The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN Norris, the Realist Reformer YOU cannot explain a man like Senator George W. Norris in any routine fashion. Born in 1861, he was part of the post-Civil-War...
...But he was different...
...He was, inevitably, a Republican...
...They did not evm try to show how inflation or sny other panscea would make anyone happier...
...For instsnce the Philadelphia strike was railed and carried on, as I understand it...
...Out of this same impulse to put plain decency into politics came George W. Norris...
...But he was insrked off shsrply from narrow-minded, parochisl, nationalist, know-nothing isolationists by his devotion to the world-wide struggle for democracy ss it has taken form in the present great conflict...
...Oftener thsn not the whole thing became ridiculous in its upshot...
...He was bent entirely upon winning the strike snd the quotations taken from this speech often wound up with the ststcments "snd so we win, see...
...But no one csn doubt the genuineness of this sort of moral perfectionism no matter what form it took...
...So —naturally—inevitably—he liped up with labor forces . to secure essential reforms...
...And he was more honest than most of his contemporaries in liberal politics...
...Born in 1861, he was part of the post-Civil-War generation...
...Tke men refused to listen to their own national leaders...
...All the citfiens sre better off because each one is doing his job...
...He died laet week...
...When the upper chamber of the Nebraska legislature got in the way of things that were good he said there was no longer need of a House of Lords...
...Norris was young and impressionable precisely when .-tuch plunder politicians were at the height of their power and prestige...
...There is, in those wide areas—or, at least, there was—a simple sort of Sunday School belief in the basic virtues...
...This ia "free enterprise" at its best, national and regional enterprise, freely supported and freely enjoyed by sll tke people Mia lame-dnek smen anient and kse tgaaaf ormstlon of tke constitution ef Nebraska stand for another drivs in tke Senator's life-work...
...The elder LaFollette sounded strsnge to unfriendly esrs when he ranted on about the wickedness of Wall Street...
...Unreasonableness of men who are sometimes influential in strikes of tke kind I am describing has increased the difficulties of the real friends of labor and I fear will perhaps bring defeat instesd of victory on election day...
...It is a moaaure of young Norrls's intelligence thst he fell for neither the one nor for the other...
...The fsct that IS to 1 could become the slogan of s nstionsl crussde is a measure of the politics...
...This practical, regional, geographical, industrial achievement represents one important phase of the Senator's life...
...Fake iuiu for all political ills, like patent noetrums for physical ills, were loud in the western sir...
...So he put through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution...
...He wanted concrete things that were better...
...Joe Cannon and Mark Hanna were good representatives of their sordid and cynical realism...
...He sought, by definite chsnges, s constantly improving reality...
...They sought office under false pretenses...
...There was fsnstirism in it, of course...
...And it wss inevitsble, too, thst this sort of s non-psrtisan ststesmsn should be for the New Deal and for a constantly newer New Deal...
...It was fitting thst the lest honors should be psid Senstor Norris on Labor Day...
...And if s young fellow went into politics hs wss rather likely to feel thst he hsd a missionary function...
...He was net willing to make sny sacrifice of sny kind In behalf of our grest straggle for human liberty...
...He wanted to . win just in order to win...
...There is here s picture of the future America It is whst Senstor Norris must hsve dresmed...
...I do the best I ran and read The New Leader with a great deal of interest, although I do not always have time to go through the paper ss thoroughly ss I would like to do...
...Every paper in the land has published some sort of eulogy of the man, and it must hsve been tough going for some of the reactionary scribblers...
...The aid forma were too stiff, too little responsive...
...My condition is such snd my work is such thst 1 sm not abb to read exhaustively s grest msny of the publications that come to me...
...He wanted eVery cititen to have an even brenk...
...From the beginning he fought to give the people the benefit of the inexpensive power which can be produced through great government-owned dams...
...I read recently a speech msde by one of these strikers who was s lesder among the strikers snd I wss dumbfounded and amazed at tke sentiments be expressed...
...He believed in concrete and practical improvements, but he could never get enough of them...
...Contemporary comments-tors often noted how the populist csmpaigns approached the fervor of religious revivsls...
...They adopted a slogsn snd wound themselves up to put it over ss does sny peddler of nostrums on a streetcorher...
...In this field the Norrit-LaGuardia Anii Injunction Act is his best-known achievement...
...They were not dishonest ss Mark Hanna was—nor as Boss Piatt—but they were dishonest in snother way...
...Not one tiring waa intimated or said by him that indicated he was moved ia any degree by any spirit of pstriotism...
...I do not maintain an office and do what work I can st my house...
...It is mixed with the traditions) notion thst the country is more honest than the town and that poor and ordinary folks are better than the rich snd refined...
...against the approval of labor lead-era...
...He wss always on labor's side—his last political act was endorsement of the CIO-PAC — but he wss slwsys reserving his right to criticize...
...Strange as it msy seem, this attitude accounts for the strongest snd most honest part of Americsn isolationism...
...But there was s big dose of it, too, in 'he Brysn of the earlier years...
...He went his own way...
...He was that sort of realist...
...There is s community of interest in work, in cooperative accomplishment...
...In a general wsy, the conduct of snch men hss hurt the cause of lsbor beyond the power of expression...
...But he did put through the sesmen's lsw snd estsblish the Interstste Commerce Commission, to mention only two of the reforms he sponsored...
...He was willing to stop tke -nanufsc-lure of bombs and other military weapons thst ouf boys fighting on the different wsr fronts so ssdly need and must have If they are to wia this war for humanity...
...From then on he was in the Populist belt, and that was just the time when Populism was seething to its climax...
...Proc-tfcaliy all ef the eulogies mention the Norris dam as the Senator's great monument I prefer to be reminded ef him by the graciously designed town ef Norris...
...He had s saving grace of common sense about him...
...When Senator Norris said, "My hsnds hsve never taken a bribe nor my lips consciously uttered sn untruth," he wss nesr enough the grave so thst no doubt could be csst on his simple sincerity...
...By training and experience he had little contact with the organised labor movement...
...The resl, rousing western radicals of those dsys were week in reasoning power...
...Its roots are in the impulse to preserve something good that goes back to simple rural days...
...His liberalism never wove a web of weasel words...
...But he was psssionstely devoted to fairness...
...But the bssis of it is s fine thing...
...With his brains and vote-getting talent he could easily have been a member of this crew...
...He hsd no ides of the obligation that he realty owed as a tWin to oar own government...
...The Esst, of course, being fsr swsy, partly metropolitan snd, theoretically, rich, is considered less virtuous thsn the West...
...They fought agaiast every proposal of bis, snd sfter he died, with tongue in check, they prsised him...
...Senator Norris was profoundly pacifist...
...It is easy to mkke fun of this impulse snd of sll the notions that clustered round it...
...My eyesight is growing wesker snd I hsve to depend upon my wife often to resd the magazines and pspers in which I sm interested...
...To the Editor: A , J6 m4_ I AM grateful to ssy to you thst I in receiving The New Leader regulsrly...
...So the Constitution was rewritten...
...The state hss become the first of the 48 to experiment with s one-chsmber legislature ' The Senator's profound belief was that if we make the machinery of government simple and intelligible, the people see their way clear to achieve their ends...
...It sprsng from Protestsnt morslity, s code which the young people of s generstion sgo took seriously out there...
...When the Senator was 24 years old, he moved to Nebraska...
...There sre plessant curving drives, wide stretches of greenswsrd, homes half-hidden among the trees and a wide-stretching park from which one can enjoy the lake held back by the noble dam...
...He could have become rich and successful...
...It wss these greet midwest regions which sent most of the missionaries to foreign lands...
...crudity of the dsy...
...Norris, like me, is getting very old snd she hss to do sll the house work snd it is often impossible for her to resd to me ss mack as we both desire Thus yon see I sm living ander rather sdverse circumstances...
...It is difficult for me to keep ap with the times and difficult for me to even resd the mat ters thst 1 onght to resd in order to be posted snd up-to-date...
...It was his duty to carry the Bible virtues into the dsrk plsces of political chicanery...
...To the very end he was plsnning means to put through the Missamri River Authority, which will make the TVA lank like a mare experiments) guide plant...
...I felt there—everywhere I went — even far ap the coves of the mountains — a spirit of optimistic participation in something fine...
...He worked to give the average citizen a richer life, to make government a better instrument in the citizen's hands...
...A Living Town It Hit Monument ExcEPT for two or three of the very greatest, no other Americsn has left such dynsmic reminders of his life and work...
...When 1 think thst this msn snd his misguided followers were violating the instructions of their own leaders and insisting on striking for res-sons thst their own lesders did not think were sub-stsntial, I roald not help but wonder if those who hsve been fighting for yesrs to help labor's cause, in oar legislstive sssemblies particularly in Congress, would not look upon their srtion with sorrow snd perhsps regret The victories thst labor has won, it seems to me, sre entitled to more consideration snd gratitude from the men for whose benefit the light hss been msde...
...On the one side wss fst Republicsn conservstism snd on the other lesn and raucus Populist radicalism...
...I have been sadly dissppointed on seversl occasions with the action thst Labor has taken...
...And he has achieved great success,.' but his triumphs were those of the American people...
...The midwest, where he started life, was the very heart of Republican conservatism- Here reactionary, big-business politicians dominated politics right up to Wilson's administration...
...Along with Senstor LaFollette, he opposed our entrance into the Fjrst World War, as sn imperialist conflict...
...They won the war and freed the slaves—so for nearly fifty years they could put across almost any sort of skulduggery wrapped up in the national flag...
...And Europe, being even fsrther swsy snd, presumably, more sophisticated, is thought of as s pretty rotten den of iniquity...
...Midwestern idealism hss been given too little place in discussions of the political road we hare traveled...
...The resl lesders of labor are patriotic and are doing their best, bat sometimes they hsve lost their grip snd the men for whose welfare they sre fighting do not appreciate what has been done in behalf of labor As I understand it, the strike in Philadelphia was a serioas blow to the government of the United Ststes in supplying oar soldiers with the weapons of war, and the men who are responsible for this, sS evidenced by the quotation from the speech I hsve given, exhibited no appreciation of the condition /now confronting oar country...
...At the very end he was thinking of the chsnges not yet made In this man, this life, this series of achievements we hsve s true representstion of the Americsn ideal...
...I have looked through his speeches in vsin for sny consistent ideological creed...
...Irresponsible Strikes Harm Labor Fnm GfOftGf W. NORRIS Thie is probably the la$t letter written by ex-Senator Sortie of Nebraska...
...This change makes it impossible for defeated congressmen to put through legislation which the voters do not wsnt...
...Sockless Jerry Simpson was a hero, and William Jennings Bryan was just around the corner...
...One who is out in the country like I sm, living a life of quietude and who comes in contact with men of sll oerapa-tions, realises thst msny men who do not perhsps understand the labor situstie' are bitter against strikes each as the Philadelphia strike and it is going to hurt in the coming campaign...
...He saw tke machinery of government getting in the way of the people's desires...
...You get It at its best in Senstor Norris and the elder LeFelletto...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 37
