EDWIN MARKHAM
When the poem, "The Man With the Hoe," appeared in 1899, "it received world-wide attention, being hailed by some as the 'battle-cry of the next thousand years'." Hence it was with satisfaction that the people of Oregon learned that the poem was written by Edwin Markham. who was born in Oregon Qty, April 23, 1852, and that in him a great poet had arisen.
When Edwin Markham wrote "The Man With the Hoe," he was a resident of California. He had studied Millet's celebrated painting of "The Man With the Hoe," until he discovered something hitherto unrecognized in the blank face and bent form of the servile laborer foiling like an ox at the bidding of another; and the poet made, a picture of that laborer in these immortal words:
"Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe, and gazes on the ground;
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world."
These lines have been the subject of more sermons and editorials than any other four lines written in the English language during the last quarter century. It is, therefore, but fair to the author to concede that if true greatness is measured by one's ability to stamp his impress upon humanity, Edwin Markham would be counted great if he had done no more than to cause mankind to pause long enough to consider the oppressed laborer who had never been taught to think. Largely upon the suggestion of this poem men have begun to correct that "emptiness of ages" in the faces of those against whom conditions have cruelly discriminated. The world is now writing a new dispensation for industry—a new Talmud governing intelligent labor— and that upon the inspiration of seers such as Edwin Markham.
