The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-02-09

of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author OF
Uncle Toms Cabin" will stand for
centuries to come as one of the NOV
ing forces In our native literature.
While not comparable perhaps in the
elegance of it's diction to the works
of some other American authors, the
inherent power of this homely story
of poor slave had an appeal to our
imagination and sympathy excited by
no book published before or since.
1t crystalized the abolition sentiment
in the north and gave impetus to the
movement which made inevitable the
emancipation of the black man.
While Charles Dickens. the other
writer, whose anniversary we cele-
brate, wrote more "best sellers" than
did Mrs. Stowe, no one work of his
commanded the worldwide attention
or caused such political upheaval
as uncle Toms Cabin provoked.
Yet in his own field Dickens was as
powerful an instrument for good and
did much to improve the condition of
the masses of the United Kingdom.
Both he and Mrs. Stowe got close to
the sympathies of their audience by
talking to them on these common
places of life that are fundamental
and strike responsive chord in ev-
cry heart. AS the spokesman for
| the man underneath, what they said
seldom missed the mark against
which it was directed. More than
everything else they demonstrated
the innate sense of justice of the
people when appealed to for the cor
rection of a wrong. Years before,
Patrick Henry had shown the effec-
tiveness of this appeal in his famous
Give me liberty or give ME death"
speech but between the work of the
orator and the book, there is this
difference; the book speaks and in
spires millions and is imperishab1e,
while the orator addresses his elo-
quence to a few and it's thrill u.s.
ually is soon forgotten.
For creating deep and lasting i'm
pressions the written word is the
thing that supplies us with the mo-
tive power for much of that which
we do. BY it's power of suggestion
it moves us-often unconsciously-
to an appreciation of things and con-
ditions, the existence. of which We
do not suspect or passively realizing
do not fully comprehend. While
"Uncle Toms Cabin undoubtedly
was the most important contributing
factor to the civil war, it was the ed
itorial of Horace Greeley in the New
York Tribune, calling upon Lincoln
to free the slaves, that caused the
martyred president to issue his eman-
cipation proclamation at that time,
instead of later. In our own times
we have had striking example of
this same power of suggestion in the
historical work. THE Catholic
Church in the United States" which
brought so concretely and wildly to
the attention of Plus X, the marvel
Gus growth of that body in this coun-
try that it is said to have determined
him to appoint three new American
instead of one. The sim
gular thing about "Uncle Toms Cab
in" which was written by Mrs Stowe
from incidents passing under her OBJ
servation while living in the south,
an dabout Dickens works, Greeleys |
editorial and the Catholic history
which is a mosaic of the writings of |
some 5000 nuns, priests and laymen
and women, collected by the Catholic
Editing Co. of New York, is that their
authors never anticipated that their
labors would cause the profound stir
in the political, social and religious
world that they did. The interest in
the Dickens and Stowe centennaries
as in that of Greeleys last spring
will be worldwide, spontaneous and
'everently sincere.
-A-