Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1901 — NOTED MANUFACTURER AND POLITICIAN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NOTED MANUFACTURER AND POLITICIAN.

Among all the public men who in recent years have engaged actively in arousing public sentiment and leading the way toward progressive municipal government, Hazen S. Pingree, who. died recently in London, stood foremost. He was a man of indomitable courage and perseverance, and when he undertook a thing he succeeded by force of his remarkable combativeness and the fact that he never knew when he was defeated. Beginning as a cobbler, he made a fortune out of the manufacture of shoes, and then entered politics and was elected Mayor of Detroit to improve the street car service and prevent the theft of the streets. He succeeded in giving Detroit the best street car transportation in the wprld, was three times re-elected Mayor, and then Governor of the State. By hid advancement of the potato patch scheme and other novel ideas he became a national character and was often talked of by his Michigan admirers as a presidential possibility. A remarkable feature of Pingree’s popularity and success is that he never had the support of the most affluent men in his city and State, nor did the so-called “leading politicians” render him assistance. He went into every fight almost single-handed, his co-workers being men in the ordinary and even more humble walks of life. But with all his peculiarities he was honest and straightforward, and made a magnificent public official.

HAZEN S. PINGREE