The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-10

cnant, FARMER ana mechanic that DuSl-
ness is politics and politics is business.
Men of fortune or of large affairs often
affect contempt for those in public life
and denounce with unbridled license the
conduct of national, state and munich
pal matters They complain bitterly
of taxes and the burden OF government.
They are entitled to no sympathy. They
are suffering, if at all, from their own
want of appreciation of their duties as
citizens and of patriotism Mr.. Hobart
was. during his whole career, the law
yer and man of business, who keenly
understood and 1aboriously lived up to
a high ideal of citizenship. His party
found him at the caucus and at the
polls. He had time for conventions and
public meetings. He could promote the
best interests of his state by service
in its legislature, or remain in retire
ment while working diligently for the
nomination and election of those best
fitted for the offices to be filed. Charles
James Fox said of Edmund Burke
that The was right, but right too soon"
His speeches emptied the house of COM
mons in his time, but in our day are
textbook and manual for British
statesmen. Statesmen and reformers
of this prophetic order SOW the seed,
but they do not govern. Wendell Phil
fps, Lloyd Garrison, Lovejoy and John
Brown created conditions which made
it possible for Lincoln to act. Success
full leaders grapple with the Work-a-
day elements about them, and combin-
ing the CONSCIENCE anu l1lStllSSnCS VI
the hour, solve the problems which more
Immediately concern their constituents
and their country. The vice president
was of this class. He was not troubled
with Illusions nor bound by theories
He pitied the man who perpetually
longs for the good old times and
mournS the decadence of the present,
and sympathiZed with the far more
useful one who is providing for the I'M
born millions of the coming century.
&c lot aff
lions, financial industrial, international
or moral, are always knocking at the
door. Their settlement is vital to the
position of the country among nations,
or to the comfort and happiness Of its
people. Mr. Hobart was not a state
builder nor a prophet, but he was
among the master Workmen who, as the
years go by, slowly perfect the strue-
| ture of government by providing for its
present needs. and are digging trenches
| or leading the assault against those
who would destroy it.
The Joint Traffic association was
| conference of the thirty-seven railroads
| which carry the traffic of the country
| between the interior and the Atlantic
! coast. Their quarrels and rate-cutting
/ injured their investors, demoralized
/ business and promoted trusts. Inc
! members were not capitalists nor spec
ulators, but the hard-headed and able
managers of these corporations
! who had come up from the
ranks and adopted the opera
ton of railways as both a career and
/ profession Their efforts to cure the
4 evils of the situation were doomed to
failure from the jealousies of large
/ companies and the fear of small ones
and the lack of any power to enforce
their agreements. By unanimous vote
they selected Carrot A. Hobart as arbi-
traitor The questions submitted to
him involved the revenue of the dis
putants and the movement by one
route or another of a vast volume or
| freight. No judge even held office by 50
/ precarious a tenure or had to decide
more important matters. The defeated
1 litigant could refuse to submit, or by
/ carrying a charge of injustice, unfair
| ness or ineapacity into the governing
| body compel a resignation. AS chair
man of the association 1 was brought
I in frequent contact with him, his work
and it's difficulties. He administered
that judicial responsibility for three
years, resigning during the first year
! of his vice presidency. There could be
! no more significant tribute to his I'M
! failing Judgment, tact and character
| than the remarkable fact that there
was never an appeal from his decisions,
nor complaint of their fairness and JUS
/ tice In this demonstration is found the
secret OF his success.
Very many in our country rise, by
their own exertions, from nothing to
J aff1uence. The rapid evOlutionS caused
/ by steam, electricity and invention,
! give numberless opportunities for the
| far-sighted and courageous to seize the
hand of fortune before their fellows
/ know of her presence. These capable
men of affairs are of two classes-the
/ class who make what others lose and
4 the class who benefit their associates
| or the community or the whole country
1 by the developments they promote and
! the enterprises they create The first
! are the pirates of society and of bust
! ness. They are the fathers of COM
+1,A cAcf@ f0f hoy Of on
archy. The others are among the bene
factors of their time. 1t was the char
! acteristic of our friend that, possessing
| the far-sighted faculty, and having the
| sense and training to keep the curb of
! caution upon the promptings of acquis
/ itiveness and imagination, he drew a
/ large circle into his plans and all shared
/ in the profits of his undertakings.
The founders of the republic meant
to provide for a successor to the presi-
! dent who should be equally worthy of
! the chief magistracy. But the ma
/ chinery they devised gave the vice
! president no voice in the government,
| and created an inevitable antagonism
between him and the president. 1t re-
/ vived in form the old historic struggle
! of the able and ambitious heir for
| recognition and influence in affairs of
| state. The contest began during our
/ first administration. Confidence and
/ cordially were impossible between the
| self-centered Washington and the i'm
I perious Adams. With Adams and JEFF
ferson was the mutual repulsion of the
! Puritan and the cavalier. In Jefferson
| and Aaron Burr the revolutiOnist was
| seeking to destroy the patriot The
! practical Jackson and the philOSophic
/ Calhoun were soon at war. The man of
! action threatened to hang the theorist,
/ if he carried his ideas to their logical
| conclusions. With the growth of the
! country, the strength of parties and
| their internal dissensions, the vice pres
! idency was thrown to the friends of