Part 21 (1/2)
When the struggle is over the men who control in politics will be those who have been soldiers.' And so these men went after commissions. They were wise and far-seeing and reaped reward of their prudence as well as of their valor. I saw the commission of one Linn county man made out for the majoralty in an Iowa regiment, not only before the regiment had been organized, but even before a single company had been raised. I saw another for a colonelcy, fixed out ahead in the same way, by reason of political grace and pull. Not but what these men, and others, made good officers. I am only explaining the reasoning which prompted some of them to enter service, and the means which were most efficacious in securing prominent places.
”And after a time it was considered that to get a high commission was tantamount to drawing a big political prize.
Men were thus rewarded for their a.s.sistance given to successful candidates, and opponents found their way to army prominence beset with many obstacles. You know that a movement was started in Linn county to defeat Kirkwood for governor for the second term. This developed considerable strength, and a ticket was nominated with William H. Merritt of Cedar Rapids at its head. Merritt had been lieutenant-colonel of the First Iowa, and his was known as the 'fusion' ticket. It was an attempt to combine 'war democrats' and some elements of the republican party.
Kirkwood was successful, and those men who had sought his defeat were, naturally, persona non grata with the state government. When commissions were going they were not remembered. Seymour D. Carpenter was one of these. But he did finally become surgeon of a regiment, because there was crying need for surgeons. Then when he was away from gubernatorial influence promotion was rapid, and the doctor was given a position as medical director of a department.
Ellsworth N. Bates was another who suffered because of partic.i.p.ation in the anti-Kirkwood movement. Mr. Bates persisted, however, and his merits and standing could not be ignored. He was elected captain of a company. With his regiment he served with more than usual credit, until he sickened and came home to die. There were others in Cedar Rapids and in Linn county who had similar experiences. Some of those who are still living, if they would but give full statements, would verify my remark that the proportion of politics mixed with the patriotism of those times was greater than is generally known.
”Speaking of Ellsworth N. Bates recalls to mind one whose name deserves to be remembered in Cedar Rapids and in Linn county. He came to the town fresh from college. He was a real scholar and a man of rare natural abilities. He had the art of making friends--of gaining and retaining esteem of all who knew him. He was one of the very best public speakers I have ever heard--quick to respond to varying occasion, with ready thought and a phenomenal command of language. His choice of words and use of appropriate imagery made his addresses models of their kind. As a lawyer he met with instant success. He represented Linn county in the legislature, and was acknowledged as a strong man among the law-makers. He made a splendid fight for the state senators.h.i.+p candidacy, against H. G. Angle. He was a.s.sistant secretary of the second const.i.tutional convention of Iowa.
When the war broke out he was one of those who did much to rouse sentiment for support of the government. Then he raised Company A of the Twentieth, and proved himself a real soldier in camp and field. When he came home, near to death, he had lost none of his old enthusiasm. He and I were intimate friends, and to me he told his plans for the future. Had E. N. Bates lived, I know that he would have ranked among the real statesmen of Iowa. As it was he accomplished more and had greater influence upon contemporaneous affairs than many whose deeds are very carefully preserved.”
Mr. Hollis also tells us how newspapers were made in that awful period of the nation's history:
”We were not sensationalists in those days. The events that we had to chronicle needed no trickery of headlines or large type to command attention. Here are the lists of dead and wounded in an Iowa regiment at the battle of Winchester,”
and the old editor opened a file of the _Times_ for 1864-65.
”Do you think it needed a flaming poster effect to secure reading of that column? There are the names of friends and neighbors. To some of the readers of that paper those names represented their dearest ones. Those who had brothers or fathers, or sons or sweethearts in that regiment read over the battle lists with a fearful anxiety. We were giving weekly chronicle of facts--they have not yet been arranged into the order of definite history. When we wrote editorials it was not pretended that we understood all there was to the struggle. Only when and where we caught the partial views or grasped the immediate meaning of some development we gave our opinions. These may have been prejudiced by our personal sentiments or our political affiliations, but I believe, as a rule, the editorial utterances of those years were from the souls of the writers and had the ring of sincerity. And, with but few exceptions, the newspapers of Iowa were loyal.
They directed or seconded loyal sentiment on all occasions.
Few of the editors of those weeklies gained wealth or distinction, but they deserve to be remembered for a splendid work. They, too, are among 'the forgotten worthies.' It cost money to run even a weekly paper during the war years. When I began as publisher of the _Times_ print paper cost $6 a bundle; before the war was over I was paying $16 for the same quality and amount. And wages ran up and up, as printers were more difficult to secure; until I was paying double what I had first found necessary.”
At the close of the war the newspapers of the county began to turn their attention to other evils. A wave of temperance sentiment swept the county, and some of the editors were foremost among the fighters.
The county was aroused by the great amount of crime. Much of it emanated from Cedar Rapids. ”Can we expect,” asked one writer in Cedar Rapids, ”peace and quiet in a place of 3,000 inhabitants which supports not fewer than nineteen liquor establishments and several houses of ill fame and does not support a single reading room nor a public library?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ALEXANDER LAURANCE Long Prominent in Cedar Rapids]
Then, as now, the newspapers were the best ”boosters” of their respective communities. They were the first to point out the advantages in each community and to suggest ways in which natural advantages might lead to commercial growth and civic prosperity. Thus a writer in a Cedar Rapids paper, after enumerating and commending the progress made by the town since its organization, dwelt upon the value of the water power, pointed out how the woolen mills then in operation might be made more effective. There was an abundance of timber around Cedar Rapids at that time and he advocated the establishment of saw mills in the city.
He saw no reason why staves should be brought all the way from Michigan to Cedar Rapids, when they might as well be manufactured here at home.
He advocated that a packing house be established in this city, instead of s.h.i.+pping the hogs from Cedar Rapids to Chicago and then s.h.i.+pping the meat back. ”This is only one item that would keep thousands of dollars in our town that now go out,” he argued. He wanted a hub and a spoke factory, a fanning mill factory, and as for a ”paper mill there is no better point in the state.”
History moves in ever repeating cycles and some of the things for which this old editor fought are still needed today in Cedar Rapids and in other towns of Linn county. But each cycle is better than the last.
Proof of this is seen in the dispute which was waged over freight rates less than a decade after the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railway had been built into this city. The grain rates from Cedar Rapids to Chicago were thirty cents a hundred pounds and the noise of protest which was made then was quite similar to the noise which is sometimes
THE NEWSPAPER GRAVEYARD
The newspaper graveyard was established very early in the history of the county and it is still claiming its victims. Among its early victims was the _Cedar Rapids Democrat_. It was issued by W. W. Perkins & Co. Somehow or other, democracy never flourished greatly in the Linn county newspaper field, and the early democratic editors had not learned the art of switching to a ”progressive” side. So their papers died. The _Democrat_ lived a year and a half. It deserved a better fate, for it was well edited and printed.
In 1853 a monthly agricultural paper called the _Cedar Valley Farmer_ was commenced by James L. Enos. It lived through the first volume, but a grave was opened for it before it had reached the tender age of two years.
The _Voice of Iowa_ was commenced in January, 1857, under the auspices of the Iowa Teachers and Phonetic a.s.sociations, James L. Enos editor-in-chief, a.s.sisted by a board of corresponding editors. It was continued through two volumes and was then merged with another journal.
In the autumn of 1864 A. G. Lucas & Co. commenced the publication of the _Cedar Rapids Atlas_. In January, 1865, it was changed to a weekly.
Then it was enlarged. Its place in the newspaper graveyard was prepared a few weeks later. The editor and publisher had gone to study the geography of other fields, but he did not take his debts with him. The office was sold to satisfy them. This so weakened the shoulders of the _Atlas_ that it was not strong enough to hold up.
The _Western World_ was born into a cold and unresponsive world, and soon it joined the ranks of the dear departed.
Then came the _Linn County Signal_ which its authors hoped would be a signal success. But its signals became tangled and it failed to kick over the goal of success. It kicked the bucket instead. T. G. Newman, the father of A. H. Newman of the Cedar Rapids Candy Company, purchased the remains. From them he made the office of the _Daily Observer_, with J. L. Enos as editor. From the _Observer_ came the _Cedar Rapids Republican_. This was in 1870. In 1902 there was re-born the _Cedar Rapids Times_. The father _Republican_ and the strong and l.u.s.ty son _Times_ are both in the full vigor of their powers, and this evolution of the two powerful dailies from the amoeba-like weakly _Signal_ is the most conspicuous example of newspaper evolution and the survival of the fittest on record.
The present _Cedar Rapids Times_ is not to be confounded with the _Cedar Rapids Weekly Times_ which had such a long and prosperous growth under the management of Editor Hollis, and later of the good Doctor McClelland. The _Weekly Times_ lived until the death of Doctor McClelland, and it was a power for good. Then came two gentlemen from Milwaukee who converted it into a daily. They had a great run as long as their cash and their credit held out. And they were good newspaper men, too. But they drew nearer and nearer the gateway to the great and yawning newspaper graveyard. There were many mourners in Cedar Rapids when the _Times_ was buried. It had been purified before its death by its conspicuous work in a great tent revival conducted by an evangelist, M. B. Williams. This revival the other dailies refused even to mention. The _Times_ had a great deal of broadcloth endors.e.m.e.nt. But the eulogies proved to be its premature obituaries. Cash came slowly.
Advertising was coy. With the fall of the leaves came the death of the _Times_. The _Gazette_ bought up the household furnis.h.i.+ngs, the subscription lists and the good will. But the _Times_ was buried, and the ghost of compet.i.tion which had haunted the _Gazette_ office was laid until the owners of the present _Evening Times_ resurrected the name amid a riot of red ink during the strenuous munic.i.p.al campaign of 1902.