Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-13
THE VALUE OF MEN.

WI. OepeNj Ou HIS IeCeHt WISH " 1Iu
rope, was forcibly impressed with the sud
den collapse of Prince Bismarck. Only
few months ago the rumor OF his intended
retiracy was received as the announcement
of great public calamity, yet when h
left office it affected Germany little and
Europe not at all.
But Mr.. Depew's surprise is not at all
complimentary to his judgment and pre-
science as a public man. The truth is
and all the world knows it, that the indi.
viduality Of men is not such an important
factor in the march of events as it once
was. In their day and age no one man
nor, indeed, any group of men, controls
the movement, or very much influences it,
that propels civilization and keeps the
wheels of progress in motion. 1t is the
union of many and diverse forces that ac-
complishes the task.
Not that great men, sagacious men, are
no longer important figures in the politi-
cal and social dramas of the age; but that
we have reached that point where neither
nations nor progress hinge upon the activ-
Ity or life of any man. So soon as leader
falls, his place is taken, and generally it
is quite as we'll filed, and Immediately.
Mr.. Depew says: "The people of Germany
found that they could do without Bis
marck, and at once he was forgotten
practically So" But Bismarck's is not a
phenomenal case In the intelligence of
this age no man can make himself indis-
pensable. So soon as one notably promi-
nent, and upon whose shoulders the burden
of a nation seems to rest, retires or falls there
rise up others to fill the place. 1t is ac-
tiyity while in position that gives national
men power. Once let them cease to APP
pear, and they are almost forgotten. Gov
ernments go on without them, new men
rise to the occasion of the time, and the
progressive movements of the world swing
on as before.
1t is we'll that this is so. Were it not,
we might find hope for free government
and the onward march of civilizing inhu-
ences growing faint If it were not so,
and the individuality of the governing
power, for instance, was the essential
quality, the claim of monarchists would be
strong that reigning houses should be the
regulators CT government and society, and
no lause be permitted in the line of success
sion. But history is more emphatically
proving every day the falsity of the claim.
The royalist and monarchical and Bona
partist pretenders to the throne of France
are to-day realizing how little value at
taches to their individuality, and that out
of position they and their pretensions are
of no particular Importance in the eyes of
the French people. France has discovered
that neither King nor an Emperor is
essential to her well-being: that she does
well under elected Presidents, and that
when one drops out another is readily found
competent to hold the executive reins.
The sum and conclusion of Mr.. Depew's
discovery, in short, is pithily stated in the
language of the Inter Ocean, when it says
that ethe philosophy of politics is really
founded upon the understanding that no
man is absolutely essential to the welfare
of the country" Or, as a modern phi
Iosopher quoted by our contemporary put
1t, Everybody is needed in this world
nobody is needed much"