Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-08-07
A FOLLY IN POLITICS.

The Washington Press comments on
the nomination of Major John =. Ia
cey for congressman from the Sixth
district as follows:
eff politics were business or COM
mon horse sense, the folly we are
about to speak of would never be com
mitted. The Sixth congressional dis
trict of Iowa, like the Dubuque dis
trict, and Hepburns, is not guilty of
it. Last week the republicans of the
Sixth renominated John F. Lacey. by
acclamation-the eighth time. He is
one of the most useful and influential
men in that body. The way to get a
real statesman is to grow him, keep
him at it. and if he had the stuff in
him to start with, he'll get there with
both feet. The shifting, round, rotat-
ing, just to pass ''honors" around, and
to tickle the vanity of men who have
no aptitude for such as national legis-
lation is is the silliest policy in the list
of public errors.
in the first place, the man who has
this aptitude is very rare man. The
country may make thousands of
throws of the dice before a Blaine, or
a Tom Reed, or Clay, or Webster,
turns up. Thousands on thousands
have had seats in our senate or house,
in the last 100 years, who cut no fig
ure there: couldn't cut figure and
rise to prominence and influence. be-
cause they were not made by nature
to do such work, hadn't the genius, the
knack. It's a native gift, and proba-
bly, the Dossessor of it himself does
not understand it, nor could give an ac-
count of the way he does things You
can no more get this quality of work
out Of a man not adapted to it by ma
ture than you can get wheat or corn
stalk without terminating the seed.
But given the kernel of statesman,
foster it, give it soil, moisture. air,
light and all the encouragements pos
sible to growth. This is precisely what
the Sixth district is wise enough to
give Lacey, and the third district to
Henderson, and the eighth district to
Hepburn. Those districts keep these
men in harness. England has Tor nearly
two centuries done that by her men.
When she found an adaptable, capable
man she kept him everlastingly at it,
worked him to death, as in the case of
the elder and younger Pitt, Burke, Fox,
Ooilhih5, plouEollll1l, L Gel, SoDuSll,
Gladstone, Disraeli, Salisbury, ct al;
she trained her men. and there's as
much outcome in training man by re-
sponsibility and experience as in train
ing spirited horse. She was not
guilty of the folly of letting go man
of parts who could work. and bring
things to pass. She froze to such men,
and bred a race of public men that by
their policies kept her to the front.
Take young Pitt as sample; he yok-
ed Europe in coalition after coalition
until they got Napoleon down, and so,
in a reign of peace, gave Europe a
chance to develop in every possible
industrial way.
The U. S. cannot get public men by
rotating, by turning the rascals out"
by shifting and experimenting. When
Iowa gets an Allison, Dave Hender-
son, Pete Hepburn, Lacey, hang
onto them, work them for all they're
worth, and they are worth a vast deal
Every two years they fuss round for
some novice to put in Henderson's
place, but the people have too much
sense to stand it. And some inchoate
squad seeks Lacey's shoes, but the
sensible people will not stand that,
ether; nor will they let Pete go, and
they'll keep Allison in till nature
rents grave for him to rest in after
all his signal services, and will not SUI
persede him with any mere rhetori-
clan who can say pretty things and
can't do telling things.
There is not broaded, more versa
tile man, or of wider range of tastes
and ideas, in the house, than John
Lacey. He is not the least bit a
pedant or doctrinaire, but as prac-
teal as an old farmer or mechanic
He has the gift of ability to do things,
knows how to take hold, and we hope
to see him stay till his teeth drop out,
and longer.
The Sixth district is to be congratu-
lated on having common sense in poll
tics.
IOWA'S ANTITRUST PLANK.