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THE UPWARD WAY OF JOSEPHUS DANIELS
NEW SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WAS A “TAR HEEL” PLUGGER—HE NEVER DAZZLED THE WORLD WITH HIS SCINTIL
LATIONS, BUT PRESSED GRAVELY UPWARD WITH CLEAN MANHOOD AND A CONQUERING PURPOSE.
T
IIE elevation of no man to a cabinet posi
tion, outside of William J. Bryan him
self, has given the editor of The Golden
Age keener pleasure than the making
of Josephus Daniels of North Carolina secretary
of the navy. Elevation? Yes—for while any
truly great man is greater than any position
he might fill, the fact that he is crowned with
the confidence that calls him *to a commanding
place in shaping his country’s course of honor,
must be accepted with pleasure and gratitude
by any truly patriotic man. Such a man is
Josephus Daniels, the sturdy editor of The Ral
eigh News and Observer.
Fighting upward step by step—not for the
sake of self-elevation, but climbing inevitably,
as the result of his efforts to make a clean life
count for God and his country, Josephus Dan
iels, yet a young man, takes his place in the
cabinet of the nation, net one whit behind his
coinpiers in all the equipments of brain and
heart. Indeed ,it is not the least of the evi
dences of Woodrow Wilson’s finess for the pres
idency that he had both the vision and the in
clination to build his cabinet with men of such
lofty character.
“God be thanked I’ve wrought with men”
we are often quoting from Kipling; and it is a
stirring memory to the writer that in the state
wide campaign to drive bar-rooms from North
Carolina four years ago, he made the last
speech in Raleigh the night before the election
where Josephus Daniels was pouring all the
powers of his great paper, news and editorials,
into the heroic work of destroying the legal
ized saloon.
He Wouldn’t Advertise Liquor.
Not for years had the columns of The News
and Obesrver been poisoned by liquor adver
tisements.
' Never mind that, it hit his none too corpu
lent pocket for several thousand dollars a year
—Josephus Daniels knew what some respec
table editors have never had eye or conscience
enough to see —that the paper that helps on the
sale of liquor by advertising it, is just as guilty
of selling the devilish stuff as *ihe white-apron
ed devotee who passes it over the counter “for
the money that’s in it.”
It is impossible to compute the weight and
worth of such an unbought and unbuyable ed-
It had seemed to me at the time
that I could do the thing in entire
safety. Our troops were ordered out
to take and destroy a village which
lay in the valley by the riverside, and
their operations would be confined to'
the lower ground. The heights above
would be entirely untroubled, unoccu
pied.
And so I had gained these, after
walking five miles over gentle slopes
of short scrug grass, and then had
lain me down on the ridge and watch
ed the skirmishing, the attack and the
capture through a pair of glasses.
From the distance it had all seemed
very tame. There were little puffs
of gray smoke; men fell; others came
on at a run, zig-zagged in and out
in entire disorder, made their weap
ons and accoutrements glitter in the
sun, and then disappeared under cover
of the mud and bamboo village. More
smoke arose in puffs from the lanes
itor in the leading city of any state.
A New York Picture of New Secretary.
That such a “son of the South” should make
a place for himself in the eyes of the cabinet
and the nation thus early, is not surprising.
The New York Herald gives the following strik
ing picture of the new Secretary of the Navy:
He does not smoke, drink, chew, nor swear.
He owns three successful newspapers.
He wears white socks the year round.
He wears a crash suit and “little neck” col
lars in the summer time.
He is infatuated with hard work.
He has a charming wife and four fine, healthy
boys.
He hasn’t much money and doesn’t care.
He is a veteran member of the National Dem
ocratic Committee.
He is one of the best liked men in the cab
inet.
Walk right up and slap him on the back.
He is not a bit warlike despite his belliger
ent title.
He will be fifty-one years old on May 18, and
it’s been a baXle with him the greater part of
the journey. There were no silver spoons in
the Daniels family when Josephus arrived. His
parents were in a position to give him a name,
and that’s about all; but it must be admitted
they hunted around until they found a fancy
one. No danger of any one forgetting such an
imposing front name. You’re not going to meet
persons scratching their heads in an effort to
remember who is secretary of the navy. His
name stands out in President Wilson’s adminis
tration like the Adam’s apple in a giraffe.
The Name of Wilson.
The name Wilson has played a prominent part
in his busy career. He was born in Washing
ton, N. C., but not long after the family moved
to Wilson, in the same state. Newspapers al
ways had a powerful fascination for him. While
he was helping himself to the “three R’s” he
got the idea that it would be a grand thing
to own the most powerful paper in his native
state. The school room door had not closed
behind him before he laid the foundation for
his goal by starting an amateur newspaper.
He was only eighteen at the time he began
molding public opinion. He studied law and
was admitted to the bar, but never had any
A BAPTISM OF FIRE
between the houses. And then a stream
of Black Flag Chinese began to pour
out at the run; some of them pitched
forward and lay still, and the others
opened out to pass these by, and oth
ers limped and lagged behind the gen
eral pace; and a quite irregular crack
le from the village, like the burning
of brushwood, told me what was caus
ing these things.
But when the Black Flags were out
of range and the firing ceased the val
ley dropped into dread quietude, and
there was nothing more to see. I
yawned over it for another half hour,
and then walked a dozen yards down
the slope, smoked a couple of cigar
ettes, and began my dejeuner. The
regiment of Black Flags which came
down upon me must have started
climbing the hill face the very min
ute I quitted the ridge.
Instinct, as I say, jerked me to my
feet, and instinct must have given
The Golden Age for May 1, 1913
me a prodigious start, for when first
my wits came to me I found myself
running like a frightened dog. The
officer gave me a second shot, which
cut a gutter down at my feet, and then
his men opened out with Remington
rifles. I don’t know how many fired.
It seemed as if ten million bullets
whisped past me, and I had a notion
I was hit in twenty places, but noth
ing clogged my legs, and, although my
heart was trying hard to jump clear
of its moorings, I ran on at freshened
pace. There wasn’t a more terrified
man in Asia that minute. The shots
came dropping after me—shots and
cries of chase in barbarous Chinese
—and the world swam in front. Ter
ror undiluted made me a running au
tomation.
Beyond a doubt the most cowardly
Frenchman in the East that moment
was myself. I did not attempt to con
trovert this fact; I ran on, cringing
idea of abandoning the route he had mapped
out for himself.
His progress in the newspaper business was
rapid
He bought the Raleigh Chronicle in 1885 and
took the opposite end of every argument ad
vanced by the News and Observer, a rival
newspaper. The fight was red hot while it last
ed and ended with Mr. Daniels taking over his
competitor and consolidating both sheets under
the name of The News and Observer. He work
ed fifteen to twenty hours a day to make that
paper a success. He installed modern meth
ods and ran the circulation up until the news
paper goal he set out for had been attained.
It is one of the most powerful papers South
of the Mason and Dixon line, and he is still
giving it all the attention he can spare from his
public duties.
An Old-Fashioned Man.
Mr. Daniels is of the likable, old-fashioned,
easy going type, but there is no use trying to
bluff him. He won’t stand for it. Beneath his
quiet, half-serious, half-smiling manner, there
is something that warns you that you had bet
ter play fair with him.
He is closer to William Jennings Bryan than
any man in the country. Like many other Dem
ocrats, he got writer’s cramp putting crosses
under the star for the Lincoln statesman, but,
unlike fair-weather Democrats, he did not get
peevish when his party failed to win in the na
tion. The fact that the Democratic entry in
the presidential race didn’t get in until three
or four days after election didn’t feeze Jose
phus one bit.
Mr. Daniels does not take up much room. He
is a man of medium height, with a shock of
black hair that is just beginning to fade about
the edges. His face is deeply lined and you
are sure he is severe until he smiles. Then
you wonder what made you think so.
He is a faA talker —so fast that he would
have a dictagraph yelling for help in a few
seconds.
He has never shown any inclination to grab
sartorial honors.
What the “best dressers are wearing,” does
not bother him.
He dresses for comfort.
That’s Josephus Daniels.
from every bullet that rustled past me
or spurted up the groung beside my
leaping feet; but I found excuses for
my conduct. For good behavior they
had raised me from the ranks to a
non-commissioned officer, to lead and
be an example to the rest of the rank
and file when a pinch came, and here
I was leading the wrong way and set
ting the worst of all examples.
How long I ran on in this blinded
state I cannot tell, but a sharp sting
of pain set my wits a-going. It felt
like the sear of hot metal burning
and frying, and the hurt came some
where from the roun { ] of the left
shoulder.
Instantly my mood awoke again.
Fo rthe first time there grew upon me
a vague resentment against the crew
who were yelping and firing in chase;
and as I scurried on and the ill-aimed
bullets threw their rushing halo of
(Continued on page 15.)
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