The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-08-13
MS INSPIRED N SEATTLE
NAnKHAW HERE RECEIVED TUE
SUGGESTION FOR HIS POEM
First saw Nlllet's Great Paantang aA
q Fraend,s UoDe Vo0ReooA YoaHo
Ago-Not Written - . Pre-
test Against Harsh Conditions.


NEW YORK, Aug. i2-The inspiration
that gave THE Man With the Hoe" to
aprreciative literature and . sympathetic
world that hail il as great came to Prof-
Markham at Seattle fourteen years ago
Markham IL now in New York for the
first time since his genius has become
recognized and Is just now enjoying un-
divided honors as literary lion at the
hands Of the people. And. by the way.
those honors are taken very quietly and
modesfly. Markham has written tho
poem Of the decade. but takes his praises
quietly. He Is serious. that b all Ev-
eryone wants to know the story OF the
poem. and the poets story brings out
the fact that Seattle was the birthplace
of this masterpiece idea. Here Is the
story: Fourteen years ago saw .
photograph OF Millet's famous picture
Tho Man With the Hoe At friends
home In Seattle. II mastered me at once
as a type OF the human worker who lives
only to toll. exists but to eat. breathe.
strugEle-one OF the dumb caryatids OF
the earth upon whose bowed shoulders
the other man climbs. while the laborer
bends but does not break. That inspira-
ton remained with me. and the poem
came along after az a conception. Miliet
did not paint the scene and figure nor did
l write the poem as protest. Both rep
resent a world of fact. That so many
should consider 1t a. . sociological proc
lamation seems to me to prove only how
vital problem 1t involved. That's all.
MY interest 10 In the social and human
regeneration Of the toiler. am aroused
by what read and hear and see Of the
street car workers inability to make
homo his center. 1t seems that greed
Of gain makes him almost q stranger to
his children and only a fieeting visitor at
his own fireside. There must be deeper
organization; a larger remolding Of in
dustrial conditions In the case before
that brushes. because the corporate power
to compel work-in order that man may
merely exist. and that his wife and chill
dren may ive-to condemn him to . con-
slant round OF joyless and hopeless. even
endless. toll. comes from the community
itself. Franchises are given by It. and
the power embodied thereby Is permitted
by It to be 80 administered as to grind
the men who work into beasts Of burden.
That they are not yet dumb and genera
tion-worn, as was and is Miilet's Man
With the Hoe, Is a good sign. They
resist even IL 1t Is blindly. They will.
they are learning to. organize and asso-
ciate. But the community. must help.
1t must compel. Yea / believe In public
control Of public franchises-all Of them.
How and In what manner they are to be
taken over Is a matter for earnest study
and sincere effort at justice and fair
wei, II I were dictator in New York
commanity's interest. ' ~ ' " '"'
THE franchises were given for a pur-
pose. A quarrel with labor to the point
Of nonfulfllment of a controlling obliga-
ton is as uncomfortable as a quarrel over
the supplying OF proper machinery would
my way to absolute Justice. but I could
compel the profit making car corporations
to do the work for which they were en-
dowed or to surrender their franchises at
once.
II would put the men back to work
at once on eight-honr shifts and g pay.
tine who Pen matter mott street.
cars alone. but into all municipal fran
chises. The one standpoint should be
the public good and economic justice.
"Of course, I'd have to be practical, 50
I should not run amuck at profits and
holdings. but seek to legitimately and as
a matter OF social growth transfer on the
cal justice from private to public con-
"It is greed only that makes the siums
and maintains. the sweatshops. II I
enough to be destroyed. Mans right to
the use OF the earth Is a primal one.
Read what the Hebrew prophets have said
II you think am too radical.
Listen to the sad echoes OF all the
human storms. Then you will know that
my words are but summer zephys by the
voice OF the roaring winds.
1.-The overworked man, as well as the
man willing to be overworked in order
that he may get bread. IL a social deca-
dent. He IL the victim also Of the order
The savage has his own dignity The
burden-bearers-the men OF the coal pit
and the street car-are losing all that.
AS to education that is my life work.
and OF course I have thought OF II con-
tinuously. Children are now taught TOO
much that their one aim should be to
get on In the world ! would have every
child to consider itself IA but one unit
In great whole. requiring service from
each to all and ali TO each
1.-The child and pupil should learn that
that in defending IT ne or she best serves
the individual while advancing the whole
social life
"There is no real conflict. The perform
the worship at an altar. This is the first
step in genuine education, because IL en-
bodies and includes the making Of the
Individual III 10 do the service:
Every avenue OF education should
open wide and freely To every child
would have the workshop and the studio
teaching the practical and polite arts
in the neighborhood OF every school
house and accessible easily to every pupil.
There Is too much coming Of books
and not enough Of contact with nature.
I would make long ard frequent country
excursions a par; OF every course. The
pupil should feel the atmosphere. see the
colors. imbibe the forms OF nature: 3nhaie
the perfumes of flowers ard come In touch
direct with animal and pain: life: learn
practically Of geological forms and phvsi-
cal conditions. above all. health. purity
OF mind and soul.
''The poetry Of life must become the
motive Of being II must come through
the child To he the soul of the adult
Thus. the acme Of education II will bring
| fraternfty--,he normal and spirit lie Of
the human race-viializing. regenerative.
organizing"
CLAIM TO BE NATIVES.