“So in speaking of John Worth Kern. He belonged to a race of statesmen whose type and example was Abraham Lincoln. These unite simplicity and sincerity with ability and power. They are rugged and strong like the hills, genial and fruitful like the prairies, and like all these qualities of nature, honest.
“Throughout a long and distinguished public career which attained to eminence in the history of his country, Senator Kern never wavered from his early ideals. Like all constructive men, he endeavored to adapt them to the necessities and requirements of a changing age, but he maintained them in their integrity to the last. They became part of the strong structure of better things—better because John Worth Kern lived.
“That in itself would be a great and satisfying tribute; but he had so many other endearing qualities that reminiscent affection is not content with the utterance of merely historical appreciation. He was not only loyal to his principles, he was in all right ways loyal to his friends. He had a fine courage of loyalty also. He would, whenever occasion demanded, give battle to aid a friend or uphold a principle; nor did he ever grudge patient and laborious toil to accomplish either result.
“Throughout the strenuous years of his mature manhood—nearly half a century of public life—his voice was always for the just and humane treatment of the toiling millions. It adds the element of pathos to our appreciation, to remember that for most of this time he struggled not only against the handicap of slender financial resources, but also against the disadvantages of delicate health.
“It is an inspiration when we think how much, notwithstanding these drawbacks, he accomplished. His name is written large in the annals of this age. He was a force for civic righteousness, for true progress, and for the nobler destiny of man.
“It is with deep personal regard and affection I pen these lines. They are written in sincere and simple tribute to one of whom truly it can be said—
“‘None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise.’”
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
the silk tile=> the silk tie {pg 33}