Ohio History Journal




YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW IN OHIO*

YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW IN OHIO*

 

By ROY F. NICHOLS

 

I

Those who are charged with the responsibility for the his-

tory of any community have the power to perform great services

for society. The tendency to waste and to be careless of the future

is one of the most dangerous which man displays. Conservation is

one of the most necessary correctives which he has created to

save himself. A state historical society is a great institution dedi-

cated to conservation and therefore of the utmost importance to

the commonwealth. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society is one of Ohio's greatest assets.

This great institution is not so much devoted to the conserva-

tion of physical resources, although it does its part; it is rather

concerned with that greater and more vital task of conserving

social values. This weighty objective requires that the Society

work with both yesterday and tomorrow ever .in mind.

The social values which this institution conserves are those

concepts, of what to do in time of need, which Americans have

worked out through the years of their historic past. Knowledge

of these values should protect the nation from certain destructive

tendencies, particularly from moral flabbiness. As a people we

have believed in a healthy civic righteousness, a morality without

which democracy--so dependent upon individual and group re-

sponsibility, upon fair dealing, upon honesty in public life and

justice in the courts--could not exist.

These social values therefore are the fruits of the public

conscience:--morality, civic virtue, the national ethics. While

these values are always fundamentally the same, the growing com-

plexity of life has made them, at times, more difficult to main-

tain. More effort has to be made and more ingenious devices

created, to render them effective. The answer to the question of

how to preserve them is found in history alone and it is one of

 

* Delivered at the evening session of the 61st Annual Meeting of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, Friday, April 12, 1946,

201



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the responsibilities of the historian and of historical societies to

be expert in the story and to point the way through the maze of

the changing methods of conserving social values. The Ohio of

yesterday in which these various social values have developed has,

like each day, passed through three phases which we may liken

unto the forenoon, the noontide, and the afternoon.

 

II

The first of these epochs in Ohio history, the forenoon of

yesterday, came to an end sometime in the middle of the last cen-

tury. It was the period of the beginnings of this great community;

it was the time of the pioneer, of the cabins in the clearing, of- the

small scattered communities without conveniences and utilities, of

the founding of Marietta, Cincinnati and Cleveland when Rufus

Putnam and Manasseh Cutler planned, when Ebenezer Zane

marked out his trace. It was the day when men lived far from

the source of supplies or aid, when they must be resourceful or

perish. In those days men and women from New England, from

the Middle States and from the South cut their three parallel

lines of migration across Ohio and made the three sections which

together comprise the State. The people of Ohio glory in this

epoch and well they may for it was a great creative period when

enterprise, individualism, ingenuity, cooperation and courage were

at a premium. The people of those generations subdued the wilder-

ness, a task which only the hardy could perform.

To honor these pioneers and to recapture the life of the

aboriginal inhabitants the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society was originally founded. No one can explore its spacious

building, examine its great collections of sources, view its exhibits

or scan the pages of its publications without realizing how much

has been accomplished in preserving the spirit of this period and

recording the life of its people. The era is truly inspiring and

absorbing. So absorbing is it that in historical societies in general

there is a tendency to stop there.

But a second period followed this first great epoch in Ohio's

history. This was the noontide of yesterday when the pioneer was

followed by the industrialist and when Ohio between 1865 and



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1900 became a community in which mechanization reached great

heights. The State became also the mother of Presidents and a

center of education. At first blush these great achievements would

seem to make this second period as intriguing as its predecessor.

But for this epoch as in most societies of like nature, there is less

evidence of enthusiasm, less of interest; there is even a tempta-

tion to avoid it. Why?

It was a period of great growth. It can, in a sense, be com-

pared with adolescence in the life of the individual. Adolescence

is a time of abounding energy, of great emotional possibilities. It

is a period in which the energy and the emotional enthusiasm

often produce astounding triumphs of creative activity. But as

most people know, perhaps too well, it is also a period of instabil-

ity and waste, of extravagant expenditure, of heedless confusion

and of chaotic behavior which so often marks the career of the

adolescent. The adolescent is not by any means socially undesir-

able, the fact is that he frequently is the most useful member of

a given society, but he is often incorrigible, is amoral if not im-

moral and can frequently disturb his elders in a fashion which is

almost unbearable.

During this period of Ohio's adolescence great things were

achieved. The phenomenal industrial growth of this State, the

miracles of organization and giant planning, all testified to the

enormous burst of creative energy and talent which characterized

those years. It produced tremendous concentration of wealth and

at the same time it permitted a great contribution by the creators

of this wealth to the cultural institutions of the community. As

noted above, however, the forces of adolescence are not always well

controlled. Certain emotions get out of hand and it was so in this

period. This great concentration of power was accompanied by

behavior as ruthless as that of the jungle. Sharp practice, fraud,

poverty, distress, disease, vice and the breaking of the human

spirit, all were part of this picture.

The whole story of this epoch is very complex. Therefore,

because of the complexity and because of the consequent difficulty

of telling the truth about it, because of the fact that many of the

practices then involved were such as to make the community



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ashamed of them and wish to forget them, because some people

feel that there are some things best forgotten, there has been the

temptation to neglect this noontide.

This second epoch in the Ohio of yesterday was followed by

a third, the afternoon of yesterday, the first decades of the twen-

tieth century. This was the period in which America and Ohio

reached maturity. Then the nation awoke, as Ohio awoke, to the

necessity of doing something for conservation. The heedlessness

and the waste of adolescence had to be stopped. This was the

period in which the idealism of the early 20th century asserted

itself. The work of the Grangers and the Populists was carried

to successful fruition and became the platform of the progressives

in both the Republican and Democratic parties. This era may be

called the one in which conscience reasserted itself, in which a

distaste for corruption, injustice and waste grew to be dominant

in public thinking.

It was in this period that such Ohioans as Tom L. Johnson,

William H. Taft, Brand Whitlock, "Golden Rule" Jones, Newton

D. Baker and many others fought the battle for civic righteousness.

It was a day in which great benefactions took the place of lavish

expenditure, in which institutions like the Ohio State Archaeo-

logical and Historical Society began to receive more adequate

support. In these years Ohio twice plunged itself wholeheartedly

into great world conflicts which had as objectives the conservation

of certain values for the human race. Unfortunately, this period

like the one preceding it has not received sufficiently the attention

of historical societies, here or elsewhere. Not because there has

persisted the reluctance of the preceding period to treat what

might be termed unpleasant subjects, but because chronological

nearness and the great mass of the evidence which should be

pondered have seemed to act as paralyzing influences.

III

It is quite obvious that if the nation is to understand what

transpired in the noontide and the afternoon of yesterday, those

interested in history must take on greater activity, for which in

turn they must needs receive greater public support. The Society's



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building will not house a giant locomotive nor a steel furnace, nor

a huge turbine, nor a skyscraper. Neither will it house the records

of a score of vast businesses, each one of which may now have

more than a building full of archives somewhere in its plants.

Yet we cannot dismiss the responsibility for the story of these

years and blindly leave it for the next generation to do those

things which this one has irresponsibly omitted. It is easy to see

why we cannot shirk this responsibility. The reason we cannot is

because we have so great a concern for the Ohio of tomorrow.

It is common knowledge that we are no longer living in times

very closely related to even those seemingly near-by days of the

early 20th century. The disintegrating influence of two world

wars, the terrifying destruction of our natural resources, the truly

awful implications of the atomic bomb accompanied as they are

by political chaos in Europe, the breakdown of constitutional gov-

ernment, the rise of sinister ideologies which despise the individual

and exalt an irresponsible state -- all these are evidences which

some fear to be pointing to the destruction of our own cherished

institutions. This is by no means necessarily so nor must these

evidences be accepted as warranting an extreme sense of pes-

simism. The strongest force in human life is still human will.

Human will is conditioned by human desires. Humanity still can

be assured that it will be able to achieve if it has sufficient strength

of will and sufficient fixity of purpose to make the effort necessary

to secure its desired ends. In other words, America will be able

to enjoy democracy as long as a large enough proportion of her

people have a desire for it sufficiently strong to create the energy

to preserve it. The people in our government, in our political

organizations with possibly few exceptions, in fact nearly all who

are vocal in this country believe, if one can take declarations at

their face value, in the perpetuation of democracy.

We know that things long familiar can be taken for granted

and accepted as commonplace and therefore as matters about

which little thought is necessary. But it is obvious also that things

that we take for granted can be neglected to the point where they

deteriorate or are lost. We know that in the case of the family

relation we sometimes never wake up to the real affection we



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have for someone near to us until the shadow of death has come

between us. Then it is too late. This is not to endorse the lugubri-

ous claim that democracy is on its death bed or that the time for it

is past. But as long as there are those who think this may be

possible, and as long as there are those who may be wishing to

hurry up the process of disintegration it behooves those who are

loyal to democracy, to have a charge to take the steps which are

essential to preserve it.

The gravest responsibility is to see that each succeeding gen-

eration understands the genealogy of its ideas. When some new

prophet arises he should be immediately subject to investigation.

Efforts should be made to ascertain how it comes that this man

makes such pretentions. One of the matters for investigation is

the messiah's intellectual kin. Ideas are like people. They have

family history. Some of them are eugenic, of proper breeding,

others are corrupt, diseased and illegitimate. Society is very care-

ful these days of its vital statistics so far as they relate to indi-

viduals. They are not so careful as to the vital statistics of the

ideas or human traits which have so long had a part in creating

society.

We know for instance that American democracy was created

by the pioneers. We glory in their achievement. We make much

of it. In Ohio the historians and other interested people have the

story well in hand. Perhaps many feel that all that is necessary in

order to preserve democracy in the future is to maintain exhibits

which will illustrate the prowess of our pioneer ancestors. In

many respects, however, the vital matter is not the exaltation of

the virtue of the pioneer but it is the conquest of the wasteful

tendencies, the exploiting tendencies of the period of our com-

munity adolescence. The pioneer struggled with the wilderness

and with the Indians in a fashion which was truly heroic; but in

many respects even more heroic and worthy of even greater study

and illustration is the fight against that overweening power, ex-

ploitation, corruption and greed which became so prevalent in the

noontide following the Civil War.

The virtue and the strength and the courage displayed in that

fight during the early twentieth century were the greater because



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the temptation and the so-called forces of evil were the more

powerful. It is this courage, virtue, and sense of responsibility

which should be understood with as much certainty as the virtues

of the pioneer. This means that we should undertake to discover

the real story of the growth of big business and not try to cover

it up. We should study thoroughly the activities of those who had

to carry on democracy during this period. Their responsibilities

were tremendous. Men like Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft, yes,

and even Harding were confronted by truly overwhelming com-

plexities. The marvel is not that they did not do better but that

they did no worse. We need to know the efforts of the farmer to

protect himself against forces which he did not understand. We

need to know the striving of wage workers to prevent an exploita-

tion which they had learned through bitter experience to fear.

How are we to know how to preserve democracy tomorrow, if we

ignore the study of the grave dangers which confronted it yester-

day, or if we slight the efforts which we have been making to

counteract the dangers which threaten it?

If we are to conserve social values we cannot be content to

speak only of the virtues of the pioneer, we must explain the

reasons why their legacy to us has been so nearly destroyed and

understand the great forces which in the recent past have been

summoned to halt the destruction. No one can play a musical

instrument or a game, or speak a language or practice medicine

or make scientific inventions who does not know how to perform

certain fundamental operations. These cannot be performed with-

out the knowledge of the latest techniques. No one seeks to put

out fires in a skyscraper with leather buckets or with the primitive

hand engines of one hundred and fifty years ago. The fire fighter

of today must have the latest devices. He must thoroughly under-

stand those processes which have been perfected most recently.

One cannot fight the corroding influences that work in modern

democracy with the simple virtues of the pioneer. We must be

thoroughly acquainted with the techniques which were developed

in the more recent past for fighting the destructive tendencies

which became evident at the turn of the century. Each state in the

Union, in fact each community needs an institution like the Ohio



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State Archaeological and Historical Society to serve as a fire

station prepared to fight possible conflagration.

IV

The historical society of today needs certain definite char-

acteristics. In the first place, it must have its concept of the past

as clearly defined as possible in order to emphasize the values

which it considers worth conserving. This takes a lot of discus-

sion, planning, formulation. Because each historical society needs

particularly a definition of civic virtue, it must be certain of

democracy and its meaning. It is all very well to know how the

pioneers built their cabins, it is all very well to have the letters

and papers of the early statesmen, it is all very well to collect the

rag paper account books of flour mills and forges. It is all very

well to know the simple techniques of the politics of the Jack-

sonian period. It is all very well to have the early imprints and

the photographs of the classic revival. But where are the records

of the nearer yesterdays? Where is that sure knowledge of the

problems of big business, of the temptations to which its exploiters

were subjected, of the struggle of those with cleaner conscience

and of the methods by which a better adjustment between social

justice and individual gains was made? In each historical society

there should be a group which, in cooperation with the scholars in

the universities and colleges, should be working at assembling the

records in useable form and writing the story. There must be

analysts who are capturing and recording events, discerning trends

and completing the records as they are made.

Great businesses should be encouraged to put their own rec-

ords in archival order, to keep them accessible in charge of some-

one who makes it his business to know where things are and what

is in the records themselves. Historians generally know what they

want and can save much time if, on asking, certain types of record

can be made available. They will not then have to suffer in labor-

ing through dust-covered files piled helter skelter in warehouse

attics in freezing cold or blinding heat.

Local newspapers should be encouraged to index their files.

Here in Ohio this society receives 66 dailies and eighty-odd



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weeklies. It is an impossible task to scan their many columns

filled so often as they are with matter which is only of personal

rather than historical interest. Cooperation between the Society

and several newspapers in this State could produce indexes which

would be tools of inestimable value.

The internal activity of the Society, however, is but one

branch of its work. There must be a firm and sure relation with

the public. There needs he clever advertising of the results. The

historical society has the duty to tell abroad what it has discovered

and it must be told effectively if it is to have the influence which

its importance demands. A message which is not understood is of

little value.

One of the most effective means of communication is through

dramatization, by radio, through little theaters, pageants and pic-

tures. The Ohio Society's annual report shows effective use of

the radio but the time at its command is limited. Much more

radio time at more popular hours over larger stations is needed,

also more novel methods. If some one personality could be pre-

sented, as has been done in commercials, which would attract the

listening public of all ages, the way some of the well-known voices

over the radio do, the story would have a tremendous audience.

The greatest instrument at the disposal of anyone with a message

in this day and generation is the radio. People seemingly will

listen much more than they will read. A high art has been de-

veloped, an art which has been proved tremendously effective.

The use of the radio is a challenge and an expensive one.

Every effort should be put forth to make the Society more of

a community center. It must communicate its message to people

through social means and make them feel that they are helping to

voice it. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania for a number of

years opened its doors to the public and invited them to certain

meetings to hear speakers. Upon occasion out of an urban and

suburban population of several millions they could attract an

audience of 70 or 80 people. More recently, however, they have

been inviting people to come to tea and to view specific and con-

structive exhibits at which some commentator makes some remarks

about the significance of the exhibits. This combination of some-



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thing to see, something to eat, and something to hear has filled the

hall. People are not coming just to hear a speech, they are coming

to participate in a community function.

Another method of doing this would be to put on a series of

community playlets and some pageants in which a variety of

people would participate and which would invite general interest.

This has been done very effectively in one of the institutions in

Pennsylvania, namely, the Lycoming County Historical Society.

Knowing as we do how many people are interested in pageantry,

it is possible to organize a series of pageants from time to time

and from place to place under state direction which would quicken

community interest. Also, in this connection it would be possible

to make a series of historical movie shorts illustrating the history

of the State which could be shown in the numerous theaters. It is

also possible to do what some publishing companies have started

to do by bringing out little picture books which tell the story of

the State in the colors and drawings of the Sunday papers. Chil-

dren and elders do not need to be engrossed entirely in the

activities of Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and Terry and the

Pirates. Animated drawings in colors of historical subjects will be

just as fascinating to them.

But the most important means of proclaiming the message of

civic virtue is through youth. It is sometimes said in facetious

mood that a very few people ever become interested in historical

society activities until they are over forty-five, that history is an

interest which only develops with age. In Pennsylvania as well

as in other states, we have been going on the opposite principle.

The Pennsylvania Historical Commission undertook to organize

through the schools a great league of Junior Historians. Junior

Historians have been organized in clubs in all parts of the Com-

monwealth and they are encouraged to think and act and write and

talk history, to hold meetings, to read papers, to collect records, to

visit historical sites and to teach history to others. It has been a

tremendously significant experiment.



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V

Thus we have seen how great the responsibility and hence

how great the task. Ohio has of late been generous with support,

but how much more is needed! There is still so much to be done

and why? No one comes to Columbus and walks along the Scioto

but is impressed by the great concern over floods. No visitor but

is impressed by its hospitals and by the various evidences of

adequate provision to protect society from holocaust and any

conceivable physical danger. There is every mark of interest in

preserving life and property. Individuals and corporations pay

taxes without cavil for these protections.  But there are other

dangers besides those of flood or fire or epidemic, there is the

danger of flabby morality and of what might be termed ideological

sluggishness. Why protect yourself against flood waters if you

are not willing to protect yourself against floods of deteriorating

ideas? If the government and the society which makes possible

that freedom of enterprise and opportunity which we prize so

highly are not to be protected against the floods of corrupt ideas

and practices, have we fulfilled our responsibility? Have we safe-

guarded our democracy?

We must provide adequate support for the institutions which

protect society by providing immunization against social deteriora-

tion. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society is one

of these institutions. It has labored faithfully for sixty-one years.

It is now at the crossroads. New leadership is about to assume

direction and if this leadership has proper vision and whole-

hearted support, there is no limit to its accomplishment. If institu-

tions such as this are given really adequate support we may face

with augmented courage the Ohio of tomorrow, stronger in the

strength which comes from the knowledge of the social values

bequeathed to us by the Ohio of yesterday.