The Washington herald., 1912-02-18
DE- LANES B. MoRRow.

causes. human ingratitude among the
rest, but the COW was the principal agent
in the event, Men would take away her
honors, put the uncontestable fact re-
mains.
Obadiah GaA1ner tried to buy the COW
and failed. But he bought another. In
time he was master of herd The
herd required land. And land led Obadiah
Gardner into an agricultural society
known as the grange and the grange led
him into politics and now he is in the
Senate Of the United States. Meanwhile
he manufactured lime and lumber and
became a solid man of business.
The famous old leaders of the Republi-
can party in Maine have vanished Most
Of them are dead. Blaine, Frye, Reed,
Dingley, and BOutelle have crossed the
dread river of mystery and are on the
other side. Hale, elegant, pugnacious and
dictatorial. is in retirement A Democrat
is governor Of the State. Two Demo-
Gratis are in the Senate. A Democrat
even sits in the House of Representatives
from Nelson Dingley's once unconquer-
able district.
The COW, and there is no friyoIity in
the statement, brought about the de-
velopment Of the man who began the
revolution and maneuvered Il and de-
claimed II, to success. Modern Democracy
in Maine is built upon the energy. homely
eloquence, character, and personality OF
Obadiah Gardner, the orphan boy from
Michigan, who landed on the dock at
Rockland with hardly a dollar to his
name. Conditions. however, favored his
attempt TO change the politics of the
State. Long in power. the Republican
leaders got to quarreling among them
o. selves.
Hanna Type of Man.
Physically and temperamentaIly, Sena-
tor Gardner belongs to the Mark Hanna
type Of men. He has Hanna's beam
like shoulders; also Hanna's brown and
twinkling eyes. and Hanna's atmosphere
of candor and oaken strength. More
over, his head and ears are like Hanna's S,
though better in shape, and he smiles
Ike Hanna and is just as unconven-
uonal in his speech. He is said to be
thetbest stumper in Maine as Hanna was
the best stumper in Ohio. Both men
became orators Unexpectedly.
Hanna began making speeches in 1856
Tor Mckinley. Frye, Of Maine, himself
celebrated political speaker, taught him
platform arts and practices. Gardner,
after addressing local oranges for ten
years, suddenly appeared on the stump
in 1905, talking for himself. He told
stories, some Of which he invented as he
Maine, humbled by defeat and made
apathetic by commonplace leadership.
laughed at his humor, caught his infecti-
Gus cheer and vigor,, and nearly elected
him governor that year.
He broke ground Senator Gardner's
friends declare as they point to Fred
erick W. Plaisted, whom the Democrats
put into the governors office In 1910.
The revolution, then, is rather young.
But the COW had help. To issues, often,
are attributed mighty results. Human
nature, however, frequently lets a party
in and drives another out. Hanna's
death brought Generalization to Repub-
licanism in Ohio, yet the questions before
the country remained the same. The
power OF personality in American politics,
in all politics, as a matter of fact, is
shown by Gardner himself-preaching old
doctrines with a magnetism that cannot
be eXplaiued-and by the history he
gives of Republican disintegration in
Maine for which only men were TO blame.
Il passed before James G. Blaine IN a
long line Of other persons" he said, hold
ing a lighted match by a finger and a
thumb made thick at the joints by hard
manual labor around the umel1iIns he ul-
timateIy owned. I was hurriedIy intro
duced as Mr.. Gardner, Os Rockland. Mr..
Blaine swiftly looked at me with his ex-
traordinary eyes. Then l passed on. Two
years afterward / met him in another
city. He called me Immediately by name,
mentioning also my town. heard Thomas
B. Reed prosecute a case in court soon
after he came to the bar. Barring acci-
dents said at the time, he will be a
big man.
Once He Despfsed ManIey.
But Joseph H Manley, the manager
and intimate friend of Blaine, was the
ablest, fairest, and most lilSable Repub-
lican politician we ever had. Curiously
enough, he was indirectly responsible for
the wreck of his party and the triumph
Of Democracy in the Pine Tree State.
Historically, the matter is important, be-
cause it contains a lesson for all men
who are in politics, regardless OF their
political associations or their localities
u despised Manley-before I made his
acquaintance-having read Of him as
coarse boss, and picturing him as a
brutal-Ioolxing individual. with a fat neck,
a wicked face, and q little head, mostly
bristles. He sent for me one day while
1 was in Augusta. I'll co. 1 said to
myself, and see what the beast looks
like
You seem surprised he remarked
when I entered his Office.
There's good reason answered. I
had expected to find a mopster, whereas
you appear to be a gentleman
THE State Grange, Of which was
master. had been working for a reform
in taxation. Joe Manley told me he |
would help us. He owned stock in the |
Maine Central Railway, but he was large |
minded enough to believe that all cor |
porations should pay on a higher valua- i
ton. He was elected speaker of the
legislature that winter, and he stood |
shoulder to shoulder with the Grange in |
demanding a change in our tax laws. /
found him to be an honest man, and came |
to hold him in much affection. He had I
lifted a good many Republicans out Of
obscurity and caused them to be elected |
TO honorable and profitable ofices-
When he wanted to round out his own |
career as governor, however, the men /
whom he had created stuck their knives /
into him while he wasn't looking, and |
their wholesale act OF ingratitude and /
their falsehoods engendered the quarrel
that finally opened the way for the Dem
ocrats to elect Plaisted and 10 send two
Senator's and two Representatives to Con-
gress. Manley is dead. but there Is COM
pensation to his friends in the knowledge
that the men who betrayed him are back
where he found them-in the seciusion of
private employment"
AEue Caused Him to Move.
you were born in Michigan" 1 said.
''How does it happen that you live in
Manner
''oh, am an emigrant though Maine
was once the home of some of my ances-
tors. The Gardners originated in Massa-