The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-05-24
SOME REMARKS
ON GREATNESS

OF many lying adges none has so little
truth in it as the one about greatness.
Greatness cannot be thrust upon one,
nor can it be achieved. Several eminent
Americans have learned this bitter truth
after long striving, and several more are
destined to learn it between now and
the first Tuesday after the first Monday
in next November. 1t is we'll at this time
to take fresh note Of the tactics that
have been and are being employed by
the victims of the delusion that great
ness lies around loose to be picked up
by the enterprising. The late James G..
Blaine believed that greatnes was a
mere knack of being agreeable and high
spirited and popular. To this end he
bent all his energies during a long po-
litical career. He was constantly act
ing, and he succeeded in being brilliant
and sensational. He was idolized by
the few that like that sort of thing; but
the American people want sterner stuff
than personal magnetism in preSi-
dent. Blaine did not have it; and when
at last he became his party's candidate,
they turned him down for a newcomer,
man with none of the Blaine glitter,
whose greatness was problematical but
promising. Blaine must have died feel
ing that the world had poorly used 50
snowy a figure as his; and probably
even in the bitterness of his last days
he did not suspect that greatnes is any
thing more than knowing how to Jolly
the people.
The late David b. Hill was another
man who tried to become great after his
own private recipe, without having the
natural fitness for it. His methods con-
trast interestingly with Blaine's. In
character he was directly the opposite
cold, cynical. selfish and secretive. He
never married, and made few real
friends. Where Blaine tried to conquer
by the bare charm of his personality,
Hill tried to win by trickery-the
wretched little tricks of q ward poll
tician. Many man rises high in his
own town or state by these tricks, but
when he tries to cheat the people of the
whole country by them he comes to
grief. Hill found out that the state of
New York is bigger than Elmira, N. Y,
and that the United States is consider
able bigger than both. But that was
about all he ever learned. 10 the very
end of his career he doubtless believed
that greatness was nothing more than
"smartness." And yet Blaine was
dropped by the nation and Hill by his
party, for man who was just naturally
great by the kind and force of his con-
victions-a man who won the steady
confidence and respect of the people by
being always himself and never trying
to fool them in any way.
Another type of the shoddy great
man is Mckinley of Ohio. His deluSion
is that the people have gone crazy
about protection, that they are madly
eager to elect high protectionist, and
that if his views on protection are only
rabid enough he need have no views on
any other subject. Accordingly he an
nounces himself as prosperitys agent,
and no doubt honestly feels that the
accidental linking of his name with a
high tariff bill that once wrecked his
party will make him great man. In
his campaign methods he aims to com
bine the bluff, diffusive geniality of
Blaine with the quiet, practical wire
pulling of Hill, and yet he has not
1.-THE of the ability of either man. Much
less is he great. None but man of hope
less mediocrity would try to escape a
clear declaration upon the most vital
issue of the day, and none but such
could avoid seeing that the issue of to-
day is finance, rather than the tariff.
Yet he has chosen to stand upon plat
form framed to deceive both parties.
PETER of Kansas is a greater man than
Mckinley, because he has the courage
of his convictions. He believes in max
ing everybody rich by the simple de-
vice Of issuing money to do it, and he