Evening Star Newspaper, February 8, 1925, Page 67

ILLUSTRATED FEATURES MAGAZINE SECTION he Sundiy St Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, Fame W BY GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAM. HE writer of the Hebrew Book of Proverbs tells us that “where there is no vision the people perish.” The history of humanity gives not a few examples of issues and perils in which the life of the nation, so to speak, and its salvation in time of peril, has| the guidance of the God-given hero. For vision is, in the greater number of cases, not given to the people as a whole, but is re- vealed to them through an inspired leader. On the 27th of February, 1860, I was on the platform in the Cooper Unio: in New York when the young lawver who had come from Illinois at the invitation of Mr. Bryant's committee (s committee of which I am glad to recall my father was a member) was talking to New Yorkers on the vital issues of the day. The country was on the eve of the Civil War, which | came near to breaking up the| republic. The people were, however still unwilling to believe that war inevitable. Men, North and Juth, were looking about for some | means by which the differences which | were making cleavage between the two sections could Le adjusted with- it the necessity of fizhting | The Republican party, the origin of | which goes back to & medting in a | small town in Michigan in 1834, had| in 1836 fought its first fight for the | presidency, with Gen. { Fremont as its| candidate, and had been defeated. The men who had organized this party, the purpose of which was the restriction of slavery depended upon o so that it should | not be permitted to become a national | institution, and the intenance - of | the Union, were looking about for | leader for the presidential campaign of 1860. It had scemed to Bryant and his associates that it was desirable | for New Yorkers to secure & perso impression of the voups lawyer in Tllinois who in his debates with Dous- las in the senatorial campaign of 1858 had made for himself & national repu- tation. The Republican ‘leaders in New York were themselves in favor of the nomination of the great New | Yorker, William H. Seward. Seward | had been Representative, Senator and | Governor of the State. He was a scholar as well as a patriot and he| had made clear-cut utterances in re- | gard to the necessity, if the Union| were to be preserved, of restricting | slavery within the territory in which it then existed. “There mus | Seward, “be no more slave S | It was Seward with whom originated the phrase, “There is between freedom and slavery an irrepressible conflict.” Bryant had brought into print in the Evening Post the full text of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the readers of the Post had been able to secure from these addresses a good understanding of the issues that were to be fought out in the pending presidentlal campalgn. g * kK X RYANT called together in the of- fice of the Evening Post a group of men who had influence in_ the councils of the new party. The re- port of this meeting came to me from my father, who was one of the eiti- zens invited. Bryant took the ground that while they were all in_favol of | the nomination of Seward, there was possibility that the delegatés from | the West (this term was then #p- plied to the region now known as the | Middle States) might insist upon a| Western candidate. Bryant reminded us that Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michi- gan, ete; were controlling a large portion of the electoral vote, and that many of the political leaders in those States were insisting that the time had come to give due recognition in the cholce for President to the claims of Western statesmen. Bryant sald further that “presidential conventions had more than once been stampeded by a call from the floor, or even a vell from the gallery, and that the vesult of a declsion arrived at through an excited vote had often Leen unsatisfactory, so that the nomination had not gone to the best man.” He pointed out the importance of avoiding such a risk {n the coming convention. “Let us,” said Bryant, structions to the New Yorl.delega- tion for a second choice Ifi case we do not suceeed in securing the nomi- nation of Seward. There was full suggestio hen, have got give in- approval of this continued Bryant, “if we to have a man from the West, [ think we had better give thought to the qualifications of the young Illinois lawyer whose debates with Douglas have made him known to the whole country I can but think,” sald Bryant, “that Mr. Lincoln has shown a better understanding of the purpose and spirit of the publican party and of the conditions under which this coming presidential fight is to be made than has been shown by any other political leader in the country, not even excepting our own Seward. Lincoln probably un- derstands the West better than does Seward.” Re- | * K ok ok I'r was agreed, therefore, that an in- vitation should be sent to Mr. Lincoln asking him to make an ad- dress in New York that should set forth the principles on which the presidential campaign was to be fought. A further suggestion that, as Western wyers might easily not have money available, it would be wise to send him a check for ex- penses was also accepted. The audience gathered in Cooper Union on the evening of February 27 had the impression that the talk o the man from the West would be “wild and woolly,” while men who had heard something about Lincoln's humor were expecting that he would intermingle with his arguments a supply of funny stories. Others who, ke my father, had been admirers of Henry Clay and who remembered that Lincoln also had been born In Kentucky, thought it possible that his speech would represent the ornate and architectural order of oratorv for | which Clay and many of his fellow southerners had been famou The address to which the New Yorkers listened was, however, som. thing very different. It had nothing in common with the unrefined utter- ances of western politicians, or with the wordy oratory of the Henry Clay group. Lincoln presented a simple, straightforward statement, based on the history of the Republic, for the purpose of emphasizing the duty, the obligations and the rights of Amer- ican citizens of that generation. Mr. Bryant presided over the meeting with his accustomed dignity and effectiveness. 1 was placed on the platform where I had a full side view of the speaker. Lincoln rose slowly. He was evidently impressed with the solemnity of the occaslon. This w also his first visit to the East, and he had never before spoken in a large auditorium. His talks in the West had been delivered in small churches, erossroad stores and from the plazzas of country inns. It was evident, how- | ever, that the speaker, while Im- pressed, was not in any way abashed. ig stuvdy ¢im ident ability leaders from J ghe young ] by couriesy of The Centurv Co. awyer From Illinois. plicily and con impressed the East. pat(% the importance of the cause and of the oceasion. and Jt He got up seemed to me as if the tall figure would never cease ng. He was, we may recall, six feet four and a half inches tall. He had made for his trip eastward a new suit of clothes, but no tailor could secure a graceful fit for the gaunt figure of Lincoln. The black coat hung loosely like a gunny-bag. As Lincoln rose to full height, it was evident that his very slowly | trousers did not have sufficient lengtl. There was a gap left above the shoes. The same difficulty obtained with the sleeves of the coat, for as his arms extended there was a gap below the wristband. The speaker's feet were big and for the moment he seen.ed to be doubtful about their adjustment, and the same was true of his large hands. It took also a few minutes for the epeaker to adjust his voice to the tone of .the hall. As he progressed with his speech these little matters were, however, forgotten. The voice se- cured its proper intonation and the hearers could mot but be impressed with the solemnity of the speaker and with his absorption in the sub- ject, as well as with the precision of his statements. He reminded us that the real difficulty that was divid- ing the two great sections of the Country was slavery, and that the question was simply whether slavery should be left restricted to one sec- tion or whether it was to be allowed to become a national instjtution. He reminded us that the founders of the Republic ‘had agreed to restrict slavery within the territory in which it existed in the original States. He recalled further that the grandfathers of the men then present had, in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, con- sented to the extension of slavery to such States as might come into exist- ence South of the southern line .of Missouri and that they had further a slave State. He described the later compromise agreement of 1850, fathered by Henry Clay, under which, after the accession of territory se- cured by the war with Mexico, the Southerners gave up' the line fixed across the continent in 1820, and per- mitted California to obtain admission as a free State. The Southerners secured, however, at the time, for slavery, the new territories of New Mexico and Arizona that had come to the Union as a result of the war. Sald '‘Lincoln: . “The Republican party has been organized to prevent any further accessions to the terri- tory committed to slavery. The re- sponsibility rest upon American citi- zens of today, while accepting and fulfilling the obligations entered into by their fathers and forefathers, to make Impossible the creation of any more slave States. It is for us to see to it that the Republic that we hand His absorption did not have to do with any thought of Lincoln, but with down to our children and grandchil- dren_shall not confirm slavery as a consented to leave Missouri itself as| national Institution. As our fore- fathers believed, as Jefferson and Washington emphasized, slavery re- stricted to the regions in which it now exists must die out. The Re-| public cannot endure half slave and half free and 1 hold that the Repub- lic shall endure.” The greater part of the speech was, as ated,devotad to a clearanalysisof the nistory of the Republic and a state- mont of the duty of the r.cn of that| time. It was only towards the close that the speaker permitted himself an invocation, an appeal to his fellow citizens to see to it that the Republic that had been placed in their hands should be maintained as an example of a frec and representative gov- ernment. * %k k% 'HE result of this speech was, as we know the selection of Lincoln as the leader in the great struggle that was to come. When, on. the third ballot in the convention of Chi- cago, Seward was losing instead of gaining votes, the New York ‘dele- gation, following the instructions of Bryant's committee, shifted their votes to the candidate who was be- ing supported by Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, etc., and on the fifth bal- lot the nomination came to Abraham Lincoln. 1t is difficult to think of another man of the.time who could have ful- filled the responsibilities of that lead- ership and copld have met the serious requirements of the great struggle that was impending. As a border State man, Lincoln knew the in- stitution on slavery and he knew also from personal contact the re- sponsibilities and difficulties of the slaveholders. He hated slavery, but he sympathized with the troubles and the difficulties of the owners of the slaves. It was because the loyal men of the border States realized that Lin- coln had sympathy with their. posi- tion that they were willing to put their trust in him. If the leadership had come to any one of the northern anti-slavery leaders, the border States would have given little or no support to the fight for the Republic. In the first year of the war we en- listed from Maryland, Kentucky, Mis- souri, Tennessee and West - Virginia no less than 50,000 men ready to fight for the maintenance of the Republic. Before the war was bver there came from these border States no fewer than 200,000 of the best soldiers in the ranks. If it had not been for the co-operation givéen promptly from the outbreak of the war by these loyal men of the border States, it is diffi- cult to see, how the North could have won out. I have in my mind a vision of Lin- coln during the first months of his presidency. 1 have visited, as have many of. your readers, the White D. €, SUNDAY MORNING, e s SR o (g il Where history was made. The ' Wigwam” LA 1 Chicago, w e re Lincoln was nominated. pi SAD-EYED LEADER, whosg nspired the mgxf g,fi'& Gont. FEBRUARY 8 n by Speech on Day Party Leaders Found GEQRGE HAVEN PUTNAM when he was a lieutenant in the Civil War GEQ GE HAVEN UTNAM, Placing a wreativ onu the Lincoln Monuumendt, in GEORGEHAVEN PUTNAM. those strenuous and discouraging weeks In April, 1861, looking over the Potomaec. For nearly a Mfort- night Washington was, after the Massachusetts 6th had fought its way through Baltimore, cut off from the North. The Presidént, looking south- ward across the river, could see the watch fires of the armies of northern Virginia, an army whose purpose it was to seize the Capital and to break up the Republic. The thought may well have come to the sad-eyed leader as he stood there waiting for the coming of help from the North that he was to be the' last President of the Republic. The help came as the New York 7th and the Massachusetts 8th marched up to Washington from Apnapolis. The long bridge was protected and for the moment the Capital was saved, but how many time during the | strenuous years that followed did the captain stand looking southward, after the first defeats and discourage: ments, with the question in his mind as to whether the Nation could be House and have been in the South Room, where Lincoln .stood during! saved; whether the courage and per- sistency . of._the Notth .in supplyink. the troops, the. money and the re- sources would be continued. We boys who were fighting at the front felt ourselves inspired by the patience and courage of the great captain. The citizens who were work- ing in the North to maintain the armies had the same feeling of in- spiration and of guldance that came! from ‘the sad-eyed President in the White House. Whatever his own feellng of doubt or discouragement, Lincoln maintained with the armies in the front and with the citizens throughout the North the same atti- tude of patient confidence and hope- fulness. Through ' those years he was be- sieged with all kinds of suggestions and recommendations, most of them belonging to the tomfoolery order of advice. There is record of the com- ing to the White House at one time a delegation of ministers from the West.~ They were there for the pur- pose of impressing upon the Presi- dent the importance of immediate action. in regard to some policy that they had put into shape. Their leader {old Lincoln. that he had & messags. from ' the Lord which he had been instfucted to give to the President. Lincoln’s response was in effect: “I need counsel from the Lord‘and I pray for such counsel, ‘for help and for inspiration. The Nation needs all the wisdom that the Lord may send me. I can but think, however, that 1¢ ‘the Lord has a message for me He will give it direct and not by way of Chicago.” . The feeling with which Lincoln was Tegarded by the men in the front, for whor “through the early years of their cl»mpllgnln; he had been not only the leader but the inspiration, sas indicated by the manner-in which the news of_his death was recelved. 1 happened niyself on the day of those sad tidings to be with my division in the village of Durham, just outside of Goldsboro, N. C. 'We had no tele- graphic communication with the North, but were accustomed to receive dispatches about noon each day, car- ried across the swamps from a sta- tion through which connection was made with Wilmington and the North. In the course of the morning I had gone to the shanty_of an_old negro,| london at its dedlication whom I had come to know in the days of ‘our sojourn, to get a shave. The old fellow took up his razor, put it down again and then again lifted it up, but his arm was shaking and I saw he was so agitated that he was not fitted for the task. * ok ok % SI\VJASSA”" he said, “T can't ver this mornin”.” “What is the matter?” I inquired. “Well,” he replied, “somethin’s hap- pened to Massa Linkum.” “Why!" said I, “nothing has hap- pened to Lincoln. T know what there is to be known. What are you talk- ing about , “Well," the old man replied with 2 half sob, “we colored folks—we get news or we get half news sooner than youuns. 1 don’t know jes' what it is, but somethin’ has gone wrong with Massa Linkum.” I could get nothing more out of the old man, but-I was sufficiently anxlous to make my way to headquarters to see if there was any news In advance of the arrival of the regular courier. The negroes were standing in little groups along the village street, mur- muring to each other or waiting with anxious faces for the bad news that they were sure was coming. I found the brigade adjutant and those with him were puzzled like myself at the troubled minds of the negroes, but still skeptical as to the possibility of any information having reached them which was not known through the regular channels. At noon the courier made his ap- pearance riding across the fields: and the instant he was seen we all real- ized that there was bad news. The man was hurrying his mule and yet seemed to be unwilling to reach the house where his report must be made. In this instance (as was, of course, Dot usually the case) the courler knew what was in his dispatches. The adjutant stepped out on the porch of the headquarters with the paper in his hand, but he broke down before he could begin to read. The commander took the word and was able simply ‘to announce, “Lincoln Is dead.” The term “President” was not necessary, and he sought, in fact, for the shortest word. I never before had found myself in a mass of men overcome by emotion. shave | of genuine Thousands of soldiers were sobbing together. No survivor of the group can recall the sadness of that morn- ing without again being touched by the wave of emotion which broke down the reserve and control of these war-worn veterans on learning that their great captain was dead. The whole people had come to have with the President a relation similar to that which had grown up between the soldiers and their Commander-in- Chief. With the sympathy and love of the people to sustain him, Lincoln had over them an almost unlimited influence. His capacity for toil, his sublime patience, his wonderful en- durance, his great mind and heart, his outreaching sympathies, his | thoughtfulness for the needs and re- quirements of all, had bound him to his fellow citizens by an attachment sentiment. His appella- tion throughout the country had dur- ing the last vear of the war become Father Abraham.” George Haven Putnam is dean of the American publishing business. At the age of 81 he is still actively head of the international hook house of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, founded by his father, George Palmer Putnam, in 1836 in this country and in 1841 in London. As a public speaker, author and publisher, he holds an enviable reputation in America, and has more than once been called our “informal Ambassador to England,” as for more than half a century he has been in the forefront of those who are dili- gent in maintaining and promoting good will between English-speaking | countries. Our Salt Industry. E immense industries of California is the manufacture of table salt. A vast amount of capital is invested in this constantly creasing business in the Golden State. Great quantities of salt are used, not | only in California, but all along the Pacific coast, especially in the North- west, where are located many |large fishing establishments, packing { houses, ete. | The ‘time | california | supplies of the in- is not so imported all It may now be stated, however, that nearly all the home | consumption is provided for by the State, and not only so, but very large | quantities are now annually shipped | to the Pacific coast states and beyond | the seas. All the salt produced in California is obtalned by evaporation from ocean water, there being but a few salt springs or wells. With the ex- ception of the output of & few com- paratively small salt-manufacturing plants in the southern part of the State, the entire salt production there is accounted for in Alameda County. within an area of less than 30 sqaure miles. Probably not less than 40 large i salt plants are at present in operation |around the lower arm of San Fran- sco Bay. Over on the northern side | of this arm, in San Mateo County, are a number of smaller establishments. | It is estimated that the total output of salt per year in Alameda County jalone reaches 175,000 tons, while not {less than 60,000 ton# are annually |Produced in other parts of the St | remote when of its salt The salt obtained from sea water has no superfor in the world in strength and purity. There is every grade produced, down to the very finest table salt, by certain refining processes. The salt output of Cali- fornia is- shipped to the northern States of the Pacific coast, British Columbia, Mexico, Central and South America, Hawaii, Japan and even the Philippine Islands. The Summer season the best period for making salt. It is col- lected in the warm part of the sea- son after evaporation has done its work, and piled up in great pyramids, some’ of which contain as much a 4,000 tons. It is very beautiful—snow- white and dazzling in the sunlight. There are hundreds and even thou- sands of acres covered with these pyramids, and the scene is a strange one. In the process of evaporation the sea water Is run into a series of ponds nd tested with the salometer and other instruments a number of times each day. All impurities are in this manner allowed to settle, and are ex- tracted in the countless. different ponds built for such purposes, until finally all that remains is the salt pickle, or strong brine, which is pumped into the vats. The result is that the salt comes out perfectly clean, sweet and pure. No artificlal means are employed to produce the snowy whiteness. It is claimed that California salt analyzes higher than the Liverpool importation, and is superior for table and dairy purposes, Large quantities of this salt are used in the curing of all kinds of meat and fish—salmon, codfish, etc. All along the lower arm of San Francisco Bay there exist certain pe- culiarities in the lay of the land, which, in conjunction with the cli- mate and the favorable conditions of the soil, combine to make the lo- cality especlally adapted to the salt industry. Long.intervals of cloud- less skles, low humidity and high temperature all favor rapid evapora- tion, while the soil—a stiff clay—is well adapted for making levees and water-tight reservoirs The great natural deposits of rock calt found ir the various localities in the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains are commerclally of com- paratively little value, owing to their remoteness from distributing markets and to the necessarily high cost of production. Except for a small local demand from farmers, ranchers and meat dealers, the yield of these de- posits is comparatively insignificant and figures but little in general s tistical records. The cost of evapora- tion salt is but one-fifth of the lowest rate of transportation on rock salt from the nearest source of supply to the most accessible ocean port. — is Auto Vacukre = bener. HE days of riding in a close car on dusty upholstery will soon bée a thing of the past, says the Sclen- tific American, if the auto vacuum cleaner continues to gain in popu- larity. By simply slipping the rubber tub- ing on the valve while your motor is running slowly and then opening the valve vou are ready to clean with it. The auto vacuum cleaner is installed right on the motor. The suction which 1s procured from the intake on_the motor, the same as the fe is taken through a chamois skin, thus eliminating any chance of dust get- ting into the motor. The equipment consists of 10 feet of loom-covered rubber tubing and an aluminum cleaning nozzle. The coup- lings are of .the compression type, while the nickeled shut-off valve can be mounted on the instrument board or any other convenient location. When the nozzle handle is full of dirt_the shut-off valve is closed and the nozzle .pulled off and emptled.