HARRY LANE: A MARTYR TO HIS CONVICTIONS
Kenyon, William S.
Harry Lane: A Martyr To His Convictions A memorial Service, was recently held in the U. S. Senate for Harry Lane, formerly United States senator from Oregon. Harry Lane died a martyr to his...
...He believed there was goodness in the souls of the fallen...
...the sea much understanding...
...motives and his patriotism "were questioned, especially by those whom he loved and in whom he had unbounded confidence, the despair of his honest heart was so great and the agony of his blighted hope so severe that he never recovered his former self...
...He believed it was America's duty to hold aloof, although he often said that if we wanted to be technical we would find sufficient excuse to get into the controversy on either side...
...out where there are Sermons in stones, Books in babbling brooks, And good in everything...
...So bitter was this denunciation, and so far was it carried, that not only was his own patriotism denied but the loyalty of his ancestors was, without cause, without reason, and regardless of truth, vehemently and persistently questioned...
...The great teacher of men loved Hie poor and they "heard him gladly...
...They loved him...
...he was the best friend we kids ever had...
...Such lives, however, do not really die...
...He was ever ready to throw the rope to the girl going down, without inquiring as to her character...
...He despised those who...
...He approached death with the same courage that sustained him through life, and well he might...
...One who loves and is kind to children is fit for the immortal home...
...We reprint herewith excerpts from the addresses of Senator Kenyan of and Senator Norris of Nebraska.—The Editor...
...One desire—service for his country...
...He was no trimmer and no quitter in a fight...
...He had lived in God's glorious out of doors...
...In the campaign which had just preceded he had taken an active interest...
...S. Senator from Iowa...
...His faith in him was unbounded...
...He did not spend five years of his term serving "invisible government" and one year before election serving the people...
...lie, of all men, would not want us to exaggerate his virtues...
...He did not know that the word "coward" was a part of our language...
...The representatives of special privilege despised him, and he was rather proud that they did, but they despised him not one bit more than he, did them...
...A story of human trouble, of suffering, of fallen women trying to rise, brought the tears to his eyes and from him an offer of help...
...He did not consider it a great honor to carry the incense jars and burn incense for those who sneered at all reform and all battles for the general welfare of the everyday people...
...Ho was to them a brother man...
...Come lay thy head upon the Saviors' breast...
...He had faults, of course, as he was a human beings...
...We loved thee well, but Jesus loved thee best...
...Good night, good night, good night...
...Wherever the songs of the sweet singer of Israel are read, David still liveth...
...One little, dirty ragged fellow said to the other: "Boy, he was sure pood to us...
...I have been told of the incident when his body lay in state in the Masonic Temple at Portland and little ragged newsboys came in to pay him their last tribute...
...They live on in the hearts of thousands left behind...
...Harry Lane died a martyr to his convictions...
...There was no horizon to his charity...
...Many of his former friends joined in his condemnation, and because of the unanimity of the pres3, controlled, he believed, by the enemies of good government, he was unable to reach the great masses of the people whom he believed he was properly representing, and whose interests alone he had nearest to ins heart...
...He believed that such a course must inevitably plunge us into the war, and according to his judgment no sufficient cause existed for the taking of such a step...
...Living in that Golden West he loved to roam by the streams, along the trails with the rod and gun, and, daylight melted into darkness, to smoke bis pipe at the camp fire with no canopy but the starlight heavens...
...He was used to criticism, and he never objected to it as long as it was fair and emanated from sources and from people honestly believing that such criticism was just, but when the sources of communication between him and those he served were controlled, and he was unable to make any defense before his own people, and when his...
...By George W. Norris (U...
...It was hard for those of us who loved him as a friend to have him part from us...
...In his simple, honest way, he would shrink from praise...
...That is why he made so many of them...
...While he sometimes disagreed with the Chief Executive as to the policy to be pursued by our Government, his love and admiration for the President were unshaken...
...To him it was a fundamental proposition and upon it he refused to compromise in any degree...
...Nor in the lives of free men who have come from darkness into light can the memory of Abraham Lincoln ever pass away...
...and when, after that memorable fight ended, he was denounced by men in pub-lie life whom he loved, by friend and foe alike, as an enemy to his country, it well-nigh broke his heart...
...But the world is better because Harry Lane lived and eloquent were the the paid, to him on the floor of the United States Senate...
...Candor was ever present with him...
...Harry Lane knew them, their wants, hopes, de-sires, lives, and it was his great ambition to minister unto them...
...For of such is the kingdom of heaven.'" The Recording Angel must have been busy writing in the great Judgment Book the kindly deeds of Harry Lane, and if now and then was recorded a fault, looking down upon all his devotion to humanity, he m st have blotted out the record of those faults with his tears...
...crucified by that pari of the press devoted to invisible government...
...He was kind to them...
...Misinformed by a hostile press, many of Lane's old friends left him...
...He was bitterly opposed to the passage of a law giving to the President the right to arm merchant ships with guns and gunners from our Navy...
...No one accused him of talking at home for the things the people wanted and voting here for the things they did not want...
...Hypocrisy did not dwell in his nature...
...He was not a forward-looking man when a candidate, and a backward-looking man after election...
...No one questioned his fidelity to those whom he represented...
...No caucus bound him...
...He felt, however, that such a course, for him at least, would be deceptive, and that such action on his part would not be fair to the people whom he knew had confidence in him, and who had listened to his plea for continued peace...
...No one told him how to vote...
...He despised the lick-spittle sycophant-ism so often seen in Congress...
...He was opposed to any step being taken that might by any possibility entangle us in the great conflict...
...The mountains gave him wide vision...
...He readily recognized that there were two sides to the question, and he found no fault with the conscientious man who disagreed with him on this proposition...
...For him death had no terror...
...He had the tenderness of a child and the courage of a lion...
...The Harry Lane after election differed not a particle from the Harry Lane before election...
...and then I can, in a vision, hear the King say unto him, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto Me...
...In public life he typified courage to the extent that few men have in our Nation's history...
...blessed be thy rest...
...He was the uncompromising foe of graft, great or small...
...He met it...
...When the bark of his life loosed its moorings and floated out with the tide upon that sea where no sail is ever homeward bound, it carried to that beautiful isle of somewhere—that isle where the sun always shines, where sorrow know-eth no home—as true a soul as God ever sent to earth...
...And there came to me, as some consolation, the beautiful words of the Christian's prayer: Good night, beloved...
...He had almost unlimited confidence in the President...
...He had only one master—his conscience...
...To those who venerate law, Moses is not dead...
...Little wonder that those things developed character and courage...
...They had no difficulty in understanding his attitude...
...I have believed the strength of Harry Lane's character was due somewhat to his love of nature...
...When Congress was asked to pass the bill providing for so-called "armed neutrality," by giving the President the authority to use the guns and men of our Navy upon merchant ships, his sensibilities were terribly shocked...
...He learned from the dizzy mountain heights and from the mighty deep...
...and with the righteous such a soul passes on into life eternal...
...with a smile...
...From such scenes he drew inspiration and a certain homely philosophy of life...
...With him there was nothing personal in this judgment...
...I have in vision sometimes pictured that soul as the Judgment Book was opened and the Master read and told him what he had done in life for him, and in astonishment he must have exclaimed, "Lord, when did I this," and then the glorious response, "Here is the record of help to little children, of service unmeasured to the poor, of pains alleviated, of kind words spoken to the fallen, of encouragement given to the man steeped in crime, of the ropes thrown to those sinking in a sea of trouble, of financial help to the Mother bending her back over the wash-tub, of work secured for strong but unfortunate fathers, of meat given to the hungry, of drink given to the thirsty, of refuge given to the stranger, of clothing given to the naked, of visitation to the sick and to those in prison...
...He had given to him great credit for marking the course of our ship of State along a neutral channel, which he believed was the only safe and honorable course to pursue...
...likewise of greed...
...HARRY LAKE was the poor folks' doctor...
...By William S. Kenyon (U...
...Such a character as his would lead him to death for his convictions, and in fact he died for them, crucified by that part of the press devoted to invisible government aided by some of the very people he loved, and for whom he went to his death a martyr to his fixed convictions...
...Many have said that Harry Lane died of a broken heart been so he was to get his position on the question of the war before the common people.—the people that he loved...
...S. Senator from Nebraska) WHEN THE WAR broke out in Europe he was extremely anxious that our Government should remain strictly neutral...
...He had campaigned among the great masses of his people on the Pacific coast, and plead with them for the re-election of the President, principally on the ground that he had kept our country out of the terrible war, and that his re-election meant continued neutrality and peace for our people...
...And so, in the hearts of the many who have been cheered and helped by his life, Harry Lane will live on...
...He believed also that undue Executive influences were being used for the purpose of the passage of such a law, and he thought that the evil of Executive coercion over functions of the Legislature were nearly as great as participation in the war itself...
...The only comfort to me was in that hope of immortality, firm in my heart, that somewhere, some place, on some other shore, he would be waiting with outstretched hands to greet and welcome us...
...It seemed as if we could not let him go...
...This weighed heavily on Lane's mind...
...Lincoln once said, "God loved the common people...
...in Congress or elsewhere, voted to assist special privilege...
...He loved little children...
...Truly can we say of him, this world is a little better place because he lived...
Vol. 9 • September 1917 • No. 10
