Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1913-11-19
Had a Powerful Influence on the
American People.
IN His Original Home He Favored
-Direet Action" and in the West.
ern World Built on Empire
What He Accomplished.

New York.-In a great many affairs
that go wrong today the social mind
ed detectives do not say, Cherchez lie
femme: they say, Cherchez the puri-
tan ancestor. That dour figure in
sugar loaf hat and buff ierkin and
breeches stridlng on his way to
church with his fintlock and his
Bible, is responsible for an extraor-
binary number of things that now af-
fiict u.s. He stands in the way Of a
minimum wage, of Sunday baseball,
of the uplifting of the stage, Of the
speedy solution of the white slave
problem, the divorce problem, the sa-
loon problem, the eugenics problem,
the l a. m. lobster palace problem,
and a good many other problems
which. the theatrical managers on
Broadway are aching to solve but are
not allowed to.
The cavaliers despised the puritan
ancestor because he spoke through
his nose. But that was a minor fault.
The real sin is that he refused to
speak at all He is the original
patentee of the conspiracy Of silence
to which all our ills are due, as con-
trasted with the happy nations Of the
continent where there is no conspir-
acy of silence on all these fascinating
topics, and consequently these prob
lens do not exist The puritan ex-
allied salvation at the expense Of con-
versation, thus failing to perceive that
the latter is the indispensable condi-
ton of the former If he had not
been so afraid OF calling a spade a
spade, we should now have flourish
ing literature and drama and art, and
we should have done away with the
social evil, even as conversational PEG.
pie like the French and the Germans
have done away with it.
Considering that the truth alone
can be the basis of true progress and
civilization 1t is astonishing how many
things that whining, hypocritical puri
tan ancestor accomplished in his day
In his original home in England he
had not been going many years be
fore he cut off the head of king
sent another king packing about his
business, and in other ways pursued a
policy Of direct action" that should
appeal enormously to w. d. Haywood
Crossing the Atlantic he helped tC
lay the foundations Of an empire. Fol
man who hated to call a spade 9
spade 1t is remarkable how well he
could use that familiar agricultural
implement. He used it to dig up the
ungrateful soil of a rock bound
frost-bitten commonwealth. Later hi
shouldered his spade and still speak
ing through his nose, but for the mos
part faithful to his conspiracy of 81
lence, he dug up the more grateful
soil of the Mississippi valley and thu
western prairies and the Pacific rive
valleys, with occasional deviations Il
the pickax when he struck the ore
bearing lands Of Colorado and tn,
Sierras. He did not lose the earl,
habit of carrying his fiintlock int
the field He used 1t in Kansas, ant
five years later he was carrying
over a thousand miles of battlefield
In his own hypocritical way he callet
It a fight for free institutions agains
slavery. When the war was over h.
went back to farming and railroad
building, persistent in his churchgo
ing habits and the traditional conspir
acy Of silence.
We are forced to the conclusion
that the puritan ancestor Jared bel
ter than he deserved and builded bel