Omaha daily bee., 1922-05-15
Why Are the States?
frrom III. New York Evening Post1

From the New York Evening POst)
There was a time when Americans
were not merely citizens of states,
but aggressively proud OF 1t. The
greatest American Of all. in camp at
Cambridge. wrote to Lund Washing
ton that the Yankees were low,
grasping set, in distressing contrast
with the Virginia officers. The
Yankees themselves had such rooted
objections to serving under a New
Yorker that congress replaced Philip
Schuyler with Gates. The most emf
nent Pennsylvania, Dickinson, and
the most eminent son of Massachu-
setts. Adams, cut each other over a
question of Pennsylvania policy.
1t was a pride that persisted to
what is sometimes called "the war
of the states" A Virginian in 1850
would have been as much insulted
to be taken for Vermonter or DIR.
Johnson would have been to be CALI
ed a Scotchman. OF this pride there
are fewer and fewer vestiges 1T Is
curious how state lines mark differ
ences in Americans" writes William
Allen White in the first Of a series
Of nation articles which will try to
define the variances of 48 states. 1t
Is even more curious how little the
differences are recognized.
In large part this arises from our
habit of looking at the states from
a standpoint Of national history and
politics, in which light they seem to
have played a discreditable and d.
furnishing role Haven't the states
been in the way Of every great re-
form from the federal constitution
to the establishment of a truly ma
tional army? Are they not now the
source of the main difficulties in
such fields as divorce? Such cues
tions are misleading. The states
have often been not the obstacles to
national reform, but the instrument
nv which it came. Frequently y is
not the nation which conquers the
unwilling states, but the states whlch
conquer the nation.
We watch the Interstate Com
merce commission struggling with
the legislatures, but we forget that
If was the gran-er movement in the
states which gave birth to railway
regulation. We see the nation Try
ing to remove the child labor evll
in several southern states, but tne
uprising of 40-odd states against
child labor came first Prohibltion
was unsuccessfully tested IN 'ne
states in the '40s and sos; IT was
successfully tested there a hall CEN
tury later. Our 4S capitals give US
the greatest experimental LABORATORY
in the world ,,o,
+ions and retentions are much less
inonortant than social differences.
Edward Eggleston, in "The Hoosler
schonlmaster," made an effort TO
define Indiana as a state OF nina,
neculiar and chosen civilization. he
was correct in believing that It's dla-
lect its outlook. it's manners, were
uniuue. Illinois and Indiana are allRe
in phsiography, climate. mingling OF
New ENGLAND and southern lmml-
grafton. addiction to the saturday
Evening Post, the Chicago papers.
and nationally advertised brands OF
soap and underwear: but how Mere
dith Nicholson and Henry B. Fuller
would chuckle at the suggestion
that there are not profound distinc-
tions! William Allen White, treating
Kansas as "a Puritan survival, re-
marks upon the clear variances pc
tween that state and Nebraska. what
are they? A comparison OF villa
Sibert Gathers fiction of Nebraska
with Ed Howe's and William Allen
Whites fiction Of Kansas will lndi-
cate them more subtly and emphat-
ically than reams of magazine ar
ticles. Oregon also is "a Puritan
survival" but Oregon has still an
other personality.
When we have a fuller art In
America we shall better appreciate
this diversity in union, for art both
expresses and nourishes special char
acter