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Show THE CITIZEN paring. When I came of age, he once wrote, I didnt know much ; still I could read, write and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under itf'e pressure of necessity. Having failed as a storekeeper, he was glad to accept the office of Surveyor of Sangamon county. We can see that his neighbors had begun to look upon him as a leader. A few years before, when the Black Hawk war broke, out he had been elected the captain of a company and had served through the campaign. His progress had been slow because in those backwood days poor boys did not have many advantages. But there was always opportunity for the lad who was determined to progress. As soon as Lincoln attained a little learning his neighbors began to see to it that he was rewarded accordingly. Meantime his brilliant rival, Stephen A. Douglas, The Little , Giant, who had been more fortunately placed, was making progress more rapidfy. Born five years later than Lincoln, at Brandon, Vermont, he studied for three years at the Academy of Canandaigua, and in 1833 settled in Jacksonville, 111., where for a time, he supported himself by keeping a school. .Called to the bar in 1834, he quickly obtained a lucrative practice and in the following year was chosen attorney general of the state. In 1853 he was elected a member of the legislature and five years later became secretary of state. He was judge of the state supreme court from 1841 to 1843, when he resigned his office to become a representative in Congress. As early as 1847 he was a United States senator. It was in 1846 that Lincoln was elected to the National House of Representatives, and it was not until 1858 that he contested in public debate with Douglas for the United States senatorship. Lincoln lost the prize, but his speeches attracted national attention and, as a result, won for him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. These dates in the lives of the two leaders are cited to show how slowly Lincoln developed. Not only was he less fortunately situated in his youth than Douglas to obtain educational advantages, but we have reason to suspect that there were some inherited taints of character, among which was a species of melancholia, to overcome before he was able to place himself in the van of political and moral leadership. In the end he vaulted higher even than The Little Giant and we may readily believe that his greater measure of success was due to his greater measure of trial, of sacrifice and struggle. In his middle life we find him one of the greatest and sanest men of all time. Endowed with a philosophic mind, he had something of even more value an honest, broadly human heart. If we were to point out those qualities which distinguished him from and made him greater than all the Presidents who had preceded him we would say that it was his qualities of heart. Lincolns heart, like his mind, was the product of development. It learned to beat in time with the pulse of humanity. In his speeches we can easily distinguish the tone of them from the tone of the aristocratic orators of his day. They were often, like the Gettysburg in their simplicity. When we read them we realize that here was a man who did not need the gandiloquence of Cicero or the ornateness of Burke. He was of the age which democratized literature by making it the interpreter of the common man. Kings and their flatterers had had their day; now the plain man was to be revealed as the ruler of the destinies of the human race. The movement of which he was a part has spread until it has begun to embrace the whole world. The kings are gone, democracy remains. But a new menace has arisen in the lamentable form of anarchy. Whereas our democracy believes in a free field and no favor, in equal opportunity without special privilege, Bolshevism bbut of of in elies in the rule of the strong; not the triumph right, ad-subli- me 5 Let us have faith that right makes might, and let us in that faith to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. POLAND AND THE LEAGUE T?HEN Trotzky stands before Warsaw the revolution will be VV accomplished. This is said to be the watchword of the Bolsheviki, With the fall of Poland they expect to see communism triumphant in Europe. Poland and Rumania form' a thin wall between Bolshevik and' Teutonic Europe. 'At the moment Trotzky threatens to destroy this wall which reaches from the Baltic to the Black Sea. A year ago the same possibility presented itself, but seemed remote. This year the Bolsheviki are triumphant in the civil war that has rent Russia since the outbreak of the revolution and are organized and equipped for adventure beyond the Russian frontiers. If the Bolsheviki are correct in their belief that the revolution will be definitely successful once they stand before Warsaw, why should they not attack Poland as soon as mild weather permits ? Why dissipate their energies by forays into Asia Minor, Persia or India, when a single blow, aimed at the heart of Europe, will accomplish their object? The sense in which the Reds use their watchword is manifest. s With Poland vanquished they will be in contact with Germany and they entertain not the slightest doubt that Germany will be in the hands of the revolutionists as soon as the fall of Warsaw is proclaimed. The present German government, which is a compromise between socialism and republicanism, cannot hope to survive when the Russian Reds stand at the eastern gates ready to aid their radical brethren. In March the Germany army will be disbanded according to the terms of the treaty. It will be replaced by an army which will be barely sufficient to police Germany in comparatively tranquil times. The allies will be confronted by a dilemma. They will not know whether to complete the disarming of Germany or to rearm her and aid her in a death struggle against the Bolsheviki. Envoys from Poland are in London and Paris painting a pitiful and true picture of the republics plight. With a million soldiers mobilized, Poland lacks equipment and faces revolution. She must have food, clothing and unlimited military supplies. She must have at her disposal the wealth of her allies. In a word, the allied nations must stand against Red Russia as they stood against Germany. Perhaps the League of Nations wil know what to do. If so Europe will await the decision in fear and trembling. A sample of the leagues operation, or rather failure to operate, is the lifting of the economic blockade which had been in effect against Russia ever since the Bolsheviki gained the ascendancy. On the same day that the council of the League of Nations was formally assembled at Paris, the Supreme Council, which is the governing body of the allied and associated powers, brushed the league council aside and decreed the lifting of the blockade, thereby renderII of the covenant. ing null and void Articles As Russia is at war with some of the league powers the matter becomes, under Article XI, of concern to the whole league. More specifically Russia is at war with Poland and Rumania and under Russia should be summoned to the bar of the league Articles XII-Xfor arbitral measures, and if she refuses to accept adjudication, a boycott should automatically begin in conformity with Articles XVI and XII-XV- V, XVII. Instead of beginning to operate according to the terms of the covenant the council of the league stood aside and permitted the supreme council of the allied and associated powers to usurp its authorforce. ity. The consequence will be that Russia will be supplied with the RuIt is of the very essence of democracy that it should believe in the sinews of war to conduct its military campaign against Poland, mania and perhaps other members of the league. triumph of right. Lincoln so understood it, and we find him, again The lifting of the food blockade was desirable from the standand again, stating it as the highest and truest principle of popular reagovernment. In the conclusion of his Cooper Union address, in 1880, point of humanity and common sense. Indeed, there was much son for lifting the entire blockade and the supreme council may not he said : |