, 1891-11-10
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

Before the Tribune knew it was loaded,
which was last Saturday. it said:
The senator, In this way. traced the lie
of the boy to manhood and then on to the
present, when, he said, that boy who
once worked TOR one cent per week, is to.
dav worth fully $3.50. 600.
All this was under the heading Of
"Warren's Laramie Lecture. The sena.
tor tells the story Of his own life."
On Monday, alter the discovery that ii
was loaded, a guileless representative oil
the Tribune called upon Senator Warren
to ask this evidently prearraDged question:
Senator, did you state in your lecture
that you would tell the story of yourself,
and that you had fully $3.50, O00?"
To this the governor is alleged to have
replied ~''laughingly" land in our minds
eve we can see him laugh.)
mo. / did not. Your correspondent
evidently jumped at conclusions about
the story being of myself. | didn't say
that and your correspondent was either
mislnformed or did not hear quite straight
about the dollars part OF it."
All Of which goes to show the small
hole out of which even a United States
senator may be forced to crawl.
Warren did not say in SO many words
hat the clumsy little a~llegory was
designed to illustrate his W alleged
personal history, but he knew. aud
everybody within the sound of his
voice knew, that 1t did refer TO him
and him alone. The youthful nail
picker went to the war when he was
II years old. He must therefore have
been born in 1874. Warren was born in
Hinsdale. Mass. June 20. 1874. This of
itself would establish the identity but the
intensely personal and strongly political
conclusions which he drew from these
premises (as set forth IN the report OF his
lecture in another column) fixes the iden-
tity beyond cavil or dispute.
Marren's main idea in the lecture was
to disprove certain facts which are now
well established in the public mind, viz.
that he has always been a corporation
minion; that he has no use tor the strug-
Cling masses Of the people except in so far
AZ he can gull them and use them for his
own direct benefit; that he is a supremacy
selfish man who is struggling day aud
night for his own ACKNOWLEDGMENT while at
the same time ~endeavoriug to give forth
the Impression that his whole aim and
object in life is the upbuild,ng of this
community. This Is in fact what be him
self intimated though not in quite SO
specific language. With the nail picker
story he intended to draw to himself the
working classes by ~insinuating that a man
who had gone through 30 much could not
possibly be out of sympathy with a class
which was now struggling as he alleged be
had once done. But the whcle- thing
was done 80 clumsily 1--WE use the word
advisedly) that lie only succeeded In turn
ing himself into deserved rIdicule through
out the state.
The lesson which he attempted to teach.
and through which alone he seemed to
think that success 10 business could be
reached, was q grasping selfshness, a
holding out of this hand" and that
hand" totally uurelieved by a generous
thought or impulse. There was nothing
said of education, Of the social amenities,
of the generous heart which prompts a
willing hand to help a struggling brother,
no generous instinct appealed to--nothing
at all but mere money grubbIug as the re-
alization OF all that Is good and noble in
an earthly career. The rules are Senator
Warreu's and they have the merit of
being successful in his case, but how
much have they contributed to the hap
pines Of the world and If the rules we're
universal what a dreary, Godforsaken,
selfish and grasping world this old earth
Of ours would be to be sure.