Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1883-12-07
POLITICS AND CULTURE.
The Coming American Statesman and Pol.
itician 10 be Educated.

The close observer of American life
and manners cannot fail to mark :
very important change now taking
place in the aspirations and habits O
thought Of the people. 1t is within the
memory of even the rising generation,
that the ambitious American proposed
to himself no goal without the domain
OF politics. In the days when Clay,
Calhoun and Webster led the giants Of
the Senate, the political caste was pre-
dominant. 1t was not without reason
that the very finest minds of the nation
turned to the study of political affairs.
The men who founded the republic pos
sessed political genius of the first order.
and they bequeathed to their successors
grand traditions and a prestige tina,
outweighed all the annoyances of pub
lie life. Moreover. the nation was en-.
gagged in discussing questions SO vital
and fundamental, that war proved to be
the only solution. During the four
years of mortal combat, which ended
with the downfall of the Confederacy,
new forces were brought into action,
and new direction given to national en-
deavor. Both at the North and at the
South the very flower of the population
was to be found on the battlefield. In
those terrible years it was amply prov
en- that the American people possess
in abundance the stuff of which heroes
are made. The civil war destroyed two
things which had been the great poll
ticians' only valid reason of being
the institution of slavery and the as
serted rights of secession. The recon-
struction period was period of passion,
in which craftsmanship could not hope
to find place. Meanwhile. although
the South's resources were at the lowest
ebb, the North was full of great and
growing fortunes. Politics, as n career,
had fallen into extreme disfavor in con-
sequence of the general corruption of
public life. The extension of the rail-
way system, and the manipulation Of
the vast mass of securities which arose
therefrom, offered wild field of action
to ambitious men. The average Amer
leans horizon did not extend beyond
the confines of business life: and both
in our foreign and in our domestic pol
icy the shop-keeping element predom-
mated.
From period of storm we have
passed into period of calm. 1t is also
a period of transition. The growth of
great private fortunes has given rise to
a leisured class which has no taste for
trade. In the near future the tariff is
destined to be burning question; we
need hardly say that the average poll
tician is very poorly prepared to handle
it. Meanwhile, numerous great insti-
tutions of learning. with munificent en-
dowments. have been founded and are
annually sending forth host of young
men whose education has incapacitated
them for taking the basely material
view of life. Great art collections are
being removed from the ancestral halls
of European nobies to the palaces of
American millionaires. American paint
ers, sculptors, singers, and writers are
fast achieving high position in the
world of art and letters. In fact, there
are innumerable signs that we have out
grown the mere dollars-and-cents view
of existence-that we are tending
toward the higher phase of civilization,
which. without wealth and leisure, is inn
possible.
What, then, is to be the destiny of
these thousands of young men who,
each year, leave the college gates to
face the world? Even after the ranks
Of artists and professional men have
been recruited. there will always re-
main q contingent OF graduates whose
natural inclination is toward political
life. Hitherto such men have been de-
TERED from entering upon 4 political
career, by the loss of caste which it is
to involve. But we have seen
the first fruits of the agitation for civil
service reform, and there is every rea-
son to suppose that within the next few
years the American statesmen will be
freed from the opportunities and exac-
tions of the ottice-seeker. Under these
it is not unreasonable to
expect that henceforth Il large number
Of young men will turn their attention |
TO politics. 1t will be happy day for
our country when we shall have re-
established the olden relations between
politics and culture. - New Orleans
Fines Democrat.