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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1904)
1 Speaker of the House Cannon at Home Copyrighted. 1904. by Frank O. Carpenter.) nvili,E. 111.. Aug. 11. (Special D Correspondence of Ths Bee.) I sit down with me on the big porch of Spuaker Cannon's big house here In Danville and have a heart-to-heart talk with one of the really big men of the country. The wind which fans our cheeks like a sea, breeze come from the corn-ladrn Illinois prairies, rust ling tho forest trees at our side with Its song of prosperity and peace. We are away from the factions of politics, away from the strife of legislation, away frem, the struggling of everyday statesmanship; we are away from the big cities, away out In God's country, where one can look at himself and the world. It Is under uch conditions that I have had a visit with Joe Cannon, the results of which are embodied In the conversation which fol lows. The first part of our talk was of a per sonal nature. I had asked the speaker as to his boyhood and he replied that he could remember as far back as when he was 4 years old, now sixty-four years ago. It was then," said he, "that we emi grated from North Carolina to Indiana Wt came over the mountains In canvas covered wagons, sleeping In tents. Wo crossed the litUe Dan river. It was as big to nie then as the Mississippi Is now. J can still see the great forests, the wild flowers by the roadside and the squirrels darting from tree to tree." "Then your parents were southerners, Mr. Speaker?" They were born In North Carolina, but they were Quakers of the old stock that went from Massachusetts south and emi grated thence to different parts of tho, west. They were natural pioneers, always moving from place to place. My father and mother lived in Guilford county. North Carolina. Father taught school then In a little red school house, of which I have a picture. He afterward studied modlclne and practiced it. There were about twenty families in the caravan which went to In dlana and settled at our little town on the Wabash. It was there I got my first schooling and there I lived until I was IS, when father was drowned and I had to go to work." "What did you do then, Mr. Speaker?" "I clerked In a country store for ftvo years, after which I went into an office and studied law. It took me some time to get a start as a lawyer, but I finally suc ceeded, and was doing well when I was first elected to congress, about thirty-two years ago. With the exception of one term I have been In congress ever since." "Then your boyhood was not an easy one, Mr. Speaker?" "Perhnps not. In comparison with thnt of the city boys of today; but it was like that of the other boys of the community and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There Is nothing like the pleasures of youth and Its glorious dreams of tho future. As we grow older we are content with the present. I havs not built an air castle for thirty years," al though I enjoy life still. "And yet the pleasures of my youth might be considered hardships now. In those days very boy rose at daybreak to make the lire. You crept from the warm sheets out on the cold floor to dress. It might be that your boots hnd frozen over night, and kow you did have to pull getting them on. Then II you had been thoughtful and had carried In the wood before bedtime it was not hard to kindle it and to put the kettle on the crane; but if not. you had to go out and split the wood In the snow. After the fire was built came the milking, and you took two pails and went out to the barn. On pail held the milk and the other served for the strlpnlngs. Tou had to watch that the old muley cow did not kick you, and It night be that she would flirt her bedrag gled tall into your still half-sleepy eyes. After milking you came In and had break fast, and how It did taste! Snowballs then were as good as apples now and every bit as sweet. "When I worked in the country store I sad to get up, make the fire, sweep out, eat breakfast and be. ready for business by 6 o'clock In the morning, and I stayed In the store until o'clock at night. Was it bard? Not Other boys did the same, and we had our fun, too. Many a time we went out and danced till daybreak and got back ready to open tip at the usual time. We may have yawned a little during the day, but the elixir of youth remedied all before night" I here asked Mr. Cannon to tell me more about his education. He Is a well-read man, and In his speeches uses excellent English, Illustrating his points from his tory and literature, ancient and modern. Mr. Cannon said: "My education was confined to the country school, to homo teaching about the big log fireplace, where father read to us at night, and to my own private study. While I was clerking I had more or less time when business was slack, and after I began to read law I got a smat tering of Latin." "What books did yen have?" "Very few during my boyhood. There Was a little publio library In the saddler's Shoo In our town, and Its books were passed around. We had Plutarch's Lives, Aesop's Fables, Josephus' History of the Jews, Rollins' Ancient History. Shakespeare and thm Bible. I read Shakespeare before I ON THE BIQ PORCH Was 15, and every year from 9 to 15 I had to read th,e Bible through from end to end." "Can you quote much from the Bible?" "I never could quote anything," said the speaker, but the Bible has furnished nie more illustrations for my speeches than any other book. It is full of grand pic tures, and It has parables and examples Illustrating every phase of human life and action." "What parts of the Bible have helped you mo3t?" I asked. "I can hardly say. Thoy are all good. The Old Testament and the New are full of great thoughts and striking images. Take David and his Psalms, the Proverbs Of Solomon and Solomon's Songs. There Is nothing like them anywhere. Eccleslastes Is a great philosophical poem, and all Job Is pcetry. Think of the story of Exodus and the wandering of the chosen people through the wilderness for forty years, and that only two of all their host ever saw the promised land. And then the sermon on the mount and the life of Paul. The Bible Is a treasure house. It has had great Influence upon me all my life." "What books stand next to the Bible, In your estimation?" Shakespeare has. I suppose, the second place, but I study Shakespeare still and find It ever fresh and ever new. Plutarch's Lives I know almost by heart, and llielr characters are very real to me. From Bol llns I got much of my knowledge of the "Greeks and Romans, and from Shakespeare human nature." I here asked the speaker as to what he thought of the benefits of college educa tion. He replied: "I have regretted that I was not able to go to college. The lack of such an educa tion made it so that I have had to do my life work with dull tools. Education sharp ens the iajellectual faculties and the man who possesses It works more surely and safely. I have for years been on the appro priation committee of the house of repre sentatives and have signed conference re ports appropriating more than Sl.ron.ono. I have had my say as to the contents of those reports, but I would not have at tempted the writing of one for a fortune. Why? Because the reports are written In a hurry and the misplacing of a single comma might have cost the nation millions of dollars and brought me everlasting dis grace." "But schools like yours have their ad vantages over the colleges, Mr. Speaker," said I. "It is such schools that make men." "That may be true," was the reply. "There are greater disadvantages than having to work one's way through life. Such work brings out the man and hardens his character. Thoee who are doing things In the world today are largely men schooled ss I was. They come from the middle walks of life. They have had to fight their way upward and through lighting they grew. I learned much In that coun try store. It taught me exactitude. In dustry and the value of the nickel. Only the fewest people ever learn that twenty nickels make a dollar. In that store the accounts had to be exact. I remember we sold a calico dress for 1 and It then took Just eight yards to make a dress. We measured It off with the yard stick Just eUht yards, not a quarter of an Inch more, not a querter of an Inch less. Eight pounds of coffee were sold for 11 and I learned to measure out Just eight pounds. I think we put the paper on the scales first Another wuui article ws sold was - - v A ' . t r r. . t - ; OF "UNCLE JOB" CANNON'S HOME AT tobacco, which cost 40 cents a plug, but wl Ich was usually sold In 5-cent cuts. I learned to cut a plug In eighths and to put the other seven-t'lghlhs away In a glass Jar for future customers. All this taught me to be exact." "It must have taught you to be econom ical as well?" "Economical!" exclaimed Mr. Cannon. "Ye gods! how economical I was then. A nickel looked bigger than a double gold eagle does now, and I am not extravagant today. I wanted to study law and get ahead and I saved every cent. How closely I saved you may know when I tell you that fof that five years I received J1.0C0 in wages, an average of $4 a week, and I saved Just half of that. The result was that I had $500 when I stopped clerking. I lived upon that while I studied law. "That saving taught me the uses and value of money," continued Mr. Cannon. "It gave me habits which enabled me to pay the debts Incurred In the dull season of my law study and early practice. It caused me to Invest my surplus thereafter with the result that when I went to con gress I had what was then considered a good income outside my salary." "Could you not live upon your salary while in congress?" I asked. "I have not done so," was the reply. "I have lived well, although not extrava gantly. My expenses have been about twice as much as the amount received from the government. Nevertheless those In vestments made In the days of my law practice, owing to the rise in farm lands and other things, have mnde it so that I could now leave public life and be comfort ably well off. I don't mean that I would be a rich man In the present sense of tho word, but I would have enough for all my nee.ts." "You are too young a man, Mr. Speaker, to think of retiring. You seem to be In your prime." "If a man is as old as he feels," said Mr. Cannon, "I am still in my prime. I am 68, but I have never felt better, physically or mentally. I work more enslly and can handle men better than In the past. How long this will lust I do not know, but there are many men In public life older than I who are still doing good work. Senators Frye and Proctor are 73; Cullom, the chair man of the foreign relations committee of the senate, Is 74, while Allison and Hoar are each 76. All of these men are more efficient than they have ever been. The length of a man's working life Is largely a matter of Individual constitution. Some are older at 30 than others are at 60. If the Lord should give me threescore or even fourscore years of working life I shall be glad. I should like to remain upon this earth as long as I can be useful to myself and my fellows, and no longer. When I begin to fail I want to retire. I don't want to cumber the ground." The conversation here turned to publio questions and I asked Speaker Cannon his opinion as to the future of the United States. He replied: "The future of this country Is the future of the world's civilization. This Is the great breeding ground for the best of the human race. It Is a source of that element which does things, controls things, creates things. We have 80,000,000 people now. Within an other 100 years we shall have 300,000,000 and will have spread beyond our borders on ths north and south. By the close of this cen tury we Americans will dominate this con tinent and this hemisphere. We win havs passed beyond Mexico, Central America and the Isthmus of Panama and will havs 1 "V I- fj r', Jl SHELBYVILLE. ID. enclosed all South America In the grasp of our Influence. "Ky this I do not mean that we will un dertake the political government of the South American republics. I do not mean that we will hold them as we now hold our colonies, nor even as Cuba, which Is to some extent a dependency of ours. But I do mean that American capital and Ameri cans will have so settled themselves In our r sister continent that the day of revolutions and non-progress will have passed away. In the Monroe doctrine we have established the fact that no European power shall ever acquire any new territory in South Amer ica. That doctrine will always prevail. There may be European Immigration, but those Europeans who go to South America must become South Americans, and this, with the great overflow of our people to that country, means that they will be come a part of the world dominated by our ideas and the spirit of our civilization. "How about Canada, Mr. Speaker?" "Canada is already almost a part of ths United States. It may remain still tied to England in a nominal way, but as tims goes on it will become American in sym pathy and more and more American In population and industry. Canada is one of the growing countries of this time. I look for an enormous emigration there from tho United States. It Is a land of vast unde veloped resources, which are to be opened up by our people." "I suppose that the future of the United States will be confined to this continent," Bald I. "Yes, to a great extent," said Mr. Can non, "but we are now a world nation and we are reaching out in every direction and across every sea. The earth is old, but It Is hardly touched as far as modern de velopment Is concerned. There are vast areas of new country In South America. Africa Is still an unknown continent and so is almost tho whole of northern Asia. The world is said to have 1,600,000,000 people. There is room upon'it for double that num ber, und many parts of it will support tea which now support one." "Then you do not believe In the Mai thusian theory?" "No, it will be a long time before wars or pestilences will be needed to restrict the world's population." "I suppose you look upon the United States as pretty well filled now?" "Not at all. We have only 80.000,000 and by extensive cultivation we could support ten times that number. It is said that Texas alone would feed the United States, And then our mineral resources. The coun try has not been scratched and we do not know what we have under the soil. Wo are already the greatest manufacturing na tion of the world, producing more than Germany, France and England, our threa greatest competitors. We send only 8 per cent of what we make abroad, but that t per cent forms 29 per cent of our exports and we are now the greatest exporting na tlon on earth. Indeed, we make one-fourtli of all the factory goods mad by tho world. "The basis of our manufactures Is oug home market," continued the speaker. "f want to see this protected In every poa sible way, for it Is the foundation of our prosperity and of our enormous posslbiu ties. There Is no market like this. Wo have more wants than any other people, and spend more money to satisfy them. Wo consume three times ss much per capita (Continued oa Page Sixteen