The life of John Worth KernBowers, Claude G. (Claude Gernade)
History
The life of John Worth Kern
Bowers, Claude G. (Claude Gernade)
Kern, John Worth, 1849-1917; Politicians -- United States -- Biography
On this trip, too, he visited Warwick Castle, and later on Windsor
Castle. Like a true Democrat he did not fail to “drive out three miles
to the fields of Runnymede, where the English barons compelled King John
to sign the Magna Charta;” and the sentimental side of his nature
impelled him to make a journey of reverence to the tomb of Gray, the
poet, and the church whose curfew “tolls the knell of parting day.”
Contrary to the spirit of the average tourist, he took a deep interest
in English farms and farming and in a letter to his sister, who lived
upon a farm, he observed: “The farming here is splendid. Every foot of
ground is made to produce and produce well. There is no poor farming
here, and no poor crops this year. The wheat is now being harvested.
They raise no corn here--but produce an article called ‘horse
beans’--something similar to our peas, which the horses thrive on. The
horses are splendid beasts. Those used for draft purposes look nearly as
large as elephants, and their driving horses are very fine. It is a
great mutton-eating nation, and sheep are raised by the thousand--you
see them everywhere.”
By the latter part of August he admits that he has “had his fill of
sightseeing and anxious to get back home and to work.” His health was
greatly benefited by the change when he reached New York in the first
week of September.
II
At the time of his return to Indiana the great debate to determine the
position the Democratic party was to take on the money question had
commenced. The administration of Grover Cleveland had lost the
confidence of the major part of the party in the state. The bond issue
stuck in the craws of the masses. The silver wave was sweeping over the
country, destined to leave many wrecks in its wake and to throw upon the
rocks many new lights of party leading. In Indiana the silver forces
were militantly aggressive and were busily engaged in perfecting an
organization which was to make history. In view of his subsequent
intimacy with Mr. Bryan and the radical forces of the party, it is
interesting to find that during the period of the preliminary debate Mr.
Kern remained unresponsive to the fervent appeals of the friends of
silver. As the time for the state convention approached, the
conservative members of the party took counsel in the hope of stemming
the tide which gave promise of committing the party aggressively to the
cause of the free and unlimited coinage of silver without awaiting the
action of any other nation. Many of the most influential and prominent
party leaders in the state were strongly opposed to such action, and
were convinced that such a course would work irreparable disaster to the
party prospects for years to come. It was not a new party battle in
Indiana. In other days, when the fiat money idea was uppermost in the
public mind, it required all the prestige of the leadership of Hendricks
and McDonald to dissuade the party from adopting a radical platform in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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