Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-06-02
LindbeTgh Flying Viking
is Chip Off the Old Block
Wouldn't Take a Bad Case.
Continued from Page y


born in Sweden in 1859, son of men,
Der of the Swedish Parliament. His
parents brought him to America when
he was a small child. He had the
usual experiences of Western boy,
studied law, graduated from the Uni
versity of Michigan, settled down to
practice at Little Falls, Minnesota.
But very soon something developed
about this man that is not too usual.
He picked his cases, not by their
probable return to him in money, but
by their merit. He wouldn't take a
case that he believed in any way
tainted with unfairness. A client
must have the right side of a contro-
versy to get Lindbergh for his lawyer.
So well established did this rule be-
come that through wide district it
was taken for granted that any liti-
giant whose cause Lindbergh would
espouse deserved to win. l suspect the
juries saw to it that he generally did
win.
A Northwestern Progressive.
Such man, in such a community,
cannot stay out of public life. Lind
bergh, senior, came to Congress as a
Republican from the Sixth District of
Minnesota in 1907, and stayed 10
years. He belonged to the group of
Northwestern Progressives, with a
specially keen interest in the money
question. He was a hard worker, but
he found time to keep in close touch
with the long legged boy who, when
not tinkering with machinery, liked
to hang around dads office, listening,
but never saying a word.
Lindbergh quit Congress in 1917,
and next year ran for Governor of
Minnesota as candidate of the Nonpar-
tisan League. That league had been
branded as dislOyal Organization
which it was not-and hotheads who
believed the charge and schemers who
had their own reasons for repeating
it tried to bluff out league speakers.
They never got to first base with
Lindbergh. He would go to town
which had threatened to mob him,
walk through the scowling crowds
without seeming to see them, and
make his speech. In spite of the war
fever, he came close to winning-in-
deed, he probably was counted out.
Scattered Ashes Over Home.
That was one sample of the Lind
bergh nerve. Another was shown
though not known while he was at
Washington. He went through a ma
jor operation without an anaesthetic,
talking with friend the while, and
only once did he even clench his fist.
The "Flying Fool" comes rightly by
his courage, from both sides of the
house.
When Congressman Lindbergh died
in 1924, his flying son took up the
fathers ashes in a plane, and scat
tered them over the old home. Then
he went back to the air mail service,
and his mother, who graduated at the
same college as her husband, went to
teaching school; for men like Lind
bergh do not leave fortunes-in money.
Millions Prayed for Success.
Everyone knows that young Lind
bergh has had to leap four times in
a parachute from a disabled plane.
Not so many have heard of his I'M
canny gift for finding his way through
fog. When he made his hop from San
Diego to St. Louis, he was in fog for
hours, flying by compass and guessing
at the side drift-but when the wealth
err cleared, he was on the line that
led only fifteen miles from his goal
His flight to Paris is the most dra-
matte event since the war; the most
dramatic event with a single actor
recorded in all history. Never before
has the whole round world hung
breathless on the fate of a single man.
Never were so many people praying
for one individual-that pause at the
New York prize fight is an epic in
itself. Never did one human being
get the worlds good wishes with so
little-if any-alloy.
Unknown Lad World Hero.
Nothing was lacking to the superb
story. The unknown lad comes out of
the West and wins the prize while
famous champions wait. He arrives
with his handful of sandwiches hard
ly touched.
France, her eyes not dry from
mourning for her own gallant sons,
takes the American boy to her heart,
and the American ambassador cables
that he is honored by having this
incompatible lad" sleep in his house.
The new miracle of the wireless
phone is called in to let the hero in
Paris talk to his mother in Detroit;
and then he calls on Madame Nun
gesser, mother of the hero who lost,
to pay his tribute to her sons achieve
ments and daring, and try, in hating,
boyish fashion, to comfort her.
One such tale makes decade worth
living in, and while Lindbergh lives,
| the story is not finished.