THE COLLEGE MAN IN POLITICS

The first thing that occurs to me to say when asked to write upon the "College Man in Politics", is that he should forget that he is a college man. By that I do not mean that he should forget his training, experience or ideals, but he should not attempt to enter politics as one of a separate class possessing any peculiar privileges. His college training rightly used will be of great advantage to him, and yet only a cursory review of our history is necessary to show that a college training is far from indispensable to success in public service. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland and many others of our greatest public men serve as examples to dispose conclusively of the notion that the education obtained in college is a necessary passport to a successful public career.

Having divested himself of the notion that his diploma marks him out as a heaven-sent being commissioned to govern his fellow-men, he should proceed to show his title to enter the public service by the fidelity with which he discharges the common duties of citizenship. The careful study of political issues and the desire to penetrate deeply into them, so that he himself may really understand and may contribute to the general enlightenment of his neighbors will be indispensable. He must not be satisfied to voice simply the passing opinion of the moment and the shallow clap-trap of the day. And in taking this first step, I think the college man has a peculiar advantage. If he has studied deeply some one subject in college and has mastered it, as every student should do, even if he is unable to distinguish himself generally in the studies of the college curriculum, he should be able, providing he has a taste for politics, to do thorough work in political subjects.

It may give one a quicker entrance into politics to be able to entertain rather than to instruct, but the mere performer in political vaudeville cannot go far. His success is likely to be as transient as discreditable. He should not neglect the first duties which he owes as a member of a party, as he will very likely be a member of a party. He should take part in the work of committees, in the caucuses and in the practical details of campaigns. I know the so-called direct primaries have had a distinct influence in lessening the importance of this kind of work. The old-fashioned caucus where the members of a party in a town or ward of a city met together and took common counsel, was a very excellent school, and was an excellent institution also for good government. Anything of interest in party politics or relating to its candidates could be openly discussed in the caucus, and as a result of discussion a wiser course would be apt to follow than where the party is resolved into its original units, and each man comes silently into a voting booth and records his verdict without having heard the open and free discussion of his party associates.

There still remains a good deal of practical political work: the personal canvassing of the voters, getting their names upon the lists, persuading them to come to the polls, and circulating campaign literature. After the performance of these practical duties, the next thing will be the discussion of questions in public meetings. It would not be well to aspire at the outset to take part in the spectacular rallies, and pass over the meeting at the cross-roads or in the ward-room. In the latter, public opinion may be shaped and an excellent discipline gained by the speaker. Very momentous verdicts are rendered by a jury of twelve men, and the arts of the greatest advocates have been brought to bear to secure these verdicts. And if a young political orator does not have a fine contempt for the day of small things and is able to get an audience of only twenty men, he will find occasion for all of his ingenuity in attempting to persuade them to his way of thinking. If he devotes himself conscientiously to the discussion and gives even his small audience the best that is in him, he will be fitting himself to sway the great audiences which he will be pretty sure sometime to have.

Hawthorne calls the prison the "black flower of civilization," and the demagogue may as truly be called a black flower of democracy. It is usually much easier to appeal to the passions and prejudices of a great crowd of men than it is to their reason, for their passions and prejudices are capable of being made to work together and of being marshalled quickly, while the reason of each man must take its own course, and in order to do its best work must be illuminated by careful study and discussion, and by doing the things which most men are not apt to take pleasure in doing. There is little danger of the welltrained college man becoming a demagogue, unless he becomes one consciously. The type is not at all obscure, but it is well marked and there are many historical examples of it.

There is always error to be combatted and abuses to be overthrown. The demagogue will promise complete reform immediately, just as the quack will promise a quick and certain cure, and in either case the prescription, if followed, will be apt to result in the destruction of the nation or the patient. The statesman will endeavor to secure reform without the overturn of institutions and the destruction of healthy tissue. He will be denounced for not going fast enough, just as impeachment was proposed by certain abolitionists for Lincoln, because he disapproved of the .Emancipation Proclamation issued by one of his generals, at a time when the country, and especially the border states, were not ripe for it and when the result of a premature declaration would probably have been the destruction of the union and the establishment of a nation founded upon slavery. If the college man will go into politics with the determination to be strictly honest, and I do not mean simply in a financial sense, because the money grafter is rarely met in politics, but if he will give the people the benefit of his honest counsel and will take the time to study public questions, his value to the nation cannot be overestimated. I believe, too, that his own personal ambition would thus be better served, but that is a lesser consideration.