St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-15
that are proper to be participated in by
all classes will deserve the gratitude of
the entire community.
ABE FENsE OF THE CR,SKs


called crank is a much-abused and
greatly maligned individual. OF course
there are many varieties of the crank.
He is found everywhere-in politics. in
religion, in education, in science, in the
social structure. They are generally
obtrusive, persistent, insistent. They
are frequently one-idea men. They
think the world is in need of that idea,
and they never cease pressing it uoon
the public attention. Busy meu dread
the crank's coming, conservative men
discourage him, cautious men shake their
heads daprecatingly at his visionary
schemes. He is spoken of as crank,
laughed at. sometimes severely con-
demned, and held up as terrible ex-
ample 10 the rising generation-a man
whose example is to be avoided and
whose company is to be Stunned.
Cranks, however, are not always what
they seem, and they have borne an i'm
portant part in forming the worlds his
tory. Noah IS the first OF the species
of whom we have any record. He
warned his neighbors that unless they
mended their ways a judgment would
oyertake them. They did not heed him,
and he proceeded to build an ark. water
tight and seaworthy. During the time
OF its construction people jeered at him
and called him crazy, and the few who
noted the gathering clouds, ominous
of coming doom, quieted their own fore
bodings by saying it wasn't going to be
much of shower. anyhow. AS they
were engulfed in the rising waters they
no doubt changed their opinion of Noah,
VINO, with his family, sailed serenely
over the raging flood. Elijah was crank
In the opinion of King Ahab, and
Joshua was esteemed as one of
the most radical of the radicals.
Daniel was fearless in pointing out the
inevitable result of Balshazzar'S wick
edneSs, and was sent to dine with the
lions as a punishment. The Savior of
mankind was denounced by the men of
his generation as an impostor and pre-
teDder-a crank. Calico, Newton and
Columbus were cranks of the most pro-
nOunced type. and were prosecuted as
well as ridiculed by the pen of their
generation. Watts, Stephenson, Full
ton and Edison have all been condemned
as cranks within the memory of men
now living. There are men now operat-
ing telegraph lines who laughed at
Morse when he suggested that 1t might
be possible for people to communicate
with eaeh.other at distance of several
hundred miles. Cyrus w. Field was an
other of the so-called cranks who in
CURED public ridicule by suggesting a
transatlantic telegraph to connect the
continents of Europe and America.
All these men, and many more almost
equally distinguished, were denounced
as cranks. Their works. however, have
vindicated them, and they ara rever-
enced as benefactorS of mankind. The
marvellous development and utilization
of electrical force within the last two
decades have solved many intricate eco.
nomic problems. We can now read by
the aid of electric light. eat our dinners
cooked by electricity, anu travel from
point to point on vehicles propelled by
electricity, and all this has been brou5h t
about by crank-one who but few
throughout the whole world because of
what were regarded as his visionary
ideas. Electricity is today esteemed as
the greatest force in existence, and
those yet living will see the day
when it will superSede all the exist
ing forces-When even the steam ell
CINE will be regarded as relic of an
age of stupidity.
Whatever progress the world has
made during its existence is due to the
efforts of crankS. Had it not been for
the cranks who have sprung up from
time to time, it is probable that man
kind would yet be living in tents and
herding their flocks. Farming would be
conducted on the primitive lines. No
gang plows would turn the soil of a
quarter section of land in the course of a
day; the sower would have to be con-
tent with scattering his seed over a
couple of acres, and no harvester and
threshing machine would be here to
gather and clean the grain for market.
Cranks have improved the implements
of trade in every field of industry, have
lightened the labor of mankind, have
increased the comforts and Injuries of
existence, nave made life worth living.
The crank deserves our highest
esteem rather than our reprobation or
contempt. He may have but one idea,
and that idea may yet be crude and i'm.
perfectly developed. But he should be
given chance. He may yet enlarge
his conception, or transmit it to some
one who will improve upon it and
| evolve something of benefit to the
world. The cranks of the past have
been the avant courrierS OF progr ess.
They have been the pioneers of thought,
| of invention, of discovery in its vast and
varied domain. That the race is not
still alternating in its primitive sim
plicity is due to the fact that cranks
have lived, have been persistent. have
made general nuisance of themselves