Dr. Herron On His Farm

1901

Denies That He Intends to Found a Socialist Colony at Metuchen.

The publicity lately given to the affairs of the Rev. Dr. George D. Herron and particularly his alleged intention of starting a socialistic colony on the farm at Pumptown, near New Brunswick, N. J., has resulted in bringing hosts of visitors to the Herron place, says the New York Times. There was a small army of them there the other day. Swarms of bicyclists and others who went to take a look at the farm succeeded in changing the rustic quiet of the place into a free for all picnic ground.

Dr. Herron has given out the following letter:

"The reports about our making headquarters for our socialistic work at Metuchen are pure fiction. My wife's mother presented to her a little garden and fruit farm of 25 acres near that place, upon which my aged father and mother, with an invalid sister, are to spend their declining days and where I hope sometimes to escape from the stress and storm of work for a week or two of quiet.

"Our farm has nothing whatever to do with my work as a socialist, and the story of a socialist colony being founded there is without any foundation whatever. I have no designs whatever upon the farm or the good people of Metuchen beyond occasionally helping my father to raise potatoes and ducks and enjoying the luxury of being let alone in peace and quiet."

Origin of "Whig"

1901

Several reasons have been assigned to account for the word "Whig," universally known to all the English speaking people. By some the word is supposed to be a contraction of a longer one, "whiggamore," which in some parts of England and Scotland, especially Scotland, signifies a drover or herder.

It was in 1679 that the word first became common in the British isles, when the struggle was in progress between the peasantry and the aristocracy to have or not to have the bill passed by parliament to exclude the Duke of York from the line of succession. All who were opposed to placing the duke in the line of succession were derisively called "whiggamores," or "drovers," just as the city dude of today speakers of the "grangers," the grays," the "chin whiskers" and the hayseeders."

But Scotch tradition gives altogether a different reason for the existence of the word. It is this: During the early religious wars in Scotland the weakest of the factions used the words "We Hope In God" as a motto. The initials of these words were placed on their banners thus, "W. H. I. G.," and soon all the followers of that clan were given the title of "Whig," which was afterward attached as a party nickname.

Women In Parliament

1901

It is a fact seemingly known to very few people, that there are actually ladies who have the right and privilege to sit in the British parliament, writes Clement Scott in The Free Lance. There can be no doubt, according to many excellent authorities, that those few people who are "peeresses in their own right" can claim to sit in the house lords during any ordinary assembly that house.

Such ladies as the Countess of Cromartie, the Baroness Couyers and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts might at any time create a sensation throughout the empire by appearing in person and claiming to take their seats in that house, and if they can sit and vote there they can certainly take part in actual debates of the house.

What would happen should any such lady venture to exercise her peeress' rights in that direction the imagination fails to conceive, but it is easily seen that with the ideas which are at present in the air with regard to the advance of women we may ere long have some peeress in her own right or even more than one who will insist on these rights being accorded. Then what an upheaval of parliamentary tradition and custom there will be!

A Good Politician

1910

The good politician rolls his logs in public, and is not ashamed of his job. He needs the help of others, and he knows that others need his help.

When a hundred honorable men come together, each with a purpose of his own, each must expect to yield something if he is to gain anything. It is likely that more than one good measure will be proposed, and if one is skillful, good measures may be made to help one another. Here, without any sacrifice of honor, is a wide field for good fellowship and tolerance.

The austere, uncompromising patriot, whose mind is impenetrable when it is once made up, who is incapable of sympathizing with other men's aspirations and who insists on all or nothing, is an egotist who does great service when he happens to be right. Unfortunately it often happens that he is wrong, and then his private conscience must be overcome by the common sense of the crowd. — Samuel McChord Crothers in the Atlantic.

Holding Lincoln's Hat

1918

"He'll be holding my hat some day," said a United States westerner recently, speaking of a bitter political antagonist. This expression, intended to convoy the assurance that some day the b.p.a. will see the error of his ways, own up, and strive to make amends, was heard oftener a generation ago than it is today.

It had its origin in one of the most interesting incidents in American history. Stephen A. Douglas had been unsparing in his attacks upon Abraham Lincoln in the campaign of 1860, but Lincoln won, and, on the 4th of March, 1861, as he stepped forward to deliver his inaugural address in front of the capitol, he fumbled awkwardly with his historic "tall" hat, not knowing, apparently, whether to lay it down or to hold it in his hand.

Seeing the embarrassment of his successful rival, Douglas, who sat near, and who had gracefully "accepted the situation," arose, took the "stovepipe" from Lincoln's hand, and held it until the conclusion of the address. By this act Douglas perhaps came nearer rising to the full dimensions of the title "Little Giant," which his partisans bestowed upon him, than on any other occasion in his career.

—Christian Science Monitor, 1918, reprinted in Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, IA, Jan. 22, 1918, p. 5.

Lincoln's Party No More

Feb. 1914

Hundreds of thousands of American citizens paid tribute last week to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. To many of them who, entering upon the threshold of manhood, cast their first vote for that great man, there must have been painful thoughts of the decay and downfall of the party his election brought into power.

The Republican party in 1860 was the exponent of a great moral idea. As such it swept every northern state except one and elected Lincoln President by a popular plurality of 491,195 and an electoral plurality of 108. Fifty-two years later the Republican party, which had long ceased to be a party of a moral idea and had degenerated into an instrument of special privilege, crumbled to the ground. Only two lesser states, Utah and Vermont, gave their paltry eight electoral votes to the party candidate.

We do not believe, however, Lincoln would shed a tear, were he on earth today, over the party's downfall. It was a principle, not a party name, that he stood for. The Republican party of 1912 had the form but not the substance, the body but not the soul, of Lincoln's party. Lincoln's party ceased to be when selfish and unscrupulous men embezzled the prestige and throttled the principles of the organization. — Baraboo Democrat.