Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1919-04-17
IHEGREA1 west
As seen By Mr..
FRANK K. Lane
Washington IS Not America. De
clares Franklin K. Lane. sscre-
tary Of the Interior. The Great
West More Nearly Representa-
tive of American Enterprise.
fBy X, A N
Secretary OF the Interior

Secretary of the Interior
Away from Washington one realizes
how very little government has to dc
with most of the things that make Am
erica the big, bouncing, hopeful. cheer
full land that it is. In a time of wal
when there is a national will, when ono
~purposeful thing has to be done by q
unified people, matters are quite differ
ent. Then all look toward " asiIia.g,
ton and ask for orders. No mail is
driven or screw turned without asking
whether the driving or The. turning
will make for the nations success
Then government is great, greater, in
deed. than at any other time. Then
Washington looms so large that its
capitol casts a shadow over all the rest
of the continent. But Washington il
not America; it has not made this coun.
try. And that is what mi feels with
intensity when he sees such a gather.
ing Of cattle raisers, horsemcn, bank.
ers. farmers, merchants, ship builders,
manufacturers and doer-of-things ais
gathered in Omaha the other day at
the Trans-Mississippi R-eadiustment
Congress.
And they all belonged to the bour.
geoise! The Observation-Disclosures a hat.
ed loathsome, unpopular word for you.
There was a labor leader in Omaha
and a very wise speech he made, tap-
but he was Of the bourgeoisie. for he
had not done a. stroke of work with
his hands for many years, nor had he
inherited wealth, poor man! And so
he must fall into the despised class.
And there was a cabinet officer in Om-
aha who has as sound a head as you
will find in g weeks travel. But he,
too, stopped working years ago, spend
ing his time exclusively now in show
ing others how they a work to their
own greatest gain. Another speaker
came to the meeting in his private car
I have no doubt; / CAP remember "a
lily when he was a freight solicitor. An
ex-eow puincher added much to the
thoughtfulassssSasf Ae slsody There
We're big shop keepers and little shop
keepers, big manufacturers land little
manufacturers big / bankers and little
banlsesrS by the score, whose biogra:
phies in Who's, Who do not reveal
the fact, of which they are always
Boosting, that prle was a newsboyysS l.
other a. at~epQgrapher, a hired farm
hand, and 50 on Through the ganut
Of the hnmb!,r beginnings.
The Mystery9of Democracy
So these aresthe boourgeoisie OF Am
erica! Every one OF them, / warrant,
would give his last dollar, or his last
chance at one to have been with his
boy in France. And il the convention
had been held thirty years or SO ago
these very men could then have made
UP a Peasants and Workmen's Coun.
Gil. Not a bad land where such a
growth is possible, is 1T?
Faith, and Force were there in ON.
aha. and these two have beSS the real
government Of America. They have
been far: more, potent than statute or
debate. The personal force Of the
man with a belief in. his own ability
to do something a bit better than some
one else or to do something nc n else
has dared, The force and faith Of all
the adventurers, no matter in what
field. For this is the mystery Of De,
moesaeyf--like ell mysteries. g sinrle
thing when known-that u IS a re
I~leaser, 1T takes off the inFlbitions and
gives the force and faith Of men q
chance for action. All Of history Isl .
story Of adventure. across new seas
over dark continents, real seas of wa
liter and real continents of earth scrae
times. but oftener Q Feientifs