is a graduate. One night j was the Princeton man, William H.
four Republican members and a Dem >- ! McCombs, in the East. Mr Davies
| was a Wilson follower prior to the
: nomination of the present president
oratic member of the legislature hap-
pened to meet. The Republicans said :
"Joseph Davies is an able, high-mind- | at Baltimore. At the convention he
ed man. He ought to have e
in President Wilson's cabinet."
needless to say perhaps that the
Democratic member coincided instant-
ly with what his Republican col-
leagues had said.
Then the Republican suggestion was
that the senate and assembly of Wis
onsin should adopt resolutions recom
place ] Joined forces with Mr. McCombs in the
It is j struggle which finally was successful
in securing the president's nomination.
During the election campaign Mr.
Davies directed the Democratic forces
in virtually all the western and mid-
dle western states.
Here is Mr. Davies' definition of the
government body over which he pre-
mending Davies for a cabinet position. ] sides as chairman:
Tile Democratic member said, "That
would be fine, but you can't get a
Republican legislature to do it."
What was the result? The Repub-
lican assembly by unanimous vote
ually may not go unfulfilled. The. passed the resolution and the Repub-
bureau of corporations, as Its name lican senate instantly followed suit,
implies, looked after corporation mat Joseph E. Davies is under forty
ters It was a check on illegal doings years of age and he is one of a group
on the part of great concerns of the of young men whom President Wilson
country aud It was also Intended as called as governmental aids in his
a help to such corporations as wanted administration. In positions Just be-
to obey the law to the last letter and
who wanted to know definitely Just
what the latter was.
Joseph E. Davies is a man of con
siderable brawn, and he would not
bo where he is probably if he were
not a man of more than considerable
brain. He comes >y both by inherit-
ance. for his father was a blacksmith,
of "the - muscles - of - his brawny arms-
low that of cabinet rank there are
today in Washington many young
men, or young as the world looks on
age when considering tho responsibili-
ties which it must bear.
One finds a genial host in the of-
fice of the commissions chairman.
Mr. Davies has the Celtic temperament
which makes for hospitality and good
nature. Until a Celt reaches the poini
were-strong-as iron-bands" species. Mr. i of righteous Indignation and is there
Davies' mother was the daughter ot a fore likely to explode, he is as po-
barrister. She was of Welsh and j lite as nature ever allowed any man
French extraction, thereby keeping ■ to be. It makes little difference wheth-
the Celt blood in Mr. Davies virtually or the Celt is Irish, Highland Scotch,
undiluted. The mother was one o( Welsh or French, so far as this polite
Lincoln's Place in History.
Abraham Lincoln was one of the su-
premely great men of his day. He
grows bigger and bigger all the time,
and a thousand years from now his
fame will be immensely vaster than
It Is at the preesnt time. No man in
all the tide of time ever filled a more
difficult or trying place than he held
for four years, and the verdict of his
torv is that he measured squarely ui
to Ills tremendous responsibilities. I
la doubtful If any other man in ti i
country could have saved the day.
GATHERED FACTS
Arkansas produces the greater part
of the natural oil stones of this coun
try.
One seed of cotton planted and re-
canted will produce 40,000,000,0(10
seeds In six years
Borne of the finest tapestry ever
woven in Japan is be seen In the
peace palace of The Hague.
Although there are 1.600 miles of
railway lines in Uruguay, there is
pnly one tunnel in tbo country.
Cows on the steppes of Russia are
said to be fitted with spectacles be-
cause they graze through the snow all
winter long, and the dazzle of the
crystals Is very injurious to their sight
unless this form of protection Is fur-
nished them.
A Southwestern paper answering a
question about high and low record
cotton prices, said that in 1S66 the
highest price was 62 cents and the
lowest 32 cents, while since that time
cotton bas dropped as low as & 6-16
cents, In 1898.
"We might put it this way," he
said. "The trade commission Is the
traffic police force to see that the
rules of the road on what we may
term the industrial highways of the
nation are maintained. It is to com-
pel the big touring car, in the use of
those highways, not to disregard the
rlghtB of the little one, but to accord
it its due share of the road."
Washington meu have characterized
this as a rather striking characteriza-
tion of the functions of the trade com-
mission. Of course the big touring
ca. is "big business," and the small
touring car Is "little business."
The government, ever since men
began to think progressively, has
been trying to gel fair trade condi-
tions. Joseph K. Davies of Wisconsin
today is at tho bead of the commis-
sion which lias this work in large part
in hand. He has not been long In
the present office. The future is ahead
of him and It la up lo htm to make as
good In Ills new office as the records
show beyong cavil that he has made
good In other walks of life
Poor Satisfaction.
After trying all the advlcw she
could read how to reduce, all the sat
Isfactlon Miss llortense McGhee got
was to have her friends look her over
and say, "How thin you're getting,
dear! Aren't you feeling well?"
Mr. Cumrox fipraki Out
"Do you approve of slung?" "No,"
replied Mr Cumrox. "it's too much
trouble. It's as hard to know what
slang Is permissible ua it |H to miesa
the right implement for every course
at • bis dinner."
.«*a.
i,
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Peters, Kay. Garber Sentinel. (Garber, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1916, newspaper, February 10, 1916; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc144881/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.