Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1904-07-06

merchant. Secretary Wilson was farmer. Mr..
COrtelyOu, ex.secretary Of commerce and now chair
man OF the Republican national committee, was
stenOgrapher Mr. Paul Morton was a railroad man.
Mr.. Roosevelt has had Mr.. Root Judge Taft, Mr.
Knox, Mr.. Moody and other able lawyers about him
but they have not predOminated in his counsels as
lawyers once did in the cOupsels OF presidents.
singular tendency to relegate the lawyers is no.
ticeable In congress and in state and municipal poll
tics Lawyers are still numerous in all legislative
bodies. They still do most OF their stump speaking.
But their political influence compared with that Of
other professional and business men, is growing less
potent. Everywhere the demand is for business men
In important Offices; and while the lawyers do most
Of the spellbinding, business men directly indi
rectly manage the campaigns and furnish the indis
pensable sinews Of war.
This traDsierence of political power and leader.
ship from law5 ers to business is natural and
and healthy. The great political problems Of the
country until recent days had legal character.
Attention was fixed upon the constitutional phases
OF the tariff the internal improvements, the slav-
cry and reconstruction questions. Gould the fed.
era government constitutiOnally enact tariff for
prOtectOnf Could it cOnstitutiOnally improve rIv-
ers and harbOrs and make grants of land to rail
r0adsf Gould II prohibit slavery In the territOresf
What the legal status OF the states that rebelledl
These we're the tparamOunt issues about which
parties cOntended until within the last quarter
tury. Lawyers, by their training and knowledge,
we're beet equipped to grapple with them; and the
law naturally became the main avenue TO- political
prominence and power
Questions regarding the meaning of the cOnsttu.
tiOn seem now to have been almost all disposed Of
AT least such questions no longer agtate the people.
The great modern problems relate not 60 much to
what the powers Of the states and OF the different
branches Of the national government as to what
use shall be made Of those powers. Nor can con-
gress enact = tariff for protection, or effectively
ulate interstate commerce, but how shall it protect
home industries how shall It regulate interstate
commerce, how shall it deal with labor and CAPT.
tel so as to do most good and least hsrmi-sueh
problems as these are the kind that receive aten'
tiOn. Modern problems not constitutional, not
judicial, but industrial and administrative; and
they require for their solution not legal learning
and experience so much as the sort OF executive
ability which experience shows is best developed
By the management Of 3 large business. The same
kind Of ability is required to direct successfully the
campaign Of q modern political party. It was this
kind Of ability which made Mr. Hanna one Of the
most powerful public men Of his time in the senate
or in the Geld Of politics. The increasing supply
Of this sort Of ability in politics is in response to
the enlarged demand for It.
There will always be room for lawyers in politics.
Their knowledge and training Will always equip
them for the stump-speaking and the legislating.
It Is probable, however, that the bar will never
again completely dominate this cOnntry's politics
as it did in the first century Of our history.