The philosophy of the various pressure groups has penetrated the legislative bodies. There are in the present-day parliaments representatives of wheat growers, of cattle breeders, of farmers' cooperatives, of silver, of the various labor unions, of industries which cannot stand foreign competition without tariffs, and of many other pressure groups. There are few for whom the nation counts more than their pressure group. The same holds true for the departments of the administration. Each department follows its own course and works against the endeavors of the other departments.
Many people complain today about the lack of creative statesmanship.
However, under the predominance of interventionist ideas, a political career is open only to men who identify themselves with the interests of a pressure group. Service to the short-run interests of a pressure group is not conducive to the development of those qualities which make a great statesman. The lamentable failure of the German Weimar system and of the Third Republic in France was primarily due to the fact that their politicians were merely experts in pressure group interests. Database Programming, Site Design and Hosting IWDC, Inc.