Omaha daily bee., 1917-03-04
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BY Victor Rosewater

THE NEWS reports Of the week brougl the
i sad tdings that Captain Jack Crawford
had lost his last fight and had finally passed to
the Great Beyond. Readers of this column know
that l have already paid my tribute here to this
big-hearted rough diamond who started on bril-
earliest days. The best farewell that can be said
for Captain "Jack" is the bit of verse he sent at
the time of my fathers death, inscribed, I'm
Memoram to Edward Rosewater, from the Poet
Scout" which by mere reversal would aptly fit
the author himself.
II could stand today beside his bier
And look into his brave, strong, calm dead
face,
would not be ashamed of heartfelt tear
That irrgates my soul and leaves its trace.
He took nv hand, a wild and reckless boy
And steaded me, broncho in the west.
found his friendship was without alloy
And food for thought made easy to digest.
Goodbye, dear Ed! You fought an open fight.
You feared no foe and dared to speak right
You stood for Honesty and Truth and Right,
Nor could the corporators knock you out.
Only death can down such souls as yours
But death cannot destroy the trail you left
Such work remains forever and endures.
Our sympathy is with the dear bereft.
L
sponsor and always look back to him with great
affection growing out of days when he was prin-
cipal of the Omaha High school and taught me in
some OF the classes | attended. While paying me
the honor of visit he mentioned the old Polit-
cal Economy club" organized in Omaha in the
expiring sos, of which he was prime mover in
conjunction with what turned out to be later
remarkable group OF associates.
There were just six in that club beside my
SELF" said Mr.. Lewis perhaps the most brilliant
was William II. Baldwin, jr., then connected with
the Union Pacific and afterwards president Of the
Long Island railroad, dying in his prime Then
there was the late William S. Curtis, who became
dean Of the Washington university law school at
St. Louis and Frank Irvine, who became dean Of
the law school at Cornell. Another member,
James H. Mcintosh, is now general counsel OF
the New York Life Insurance company. DR..
Clifford who is still here, also belonged and so
did Gilbert M. Hitchcock, now member Of the
United States senate. | think the discussions Of
the money questions in the club had something to
do with transforming Mr.. Hitchcock from re-
publican to democrat lat any rate his wife once
accused me OF influencing him in that way) and
the strange thing is that about the time he turned
democrat / became republican on the same
issue. At one time we considered admitting Her
bert J. Davenport then practicing law in Omaha,
but decided to stick to our limit OF seven, and
Davenport, thus prevented from becoming a
member of our political economy club, later be-
came head of the department of political economy
at the University of Chicago"
For the first time since the famous 1912 con-
vention, in which we collided so frequently,
came into contact again with Francis ]. Heney at
the conference of the Federal Trade commission
with the newspaper publishers at Washington.
And this time Mr.. Heney was presiding at the
meeting. For the moment, however, we were
both pulling on the same string in the same direc-
ton and l secured recognition" from the chair
without the slightest difficulty or embarrassment.
Speaking to me afterward Mr.. Heney said, in
renewing the old acquaintance and recalling the
former association:
81 was greatly tempted to remind you that
was forbearing from ruling you out of order"
THAT would be only fair turn about" sug-
gested, adding "but don't think gave you the
provocation that furnished the occasion before"
To which his reply was his characteristic smile.
Let me put in this word for Mr.. Heneys pres
ent work as special counsel for the trade COM
mission in the print paper investigation, that he
If the plans under way develop to the relief OF
the print paper market, he will be entitled to an
equal share OF the credit with the Federal Trade
commission
had call the other day from my old friend,
Professor Frank A. Fitzpatrick, formerly super
intendent of the Omaha public schools, from
Jobs of the American Book company, for which
he is New England manager, with headquarters in
Boston, He said he had not stopped off in Omaha
for about dozen years and was naturally amazed
at the marked improvement of the city during
that time. His familiarity with the school book
situation led me to ask few questions, which
elected frank answers.
Eyes, the prices of paper and other materials
going into the manufacture Of school books have
gone up proportonately even more than your
print paper prices, but as yet we have not changed
the selling lists Of our publications. Some OF the
other text book publishers, believe, have made
slight increases and l am free to say that do
not know whether our policy OF fixed and un-
varied price will be adhered to regardless of
future conditions. Yes the close of the war will
make necessary a lot of new school books, but
only in a few lines. There will have to be new
biographies and histories, but remember that
reading writing and arithmetic will continue the
same after the smoke of battle has cleared away.
So will the sciences, the arts the languages and
all standard literature"