Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-16
" THE MAN WITH THE HOE
AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF THE,
LATE C. T.. HUNTINGTON.
How n Multi-MiIlionaire.- Who Conn
menced With Nothing, Re-
CARDS the Subject.

From the New York Sun.
The death of Coils p. Huntington makes
it proper to say now that he was the Re
sponsbility' who offered through the Sun
a year ago the prizes of 500 in what was
widely known at the time as The Man
Without the Hoe competition.
The shallow and meretricous philosophy
of Edwin Markham's verses provoked in
Mr.. Huntingtons mind desire to see the
true dignity of manual labor asserted with
poetical strength and grace of expression.
He believed that no calling was more hon
orable than that of the man with the hoe.
Himself a great captain of industry through
many years of his extraordinarily active
and successful career, he understood the
opportunities open to the American who is
not afraid or ashamed to work with his
hands, when work for the hands is all that
offers, and he wrote to the Sun on July 70
of last year:
Either the Man with the Hoe is a type
of the great mass of those who use farming
implements for living, or else he is an
exception. If the latter, then the strength
of the sentiment uttered lies in the conceal
ment of its weakness and If the former,
then the poem does wrong TO a most re-
spectacle and able bodied multitude of cit
liens, every one of whom ought to resent
Mr.. aMrkham's attempt to throw the empt-
ness Of ages in his face and certainly de-
serves better of the poet than TO be called
a monStrouS thing and brother to the OK
What about the man without the hoe
he who cannot get work, or. having the
opportunity to labor, won't do it? There
thousands of young men in this coun-
try who have been educated up to the point
where the honest and healthful occupation
of their fathers in the field has become
distasteful to them, and in many cases they
have grown to be ashamed of Ii and OF
their parents. In European countries, par
ticularly. there are multitudes of young
men, the younger sons of titled people, for
instance, who have been taught that COM
mon labor work in the trades is be-
meath them. They must have money but
they must earn il only in a 'genteei way.
These are the men without the hoe-the
real brothers of the OK Who shall tell their
story? Who snail best sing the bitter song
of the incapables vino walk the earth.
driven hither and thither like beasts by the i'm
placable sentiment of a false social education.
suffering the fortunes of the damned and
bringing distress upon those dependent on
them because they have lost that true in
dependence of soul that comes to him who
dares to labor with his hands. who wields
the hoe and is the master Of his destiny?'
We know of no better tribute to the mem
DRY of a remarkable man than to reprint
these manly words, ringing with the Amer
lean spirit-the spirit which has made our
country what it is.
1t will be news to many people that Mr..
Huntington concerned his mind with ques-
lions like these. There is parallel that
we can recall to his generous offer 10 the
poets. an offer inspired by deep and genu-
inc intellectual and moral interest in the
suggested theme, and made under the ex-
press condition that the identity of Re
sponsibility' should not be disclosed. that
he might not be suspected of any desire to
advertise himself. or to seem to pose with
patronage of any sort.
That Mr.. Huntington's prizes did not
elicit any poetical production adequate to
cident. however, is not the less honorable
to his memory.