Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-02-12
The REFORM EDITOR.

America is the land of reforms"
said Professor E. E. Sparks of Grand
RAPIDS, Mich, the other night in his
lecture on Horace Greeley. the Re
form Editor in Politics. 'The discoy
cry of America was a reform trade and
commerce. The Declaration of indie
pendence was a reform in government.
The constitution was a reform along
national governmental lines. and
there have been reforms ever since
The American is a natural reformer.
He always wants to reform somebody
else.
But Horace Greeley was the great
est reformer Of them all. He was
porn refOrmer in the first place, and
reformers, like teachers are born
not made Then he was a reformer
because he was an editor, and an edi-
tor for the old type, who believed that
newspaper was something more than
a business enterprise. Greeley had an
Ideal OF editorship, real ideal. When
he was only a boy of eleven years he
went to country newspaper man in
East Poultney, VT, and stated that
he wanted to learn to be an editor.
And after going through printers
apprenticeship and drifting about the
world, finally landing in New York. he
became an editor. He started two
papers which failed before ne at last
began the publication of the New
York Tribune in 1S41 That paper
had phenomenal success. Within a
short time it had a circulation Of 100.-
600 copies, something extraordinary
in those days.
Reform movements are periodic
things. They could almost be charted.
as the weather bureau charts the
movements Of winds and storms.
There is a great deal Of truth in the
psychology of the crowd. Well,
Greeley was a consistent advocate of
all these things Not only did he adj
vOcate all sorts of reforms, but he
believed in them and followed them
out himself. There was a vegetarian
reform started in those days-by the
way, another vegetarian reform is
about due now-and Greeley advocat-
ed vegetarianism in the Tribune and
ate at vegetarian boarding house.
T'ranscendentalism and the Brook
farm experiment came along about
that time and Greeley was a member
of the phalansteries which were form
ed then.
'tAll these things failed, at least
so far as material success was con-
cened. Greeley was disappointed
each time, of course, but discouraged
never. Whenever one failed he
looked forward to the next That is
the spirit Of true reformer. Greeley
used to say he could never refuse to
support any reform, no matter how
many others had failed, because he
never knew which one might have
the germ of success in it.
CAS- in everything else, Greeley
was a reformer in politics. He
was a reformer first. He went to
congress once to fill out an uneXpired
term. He introduced one reform
bill after another-never any party
measures. All his bills were killed,
but that did not deter him. He
never got another Office.
"Greely ran for the presidency be-
cause ne believed Grants reconstruc-
ton policy in the south was wrong
and he wished to introduce a reform,
but the people could not take his can
didacy seriously, and he was over
whelmingly defeated. His wife died
during the campaign, and, further
one woe upon another's heels he
lost control Of the Tribune through his
campaign debts and he had one of his
contributions thrown in the waste
basket. All these things coming at
once were too much for him. and
within fortnight he was dead