The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-22

EtlHoCbiOIN oh POtibhSAit htbbOTlChlt bOCIuIOkt-
cal, and economical phenomena. In a word,
it could be said Of him, with i~ncomparably
more truthfulness than 1t was said of FERDI.
NANDL AssALLE, that he came to journalism
armed with all the learning OF his time.
1t Is characteristic Of a great editor, as OF
a veritable social philosopher, that there ia
no topic Of human interest in which he does
not feel a lively intellectual concern. Mill
humdni a me dticnum puto--I count moth.
ing alien that is human-should be the index
OF his attitude and the inspiration Of his
work. But, to an abiding and pervasive
sense Of human solidarity, the heart must
contribute as we'll as the head. Only
an instructive sympathy and a personal ex.
perience of struggle and hardship can re.
veal to the moral nature the pathos and
solemnity of the problem Of existence. The
essential conditions Of such a revelation
were not lacking in the early life of
CHARLES A. DANA. Not ignorant of pov.
crty, hi knew how to commiserate the
poor. Himself u%npropped by any of the
accidents of fortune, he longed to make his
fellow men independent of such accidents.
That the wish should become n hope and a
deliberate endeavor was to be expected
in the forties when the minds of men
were rocked by the ground swell Of revolu.
ton, and when the watchers on the hill
tops caught, as they thought, glimpses Of a
wiser and more beniRnant social order. To
rightly interpret Mr.. DANA's subsequent
career, to appreciate the sympathetic MS
we'll as the dynamic aspect of his character,
one should not overlook his entrance, ut
the age of %, into that band of wistful
reformers of society whose Brook Farm
experiment was q failure more illus.
trious than the most brilliant self
seeking success. 1t is also noteworthy
that his first newspaper training was
obtained in association with the Har-
binger, a journal devoted to social reform.
The imprint made upon the plastic fibre Of
his young manhood by such aspiration and
experience was never effaced. The in
fluence of a youthful but sincere and ardent
effort at the amelioration of social condi-
lions ran like q silver streak, unchokcd by
the less.sanguine hopes and sobered con-
victions of ripper years, through more than
half a century of journalistic work. Hence
it came to pass that, through the fifteen
years of his association with the Tribune
and the twenty-nine years of his control
over TIE Sun, Mr.. DANA never shut his
columns to the dreams and the proposals Of
any honest devote to the improvement of
society. He never denied to social reform
ers what they may have vainly sought in
many quarters, n forum for free discussion.
An audience he never refused, though np-
proval he might withhold. His reason may
nave forbidden him to countersign their
arguments, but his heart told him that
their aims, at least, were right.
The magnitude of the services which Mr..
DANA rendered to the NcU York Tribune,
considered as an organ of popular educa-
tion, has never been appreciated. He him
self was never known to allude to the self.
placement which obscured the volume and
the value of his contributions to that news
paper. He seemed to have the kind of
pride which shrinks even from the SEM
blance of self. vindication, and which feels
too firm a confidence in the power of future
accomplishment to care to rehearse the
past. Yet it is no secret to those familiar
with the inner history of that journal that
the extraordinary circulation and influence
attained by it during the decade preceding
the civil war was largely, IL not mainly,
due to the development of Mr.. DANAs
aptitude for his vocation. So far as the
Tribune became anything outside of a po-
litical newspaper-and it did, in fact, be-
come something far more comprehensive,
elevated, and powerful than the mere
advocate of political opinions-it was
he, rather than HORACE GREELEY, who
created it. The latter, indeed, was,
primarily, and would have been, if
left to himself, exclusively n writer
of political leading articles. 1t was not
GREELEY but his many-sided young coad
jutor who took all learning for his prov,
ince and made the Tribune a fountain OF
instruction and stimulation to the whole
people of the North. There is also reason
to believe that, even in politics, at more
than one grave crisis, when REELEY's OWL
faith faltered and his own purpose wavered
he leaned for guidance and support on his
more resolute co-worker. AT the date o
the Nebraska bill GREELEY almost de
SPARED of the republic, and it was Mr.
DANA's hand that seized the Tribune.
helm and made it an irresistible promote
of the creation and the triumph of the Re
publican party. Again, on the outbreak o
the rebellion, GREELEY's heart sank ant
his mind fluttered, and, refusing to heet
the counsel of his undismayed associate, h
caused the paper which had made LINCOLN
election possible to become, in The eyes o
the new President, an object of aversion
and distrust.
MI. DANA's withdrawal from the 7rib
une, which took place at this juncture
and his acceptance later of the Office o
Assistant Secretary of War, opened one O
the most interesting chapters of his ricl
experience. As the eye and right hand O
STANTON. he watched and manipulated tn
mainsprings and driving wheels of the stu
pendous machinery of war which had 70
its field a continent, and for it's aim tn
restoration of a dismembered empire. II
was in a position to see victories in embryo
and great commanders in the germ. Hi
intuitive judgment of abilities and charat
ter, derived partly from nature and partl
from the practice of a profession which a r,
quires such judgment, he put at the servic