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LAFAYETTE

"O Author of all Days! There lived a youth,
A tall and slender boy, of flaming crown,

A son of France, but dear as ever son

Of own could be to one whom I have heard

A people call their country's father. He,

He was a gallant youth, noble of birth,
But noble also in the noblest use

Of that high word. He risked his all:

His fortune, home, and life; not for his King
Or country; not for rank or rich reward;
But for an alien and a kingless land,
Struggling despairfully but with just cause
For that sweet liberty through which alone
Mankind can rise. And by the unbought aid
Of this French youth, this boy of flaming crown
And flaming heart, came victory at last,
Came victory and liberty for us.

He could but bid his fortune and his life,-
We add to his brave all, what we, in turn,

A great, lank, youth-republic, now may give
In kind, and do of love engage to give,

So long as Thou, who didst appoint the lights
Of heav'n for signs and seasons, days and years,
Shalt yearly bring September sixth to bless
In endless calendar this whirling earth."

The hammer on the bell of midnight fell.
"Going," he said, the Ancient One of Days,
"Going," and, with the last sonorous stroke
Cried, "Gone." "This day is his, forever his,
The son of France, the friend of Washington,
The brave god-brother of America,

The youth, youth-summoning, de Lafayette!"

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LAFAYETTE'

BY ROBERT BACON

FORMERLY AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE

N the sixth day of September, in the year 1757, a day honored by the peoples of two republics, and destined to be a day set apart in the history of mankind, a child was born, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the realization of political freedom. By birth a subject of France, by Act of Congress an American citizen, his name is "sweet as honey on the lips of men."

Of proud and ancient lineage, reared in the lap of luxury, he discerned across an ocean

An address delivered at the celebration of Lafayette's birthday in the City Hall of New York, on September 6, 1916.

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the flush of liberty as of a sun strangely rising -not setting-in the West, and putting aside place and position as unworthy of ambition, he associated himself with the lowly and oppressed of the New World. When I heard your cause, my heart enlisted." But, although he came single-handed, as it were, offering his services without rank and without pay, and his life a sacrifice, if need be, yet through him and his devotion to that cause France and the United States fought shoulder to shoulder at Yorktown, and through their co-operation the independence of the struggling colonies was realized and the liberty of a whole continent assured.

At this great and crowning moment Lafayette and Rochambeau stood shoulder to shoulder, and to-day they stand shoulder to shoulder in the city which bears the name of their great companion in arms, facing the White House, and reminding by their presence the successors of Washington in the Presidency of that perpetual alliance of two peoples, evidenced, indeed, by no scrap of paper, but inscribed in the hearts of every American...

When the independence of the United States was formally proclaimed on the 4th of July, 1776, Lafayette was less than nineteen years of age. On the 26th day of March, 1777, he sailed from Bordeaux in a vessel of his own furnishing, but his departure was delayed by royal command. He escaped to Spain, whence, on the 20th of April, with De Kalb, later to fall in the cause they espoused, and some other chosen companions, he put to sea in his vessel, aptly called the "Victory." Still a youth of nineteen, he reached the coast of South Carolina the 13th day of June. He made his way under difficulties to Philadelphia, then the capital of the country, where he arrived on the 27th day of July. The little city swarmed with adventurers, eager for high commands in return for real or alleged experience. Commissions to foreigners meant lack of commissions to deserving Americans, and the reception of Lafayette was, as he himself said, "more like a dismissal than a welcome;" but Lafayette had come in the interests of a cause, and he was not to be deprived of the opportunity of serving it. He addressed the Congress, setting forth his circumstances and the reasons which had impelled him to cross the ocean to offer his services to the young country. He felt that he had earned the right to serve, say. ing that, "After the sacrifices that I have made in this cause, I have the right to ask two favors at your hands: the one is, to serve without pay, at my own expense; and the other, that I be allowed to serve at first as a volunteer." Congress could not resist such an appeal. It therefore resolved that "his service be accepted, and that in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family, and connections he have rank and commission of major general in the army of the United States." The commission, however, was meant by Congress to be honorary, leaving it to Washington to avail himself of Lafayette's services or to appoint him to such command as events should justify.

His zeal for the cause was sincere; his courage, shown at Brandywine, was unquestioned; his tact was even greater than either. Upon his arrival at camp Washington had said: "It is somewhat embarrassing to us to show ourselves to an officer who has just come from the army of France." To which delicate compliment Lafayette finely replied: "I am here to learn, not to teach."

He not only felt his youth and inexperience, but the embarrassment that his presence in high command might create. He overcame every difficulty. "I read," he said, “ I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this I make an effort to form my opinion and to put into it as much common sense as I can. I am cautious not to talk much, lest I should say some foolish thing, and still more cautious in my actions, lest I should do some foolish thing, for I do not want to disappoint the confidence that the Americans have so kindly placed in me."

His conduct at Brandywine, and the further evidence of skill as well as courage in the affair of Gloucester, coupled with his faultless devotion to the cause in which his heart was enlisted, led Washington to recommend to Congress, within less than six months after his arrival in America, that he be appointed to the command of a Division, and Congress resolved that "General Washington be informed it is highly agreeable to Congress that the Marquis de Lafayette be appointed to the command of a Division in the Continental Army." He was accordingly put in command of a Virginia Division, and he shared the hardships of defeat and the sweets of victory with his men. He went through the trying winter at Valley Forge, where, as he tells us, "the unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything; they had neither coats nor hats nor shirts nor shoes; their feet and legs froze until they grew black, and it was often necessary to amputate them. . . . The army frequently passed whole days without food, and the patient endurance of both soldiers and officers was a miracle which every moment seemed to renew."

The recognition of the independence of the United States by France, and the defensive alliance on the 6th day of February, 1778, due in no small measure to Lafayette's influence, put an end to gloom and despondency. Great Britain declared war against France for its support of the cause in which not only Lafayette but France was now enlisted, and the United Colonies found them

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HUGHES AND THE PEOPLE OF THE WEST

selves possessed of an ally as powerful as it was sympathetic, generous, and high-minded. The wants of Valley Forge were made good. Clothing and equipment came for the men, ammunition and supplies for the troops. A French army under Rochambeau was landed; a French fleet stationed itself in American waters. The Virginia Division under Lafayette outmaneuvered Cornwallis. The allied armies of Washington and of Rochambeau marched south to join Lafayette. The French fleet under De Grasse cut off escape by water from Yorktown, and, besieged alike by land and sea, Cornwallis, on October 19, 1781, surrendered his army to Washington, and the independence of the United States, thanks to the kindly aid of our first, our great, and our only ally, became a fact.

To-day, as we celebrate the birth of Lafayette, his devoted country is taking part once more in a war of independence, a war which will save, has already saved, civilization and

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free institutions from the imposition of a theory of government in the hands of a dominant sovereign will, just as, on an October day in the year 732, Charles, surnamed Martel, halted an invading army at Tours, thus preserving France and western Europe from an alien and militant civilization. The Battle of the Marne, fought and won by Lafayette's countryman Joffre, on Lafayette's birthday, makes of the 6th day of September a date memorable not only in the history of our country, but in the annals of civilization.

In commemorating the services of Lafayette, the friend of liberty, the friend of America, and the friend of Washington, our hearts go out to France in her struggle for mankind, for ideals—for our American ideals; and, as Rochambeau said to Washington in 1781, so to-day I say to you, sir [turning to M. Jusserand], the Ambassador of the glori ous country of Lafayette and of Rochambeau : Entre vous, entre nous, à la vie, à la mort!1

HUGHES AND THE PEOPLE OF THE WEST

H

BY FREDERICK M. DAVENPORT

STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE OUTLOOK

And

Mr. Davenport's first article on Mr. Hughes's Western trip was published in The Outlook of last week, September 13, under the title "Across the Continent with Hughes."-THE EDITORS. sabotage, that wrought the Republican havoc and destruction of these later years. the Hughes tour through the West has brought to light so many evidences of the rising tide of Republican liberalism in the midst of the process of party reconstruction now going on there that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err in discerning that the only hope of National Republican peace and success lies in the determination upon the part of the Republican leaders and States of the East to accept generously the spirit of liberalism and aid in guiding it into deep and useful channels of National progress. Any other course now will injure the Republican party beyond recovery.

UGHES was a political liberal before he started West. But if he had not been, and had retained his normally open mind, he would have been a political liberal before he came back. The most significant thing about the rejuvenation of Republicanism in the real West—that is, in the Mountain and Pacific Coast States-is that the party in that section of the United States, in spite of the momentary political bewilderment which besets the whole country, is irrevocably committed to further and rapid political advance. The clouds of reaction that were clearly on the horizon after the election of 1914 are passing away. The greater part of the States through which we have passed have long been for the most part naturally Republican States, and the furnace power of the party is still here. It was the attempt of the Oid Guardsmen of the party in the East in 1910 and 1912 to slow down the machinery by throwing in a monkeywrench, by the employment of reactionary

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what I say as proof. Michigan and Minnesota, which we first visited, are under the grip of liberal forces, but these States are too near the East to be really called Western. Let us begin with North Dakota. In North

Dakota there has just taken place within the Republican party one of the most remarkable revolutions in the history of National politics. It would take a whole article to set forth even the important details, but here is the substance of it. Whether rightly or wrongly, the farmers of the Northwest have long been dissatisfied with the system of distribution of their great product-wheat-and have believed that too great a share of the profit has gone to the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, the railways, and the great terminal warehouse corporations in that part of the country. North Dakota has taken the initiative, and twice by referendum the people have voted for a terminal warehouse of their own, and a Republican Legislature, under the alleged influence of powerful lobbies, has failed to respond to the popular will, has refused the appropriation desired. And this year, in the summer primaries, there was a revolution. Scores of Ford cars, full of plain farmer organizers of shrewd and vigorous mind, went through North Dakota from end to end in the interest of a Republican ticket that would be responsive to the will of the people of the State. And although on primary day floods filled the rivers and had already carried away the bridges, the farmers of the State got to the polls, some swimming streams and many going far around to get to the polling places, and they overwhelmed the ruling recalcitrant Republican machine. They nominated a full Republican ticket of their own by an immense majority, and it was freely predicted when we were there that the candidate for Governor, Lynn J. Frazier, of Hoople, a genuine farmer all of his life, but a graduate of the University of North Dakota, would poll eighty per cent of the entire vote of the State. There are nearly forty thousand farmers in North Dakota in this league of popular defense who pay nine dollars apiece a year, and their ably edited organ at Fargo, the "Non-Partisan Leader," boasts already fifty thousand farmer subscribers. And this new movement is not confined to North Dakota. It is spreading rapidly through the surrounding States.

In seeking a more honest inspection of the grading of grain, more just conditions in the marketing of grain, they are attempting to

do, as in the old days when railway regulation began in the West, certain things by State power which ultimately must be done by National power, if we should once get a National administration sufficiently wise and far-seeing and strong. The spirit of this new movement found itself in full sympathy with the liberalism of Hughes. Its followers didn't inquire. what his views were on the State grading and warehousing of grain, but they recognized in him a true yokefellow who had had to fight in New York narrow and dogged legislators and party bosses just as they had in North Dakota. The new gubernatorial nominee presided, and he and Governor Hughes exchanged public compliments, and my judg ment is that the State of North Dakota is safe for Hughes and the whole farmer Republican ticket. But look out, Republican party, and do your duty with National power if once more you gain control at Washington, or there will be a development of State socialism in the West that will wake us all up and tangle us all up in a hurry.

One of the most interesting characters we ran upon in the Northwest was Louis W. Hill, son of James J. Hill, and the present head of the Great Northern. James J. Hill, who has recently died, was a rough, brusque pioneer who, especially in the later years of his life, realized the value to his railway of spreading in a democratic way enlightenment among the people along his road. And he spent large sums in developing sentiment for pure seed, diversified farming, and dual cattle-that is, animals which are both good milkers and good beefers. The son Louis combines a good measure of the shrewdness of his father with a natural democracy of great charm. Modestly and inconspicuously he went along with us in his private car while we were on the Great Northern line. And it was a pleasure to see the farmers delight in him. They would crowd around him in the hotel lobbies and at the stations and say, "Hello, Louis, you're going to stay a day or two, ain't you?" And Louis, while talking to one man, would involuntarily grasp the hairy hand of another; and once I heard him say, " My, I thought I had hold of a jack-rabbit." And everybody laughed. Then I watched him go around the corner out of sight of the crowd and put Hughes caps of red, white, and blue on the little girls and pin flags or buttons on the little boys. The time has come in the Northwest when you can't even be an efficient

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and successful railway man without being a democrat and a liberal. And you don't have to be for any class to get along with those folks. If you start in by being on the square and just, that is all they ask. But so much they will have. They will get it from the Republican party, if they can. But they will get it. They are husky citizens; they have their fine systems of education, their colleges and their universities, and no clever Eastern political or business reactionary can put anything over on them one minute longer. But they are for Hughes.

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Out here you are in the Roosevelt country. Just before we crossed the Little Missouri in North Dakota we stopped at Medora. This is the station for the old Roosevelt Ranch, seven miles to the south, on the Red Trail from St. Paul to the Coast. There is a brand-new bridge over the Little Missouri at this point, and at one end of it is a great legend with these words: "Theodore Roosevelt once ranched in this valley." Said an old man to Hughes in the crowd of rough and simple and homely folks at the station: "We like you all right in this country because Roosevelt likes you." And another elderly man said: "I wish you had brought him along with you." 'I wish I could have," responded Hughes; "he is well and in fine fettle." "I know he is," said the old man, "I had a letter from him last week." As I swung on the train, I overheard a knot of men discussing their hero-" He was a good one, you bet he was," said one of them. They are rough, simple, homely folk, but they know that once a great soul dwelt among them and became greater and stronger as he dwelt. He laid bare in his country a subtle tyranny, more dangerous than the open and brutal autocracy of Russia. And he extended immensely the boundaries of the domain of freedom in the United States. So successful was he that one of the chief obstacles now to the quick reconstruction of the Republican party to meet a National need is the newly acquired and widely spread sense of freedom and independence on the part of four and a quarter millions who followed him in 1912, and who will never wear the collar of habit and machine oppression again.

Across the line in Wyoming we ran into the same kind of simple, prosperous, sturdy human nature which is everywhere characteristic of the Northwest. In Laramie, where Bill Nye lived and founded the Boomerang in 1881, I rode out to the meeting in the park

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with a citizen, formerly of Pennsylvania, but for forty years a resident of the State of Wyoming. After he had been in Laramie five years he went back East for a visit. And they said to him there, Why don't you stay here with your folks? Why do you go out again into that God-forsaken country? Don't you like your folks?" And he said, "Yes, I like my folks-some of them. some of them seem different. I like to live out there with simple, honorable people that don't fool you." He said to me, Stranger, sympathy means a good deal out here. You see that young man walking along there; he is running for County Clerk. He'll be elected, easy, over the older man who is running against him. You see, he's got a crippled hand, and he limps a little. People have got sympathy for him and he'll win hands down." Of course sympathy needs regulation and control, but it is one root of about everything that is worth while in human life and human society.

In Wyoming you may come upon a natural reason and original source for woman suffrage in this country. Wyoming has always had equal suffrage from the territorial days. And I tried to find out why. I was talking about it with two of the most distinguished Republicans of the State. And one of them said to the other: "Why, don't you remember Rob Morris's mother, Esther Morris, who was the biggest personality in the South Pass mining camp in the early days? They made her justice of the peace. You see," he said, "there were only a few women in this country at that time, and they did about everything just as well as, or better than, the men. And the equality idea just kind of naturally started around here, especially with Esther Morris about. They didn't think about politics at all. It was just naturally human, that's all. The first territorial legislature was for it, and the State legislature ratified it at once. And so we have had it for more than forty years. Oh, no, we will never have any other system."

Both Republican factions in Wyoming are for Hughes, both the Roosevelt and antiRoosevelt. The re-election of Republican United States Senator Clark is not so sure. The Democratic Governor Kendrick is young and wealthy and able and very popular, and he is the Democratic candidate for United States Senator, with the likelihood of powerful support from the Progressives. There is no trouble for Hughes in any of these formerly Republi

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