The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-05-03
KNUTE NELSON
lMinneapOIis Tribunel


When the tall pine of the north
woods fell, a whole nation heard the
crash and beheld the spacious void
where there had been majestic
grandeur outlined against the sky.
Some such thought as this swept
the land when word went forth that
Knute Nelson had come abruptly up
on the end of his big, fine life.
Senator Nelson was indeed a tall
pine among his countrymen. He was
straight, strong and sound, and he
was deep-rooted in the soil of honor
and courage. He held his own
against many a storm-bowed, it may
be, but never broken; shaken some
times, but always unafraid while the
stress was on and when it had pas
sed.
For many years this sturdy son
of Norway, transplanted when but
a STRIPPING and growing into rugged
manhood in a new country, stood out
bold, %clean-cut and high in the sky
line of American citizenship. His
career is an inspiration to every ma
tive among us, and it is a challenge
to every alien who has come this
way, or yet may come, to make for
himself here a place in the sun.
Knute Nelson knew in his youth
and through some of his adult years
what it was to be poor in purse and
virtually without influential friend
ships. He never knew what is was
to be poor in courage or without an
earnest zeal to make the most of his
talents and qualities.
There were stiff obstacles in his
way, but yer the top of the worst
of them he saw victory reckoning
and he wig-wagged that he was COM
ing. The road he travelled in his
earlier days was a rough one, but it
was the very roughness of the going
that did so much to stiffen his moral T
fibre. make fortitude second nature c
to him, and give him the mastery over i
all his mental and spiritual forces. .
AS a servant of his state and .
country, Senator Nelson rose to great /,
occasions in great ways. He was a y
of spacious mind and large pur- T
pose, the former enriched by t~ireless Z
worthwhile reading, the latter shap- r
ed and confirmed by the passion that 7
burned within him to be of the best q
possible usefulness to his fellowmen. =
a man was not to be swerved n
from the curse he deemed right by :,
any loud clamor of the moment or f
by any urge of mere political ties. l.
Kunte Nelson was as simple as he II
was sincere-both essential attributes ;,
true human grandeur. He neither
too far behind the real spirit
the day nor forged too far ahead
it. He kept to that happy medium
the voice of his leadership :
could be heard and understood. !
He was a sterling patriot in terms =
IF his adopted country, but he also =
a humanitarian who thought in y
5erms Of the human race. His were =
types of deed and thought that =
woven into the wool of the worlds =
history, giving it color and charact- "
er. =
That a man like this splendid Vik- :.
ng" should fall in the harness seems
he fittest of things. He was an ar
lent toiler-happiest when he was NJ
No clocks for him ave only ~
S clocks might help to remind him =.
hat he should conserve his strength :"
0 work for the veal of others. At 81
our score years his mental vision -
yas still ~unclouded, his eagerness to i,
erve undiminished, his outlook hope
III, his patriot heart serene, his pur-
firm to answer when and where
)uty might seem to call. W
He will be missed from the coun- ''
lis of the nation, and missed from the "
ife of the state to whose name he
rought SO much of lustre.