, 1912-02-15
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
History Goes to Prove that Most Great Men Come from the Lowest
Walks Of Life-Intelieence and Ambition Rank with
Higher Education

One hundred and three years ago Monday in primitive little
lOg cabin on the outskirts of the wilderness of Kentucky, a scrawny,
homely baby was born upon whom the gods smiled. To the am
bilious, the industrious and the enterprising of future ages, the Ca
rer OF that lowly babe of the forest clearing, from woodsman to Pres
dent, is an 'dmonition that poverty and obscurty are no handicap
" the conquest OF lifes big prizes. Instead of being al obstacle
TO hi development, poverty was to Lincoln a incentive which time
qmckened as he began to realize that responsibility unerringly gravi-
hes to the man best able to assume it.
In this, Lincolns rise from the humble lot of a rail splitter to
mat Of one OF the stirring characters in history, emphasized anew the
fact now everywhere recognized, that no hove, however lowly is any
m'e safe from the visitation of talent than it is from lightning
Modern politicians, covetous for power, can profit by his modest
plotest on departing for Washington to assume the Presidency that
he was already sick of Office holding.
keep the old sign on the door" he said to William Herndon,
MS law partner for l6 years as he left his dingy little office at Spring
held for the last time. IF l hve'-the general impression was
That he would be assasinated-"Tm coming back some time and then
we'll 60 right IN practcing law as if nothing ever happened"
In a republic governed with the consent of the governed could
mere be anything more intensely human than this frank confession
mat after all, his heart was with the people at home, who knew that
DE was not the monster his enemies had pictured him. The bullet
u the assassin, j. Wilkes Booth, put an end to all that was mortal OF
lincoln, but his spirit still goes marching on, an inspiration and
Oeutdicdon to the depressed and hopeless of all nations. It's one
" INT compensations of the truly great that the good 10 them Is TO-
ulembered and that what seemed a calamity to those who did not IN
+rstand them, is often in reality a boon. The South thought the
fleeing of the slave spelled it's industrial and economic rum; yet 1t
Produces today cotton of an annual value of $1,WOOoooOo where II
hsed but S%2OO,OOO,OOO of that staple before the war.
In it's effect on tine status of the plantation worker, the emanci-
patton of the black man worked for the uplift of the whole human
race though Lincoln probably did not anticipate for it, at the time,
more than a domestic influence. That slavery we a mistake, and
inspired waste and sloth, Is now universally acknowledged MOI
|oly in the South, but in the rice growing area of China, the tea
districts of India, the coffee growing sections of Brazil and the rich
pahtation rubber fields of British Guina, the economic indepeh,
|eence of the man, who wrests from the earth its treasure of useful
angs, has made inevitable u striking increase in his efficiency ana
"e productivity of the soil he culhvates, in the DEMENT'S II when
.oth employer and civilization alike share. That the boom oil tree-
a%m should have cost SC much in life and property is of course to be
eplored. But what We obtain too cheap says Paine, co%uthor
With Jefferson of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence
3hus"