The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-10-10
The GENTLEMAN IN POLITICS.

the same person, are quite suffi.
cient for the just and satisfactory
handling of the matters which
this address spreads before US in
detail. 'How are you going to
punish crimeT' We do not quite
see what scholarship has to do
with the settlement of that ques-
tion, or what the scholar has to
do with it, specially, beyond other
men. "How are you going to stop
official stealing" The question
may interest the scholar, and he
ought, indeed, assist in settling it
Alright, but as q scholar, specially,
we do not see what he can do, or
may be expected to do, beyond
other men. "How are you going
to control your corporations?"
Here cultivated brains may help
US to do something-to contrive
something; yet, after all, what we
want is not the way to control cor
porations, but corporations that
do not need to be controlled.
"What shall be the relations be-
tween capital and labor?" The
scholar ought to be able to help
us here. "What shall be done
with our Indians?" "How may
we best appoint our civil off1cersT"
These questions, with others re-
lating to universal suffrage and
the unlimited annexation of in
ferior races, make up Mr.. Reid's
very solid and serious catalogue.
There is work enough, legiti-
mate work, for the American schol-
ar, in the study and intelligent
handling of these questions; but
the fact that there is a consider
able number of American scholars
mixed up with every scheme of
iniquity in the country leads US
to suspect that the country is not
to be saved by scholarship alone.
There are two sides to the matter,
as there are to most matters. In
our late civil war, it was West
Point pitted against West Point,
each side being actuated by its
own independent ideas of duty
and patriotism. Military scholar
ship had very important Office
to perform in settling the ques-
ton between the two sections of
the country, but it had to struggle
with military sch olarship in order
to do it. We do not know why
we are not quite as likely to find
the scholar on the wrong side as
on the right side of politics. Mr..
Bancroft and Mr.. Everett were
neighbors once. They represent
ed the height of scholarly culture,
and the two extremes of political
opinion. They certainly assisted
in making respectable whatever
was bad in the party to which they
respectively belonged, whatever
else they did or failed to do. All
that we wish to say, in dissent
from Mr.. Reid, or rather in ad-
dition to him, is that scholarship
does not necessarily lead to any
common good conclusion in poll
tics, and that it may be or may
become, as base as any other ele-
ment.
What we really want is gentle
men in politics. If our political
men were only gentlemen, even if
they were no more than ordinarily
intelligent, we should find our po-
litical affairs in q good condition,
and the great questions that stand
before Us in a fair way of being
properly adjusted. A gentleman is
q person who knows something of
the world, who posses dignity and
self-respect, who recognizes the
rights of others and the duties he
owes to society In all his relations,
who would as soon commit suicide
as stain his palm with q bride, who
would not degrade himself with in
trigue. There are various types of
type the better the politician. If
his character and conduct are based
on sound moral principle-if he is
governed by the rule of right-that
is better than mere pride of char
acter or gentlemanly instinct. If,
beyond all, he is a man of faith and
religion-a Christian gentleman
he is the highest type of s gentle
man and in his hands the questions
which Mr.. Reid has proposed to the
scholar would have the fairest hand
ling that men are capable of giving
them. The more the Christian gen.
tleman knows, the better politician
he will make, and in him,
and in him only, will scholar
ship come TO its finest issues in pol.
itics. We do not think that the
worst feature of our politics is lack
of intelligence in our politicians.
There is q great deal of cultivated
brain in Congress. Public ques-
tions are understood and intelli-
gently discussed there. Even there,
IL is not that scholarship shows SUI
perior ability. Men who show
their capacity to manage affairs are
quite as apt to come from the plain
ly educated as from the ranks of
scholarship. Congress does not
suffer from lack of knowledge and
| culture half as much as it does from
lack of priaciple. 1t is the men
who push personal and party pur-
poses that poison legislation. II
Congress were composed of gentle.
men, we could even dispense with
what scholars we have, and be bet
ter off than we are to-day.
In the government of our cities
we could very well afford to gel
along without scholars, if we could
have only modestly educated gen.
tlemen. If the heavy-jawed, forid'
faced. full-bellied, diamond-brooch'
ed bully who now tvpifies the city
politician were put to his appropri
ate work of railroad building, Oh
experimenting gangs of ignoran
Workmen, and there could be pu
in his plsce good, quiet business
men, of gentlemanly instincts an(
of sound moral principle, we coulC
get along very comfortably withou
the scholar, though there would no
be the slightest objection to him
In brief, we want better men thai
we have, q great deal more than W
: want brighter and better educate,
men. Scholarship is g secondary
rather than 8 primary conaiders
;ion: the gentleman first, the schol
ar, If he is 6 gentleman, and nc
otherwise. If Christian gentleme
l were in power, many of the Quet
] lions that appeal to US for settle
3 ment would settle themselves. W
e should not be called upon, for il
n stance, to stop official stealing. In
: stead of trying to ascertain ho'
n we shall punish murder, we shoul
! dry up the fountains {
= murder. Instead of seeking
mode of controlling corporation
we should only need to find som
mode of putting only gentlemen il
II to corporations. Our laws are goo
e enough in the main. We wal
= them executed, and in order thu
O they may be executed, we need
n judiciary of Christian gentlemel
~ with executive officers, legal to Il
y law IA lonO "a notorious seamn