"It is work and personal worth which make a State great both politically and industrially, and in my estimation they are to be found in largest proportions in the Democratic party"
About this Quote
A State, Lane insists, isn’t made great by bloodlines, slogans, or even lofty constitutional theory, but by a colder metric: labor and “personal worth.” It’s a shrewd piece of Progressive Era rhetoric, swapping romance for productivity while still sounding morally elevated. “Work” carries the industrial register of the early 20th century - factories, infrastructure, the disciplined tempo of modern life. “Personal worth” adds a civic varnish, implying character, sobriety, usefulness. Together they form a moral economy: citizens earn political legitimacy the way they earn wages.
The turn is political: Lane doesn’t simply praise toil; he claims the Democratic Party as its natural home. That’s less an empirical observation than an act of brand-building. In a period when parties were battling over who could credibly manage capitalism’s upheavals (labor unrest, monopoly power, urban immigration), Lane positions Democrats as the party of competent, ethical builders rather than mere power brokers. The sentence quietly proposes a hierarchy: those who “work” and possess “worth” are the proper authors of the State’s greatness, while those outside that frame - speculators, idle elites, radicals, the “unworthy” poor - become suspect.
Even the phrase “politically and industrially” reveals the subtext: government and industry are not separate spheres but interlocking engines. Lane is arguing for a modern State that can coordinate both, and he’s offering Democrats as the adult supervision. It’s partisan, yes, but also a subtle demand that citizenship itself be measured in output and character, not just rights.
The turn is political: Lane doesn’t simply praise toil; he claims the Democratic Party as its natural home. That’s less an empirical observation than an act of brand-building. In a period when parties were battling over who could credibly manage capitalism’s upheavals (labor unrest, monopoly power, urban immigration), Lane positions Democrats as the party of competent, ethical builders rather than mere power brokers. The sentence quietly proposes a hierarchy: those who “work” and possess “worth” are the proper authors of the State’s greatness, while those outside that frame - speculators, idle elites, radicals, the “unworthy” poor - become suspect.
Even the phrase “politically and industrially” reveals the subtext: government and industry are not separate spheres but interlocking engines. Lane is arguing for a modern State that can coordinate both, and he’s offering Democrats as the adult supervision. It’s partisan, yes, but also a subtle demand that citizenship itself be measured in output and character, not just rights.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
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