USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Oelwein > The Telegraph-herald's abridged history of the state of Iowa and directory of Fayette County, including the city of Oelwein, with a complete classified business directory; > Part 20
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THE IDEAL OF TOLSTOI.
"A few months ago it was my good fortune to spend a day in the country home of the peasant philosopher of Russia. You know something of the history of Tolstoi, how he was born in the ranks of the nobility and how with such a birth he enjoyed every possible social distinction. At an early age he became a writer of fiction and his books have given him a fixed place among the novelists of the century. 'He sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,' in so far as honor could be derived from society or from literature, and yet at the age of forty-eight life seemed so vain and empty to him that he would fain have termin- ated his existance. They showed me a ring in the ceiling of his house from which he had planned to hang himself. And what deterred him? A change came to his ideals. He was born again, he became a new creature, and for more than twenty-eight years, clad in the garb of a peasant and living the simple life of a peasant, he has been preaching unto all the world a philosophy that rests
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upon the doctrine 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself.' There is scarcely a civilized community in all the world where the name of Tolstoi is not known and where his influence has not been felt. He has made such an impression upon the heart of Russia and the world that while some of his books are refused publication in Russia and denied importation from abroad, while the people are prohibited from circulating some of the things he writes, yet with a million men under arms the government does not dare lay its hands upon Tolstoi.
ANOTHER CHANGE OF IDEAL.
"Let me add another illustration of a complete change in the ideal. In college I became acquainted with a student fourteen years my senior, and I learned the story of his life. For some years he was a tramp, going from place to place without fixed purpose or ambition. One night he went by accident into a place where a revival was in progress, and he was not only converted, but he decided to be a minister. I watched him as he worked his way through college, doing chores to earn his board and lodging, working on Saturdays in a store, and during the summer months at anything he could find to do. I watched him as he worked his way through a theological seminary and then I watched him as he preached the gospil until he died, and I never knew a man more conse- crated to a high purpose. The change came in his life as in the twinkling of an eye. Could anything be more marvelous ?
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE.
"Some have rejected the Christian religion because they could not under- stand its mysteries and its miracles. I passed through a period of skepticism when I was in college, but I have seen outside of the Bible so many things more marvelous than anything recorded in Holy Writ that its mysteries no longer disturb me. Is it impossible that a multitude could have been fed with a few loaves and fishes? Every spring when the sun melts tlie ice and drives away the snow vegetation springs up and not a few thousand but hundreds of millions are fed with the products of the soil. And how many of those who eat are satisfied they understand the chemistry of the vegetable? I plant some kinds of seed myself in the spring-time-lettuce seed, melon seed, various kinds of seed. The earth grows warm beneath the rays of the sun; the seeds burst forth and send their little roots down into the ground and their tiny leaves up into the air. And drawing their sustenance from the same soil and the same atmos- phere, these vegetables finally mature and when I go to gather them I find that they differ in size, in shape, in flavor, in coloring, in everything. But I like them and eat them although I do not understand the mystery of their growth. Did you ever raise a radish ? You put a small black seed into the black soil and in a little while you return to the garden and find the full grown radish. The top is green, the body white and almost transparent and the skin a delicate red or pink. What marvelous power reaches out and gathers from the ground the particles which give it form and size and flavor? Whose is the invincible brush that transfers to the root, growing in darkness, the hues of the summer sunset? If we were to refuse to eat anything until we could understand the mystery of its creation we would die of starvation-but mystery, it seems, never bothers us in the dining room, it is only in the church that it causes us to hesitate.
"The mystery of life itself has never been revealed to us. Six thousand
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years of human history, and yet who understands the mystery of his own being? I speak to you from this platform; we have our thoughts, we have our hopes, we have our fears, and yet we know that in a moment a change may came over any one of us that will convert a living breathing human being into a mass of lifeless clay. We walk all the way beneith the shadow of death, and yet the splendid civilization which we see about us is the product of men and women who do not understand the mystery of their own lives."
MATERIALISM.
"I have been reading recently on materialism and I have been interested in the attempt of the author to drive God out of the universe. He searches for Him with a microscope, and because he can not find Him with a microscope he declares that He is too small to be seen; then he searches for Him with a teles- cope, and because he cannot see Him among the stars or beyond, he declares that there is no God-that matter and force alone are eternal, and that acting on matter has produced the clod, the grass that grows upon the clod, the beast that feeds upon the grass, the man, the climax ot created things. I have tried to follow his reasoning and have made up my mind that it requires more faith to accept the scientific demonstrations of materialism than to accept any religion of which I have known. As I tried to follow his syllogisms I was reminded of the reasoning of a man who conceived the idea that a grasshopper heard through his legs. But he would not accept it without demonstration, so he took a grass- hopper, put it on a board and knocked on the board. The grasshopper jumped, and this he regarded as evidence that the sound traveled along the board till it reached the grasshopper's legs and then went through the legs to the center of life. But he was not willing to accept it upon affirmative proof alone; he in- sisted upon proving it negatively, so he pulled the legs off the grasshopper and put it on the board and rapped again. As the grasshopper did not jump, he was convinced that it heard through its legs."
"I say I was reminded of the grasshopper scientist when I read the argu- ment employed to prove that there is no God, no spiritual life. There is nothing in materialism to explain the change which takes place in a human heart when a man begins to hate the things he loved and to love the things he hated- nothing in materialism to explain the marvelous transformation that takes place in a human being who, before the change, would have sacrificed a world to his own advancement, but who after the change, would give his life for a principal and esteem it a privilige to sacrifice for his own convictions. In the journey from the cradle to the grave we encounter nothing so marvelous as the change in the ideals that works a revolution in the life itself."
DIFFERENT IDEALS.
"It makes a great deal of difference to the individual what his ideal is, and it also makes a difference to those about him. If you have a man working for you, it makes a great deal of difference to you whether he is watching you all the time to see that you give him the best possible pay for his work or watching himself a little to see that he gives you the best possible work for his pay. And we are all working for somebody. Instead of working by the day and receiving oul' pay at night, or instead of working by the month, and receiving our pay at the end of the month, we may be in independent business and receiving a com- pensation fixed by competition, but if we are not living a life of idleness we
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must be working for somebody, and it makes a great deal of difference to society whether we are simply bent upon absorbing as much as possible from the world, or are trying to give a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of pay There are some who regard it as a discreditable thing to engage in productive labor. There are places where they count with pride the number of generations between themselves and honest toil. If I can leave but one thought with the young men who honor me by their presence on this occasion, let it be this thought-that we must all have food and clothing and shelter, and must either earn these things or have them given to us, and any self-respecting young man ought to be ashamed to sponge upon the world for his living and not render unto the world valuable service in return."
SELF-MADE MEN.
"Sometimes you meet a man who boasts that he is 'self-made,' that he did it all himself, that he owes no man anything. Well, a little of the big-head may be excusable. I remember hearing my father say once that if a man had the big-head you could whittle it down but that if he had the little head there was no hope for him. It is necessary that a person should have confidence in his ability to do things, or he will not undertake them. But when I hear of a man boasting of his independence, I feel like cross-examining him. We owe a great deal to enviroment. I was going along by the side of the court house in Chicago one wintry day and saw some little boys gambling with their pennies in a warm corner of the building. A question arose in my mind, namely, why these little fellows were born and reared amid an environment that gave no higher ideals of life, while so many in Chicago and in the Country at large were born amid an environment that gave to them higher ideals and larger conceptions of life? The scene made an impression upon my memory, and when I hear a man boast- ing that he owes no one anything, I feel like asking him whether he has paid back the dept he owes to father and mother, teacher and patriarch. Whether he has paid back the dept he owes to the patriots who with blood and sacrifice purchased the liberties which we now enjoy. We have received so much from the generations past and from those about us that instead of boasting of what we have done we ought to learn humility and be content if at the end of life we can look back over the years and be assured that we have given to the world a service equal in value to that which we have received.
THE SPECULATIVE SPIRIT.
"There is abroad in the land a speculative spirit that is doing much harm. Instead of trying to earn a living, young men are bent on making a fortune. Not content with the slow accumulatios of honest toil they are seeking some short cut to riches, and are not always scrupulous about the means employed. 'The 'get-rich-quick' schemes that spring up and swindle the public until they are discovered and driven out, prey upon the speculative spirit and find all their victims among those who are trying to get something for nothing. If a lottery were permitted to open in this town and offered a thousand dollar prize, and sold chances at a dollar apiece, you would be surprised to find how many would send around to the back door and purchase a ticket.
"What we need to-day is an ideal of life that will make people as anxious to render full service as they are to draw full pay-an ideal that will make them measure life by what they bestow upon their fellows, not by what they receive.
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DOMESTIC IDEALS.
Not only must the individual have an ideal, but must have ideals as groups of individuals and in every department of life. We have our domestic ideals. Whether a marriage is happy of not depends not so much upon the size of the house or the amount of the income. as upon the ideals with which the parties enter marriage if two people contract marriage like some people trade horses --- each one trying to get the better of the bargain-it is not certain that the mar- riage will be a happy one. In fact, the man who cheats in a horse trade has at least one advantage over the man who cheats in matrimony. The man who cheats in a horse trade may console himself with the thought that he will never see again the person whom he has cheated. Not so fortunate is the man who cheats in marriage. He not only sees daily the person whom he has cheated, but he is sometimes reminded of it-and it is just as bad if the cheating is done by the other side. Americans sometimes have to blush when they read of the international marriages so much discussed in the papers. I speak not of those cases where love leaps across the ocean and blinds two hearts-there are such cases and they are worthy of a blessing. But I speak rather of those commer- cial transactions which are by courtesy called marriages, where some young woman in this country trades a fortune that she never earned to a broken down prince of another country for a tltie that he never earned, and they call it a fair exchange. I have sometimes thought that it might be worth while to establish papers in the centers of the world to tell the people of our real marriages, so that they would not misunderstand us.
There is an American ideal of domestic life. When two persons, drawn together by the indissoluble ties of love, enter marriage each one contributing a full part and both ready to share life's struggles and trials as well as its victories and its joys-when these, mutually helpful and mutually forbearing, start out to build an American home it ought to be the fittest earthly type of heaven.
BUSINESS IDEALS.
"In the business it is necessary to have an ideal. It is as impossible to build a business without an ideal as it is to build a house without a plan. Some think that competition is so sharp now that it is impossible to be strictly honest in business; some think that it is necessary to recommend a thing, not as it is, but as the customer wants it to be. There never was a time when it was more necessary than it is to-day that business should be built upon a founda- tion of absolute integrity.
In the profession, also, an ideal is necessary. Take the medical profession for illustration. It is proper that the physician should collect money from his patients for he must live, while he helps others to live, but the physicians who have written their names high upon the scroll of fame have had a higher ideal than the making of money. They have had a passion for the study of their profession, they have searched diligently for the hidden causes of disease and the remedies therefor and they have found more delight in giving to the world some discovery of benefit to the race than they have found in all of the money that they have collected from their patients.
"And the lawyer; has he ideals? Yes. I suppose the ideals of lawyers vary as much as the ideals in any other profession. I have known lawyers to boast of securing the acquittal of men whom they knew to be guilty; I have heard
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them boast of having secured for their clients what they knew their clients did Dot deserve. I do not understand how a lawyer can so boast. He is an officer of the court, and as such he is sworn to assist in the administration of justice. When he has helped his client to secure all that is justly due to him he has done his full duty as a lawyer, and if he goes beyond that he goes at his own peril. Show me a lawyer who has spent a lifetime trying to obliterate the line between right and wrong and I will show you a man whose character has grown weaker year by year, and whose advice is at last of no value to a client, because he will have lost the power to discriminate between right and wrong. Show me on the other hand a lawyer who has spent a lifetime in the search for truth, determined to follow where it leads, and I will show you a man whose character has grown stronger year by year and whose advice is of constantly increasing valne because the power to discern the truth grows with the honest search for truth.
"Then, too a lawyer's influence with the judge depends largely upon his reputation for honesty. Of course, a lawyer can fool a judge, a few times and lead him into a hole, but after a while the judge learns to know the lawyer, and then he can not follow the lawyer's argument because he is looking for a hole all the time, which he is trying to avoid. I need not remind you that nothing is so valuable to a jury lawyer as a reputation that will make the jurrors believe that lie will not under any circumstances misstate a proposition of law or of evidence. And so I might take up each occupation, calling and profession, and show that the ideal controls the life, determines the character and establishes a man's place among his fellows.
IDEALS IN POLITICS.
"But let me speak of the ideals of a larger group. What of our political ideals? The party as well as the individual must have its ideals, and we are far enough from election to admit that there is room in all parties for the raising of the party ideal. How can a person most aid his party? Let us suppose that one is passionately devoted to his party and anxious to render it the maximum service; how can he render this service? By raising the ideal of his party. If a young man asks how he can become rich in a year, I know not what to answer him, but I can tell him that if he will locate in any commun- ity and for twenty-five years live an honest life, an industrious life, a useful life, he will make friends and fasten them to him with hooks of steel; he will make his impress upon the community and the chances are many to one that before the quarter of a century has elasped his fellows will call upon him to act for them and to represent them in important matters.
"And so if you ask me how we can win an election this year, I do not know. If you ask me how we can insure a victory three years from now, I cannot tell, but I do know that the party which has the highest ideals and that strives most earnestly to realize its ideals will ultimately dominate this country and make its impress upon the history of the nation. As it is more important that the young man shall know how to build character and win a permanent success than that he shall become rich in a day, so it is more important that we shall know how to contribute to the permanent influence of a party than it is that we be able to win a temporary victory or distribute the spoils of office after a success- ful campaign.
"The country is suffering to-day from a demoralization of its ideals. Instead
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of measuring people by the manhood or womanhood they manifest we are too prone to measure them by the amount of money they possess, and this demoral- ization has naturally and necessarily extended to politics. Instead of asking 'Is it right?' we are tempted to ask, 'will it pay?' and 'Will it win?' As a result the public conscience is becoming scared and the public service debauched. We find corruption in elections and corruption in office. Men sell their votes, councilmen sell their influence, while state legislators and federal represen- tatives turn the government from its legitimate channels and make it a private asset in business. It is said that in some precincts in Delaware a majority of the voters have been paid for their votes. Governor Garvin of Rhode Island calls attention to the corruption in that state; there is corruption in Connec- ticut, in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania. I learned of an instance in New York where a farmer with a quarter-section of land demanded a dollar and a half for his vote, and I learned of another instance in West Virginia, where a man came in fourteen miles from the country the day before election to notify the committee that he would not vote the next day unless he received a dollar. In some places I found that democrats were imitating republican methods. They excused it by saying that they were fighting the devil with fire. This is no excuse. It is a poor policy to fight the devil with fire. He knows more about fire than you do and does not have to pay so much for fuel. I was assured that the democrats only bought votes when they found some democrat who was being tempted more than he could bear, and that they only used money to fortify the virtue of the democrat for fear he might yield to temptation and become vicious.
"How are we to stop this corruption? Not by going into the market and bidding against our opponents, but by placing against money something stronger than money. And what is stronger than money? A conscience is stronger than money. A conscience that will enable a man to stand by a stake and smile when the flames consume him is stronger than money, and we must appeal to the conscience-not to a democratic conscience or a republican conscience, but to an American conscience and to a Christian conscience, and place this awakened conscience against the onflowing tide of corruption in the United States.
MUST HAVE PARTIES.
"We must have parties in this country. Jefferson said that there were naturally two parties in every country-a democratic party and an aristocratic party (and he did not use the word 'democratis' in a partisan sence, for at that time the party which we now call democratic was called the republican party.) Jefferson said that a democratic party would naturally draw to itself those who do not believe in or trust the people. Jefferson was right. Go into any country in Europe, and you will find a party of some name that is trying to increase the participation to the people in the government, and you will also find a party of some name which is obstructing every step toward popular government. We have the same difference in this country, but the democratis spirit is broader here than any party. Wherever the question has been closely presented and on the one side there was an attempt to carry the government nearer to the people and on the other an effort to carry the government further from the people, popular government has always won. Let me illustrate. The Australian ballot is intended to protect the citizen in his right to vote, and thus give effect to the real wishes of the people, and when this reform was proposed it swept the country without regard to the party in power in the various states. Take the
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demand for the election of senators by the people, upon what does it rest? Upon the belief that the people have the right to and the capacity for self-government. The sentiment in favor of this reform has grown until a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment has passed the lower house of congress four times- twice when the house was democratic and twice when it was republican. This reform is sure to come, because the people believe in self-government, and they will in time insist upon making the government conform to their belief.
"The initiative and referendum involve the same principles. The initiative describes the process by which the people compel the submission of a question upon which they desire to vote, and the referendum describes the process by which they act upon a question submitted. In each new charter the power of the people is increased. Limitations are placed upon the legislative power and new questions are submitted to popular vote. It is now necessary almost every- where to submit to the people of a city the question of issuing bonds. The movement in favor of submitting franchises also is an irresistable one, and the time will come when it will be impossible for councilmen to sell franchises in return for money paid themselves.
"Switzerland is probably the most democratic country in the world. There the initiative and referendum are employed by both the federal government and by the local sub-divisions, and the government is completely responsive to the will of the people. In order to formulate a party ideal, we must have a theory of government as a basis, and in this country the fundamental principle of government is that the people have a right to have what they want in legis- lation I made this statement in a lecture in Michigan and one of the audience took issue with me. He said that I ought to amend the statement and say that the people have a right to have what they want, provided they want what is right. I asked him who would decide the question of right. And he had to admit that at last the dicision lay with the people. Constitutions place limita- tions upon legislatures and upon the people themselves, but the constitutions are made by the people and can be changed by the people. The only escape from the rule of the majority is the rule of the minority, and if a majority make mistakes, would not a minority also? But mistakes made by a majority will be corrected when they are discovered, while mistakes made by a minority in power may not be corrected if the mistake is pecuniarily advantageous to those in power. The revolutions that have from time to time shaken the world have been caused largely by the refusal of the minority to correct mistakes beneficial to those who make the mistakes but injurious to the people at large. Bearing in mind the right of the people to deliberately fix the means by which they will express themselves, and their right to place limitations upon themselves, so that they can not act hastily or under sudden impulse, I repeat that the people have a right to have what they want in legislation. If they want a high tariff they have a right to it: if they want a low tariff, they have a right to it. They have a right to the gold standard if they want it; and the have a right to the double standard if they desire that; or, if they prefer, they can demonetize both gold and silver and substitute some other kind of money. If gold and silver furnish too much money, they can strike down one; if the remaining metal still furnishes too much, they can strike that down and substitute something scarcer. Ever since the discovery of radium, of which it is said there are but two pounds in the world, I have been fearful that an attempt would be made to make it the standard money or the country. But if the people decide to demonetize both
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