The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-15

touch but by reading and reflection; they
are closet naturalists and entomoioglsts,
rather than hunters who know the habits
and haunts of game; and the careless
school boys of the outdoor world generally
can beat them both in finding and catch
ing the rarest butterflies. Asforeign min
listers, where there is nothing In particular
to do. the scholar in politics. like Irving,
Hawthorne, Everett, Lowell, White, Ban
croft, makes delightful figure, but when
an important inter national question comes
I'D. such as met Motley in the Alabama
claims. the scholar in politics is not equal
to its solution, and has to de replaced by
men of political life and training.
The late Mr.. Lowell was emphatically
scholar in politics; he was an officeholder
under President Arthur, and yet he was
utterly blind to his true worth as gentle
man, a statesman or representative
American in politics. With the exception
of Abraham Lincoln, Lowell lavished upon
no American IN public life such warm
praise as he gave Grover Cleveland. He
denounced the Republican party as cor
rupt, or controlled by INSCRIPTIONS
"bosses, and hailed Cleveland as the only
living hope, light and leader of civil service
reform, and continued to do this after
Cleveland had invoked the power of public
patronage to secure his own reelection.
Cleveland changed 1900 out of
$500 presidential postmasters al
lowed 10000 changes to be made
out of So, 900 fourth-class postmasters, and
changed thirty-two out of thirty-three for
eign ministers; all the collectors of inter-
nal revenue and nearly all the collectors
OF customs, and yet Mr.. Lowell, who could
no more appreciate Grant and Arthur than
another Boston scholar in politics."
Richard Ii. Dana, could Lincoln, wor-
shipped Grover Cleveland as devoutly as a
Persian fire worshiper does the sun. Mr..
Lowell was an honest scholar in politics."
but he was destitute of the vision of
statesman when he measured men, or he
could not possibly have mistaken polit-
ical mule masked in the lions skin of re-
form for genuine reform lion, and so
with all his genius, Lowell, who
evidently took his political views
at second hand always from
another scholar in politics." George
William Curtis. came to be distrusted, and
even derided, when he assumed to lecture
his country concerning the present out
look of what he distrustfully termed the
American experiment. Mr.. Lowelis wor-
ship of Cleveland as the rising hope of
81 +hak ha
scholar in politics" is not seldom pur-
blind doctrinaire, who lacks outdoor judg-
ment and perception of men and motives.
Scholarship and culture are always and
everywhere welcome when backed by cour-
age, common sense, political insight and
practicality, but, lacking these associate
virtues. culture and scholarship become
nothing but ceaseless critic and
grumbling visionary that the world merely
relegates to the cloister to make room for
men of some aptitude for leadership and
government in the world of affairs.
The so-called scholar in politics" is sell
dom really in politics, in the sense of
getting into close touch with the mass of
his fellow men; that is, he has never been
part of their life; he is not in sympathy
with their opinions; he is not an inspir-
ing, organizing, executive force; he seldom
forgets that he has been a teacher or a
preacher or critic all his days, and so he
is never satisfied except when he is preach
ing to his party, or finding fault with
most of its measures and all of its men.
This kind OF a scholar in politics always
makes a bad candidate, and, even when
he is elected makes a poor executive,
and the popular instinct is seldom
wrong which prompts the people when
they have a choice between two honest
candidates to take the one who does not
stand for "the scholar in politics." When
a good governor is wanted, take a man
whose calling has compelled him to put
his ear down close to the people, so that he
understands them; sympathizes with them
and can make himself understood by
them. If mere critic, or didactician is
wanted, then it will be entirely safe to
tempt some professor or pulpiteer to leave
the lecture-room or the church for politics.