Chapter I: Front Matter

THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY

THE
VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY

BY

MEREDITH NICHOLSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

WALTER TITTLE

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1919

COPYRIGHT, 1917, 1918, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

Published September, 1918
Reprinted November, December 1918

TO MY CHILDREN

ELIZABETH, MEREDITH, AND LIONEL

IN TOKEN OF MY AFFECTION

AND WITH THE HOPE THAT THEY MAY BE FAITHFUL TO THE
HIGHEST IDEALS OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE FOLKS AND THEIR FOLKSINESS 1

II. TYPES AND DIVERSIONS 39

III. THE FARMER OF THE MIDDLE WEST 83

IV. CHICAGO 135

V. THE MIDDLE WEST IN POLITICS 181

VI. THE SPIRIT OF THE WEST 235

AUTHOR’S NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

In the reprintings of a book of this character it would be possible to revise and rewrite in such manner as to conceal the errors or misjudgments of the author. It seems, however, more honest to permit these impressions to stand practically as they were written, with only a few minor corrections. It was my aim to make note of conditions, tendencies, and needs in the Valley of Democracy, and the conclusion of the war has affected my point of view with reference to these matters very little.

The first months of the present year have been so crowded with incidents affecting the whole world that we recall with difficulty the events of only a few years ago. We have met repeated crises with an inspiring exhibition of unity and courage that should hearten us for the new tasks of readjustment that press for attention, and for the problems of self-government that are without end. I shall feel that these pages possess some degree of vitality if they quicken in the mind and heart of the reader a hope and confidence that we of America do not walk blindly, but follow a star that sheds upon us a perpetual light.

M. N.

INDIANAPOLIS, June 1, 1919.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from the steps of the Art
Institute _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

“Ten days of New York, and it’s me for my home town” 6

Art exhibits ... now find a hearty welcome 20

The Municipal Recreation Pier, Chicago 66

Types and Diversions 74

On a craft plying the waters of Erie I found all the
conditions of a happy outing and types that it is always a
joy to meet 78

The Perry Monument at Put-in Bay 80

A typical old homestead of the Middle West 100

Students of agriculture in the pageant that celebrated the
fortieth anniversary of the founding of Ohio State
University 114

A feeding-plant at “Whitehall,” the farm of Edwin S.
Kelly, near Springfield, Ohio 120

Judging graded shorthorn herds at the American Royal
Live Stock Show in Kansas City 132

Chicago is the big brother of all lesser towns 142

The “Ham Fair” in Paris is richer in antiquarian loot,
but Maxwell Street is enough; ’twill serve! 152

Banquet given for the members of the National Institute
of Arts and Letters 176

There is a death-watch that occupies front seats at every
political meeting 194

The Political Barbecue 198

THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY

France evoked from the unknown the valley that may, in more than one sense, be called the heart of America.... The chief significance and import of the addition of this valley to the maps of the world, all indeed that makes it significant, is that here was given (though not of deliberate intent) a rich, wide, untouched field, distant, accessible only to the hardiest, without a shadowing tradition or a restraining fence, in which men of all races were to make attempt to live together under rules of their own devising and enforcing. And as here the government of the people by the people was to have even more literal interpretation than in that Atlantic strip which had traditions of property suffrage and church privilege and class distinctions, I have called it the “Valley of the New Democracy.”

--JOHN H. FINLEY: “The French in the Heart of America.”

THE VALLEY OF DEMOCRACY