Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-12-08
JOHN DEERE WAS
ONE OF GREATEST
Kansas Writer Declares Moline
Manufacturer Was Above
Abraham Lincoln.
LATTER MERELY SPEAKER
Asserts Those Who Lead in Supplying
Needs of People Are Entitled
to Most Honor.

That John Deere. founder of the
Deere industries in this city and pio-
neer plowmaker. exerted a greater in
fiuence for the advancement of the
world than Abraham Lincoln, is the
striking view set forth in an editorial
in the December number >of E. w
Howe's Monthly, published at Atchi-
son, Kan. The writer takes the view
that the leaders who help to minister
to the needs of the public are greater
than those who inspire them to higher
thoughts and deeds. He says:
abraham Lincoln gave the world
another great name, but he never ben
Gifted the people as much as did any
one of hundred modest and I'M
known business men who might be
named.
In case you regard this as a shock
ing statement, think it over and see
If you find any really great thing Lin
coin ever did, except that he was
about the greatest public speaker that
ever lived Freeing the slaves was not
original with him; that idea was IA
nous before he was born, and dozen
strong friends of freedom. Other
countries had released slaves before
it was ever seriously talked about IN
the United States. And had a board
CT half a dozen business men conduct
ed our civil war instead of Lincoln,
it would not have lasted half as long.
and the expense would not nave been
half as great No man who runs to
public speaking as Lincoln did can
possibly handle anything on a bust
ness basis. And everything not han
died on a business basis by business
men is handled wrong.
Next time you are in Washington
look at the pension building. Lincoln
founded that.
Deere One of Several.
Recently l received a letter on
which was printed this return request:
I'm five days return to Deere &
&C., Moline, Ill
Then came a picture of man who |
locked as capable as the gentlemen !
whose pictures we see on postage |
stamps and paper money. The picture |
represented man as wholesome and |
good looking as Henry Clay, Abraham
LiuCCIl VI Sll1I4Oo Vi any VI |
our heroes. Below the picture was !
printed these words: John Deere; he |
gave to the world the steel plow.'.
1.-The captains of industry and the |
men who serve under them are my
heroes. The men who make the neces-
stiles of life are greater than the men
who make the laws.
WHO made wall paper so cheap
you may paper room for a few dol
lars? Who make calico and muslin,
and cloth and. fabrics generally? Who
make poultry netting and the thousand |
and one things of steel? The good me-
chanics, good farmers, good business
men, are my good fellows.
John Deere built up an institution
at Moline, Ill, more wonderful than
anything Lincoln did during the war;
your bishop is a poor excuse compared
with John Deere.
What does Lincoln's Gettysburg
address amount to compared with the
discoveries of Edison and Burbank?
jefferson "Poor Stick"
Thomas Jefferson was a poor stick
compared with Cyrus Mccormick who
perfected the harvesting machine.
And it\wasn't the Monroe doctrine that
made us respected abroad. 1t was our
prosperity, and no statesman had any
thing to do with that.
And there are thousands of heroes
like Mccormick; there are heroes in
every line of business. Do you know
anything about the men who have
made canned goods wholesome and
plentiful? There are hundreds of he
roes in electricity, in transportation,
in meat packing, in manufacturing, in
horticulture, in agriculture, in school: Il
more real heroes in business callings Il
than in SfafeSmanShjn II