The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-02-13

TO A DEFENDER OF THE WASH.
BURN FAMILY.
The Difference Between Hibernian
MastOdOns and Welsh Rabbits.

Welch, for whom we have always en-
tertained, and still entertain, great
respect and regard, rushes into the
of the Washburn family,-Gen'l. c. G.
Washburn, of Wisconsin. His COM
municat tion shows how illogically and
incoherently even bright man can
reason who goes off before his hammer
is drawn back to the farthest notch.
We spoke of the Washburn family
as follows:
Neither upon the statute books of
the nation, nor in the records OF de-
bate in Congress, nor anywhere else
in this world, can a single word or
thought of theirs be found that lifts
them above the lowest level of the
coarse, slang-whanging, turbulent
politicians of the time," etc.
Brother Welch takes issue with us
on this, and says, ito disprove our
charge that Calwalader G. Wash
burn built "the greatest Touring mill
in the world" Surely the Judge can
not be serious. If piles Of brick and
stone and mortar cons titute mental
greatness or philanthropic purpose,
then we should honor Menage, and
worship the dead Egyptians who
erected the pyramids. 1t is true that
the edifice of the one was bedewed
with the tears of his swindled vic
Tins, and the mons trous structures of
| the others rose amid the groanS of Op-
pressed populations.
But how did Calwalader G. Wash
burn get the money that built that
mill? BY seizing through dubious
arts, upon the pine lands of Minneso-
ia and Wisconsin,, and then compell-
ing the people to pay 81 thousand
extra, under high tariff, for the
privilege of building houses and
homes out of the logs that grew on
the common patrimOny Of all. And
when that mill was built did this
philap thropist refuse to enter into
the association that was formed to fix
the price of the farmers wheat at
every station in the Northwest? Ger
tainly not.
But the Judge says, that G. G. Wash
burn also helped to build railroads
which "carry the bread of millions
to the nations of Europe" Certainly
great works of internal improvement
are valuable to country, but we never
heard before that they were built for
benevolent purposes or for any other
object than to make money. If we
are wrong then we have been unjust
to Gould and Vanderbilt and Tom
Scott.
And the Judge further states that
General Washburn founded the
''Washburn Observatory" of the Wis
consin University Well that is cred
liable; but we have yet to learn that
that institution has added an iota te
the worlds stock of knowlededge,
} either about the stellar spaces or any
thing else. 1t was simply piece OF
ostentatious vanity, and intended as
the stars as to enable the stars tt
!, view the Washburn family.
We are free to admit that &C. c.
was the best of that family; bu
we adhere to our position that non,
of them ever labored to tighten tn,
burdens on the backs of the human
race, to defend the right or curb th'
oppressors. They lived through tht
, era when silver was demonetiZed, ant
all the present evils we're brought up
our country, but they never lifte'
voice or hand against them. The
represented the worst type Of pluto
cratic politicians.
The Judge says that Calwalder c
! Washburn made a great speecl
: against government aid to the build
d. ing OF the railroad from the Misss
: sippi Valley to the Pacific coast, AM
l deserves immense credit therefor
He forgets that that speech was mad
2 during the civil war. when the natiol
was fighting for the integrity of it
: territory; when Louis Napoleon an
! Great Britain had taken possession o
Mexico, and the Confederacy had it
$ agents in California, a,-Duke GWyn
y and others,-sentt there to detach tina
i. gion from the Union; while an un
broken and barren wilderness, whic
f. | TeQulTcU LuOuUlS w CIOSS, luUcTVcuc
: between the eastern and western e1
+ tremities Of the Republic. That raj
t road was and is today an absolut
= military necessity, and the govern
q ment was under an overwhelmin n
q necessity to build it, if it had cost tie
times what it did. But the narro'
e Washburn breed could see in the Gil
t Gums tances nothing but an opportur
>. ity for a demagogic howl,-and the
y howled it. In the same way the
l. fought, to the uttermost, the pu1
e chas of Alaska, for seven millions {
g dollars; while today this countr
O would not sell it for a hundred mi
l. lions.
And if it be true that one of thes
II men flung, from the heaped basket {
n his private fortune, obtained by go
1t ernmental hight tariff favoritism.)
le few bones to few orphans, that do,
le not prove him to have been a phi
J. anthropist, statesman or a lover
n liberty and fair-play.
1t And the Judge, in his wrath, cal
II US "a Hibernian Mastodon, se1f-ir