Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-14
THE NEW REFORM CLUB.
James Russell Lowell Delivers the First OF
the Clubs Series Of Addresses.


tinguished gathering was present II
Steinway hall tonight to hear an addres:
by Hon. James Russell Lowell on "Inde
pendence in Politics" delivered under the
auspices of the New Reform club.
President Arson Phelps Stokes, in the
course of a short address introducing Mr.
Lowell, said:
at is truely appropriate that this, the
first of our clubs series of addresses, should
be delivered by one who has so long
led the advance in those great reforms
which have been the glory of our country
Forty years ago the ''Biglow papers eX
posed the extravaganza and waste endan-
gered by tariff taxes, and declared that the
best method of raising revenue was BY oil
rect taxation. That was q bold and brave
statement considering the times and the
community in which he lived. Our great
poet. philosopher and statesman has al
WAYS been in advance of his times Oh ali
those questions which touch the public
conscious and he has sacrificed truth to
popularity. No living man is bet
ter qualified to present to us the
independent in politics. The independent
in politics has served the abuse so lavlshly
bestowed a hundred years ago and during
the last four years, and when he has heard
the address now to be delivered | do not
DelleNe dnk COIlSCltlllOuS W III
hold even more high his head, as history
tells us all northern men did after Daniel
Webster's great speech IN defense OF New
England.
Mr.. Lowell was warmly received and
said in part:
II have not been so much surprised as
perhaps | ought to have been, to learn
that, in the opinion of some OF our lead
ing politicians and OF many of our news
papers, students of books are, ipso facto,
debarred from forming any Judgment on
public affairs or if they should be so I'M
scrupulous as to do so, that they must at
least refrain from communicating it TO
their fellow citizens. One eminent
gentleman has even gone so far as
to sneer at school books as sources
of information. If he had a chance
he would perhaps take a hint from
what is tabled of the Caliph Omar and
burn our libraries, because, if they con
tanned doctrine not to be found IN his
speeches they were harmful, while if the
doctrine, judged by that test, was ortho-
dox, they were useless. But, II we are for
hidden to seek knowledge in books, there
is no alternative could think of, unless il
We're immediate inspiration. 1t is true
that / could not see that any authentic
marks of it were revealed by the advocates
of this novel theory. They kept their Sc
cret remarkably well.
Il must frankly confess at the outset
that l come to you wholly unprovided with
this precious commodity. l. must also
admit that | am a book man, that | am
old-fashioned enough to have read more.
find them easier reading than some other
kinds of printed matter"
The speaker quoted Lord Bacon on the
objections urged in his time against
pedants in politics and continued:
Practical politicians, as they call them
selves, have the same habit still, only that
they have substituted III other words from
recorded experience. think it is already
beginning to be apparent which side of
the questions which have been brought to
the front by the presidents message"
Mr.. Lowell explained that, in speaking
of 1.-THE place of the independent IN poll
ties while he should not hesitate
to touch upon cnrrent events his
intention was to create upon the subject in
its general rather than special application.
He defined the independent in his own
words. written forty years ago:
Il honor the man who is ready to sink
half his present repute for the freedom tc
think, and when he has thought, be his
cause strong or weak will risk the other
half for the freedom TO speak, caring not
for what vengeance the mob has i'll store,
let that mob be the upper ten thousand or
lower"
Mr.. Lowell then proceeded to define and
contrast 1.-The art of politics" and "the
science of craftsmanship. and proceeded:
If one would know the difference be
tween a statesman and Il politician, let
him compare Burke's views of the Ameri-
can troubles with that of DR. Johnson
The question for Burke was not whether
taxation were tyrany, but whether the
americans would think il so. Never did
two men show more clearly the quality of
true craftsmanship or render more
precious service TO their party and their
country than Senators FesSenden
and Trumbul when they
dared to act independently of
party in the impeachment case against
President Johnson. They saved us from
the creeping paralysis which is now gradu-
ally benumbing the political energies of
France. While we were vet in the griStle
we produced statesmen not, indeed endow-
ed with Burke's genius, though fairly
comparable with him in breadth of view,
and, perhaps, his SupeTiorS in practical
sagscity But think there is a growing
doubt whether we are not ceasing to pro
uuce them, whether perhaps we are not
losing the power To produce them. The
tricks OF management are more and more
superSetlln9 the science of governments |
believe there Is as much of the raw ma
terial OF craftsmanship among us as ever
there was, but the duties levied by the
the local rings OF the majority of manu-
lecturers are so high As to prohibit its en-
trance into competition with the pro
tected article
Corruption and looseness in political
methods and the indifference of the press
to this state of affairs were touched on.
He said that the north had fought four
years 10 save a part of the union. and now
the whole of it was being filched away.
lie said IF parties viii not look after
their own dAinage and ventilation. there
must be somebody who will do ii forthem.
who Will cry out without ceaSing. till their
fellow citizens are aroused to the dangerof
infractlon. This duty can be done only by
men ASSOCIATED from the interests of the
party. The independents have undertaken
1t, and with Gods help viii carry it
through. a moral purpose multiplies us
by ten, as it multiplied the carly abolit-
ionists. They emancipated the negro, and
we mean to emancipate the respectable
white man.
The speaker then rapidly sketched the
tavorlng circumstances which developed
the people of this country in the direction
of seIf-goverrment; men, while yet subject
10 Great Britain, and the feeling that grew
with II That we, as a people, were born
lucky He continued:
But the conditions of life led 10 other
results that left less statuarv effects be-
hind them. The bred habit of content
ment with what we would do as we saw
rather than an impatience Of whatever was
NOT oest-a readiness to put up with many
tylls or inconveniencies because
they could not he helped. and
this has, especially in our pol
OF the greatest weakness in our American