The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-18
The Public Service.

! New York man recently said, when
| interviewed by hotel reporter. that he
believed the ideal politician to be a man
who was in politics for pleasure. and not
for gain; and he added:
I'm IN ideal Republic all public servants would
! be without salary. and their service for the
! Commonwealth would be merely incident in
! their life and not the whole of it,
This sounds well, and seems to be
simple method of solving one of the vexed
/ questions of the day; but there are two
troubles with it. one is that the thing
could not happen, and the other. that if
| 1t could the results might not be desira-
! BILE. Ii is very unlikely that there will
ever come time when public servants
will be unsalaried. but If it ever does come
I it will not be in this century. Moreover
/ it is by no means likely that such basis
would be good one for the public ser
vice
| The ideas of the average man on this
/ subject are rather mixed. but there is a
! general impression that politics is some
! how different from any other business,
and that there is no middle course be-
tween going into IT to see how much
money can be made out of it, and engag-
Z
philanthropic motives: that in ordinary
commercial life II is all right for a man
to rob his neighbor. whereas in politics
it is all wrong: and the term com
mercialism' has come to mean the appli-
cation of the above business principle
or lack of principle-to other matters.
As matter of fact. however. there is
no business in which n man can engage
!
when his concerns are large they involve
the interests, if not the destiny. of whole
communities. The rapacious business man
can do quite much harm as the rapa-
cious politician; in fact. he can often do
more. because he is not under even
sembance of surveillance, and at any
attempt TO interfere with him there is
raised the cry that private business is not
the concern of the public. In 50 far as
our politics are rotten, they are so be-
cause our business life is likewise cor
rupt, and because the life of any modern
society is so bound together that crime
in one place means more or less crime
in all places. If commercialism has be
come a term Of reproach, it is so not be-
cause there is anything intrinscally
wrong or degrading about buying and
selling or manufacture, but because these
things, managed on wholly selfish and un-
ethical principles. have affected politics
and made it also a selfish business.
A man can go into politics as a business
and he honest and high-minded. just as
well as he can go into any other business
with the same ideals. No matter what
he does for living, he will sooner or
later come in contact with the temptation
to consider his own welfare first and the
general welfare later; to look out for
number one, as the phrase is, and let his
ideas OF honor and altruism drift; to be
dishonest either tacitly or explicitly for
the sake Of gain. If he is in politics. he
must encounter bribery, trucking. and
dishonorable dealings of all kinds, and
must make up his mind how far he will
suffer them TO influence him. If he is in
the newspaper business, he will have OPP
portunities to sell his editorial columns
and fake his news; If he is a manufac-
turer, he viii be tempted to make ilIegiti-
mate profits and sell goods which are not
what they pretend to be; If he is a law
yer, he will be tempted to compromise
with crime in hundred ways; If he is a
physician, he will have his choice between
beIiB an HbntAlS StH-stcEiNtlNS, ana
earnest scientist, a quaclt. or one Of those
who sell their scientific requirements to
base uses In every case, the rewards of
dishonesty will seem greater than those
Of honesty, and the man may, perhaps,
fail Of success through adherence to his
ideals In every case. also, the man who
best succeeds will be the one thoroughly
trained for his profession. 1t is, there
fore scarcely possible to say that the |
best politician Is one who is In the pro
fesslon for pleasure, since that is saying
that an amateur is better than the
trained worker. 1t is quite possible to I!
say that the best politician or the best |
statesman, is the one who is in the bust |
ness not primarily for money. but in the |
hope of advancement to true honor.
Other things being equal the man who |
has been In any business longest IS the |
most efficient.