The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-29
EDUCATED MEN IN POLITICS.

At the Yale exercises the other day
Andrew d. White, ambassador to Ger
many and ex-president of Cornell,
made an appeal TO American million
aires, and to Mr.. Carnegie especially,
for 81, 1000, 900 with which to establish
chairs in twenty-five American uni
versities for the purpose of educating
young men for public life; that is, the
holding and administration of offices.
| In the course of his address, explain
| ing his appeal, he asserted that the
| greatest need in American life to-day
| is educated young men TO hold public
| Office honestly, capably, intelligently
He scored roundly the conditions exist
! ing in the state of Delaware and the
cities of Minneapolis, st. Louis and
! Pittsburg. and declared that courses in
universities in the several subjects
mentioned by him would aid America
more than anything else open to uni
versity influence at present.
The subject of the educated young
man in politics is an old one. For
| many years it has been argued that If
college men would enter politics, the
result would be cleaner politics and
more efficient administration of the Of
fees. This line of argument, which is
that of Mr.. White, presupposes that
few if any college men enter politics,
that if they were to do so they would
take into public life with them high
purposes and clean hands, which they
would maintain throughout their ca
reers, and that if there were a class
of young men trained for office-holding
in colleges they would promptly be
given the offices upon their entry into
politics.
AS a matter Of fact many college men
do enter politics, and it may be as
serted that politics would be cleaner If
some of them We're out of it. All coll
lege men are not of that moral fiber
necessary TO political purity. Educa-
ton alone does not make a man hon
est. There must be character as well
as training, or the college-bred politi-
clan win be as corrupt as and more
dangerous than the politician who
works himself up from the position of
ward heller. If young men were es-
pecially educated for office, relatively
few of them would succeed in getting
offices. Under our system men are
seldom chosen at the polls for Office for
their erudition or special training; the
man who can hustle the hardest and
corner the most votes is the one who
| gets the office, whether he is the best
| fitted for the position or not. We have
no oftice-ho1ding class in this country,
as in some of the countries of Europe
| On the other side ones public career
may almost be picked out, hence it is
easy to have a young man educated for
the line of political service he is to
pursue. Here, however, the office is
for any man of any class who can get
1t. and there are always hustlers
scrambling for 1t.
| 1t would be very good thing If the
consular and diplomatic services could
be divorced from politics and put on
a business footing; if they were not re-
garded as spoils of periodical contests,
but as useful establishments for the
conduct of public business. In that
case, it would be an excellent idea to
especially educate men for positions
under these services. But the idea of
college courses for men to hold the do
nestle elective offices is ahead of the
| times.