The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-04-20
Echoes Of an Important Occasion
' currents Induced by the Speeches Of Logan r.
"in' Mewcomb and Kellogg at the High Tension
o4up Dinner With Some Bald Truths
Boldly Printed Uncensored
BY q. WALTER BARR.

H BY q. W.
Judge c Losan's Judge Logan ma,
Exnnsal aase agree with Napoleon
that history is the
Inv -. :. record agreed upor
sSon,, iot OF liars in power, but Il
mmst not be forgotten that there
rs Tvs. DE- agreement among those who
NY NV .le truth, before history can he
uGuued as one may like.
~ IS tlme to serve notice that q,
s sGasl one Of those who know the in.
otae facts and all of them declines II
ai.o3 70 assist Judge Logan in en-
mey perverting the history of the
power. uA wafer
When he told the High Tension club
mai rnat the building of this great water
p rests on tripod composed of
MaJor montgomery Meigs, Hugh T.
Iooper and Stone & Webster. Judge
Logan perpetrated bit of camouflage
Whlch passes the elastic limit of
the verities. -
IL happened that during those
strenuous, mysterious, complex and
nopeIuliy despairing days, 1 was hon.
oreo by the confidence of all the mar
ues IN interest belonging to Keokuk.
II was not all as smooth sailing as
! uhanlmlty in cussing the kaiser. and
sometimes there were differences OF
/ opinion on the inside with occasional
injured feelings and some heartaches
scattered around in the midst of the
human nature prevalent in even big at
ialrs: Probably am the only person
70 whom each and every workman on
the Herculean job was entirely candid
in conversation.
A large part Of the true inside his
troy OF those days can not be written
now for the simple reason that to do
SO requires the permission OF Judge
Logan and the cancellation of conf
dences. But there is no reason why
he should De allowed to throw
1our aces into the discard and brag
about what good poker players the
other three men are, with the spec
tator behind his chair keeping silent
forever and ever.
The cold facts are, that while others
did much, and many did each his
share according to his opportunities
and ability, it was one man named
William Logan who time and again
saved the day for keokuk. 1t was
William Logan who did the impossible
that nobody else would have at
tempted. 1t was William Logan who
commanded the quarter deck Of Keo-
kuk's ship at that time, mostly by
common consent and occasionally by
sheer force of character. Perhaps
another than Major Meigs might have
oil
the river; perhaps another than Hugh
L: Cooper could have designed wa
ter-power here that would work; per-
haps somebody else than Stone &
Webster might have raised the money
and formed the organization to de-
velop it--but no other man than Will
liam Logan could possibly have done
the various things he did which were
vital to the building Of the Keokuk
water power.
These things were many and varied,
and they can not be related in their
detail as long as the damn
able modesty of the man keeps the
seals on condolences. Very early there
was the incident of the prospectus
which only two or three persons ever
knew: there was the visit of keo-
kuk banker to Davenport and the
scare heads in the papers of that thor
oughly frightened city which rushed
the water power bill through congress;
there was that other play of f1nesse
in Washington; there was the Homeic
encounter Of William Logan, with the
courtesy title of Judge SO common in
with the great Cromwell, on
the tip-top pinnacle of the legal pro-
fession of America whose opinions
cost from fifty to thousand dollars
word and were never disputed-except
by William Logan who at the one
great vital hour convinced Cromwell
that the latter was wrong and made
love change his mind. The most stu
pendous thing about the epic promo
ion of the Keokuk project is William
Logan's share in it. The share Of
each of the others was enough honor
for any man, and the whole story is
! wonderful one of cooperation of
everybody from the president Of the
Did, original company to the masses
If voters in Keol,uk and Hamilton.
But when the list is made of those !
who did their work that all had much
It heart, the name Of William Logan
must lead all the rest.
Some of us have known this al
ways. We have watched that same
William Logan standing in the wings
If the stage and playing the spot light
IN other men as he posed as a his /
orian ard held them up as supermen. |
At least one believes it time to stop |
his camouflage before it becomes too
firmly set in the mould of printed his
DRY.
PATRIOTIC never was enthusiastic
nd Pulpit about the pulpit oratory'
,ratory of the Rev. DR.. Ezra But :
Ter Newcomb. Preaching /
c the smaller part of Dastorate, and
,r. Newcomb excels in the other func-
ions of a pastor. Probably he never
,ould fill a large church every Sunday
v his pulpit preaching. At least, l
m not prejudiced in its favor.
It is necessary to put in that dis
laimer in order to make plain the
,ncerity of the enthusiasm and praise
voked by the patriotic speeches OF