The Washington herald., 1910-07-17
BY JAMES B. MORROW.

Siaif Correspondence The Washington Herald.
New York. July l6-Ideas are Ralph
Montgomery Easley's speciality. He or
ganizes them and reeonciles them, and
then puts Them ike wheels. beneath the
unaroGsed thought or conscience of So
ciety. Meanwhile his own machinery is
revolving with tremendous energy. When
ideas are lacking he supplies them and
engineers them into operation.
Mentally. Easley is as agile as cleo
trieity. Physically. he is a hurricane
under the leash Of discipline. Converse
tionalIy, he Is as robust as gun powder
and as laconic as a trip hammer-he huT-
Ties along with immense strides. and the
man who listens. gailoping furiously be-
hind. is not always sure OF his own foot
ing. There are briers and bitches, but
happy reunion when the exercise is over.
The National Civic Federation is Ralph
Easley's personal creation. 1t is the
most powerful unofficial body in America
The biggest men in the country are in
Guided In It's membership. Weaklings are
not admitted. II a demagogue. by some
hocus pocus, should get in, he would be
pitched through a window. metaphor
cally.
Provides Motive Power.
A great organization, surely, blocking
strikes secretly. settling strikes tudicious-
~. and promoting sanity, peace. and
patriotism openly. And all the time,
hidden Ike an engine in the basement.
Ralph Easley provides the intensity. II
discussion lags. a new question IS intro
dueed Immediately. The Easley eye. gray
as Roosevelt's. is sweeping the horizon
constantly, stone-biind to nonessentials.
but microscopic and telescope 10 the real
potentialities that confront the people
With here a word and there a word to
the right man. Ralph Easley. a busy
patriot. is always working for his
country
peculiar force or a strange magnet
ism Is ever present in Easley's call to his
cOuntrymen 10 stand up. man fashion.
and perform their duties as citizens.
Years ago at the outset of his career as
promoter of ideas and a harmOnizer OF
contrary views. he induced John Sher+
man, the unimaginative. unsympathetic.
and austere restorer Of specie payments.
60 sit down at the same council table with
James B. Weaver, the whirl!ng and howl
ing dervish of greenbacklsm. and with
=
pher who discovered the inexisting island
OF Atlantis. and who diligently main
tained, with voice, pen, and paper. that
Lord Bacon wrote the poems of Shake
speare Thus Solomon and Don Quixote.
not 10 mention Weaver. assembled by the
magic OF Easley, Joined their wits, and
pooled their wisdom that trusts might he
controlled. They did not succeed, but
Easley did. in getting such menagerie
of tsmperaments together
All for Public Welfare.
Into the Civic Federation. as It Is or
ganized to-day. Easley has brought VII
liam II. Taft and Samuel Gompers. An
drew Carnegie and John Mitchell, George
w. Perkins and Archbishop John ireland.
Elihu Root and Alton B. Parker. August
Belmont and Nahum J. Bachelor. master
of the National Grange and himself
practicing and practical farmer. Banker
confers and fraternizes with coal-digger,
Catholic priest with Jew and broker, edu-
Gator with railway president. and multi
millionaire with bricklayer, shoemaker,
carpenter. stone mason. and locomotive
engineer. Nowhere else In the world can
be found such powerful union of human
interests pledged TO work. without pay or
try and the common welfare
Long ago. Ralph Easley found that one
man inherently was much like another.
If neither was abnormal plug hat
cannot change human nature: nor can
pair OF overalls. Furthermore. Easley
learned that man. apart from earning
living for his family aside also from
his pride professionally, industrially. or
commercially. actually wants TO be use
full At bottom. too, he is reasonable.
All he needs that he may show his best
side 70 the public are opportunity and
atmosphere. Men meeting in the spirit
of peace and truth are peaceful and
truthful, ordinarily.
Likewise an Opfimist.
A trained expert in the elements of hu-
man character, EasIey is optimistic, re-
soureeful and adaptable. Sometimes an
issue dies on his hands only to be gal
vanized into life in another form. Again,
a large question can be launched and
the public be unready for it. Intellectually
or morally. While still in Chicago, run
ming a federation there, Easley got a
conference under way TO discuss the
Spanish war and the foreign policy of the
country. Mckinley approved IT. Before
the delegates could come together, how
ever. the war was over. WhereupOn Eas-
lev had Carl Schurz and other national
characters amicably debate the future OF
the Philippines. Were they TO be given
back? No; obviously they should be held
temporarily and turned into a coaling
station for the navy. So Easley there
fore, is also acrobatlc--a man for the ex-
igencies of thought movements and the
eccentrieities of events current
81
Industry, Easley sees the pivot on which
public sentiment or public action Is likely
TO turn. II he were in business for him.
self he would probably be a wealthy
man. Instinctively, he Is a promoter,
taking up Ideas, as Morgan now takes
hold OF telephones. banks, and railroads
and as Rockefeller once exploited oil and
refineries. He lives forty miles away, in
Connecticut, during summer. on thirty
acres OF land-''fifteen acres OF woods and
fifteen acres Of stones. Like Roosevelt
in height fabric. and color, he is unlike
Roosevelt in that. effacing himself. he
can stand behind Smith. Jones. OF Brown
and make any of them a conspicuous in
dividual. Carnegie says that the Ma
tionaE Civic Federation and Ralph NJ.
Easley are interchangeable names, and
that the definitions thereof are identical,
a testimony that was denied when re-
peated, with face as scarlet as flannel
and with blunt fingers beating a nervous
tattoo on his desk.
Has Unique Scheme.
The development of Easley is fully as
interesting as 1t is important. There is
only Que Easley on earth. He went along
from one unique scheme TO another until
he was graduated into what might be
called great national movements. Bio
graphically, he begins in Illinois, where
his father was a village merchant, sell
ing dry goods, coal OIL erockery, hard |
ware. and molasses. Then the family
moved TO Hutchinson, in Kansas, on a
section OF wild land
Il taught school," went on the ehoppy