Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-10

selves movers" they moved for
good; their ranks were filed with
Practical, long enduring hard .drudg.
ing mortals, who brought with them
their wives and babies. Having come
to stay, they behaved like Christians.
built churches and schools, and built
also stout timbered structure of So
cial good order. Ohio had never wild
western" flavor Instead, the country
side rang with the woodman's axe and
the ploughboy's song. Instead of wild
oats, the Ohioans sowed a rigorous
self cipline-each Buckeye becom-
ing thereby a sort of multiple of him.
self, strength clothed upon with
strength.
And now a step further. The forest
not only tempered the moral and intel.
lectual quality of picked company
from the east; it has, by special dis.
picked company from widely various
sections of the east. They went from
Puritan New England, from New York
and New Jersey, from Dutch Penn
sylvania, from Kentucky and Virginia.
Families of diverse origin inter-mar.
ried; and at the Briton sums up in
himself the qualities of Celt, Saxon,
Norman and Dane SO the Ohioan sums
up the qualities of all those people that
went to his making. But before this
process of amalgamation had taken
place-and for the matter of that it is
not yet complete-there was every
where to be seen a most inspiring form
If intellectual eXcitation. Six pion-
'ers never came together without de.
Eating. Puritan crossed swords with
Cavalier; German with Jerseyman. In
the country store. in the horse shed
after church, in the school room or the
barn yard. opinions clashed. This
made people of ready minds, of flu
ent tongues and of insurgent wills.
And their geographical position did
much to foster a profound national
consciousness by filling their talk with
affairs of the broadcast interest. Ohio
was on the main highway of western
emigration. There was always fresh
news, by word of mouth, from the east
there constantly drifted through Ohio
a returning tide of disappointed for
tune seekers from yet further west. III
you wanted to know the popular senti-
ment of continent you asked an
Ohioan, who had ever an ear to the
ground.
Here, then. was place to look for a
President. By inheritance hardy, by
discipline courageous, by all formative
influence pure in heart, by constant
stimulus keen minded, by varied con-
facts kept always in sympathy with
the purposes of his country-here was
the representative American. There
remained only the pleasant little task
Of stalking about with torchlights and
getting votes for him.
AS luck would have it, two or three
very favorable circumstances conspir-
ed to facilitate the process. AS Ohio |
Glanced to hold it's state election in |
October, who ever stood for high office
among the Buckeyes had the gaze of
IN anxious nation rivited upon him.
As went Ohio so Went the country.
the state of Ohio became
Known throughout all the land; nomi-
late any one of them for President
md the battle was most auspiciously
begun. And in the next place you
could appeal with quiet conscience to
he allegiance of numberless "ex-Ohio.
ms" who. as the years rolled by, had
moved farther west, but who yet called /
Ohio their fatherland. Still again,
wherever you carried your chieftain's
west, south or east
this looked the part and inspired
You could send him to
my section of the realm. and in fig
Ire. in manner and in speech he seem.
d to personify democracy He was a
lain man, leader of plain men. He
uite evidently embodied the theory of
government of, for and by the people.
therefore came presidents out of Ohio.
What now of Iowa? The Buckeye
pirit has moved westward, and ap-
,arently it is in Iowa that we shall
ook for repetition of the same thing.
The brain and will of a prairie people
lave risen to superb prominence
IN the councils of the national capital.
Problem: To explain that pre-emi-
lence
First among many causes ranks
yestern-I may almost say Ohioan in ,
eritance; for Iowa is lineally de-
cended from Ohio and states like ,
ohio. 1t has, to be sure. an impressive
Infusion of migrant New Englanders,
ut its main factors have from the be-
inning been chiefly made UP of the
NSeSih WIN. "ACll tlS
,hio arrived at mans estate there /,
anne upon them great thirsting for !
ioneer opportunities. So in many an
Their western commonwealth. To live
nd to toll in a ready-made world
eemed not enough; they must find '
hem new frontier; they must forge, !
heir own destinies, build their for !
lnes. So the prairie was opened to ,
!
Now the Lesson of the prairie is not :
ne lesson of the forest, and the early /
owans did not read the book of expe-
ence as the early Ohioans had read :
!. The prairie is fiat monotony in the i
fe OF the first Hawkeyes. 1t lacked 4
1t appealed scarcely at all r
} the gaudy hued virtues of daring +
nd endurance. 1t was easy, this n
eopling of treeless plains, this tilling y
virgin soils; and besides it was \
wifi. The days of hardship and pri- :
alton fed fast away; few years suf- I
ced to remove all semblance of pio- I
eering; wealth accumulated: COM q
'rts abounded; and the Iowans grew $
. into sober and simple maturity, a
hose spirit was gentler than that of +
lie ohioans. They delighted them D