The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-02-24
Trained Men.

A few men control the great COM
mercial forces and direct industrial
movements to their larger results. A
few men create the literature Of a nation
or an age. A few men furnish the i'm
pulse, mould the taste and accomplish
the work of art. A few men lead the re-
ligious and moral thought of the time.
Not that the few are not in turn in
huenced by circumstance or that the
leaders and representatives are not in a
sense the outgrowth of their time; but it
is still true that the few stand IN the
front. So far as the mass of the people
are concerned it sometimes seems that
the useful activity of the people begins
and ends with getting the right men In
front. Preachers are not taken at hap
hazard from the plow or the cart and,
without any instruction in theology or
the art of speech, set up to expound
divinity to people who know at least
something about it. Such men are not
expected to move congregations with
argument and persuasion when they are
equipped with neither. If we want
portraits painted we do not go through
the farce of sitting to a man who never
handled brush or mixed colors. We do
not take the raw youth who comes from
the country to ego in store" and put
him at the head of great importing
house or elect him president of bank.
In none of these cases do we regard 1t as
any reproach to ourselves that trained
men are set above us and before us in
this way. The fact that Longfellow and
Tennyson write poems is not at all
derogatory to the many millions who
only read them. So far is the reverse of
this true that the people who are able to
put the greatest number of trained men
at the front and to keep them there are
admitted to be the most intelligent and
successful people. This is measure of
popular character and education, test
of popular achievement. There is only
one case in which we reverse the rule.
When we come to politics we seem to
turn deaf ears to the suggestions of ex-
perience and common sense. 1t would
be very hard to prove that rs much of
special aptitude and careful training is
not needed to transact the business OF o
nation as of an insurance company; that
deficiency in this respect is not rs fatal
to man who manages the affairs OF the
State or the Union as to one who steers
ferryboat or supervises the ''cash boys"
in q variety shop. Why do we disregard
this plain truth in politics The phenome-
non can be accounted for only by the
prevalence of false notion that If we
put trained men forward we shall in
some mysterious way establish an
''aristocracy" and overthrow our political
institutions. According to wide notion
the democratic theory demands the con-
slant practical assertion of the principle
that all men are as good as any man for
any sort of work whatever. The strength
of our POLITICAL system consists in the
guaranty to the people of the right to
choose their best men as their leaders.
The perpetuity of the system depends
upon the intelligent exercise of this
popular right. We succeed in every
thing else by putting forward our trained
men. We shall succeed in politics ac-
cordingly as we do this. illustrations
multiply Of o practice which, far from
vindicating the democratic principle,
contradicts it, and in time will degrade
the people. .--NeD York Post.