The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, February 10, 1932, Page 6

ea 4 &. 3 ae ee eo BPwWoUMUZS BEUULHR FUtA | AVOCUOAAGRNOAAANETRUAEUPAAU ATA RH Born Poor es Lincoln but hey ule Europe By BRUCE CATTON NE of the most pleasant articles in the creed of all good sons ot Uncle Sam has always been the belief that only in the United States can a poor boy rise to the highest political office in the land. The “Log Cabin to the White House’ story is an old one in the United States, and a popu- lar one; and most Americans are firmly con- vinced that it can never be duplicated on the other side of the Atlantic. As a matter of fact, however, this belief is completely mistaken. Time after time. Euro- pean boys have risen from abject poverty to world-famous positions as statesmen—prime ministers, dictators, heads of government, all the way from London to Moscow. Indeed, some of Europe's greatest statesmen today are men who came up from poverty quite as successfully as Abraham Lincoln rose from a backwoods cabin to the White House. Stalin of Russia, Mussolini of Italy. Mac- Donald of England, Masaryk of Czecho-Slo- vakia, Laval of France—all of them were born to poor parents and had to fight their way up- ward against the handicaps of financial adversity. fe of the sort of thing that has been considered a purely American phenomenon is the career of Premier Ramsay MacDonald of Great Britain. MacDonald literally came from a log cabin. He was born the son of a humble fisherman in a Scottish village on the Moray Firth. The family home was a tumble-down little affair of two rooms, with a thatched straw roof, and the family’s total weekly income was but a few shillings. As a boy he went to the village school, but at 14, like the other boys in the village, he quit and prepared to go to work. At first he planned to become a fisherman like his father, but for some reason he changed his mind and got a job working in the fields on a neighboring farm. Then, by a stroke of luck, the village school- master, who apparently saw in the youth signs of a keen intelligence, made him his assistant. MacDonald made the most of his new opportunities. With the few pennies he could save he bought second-hand books. Then, winning a prize in a Mussolini worked as a day laborer. LG a newspaper story competition, he went to Lon- don to seek his fortune. In London he tramped the streets for a time, absolutely penniless. At last he got a job as bus conductor, and a little later he be- came a clerk in a warehouse. Again he spent all his spare time and money on books—to such an extent that at 21 he lost his health through overstudy. Things looked black then, for when his health went, his job went too. But Thomas Lough, a Liberal member of Parliament, made him his private secretary—at the princely sal- ary of $7.50 a week—and his climb up the ladder of politics began. He joined the Fabian Society of Socialists, became a free-lance jour- nalist, and eventually helped found the Labo: Party. As secretary of the party he became a lead ing factor in building it up. He entered Par- liament shortly after, and started the public ca reer that eventually made him the head of the government of the British empire. 'OMEWHAT similar was the career of David Lloyd George, one of MacDon- 's predecessors at Downing Street, and fa- ~ SP ARS RENAL RET DEBIAN LM = a sm UT ATETETED ATM TAU TAvNUAAONTUTONAATTeT Te acenrneneceagenecanonra eee: How American traditions spread over the old world is strikingly shown by the Lincoln-like beginnings of today’s leading statesmen Stalin was a street hawker in Tiflis, XD mous the world over as England's war-time premier. Lloyd George was born in the factory town of Manchester, the son of a schoolmaster. His father died when the lad was only two, and the boy and his mother had to take refuge— having been left penniless—with the mother’s brother, a shoemaker, who gave them a home during the boy's childhood. ' So frugal was the household that one of the greatest luxuries of the boy's childhood was the fact that on Sunday morning he could have half an egg with his breakfast. With infinite struggle he got enough of an education to become admitted to the bar. From the law it was a short step to politics, and in 1890 he was elected to Parliament—ot which body he has remained one of the most influen- tial members ever since. Still a third Englishman to come up from poverty is Philip Snowden, recently clevated - OTTTOOTTTOTOTAUTTT UT LUEE TTA Some of Europe's states- men came up from pover- ty quite as successfully as Abraham Lincoln rose from a backwoods cabin. Premier Laval was a butcher's apprentice. to the peerage, and in recent years one of Eng- land’s most famous cabinet ministers. Snowden was the son of a weaver, and was intended to be a village school teacher—about as high a post as either he or his parents thought a boy of his station could reach. Cir- cumstances made even this impossible, how- ever, and he had about decided to take civil service examinations for a government job when he was crippled by an accident suffered while riding a bicycle, ' ompQPUTUHETANGTNNAA TE ADT TTT Foreign Minster Briand was a fail- ure as a_ lawyer at 35, ee up for two years, he spent his spare time studying Socialism, and when he re- covered sufficiently to move about—he is par- tially crippled to this day—he entered the Labor Party, in which his rise was steady. Aristocratic France is no stranger to public men who come from lowly stations, Pierre Laval, prime minister, was born in a country town to extremely poor parents, and as a boy he was apprenticed to a butcher. After his day's work was over he would help his father, who was driver of a one-horse express wagon; yet somehow he managed to find time to study, in which pursuit he was aided by a kindly village priest who taught him the rudiments of Latin and Greek. As he grew older the boy managed to find time to go through high school, after which he became a school teacher. A little later, mov- ing to Paris, he entered journalism, and the step from there to politics was taken shortly be- fore the war opened. Aristide Briand, French foreign minister, also came from obscurity. He was born in Nantes, and while his parents were not exactly poverty-stricken they were in exceedingly mod- est circumstances, and it was a struggle for him to get an education. He -became a lawyer, and at 35 was considered a failure. Then he entered politics—and within a decade he had become premier, DOUARD HERRIOT, former premier of France, is another who arose from hum- ble circumstances. His mother had been a domestic servant in the house of Maurice Barres, the academician, and Barres saw to it that Herriot was able to get a university edu- tion. "Possessed of-a brilliant mind, Herriot rose rapidly once his training was completed, and peda ose on Smtaps he. coold faver in fof Ot At at 8 tee or fa (Copyright, 1932, by EveryWeek Magazine—Printed in U. 8. A.) AULT AA AE oot. 444444044111 0S LLLLLSLAALLLULL ALLEL a“ ccc ga = SIREN RESET NN St ancellor yruening Das a poor distiller's son, Ramsay MacDonald .. « to bea became mayor of the city of Lyons at the age of 23—holding the job for over a score of years. The spectacular rise of Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is familiar everywhere. Mus- solini was the son of' a village blacksmith, who was also a revolutionary Socialist, and the. fu- ture dictator did not even learn how to read until ke was 15 years old. Following in his father's footsteps, he too became a radical, working the while as a com- mon laborer—he carried a hod in Switzerland while in his ‘teens, and at one time was jailed asa vagabond. As a young man he sepeatedly ran afoul of the police, because of his radical activities, and as editor of a Socialist newspa- per he was in the black books of the Italian authorities up to the time Italy entered the World War. Serving with distinction in the army, he was elected to Parliament in 1921. His subse- quent. rise to power is too well known to need repeating. EINRICH BRUENING, chancellor of USTAPHA KEMAL, dictator of the far down the ladder as some of the men men- -oMEAMLUNAGSAUMEOGU0OLLLEA AUC LAREN A - MOESCUUEASAUAEUSS CAESAR AEE a => = mt TTT