The San Francisco call., 1898-07-31
BISMARCK AND HIS WORK.

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 l "A FTER lingering for years in retirement, dis | \ carded but not superfuous veteran the stage, Prince Bismarck is dead The who during the last generation filled the largest space the eyes of the world has passed away, and it is for men of the younger generation to study his career, note the methods by which he accomplished hs mighty work, and endeavor as best they to appraise his character and his service at their worth.
 Whatever view may be taken of Bismarck man, there will be little difference of opinion con cernlng the magnitude and lasting good of his achievements in the domain of international politics lie ranks among the greatest men oi an age prolific of great men. Lincoln saved nation Gladstone re- formed nation, Cavour reorganzed nation but Bismarck created nation, and the creative act wrought out by such Titanic forces and by such amazing steps of uninterrupted success that the worker stands out before the world unique figure, conspicuous and dominant among the strong men of his time
 The salient feature of Bismarcks character was certain medieval quality of mind and temperament. Lincoln, Cavour and Gladstone were essentially men of our time. In no other age could any of them have achieved the work he performed in the way by winch he actually accomplished it. They con stitutional statesmen They guided rather than ruled the people. Their power exerted more an influence upon the popular mind than through courts or armies They were educators of the masses, 1t were and took step that did have the sanction o the better It not the greater, part O. the citizens of the countries whose affairs they administered
 It was not so with Bismarck The grea. German rarely consulted the Germans or cared for their opinion on anything he decided to undertake He frankly announced that in his judgment the only true government IS one that consists of king and an army, and that great strokes of statecraft be achieved not by speeches. parliamentary debates and popular discussions, but by blood and iron. To this frank audacity of speech his actions corresponded He made a united Germany by means of king and an army through methods of blood and ron and having made it undertook to rule it in the same way.
 The rule of judging by the success they ac- complish in life is not just one but 1t is the best that is known to men, We can never be sufficiently acquainted with all the circumstances surrounding any worker, nor with all the forces that oppose help him, to accurately apprase the real value of his personality in the results that follow his efforts We only that where the results great the worker must have been great, and must, furthermore, have used the right means for performing the work By this rule Bismarck will be given in future histories rank as high has been universally accorded him during his life. There will be 10 haggling over whether he was or was not too arbitrary too domi-
 
 his wisdom and his strength and the final conclusion will be that such rough giant worker established the unity of Germany 1t simply because the con- ditions of the people required exactly that of leader to make nation ofythern. 85
 Or the domestic policy of the great Chancellor little need be said The word Failure is written large all it. Such bungler he in the adninis traton Of the empire his genius and his courage had created that youthful Emperor able to dismiss him in disgrace without suffering in the least from the consequences of the act. Bisarcks true career closed virtually when in the gorgeous palace of the French Kings at Versailles King William of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany. No Emperor nor court historian rob Bismarck of the glory of that farreachng act, and the world, which will benefit in the future it has already done by the unifcaton of Germany, will overlook his faults and his failures and remember only the sterling virtues which made him equal to the task of creating nation and raising 1t to the first rank among the powers of the earth