Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1908-05-14

whether there are very many people in
Iowa who really enjoy that level of pub
lie discussion. / was associated for a
great many years with our most famous
Iowa congressman, and l remember how
the little boys who act as pages in the
house used to fight among themselves
for the privilege of carrying his crutches
to him, and even the members, when a
division was ordered, were eager for the
honor of bearing the crutch between the
tellers to be counted when the old soldier
could not comfortably leave his seat. 1t
may be that | have morbid sentiment
about crutches and the infirmities which
they suggest. For thirty years pair
of crutches stood in my own chimney
corner, and the first lesson which
taught my children was to see to it
that the crutches were always in their
place when they were called for. So
that when little editor seeks to insult
me by calling me the crutch which sup
ports the old age of my associate and
friend, his jest altogether misses the
mark and become a compliment, rather
than an affront.
ut may be that the experience of life
have made me unnaturally sensitive on
such questions as are involved in the
debate about Senator Allison's age and
health. l cannot help feeling that there
is certain intellectual as we'll as moral
debasement in the train of thought which
invites men to dwell on the probabilities
OF other men living or dying as part of
the motive and prospect of their own
advancement.
All Ages Are Visited.
"The present session of the senate has
seen the old, the middle Gagged and the
young among our members called sud-
denly to their account. Proctor APP
preaching so, Latimer not yet 60, and
Bryan of Florida, after three weeks of
service, at 80. The hand of disease has
fallen with impartial severity upon near
ly the whole Senate. The sickness which
fell upon Senator Allison visited more
than score of others, many of whom
are now in beds of pain, watched over by
anxious friends. l confess that my pride
in Iowa has been hurt by seeing the
footsteps of Senator Allison logged all
winter by political spies, making bulle-
tins of his attendance upon the Senate,
for the use of such newspapers as would
receive them. He was caught by dis
ease so prevalent that it busted all the
doctors of Washington like an epidemic,
and l think there must be few people in
Iowa who will not find satisfaction in
his returning health and strength. I
think that l ought to say, and all the
more so because Senator Allison has
more than once spoken of it with a
pathetic evidence of gratitude, that the
Register and Leader has done everything
within its influence to prevent the sena-
torial discussion from becoming a mere
diagnosis of the diseases of old age.
Again and again have seen the shadow
pass over his face as his eve caught
some thoughtless paragraph which thrust
upon his attention the fact that out in
Iowa, among the people whose interests
he had made his own for so many years,
there were men deliberately measuring
the remnant of his span of life and cool
ly counting up the chances of his re-
covery.
"There is much force, although | do
not think the argument is at all concu-
sive, that men ought to quit the employ
ment which has occupied them before old
age overtakes them. In other words,
that having done their fair share of the
worlds work, they ought to welcome the
privileges of the retired list. That is
certainly so of those occupations which
require physical strength, though there
exceptions even to that, like the case of
Won Moltke at the head of the Prussian
army of invasion, or in an epoch making
battle in earlier times, of which Macau-
ley says that if the hospitals of Europe
had been searched it would have been
hard to find two more helpless invalids
than the hunchback dwarf who led the
fiery onset of France and the asthmatic
skeleton who covered the slow retreat of
England.
Rule Not Always Applicable.
"In those departments of life where the
faculties of the mind require less rein
forcement from mere physical strength,
the rule becomes less and less applicable,
until at length in the realm of states
manship there is room always for the
wisdom of the sage and demand, not
always well supplied, for the tempered
prudence of old age. 1t will not be de-
MED by anybody familiar with the recent
history of the United States that Sena-
tor Allison stands apart from all his
contemporaries by the exceptional serv-
ice which he has rendered to his coun-
trymen. So that if the question were
merely one of continuing him in his
office on account of the public need for
bis services the force of the argument
in his favor would be irresistible But I
do not conceal from my Republican
friends in Iowa that Senator Allison's
II
higher ground even than that. 1t it not
necessary to argue the question whether
his candidacy was well or i'll advised.
"The question for Iowa is: How shall
we deal with this man whose name is
before us for endorsement or reiection2
1t is a question that concerns Governor
Cummins and the senator less than it
does us. If he had ever failed in his de-
votion to our people or they in their de.
votion to him, our duty might not be so
plain. He has not been man prone to
exaggerate his Importance or to think of
himself as indispensable to the public
service. He has borne himself with such
gentle and kindly tolerance of Others
that in the days of his strength no man
thought of such thing as raising his
hand against him, and so his people have
followed him with pride and good will
down to the very borders of the river.
His adversaries of today professed to be
his friends and he entered upon the can
didacy which we are here discussing with
the assurance that the whole state de-
sired with loving hands to put the crown
of their approval upon his public life.
Here is the situation from which no
man among us can escape IL has hean
said that considerations such as these
are sentimental. That is true, and it is
because men feel the touch of sentiment
that they are called civilized as distin-
guished from savage, among whom some
times old people were put to death, in
order to avoid inconvenience in moving