The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-08-03


selves cut of chance for office, and recon-
mending wumen-widows without other
means of support, elder daughters left to
support the family, girls with no other
means of living, children of distinguished
families left poor-and placing them in the
offices instead. There have been thousands
of cases of this kind. Every one OF them is
noble disI of the charge of professional
NOR 8lists and cynics that all politics Is SELF
ishness and all politicians selfish men.
l have seen thousands Of other disproofs
of the challenge. Thousands of men have
come to Washington TO serve some deserv-
ing person, paid their own expenses, and
taken valuable time for the good errand.
l have known a thousand men IN the last
year each to spend more than the salary
for year of the Office sought for, saying
nothing of their time, to come to Washing
ton and get small pOstoffice for some dis
abled soldier or some needy woman.
The files of the Postoffice Department
are luminous with letters of good human
feeling and kindness, and of the desire
of good men TO serve those who are
worthy or who are in need. If had been
a eynic, a hater of my kind, a doubter Of
the good in men, believer IN selfishnesS in
politics. when l took the Office l now hold
year ago, this past years experience alone
would have converted me and taught me
to love better than ever my fellow-men,
taught me to believe in the good in human
nature and taught me that in America almost
every man is willing to serve his deserving
neighbor. Indeed, years service in any
public position would increase the 1aith OF
almost any man in his fellow-men.
STUDIES IN HUMAN NATURE.
In public places you see human nature
from every angle. The motives of men are
laid bare to your eye. 1t is said to be
a good test in Christian zeal to sacrifice and
give so that it hurts. 1t ought to be as
good test in politics; and there has not
been day since l have been In Washing
ton that | have not seen men make sacri-
fees that hurt, sacrifices that were made
purely for human kindness, party good or
the good of the Government. Others may
afford to ignore and peck at such gene
rOSity. | am too poor i'll superior virtues to
Scoff at any such nobility.
Another noble thing in politics Is that
men in politics for the present time do
not forget those who passed before them,
in the previous generation. l have seen
hundreds of men in the past year give up
chance of office for themselves to let it go
to the son or daughter of some man who
had served his country well, or his party
generously, and gone his way and left his
family poor. Indeed, think there is some
thing of good, not only in the Republican,
but in the Democratic party, that prompts
both to considerations of humanity Of this
kind l know that in the present Admins
guiShed men now dead, who were Demo-
Gratis, have been given official place and
shown great consideration, because their
fathers in their time served the country
well and left their descendants poor. Every
department in Washington is proof of this.
There is hardly room in any of the de-
partments where there are four or five
clerks that one of the clerks does not hold
the place purely because of his or her an
ceStral worth. In the POStOtfice Depart
ment are descendants Of almost all OF the
greater Americans of the past, beginning
with lineal descendants of George WASH
ington and embracing the distinguished
men Of both and all political parties. These
are the wards of politics., the inherited
wards, that the good heart of politics takes
care of and would not allow TO be touched.
Some Of them began in the Democratic
days, before Lineoln's administration;
others ,r, under Republican FPrest -
land administration; they. are serv-
ing under this. Many OF them are
old and infrm, many of them drawing the
largest salaries and doing the least work.
\ ct the Government owes them cOnsidera-
ton. and the heart of politics, called so
hard and brutal by the unthinking, sees
that this consideration is continued to
them.
SMALL PROFITS.
Where one dollar is made in politics
hundred dollars is either lost or else not
earned where it might be. The fact that
the departments, and that the Federal
offices all through the country, and many
of the State and domestic offices, are filled
with the descendants of public men who
died poor, goes conclusiyely to show that
men do not make money out of politics or
public place. Any one OF intelligence and
good memory can count on his fingers the
great public men who have died rich.
IND ho ba lin
who have held office who have died rich
There is hardly a useful man serv-
ing in public life to-day who could not
get twice, three times or Quadruple
tue salary, or make that much more money
in profession or business, than he is now
receiving from Uncle Sam. Recently Hon.
Samuel j. Randall died in modest home
on bed worth $40. after having served his
country for twenty years at One-fifth Of
what lie could have earned in private life.
The Dobinties OF politics had increased his
natual manhood until he found his greatest
pride in sacrifice. He showed the pride of
the true politician when, after life of sac
rifce and dying in comparative poverty, he
refused gift of forty thousand dollars
offered him by his generous Deighbors
with the best of intentions. Let the
church and the other professions
produce men to match the many men in
politics who have served their country at
personal loss and kept their families poor
and refused gifts in time Of need before the
general cavil as to seltshneSS in politics and
politicians is accepted as gospel good and
true. The recollection is still vivid to
nearly everybody of intelligence, of scores
of public men in both parties dying in
Observation-Disclosures of the Supreme
Court, members of Congress, occupants of
other places, and dying so poor that friend
ship had to come in pay their funeral ex-
penses and to keep their families from
want.
Political parties are no more selfish than
politicians. Where the public pays to men
elected to office one dollar political parties
spend $40 by way of increasing public in
telligenee by way of giving to the public
the ablest discussion Of current events; by
way Of extending the circulation of news
papers and magazines; by way of bringing
to the reach and knowledge of every voter
the right side of the argument. If pOliti-
cal party be called cooperative oflice-seek-
ing association, as the cynics say, the coun-
try is not in much danger from it when it
spends $40 for the public good where the
man 1t elects TO office receives 81. So |
say that politics is generous thing. not
ungenerOus and selfish. l say that politics
broadens men, disciplines them into man
hood and nobility, rather than narrows
them into selfshness and meanness.
SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED.
The good heart of politics ought to be
encouraged. Political warfare has made
many poor hearts better and stronger. The
good heart of President Harrison in the
past year has been shown in thousands of
decisions made for the sake of humanity,
for the sake of gratitude on the part of
the country more than party. So with
nearly every other public officer having de-
cisions in politics or public life TO make. A
government without a heart is not gov
eminent to be loved This Government
has always had heart. 1t remembered
and put in Office as long as they lived.
in every sort of place, the soldiers of
the revolution, of the War of 1872, OF the
war with Mexico, and of the great war for
the Union. 1t would not be worthy to live
II II did not remember its savors.
Very beautiful and good in friendship.
This world is nothing without it. a few
evenings ago, while sitting late at my work,
Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, man 70 or 70 years old.
who is growing footsore with the weight of
many years, came into my room. | was
surprised, and said: "Why, Judge. what
is your errand SO late in the day ?" He
answered: have an errand for friend,
who is i'll and not able to attend to it for
himself. He is anxious about small Post
office in New Mexico, where a friend aud
comrade of his is candidate, and
Ia