Congressman Gardner—Fighter 
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OLLIER’S WEEKLY has “discovered” 
‘Congressman Augustus Peabody 
Gardner of Massachusetts. In a re- 
cent issue it devotes over two pages 
in telling its readers about the 6th 
District Representative in Washing- 
ton, who started the preparedness 
campaign which aroused the country 
to a realization of its comparative 
helplessness in the event of a war 
with a foreign foe. 
William Ilard, Collier's interview- 
er, expected to find Capt. Gardner 
with a green parasol, which Dame 
Rumor in Washington says he carries 
with him to the golf links, but when 
he bearded the preparedness lion in 
his Capitol den Mr. Hard failed to 
find the parasol or any indications of 
mollycoddleism. 
Instead, he found Mr. Gardner ar- 
rayed in his campaign armor and in a 
talkative mood. He learned many 
interesting things from this very in- 
teresting National character, who has 
defied party bosses, kicked over the 
party traces, differed from his dis- 
tinguished father-in-law, Senator 
Lodge, on more than one public oc- 
casion; demanded that President Wil- 
son break with Germany, declares 
that Josephus Daniels is somewhat of 
a joke as Secretary of the Navy, 
proves in his own way that the Army 
and the Navy are in no condition to 
vo into action against a first-class 
fcreign enemy, believes that Germany 
should be crushed and that Jim Mann 
the Republican leader, is not the per- 
son to martial the anti-Administration 
forces at the National capital. 
Mr. Hard begins his picture of 
Capt. Gardner as a staff officer under 
Gen. Wilson in the war with Spain 
by quoting what that officer said to 
him at the close of that war: 
“Captain Gardner, assistant adju- 
tant general, has been with me from 
the time of my arrival at Fort Thomas 
and has shown, from the first, un- 
usual aptitude for the duties of adju- 
tant general: but, in addition, he has 
tbat no opportunity to serve with the 
troops in the field. In the turning 
movement against Coavro he accom- 
panied Lieutenant Colonel Biddle 
with the Sixteenth Pennsylvania and 
displaved the highest courage and 
coolness under the close fire of the 
enemy.” 
“He began his historic attack on 
the unpreparedness of the the United 
States by rising in the House and 
saying,” says Collier’s: 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Article by William Hard Reprinted 
from Collier’s Weekly of February 3 
““For a dozen years I have sat 
here like a coward, and I have listen- 
ed to men say that in time of war we 
could depend for our defense on the 
National Guard, and I have known 
all the time that it was not so. I am 
former muilitiaman myself. 
“*The truth is that each one of us 
is afraid that the National Guard in 
He district would say: “Why, that man 
Gardner says I am no good. I will 
teach him.” 
‘“*So I have been afraid, all these. 
dozen years, to turn around and say 
to the National Guard in my district: 
“We cannot depend on the greater 
part of the National Guard to do ef- 
fective service in time of war against 
really trained troops.” In all the 
dozen years I have known that fact, 
till this minute I have not said so.’ 
“Diogenes could have found a fi- 
xancially honest man in a minute. 
‘The protraction of his labors must 
have been due to the fact that he was 
looking for a mentally honest man. 
Gardner certainly comes a whole lot 
nearer qualifying than most. of us.’ 
Mr. Hard declares, after visiting 
Congressman Gardner’s office in the 
‘Capitol, that he runs a political de- 
partment store which vearns to satisfy 
every individual peculiarity in the 6th 
Massachusetts. 
Hee needs  toxrun- it;’ -says~ the 
writer. “The fact is that his moments 
of wanting to be independent and of 
wanting to indulge himself in the lux- 
ury of being a bit unpopular come 
upon him rather frequently. It is not 
heroism. He says it isn’t, and it isn’t. 
The trouble is, I judge, deeper. It 
is candor. A man may cure himself 
of heroism, but he can never cure 
himself of candor. The same mental 
honesty which drives Gardner to make 
confessions of cowardice also drives 
him, as in the matter of immigration, 
to make confessions of faith and then 
to fight for that faith—often with dis- 
astrous results. 
“The immigration matter. shows 
Gardner’s character thoroughly. Gard. 
ner agrees with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. He thinks that immi- 
eration should be checked and even 
check rated. So thinking, he = ac- 
cumulated a couple of filing cabinets 
and a couple of clipping books on im- 
migration, learned to tell the differ- 
ence between a Slovak and a Slovene 
during periods of high visibility, and 
started in. 
“A loving fellow congressman ask- 
ed him later, on the floor of the- 
House of Representatives, in a tone 
of solicitous curiosity, whether or not 
he had been able to detect any effect 
produced upon his candidacy for gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts by his advo- 
cacy of immigration restriction. This 
was Gardner’s cue to rise to mountain 
tops of noble confidence in the final 
intelligence of the Amercian people | 
and to cry: “Right will ultimately pre- 
vail.’ - But Gardner hasn’t the faint- 
est notion whether Right will ulti- 
mately prevail or not. Neither, foi 
that matter has anybody else. But 
Gardner knows he hasn’t. He rose 
and addressed himself realistically to 
the facts of history and simply and 
happily said: ‘Il was the worst-beaten 
man that ever ran.’ 
“Besides the uncounted numbers of 
official documents and of official let- 
ters which are franked and cost noth- 
ing for postage, Gardner’s depart- 
ment store sends out some 15,000 — 
other nonofficial letters annually that- 
require real stamps. 
official and nonofficial, 
sires to see with his own eyes and to 
sign with his own hand. His theory 
about it is a true, precise New Eng- 
land theory. Most men are more 
zealous to dictate their letters than — 
to correct and revise and sign them. 
Gardner reverses the process. He 
lets his office do all it can of the labor 
of dictating (under general instruc- 
tions), but he wants to see the final 
result in every case and to know just 
what has been said and to see for him- 
self just how it looks on the page and _ 
to give it an ultimate personal im- 
yrovement and an ultimate personal 
‘Augustus Peabody Gardner’ 
ii departs irrevocably on its way to 
the angry fisherman. 
“Joseph Peabody, Gardner’s great- 
grandfather, was an excellent speci-_ 
men of the American shipowner. of 
the last part of the eighteenth century. 
He not only built and freighted ships, 
but he served in his own person as an 
officer of privateers during the War — 
of 1812. He was a merchant-marine _ 
enthusiast and capitalist who marined 
—and who did it where it was wet. 
“Of such stock does Gardner come, 
and he looks it as he sits signing let- 
ters which have been brought to him 
from his office in the Capitol to his 
desk in his library.” 
And here is the interviewer’s per-_ 
sonal description of Mr. Gardner: 
“He is a tight-coopered barrel of a 
All these letters, - q 
Gardner de- — 
before 
