The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-06-03
JAMES. JEROME HILL.

close upon the shadows to which
it has given room? That now al
least seems the impossible. Ano
should it so happen in the future
that the void be filed by other
men and other agencies, this much
will be true, that filled it will have
been by many men and many
agencies-not by one single dom.
mating figure, such as the past
years have been used to unfoldato
our gaze. James jerome Hill has
been wrested from earthly life
and the gaping void is near and
around us.
The country speaks so loudly,
so tremendously of the hero now
hlOtted from vision, that nothing
remains to The Catholic Bulletin
to be said in words than that it
takes it's amplest and sincerest
part in the general tribute of adj
miring and loving sorrow.
The great man, not merely of
st. Paul or Of Minnesota, but of
America, is dead: st. Paul, Min
Hesota, America, wipe the surging
tear-drop from the eyelid, and
give themselves over to the mourn
ing of the soul which is admira-
ton of power Of mind and SINGER
est affection of heart.
Mr.. Hill, assuredly, was the
great man. His the vision Of won
drous possibilities: his the acute
ness of sight to survey them in
their every detail, as we'll as in
the full comprehensiveness of
their far-reaching grasp: his the
patience to unfold them into
timely development, the master
skill to guide into safest mornings
the waves of that development.
True, he had beneath his feet. in
the soil of America, in it's plains
and mountains, the foundations of
that prosperity, which nowhere
else has attained parallel heights
but the genius was called for to
seize upon those foundations in
Opportune times when none others
perceived them, to rush them into
frultlon while obstacles to others
insurmountable confronted the
prospect, while a hundred COOP
erations impossible to others to
marshal into unified form were in
the seeking, to bring forth into
vivid life the elements of chaos
the uncertainties of mere POSSIBLE
tiles. The needed genius sudden
ly lOomed UP in James Jerome
Hill-and this is why he is hailed
today as the great man Of Amer
lea. The achievements of Mr.. Hill
are so real, so wildly seen, that
descriptions Of them were veriest
utilities. And this the peculiar
merit OF those achievements they
were in fore-vision, in parturition.
IN final execution the work of the
one man-James j. Hill himself,
who, whencesoever the colaborers
he had summoned to his aid. al
ways held all things in his own
directing hand, under the inspira-
ton of his own far-seeing mind.
And his achievements, as they
were, always were honorable in
their aims and their means. al
ways tending to the widening of
the welfare and the prosperity of
his fellow-men.s The successes he
won were not the fruit of the
manipulations Of stocks and
bonds, nor that of the subterfuge
and the shrewdness of industry
and commerce: they were the
blossomings of the earth, of hith-
erto arid wastes, hidden yield
their treasures to the imperial
command of mind and of indus
try.
Heis called the Empire Builder:
and justly so. But the Empire
that sprang into form under the
touch of his wand is peopled with
the multitudes who have their
peaceful and happy homes wher-
ever the eagles Of his Empire
have futtered their triumphant
wings and tens Of thousands of
minds and Of hands have occupa-
ton and reward, wherever bubble
forth the industries to which his
ambitions and labors have given
entity and action.
The GOODNESS to ahght else than
self, so often the encircling shade
of greatness of plan and Of exc
cution, never dimmed the warmth
of the atmosphere Of the imperial
conqueror, that, was James Jerome
Hill. The proof of this is the love,
1.-THE love for James jerome Hill,
that perfumes the tributes of
whatever other nature, from
whatever class Of men, high or
low in the reckoning Of the world,