The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-04-08
CHAPTER K.

nay life, in all its thoughts and asso-
Citations was now politics: at Wash
ington from December until congress
adjourned, chiefly national politics,
the long and elaborate arrangements
preliminary to the campaign for the
conquest of the national fields; at
home, chiefly state politics-strength-
ening my hold upon the combine.
strengthening my hold upon the two
political machines AS the days and
the weeks, the months and the years,
rushed by, as the interval between
breakfast and bedtime, between Sun
day and Sunday, between election day
and election day again, grew shorter
and shorter, l played the game more
and more furiously. What l won,
once 1t was mine, seemed worthless
In itself, and worth while only II
could gain the next point; and, when
that was gained, the same story was
repeated. Whenever 1 paused to re-
feet, 1t was to throttle reflection half
born and hasten on again.
"A silly business, this living, isn't
it," said Woodruff to me.
"Yes-but-" replied I. you re-
member the hare and the halter in
Alice in Wonderland 'Why?' said
the hare. Why not? said the halter.
A sensible man does not interrogate
life; he lives it."
Him." retorted Woodruff.
And we went on with the game
shutting, dealing, stalking. But more
and more frequently there came
hours, when, against my will, l could
drop my cards, watch the others; and
I would wonder at them, and at my
self, the maddest of these madmen-
and the saddest, because l had mo-
ments in which was conscious of my
own arrangement
have often thought on the cause
of this dissatisfaction which has never
ceased to grid me, and which / have
learned girds all men of intelligence
who lead an active life. ! think it is
that such men are like a civilized man
who has to live among a savage tribe.
To keep alive, to have influence, he
must pretend to accept the savage
point of view, must pretend to disre-
gard his own knowledge and intelli-
gent methods, must play the game Of
life with the crude, clumsy counters
of caste and custom and creed and
thought which the savages regard as
at and proper Intelligent men of &C.
ton do see as clearly as the philoso-
pliers; but they have to pretend to
adapt thOir mental vision to that OF
the mass of their fellow men or, like
the philosophers. they would lead
lives of profitless inaction, enunciat-
ing truths which are of no value to
mankind until 1t rediscovers them for
itself No man of trained reasoning
power could fail to see that the Gold
en- Rule is not piece of visionary al
truism, but a sound principle Of prac-
teal selfinterest Or, could anything
be clearer, to one who takes the trou-
BILE really to think about it, than that
he who advances himself at the ex-
pense of his fellow men does not ad-
vance but sinks down into the class
of murderers for gain, thieves. and
OLA tAOSO VIM SOCh W Qt04C0 Ll1ODl-
selves by injustice? Yet, 50 feeble
is mans reason, SO near to the brute
is he, so under the rule Of brute appe-
tites, that he cannot think beyond the
immediate apparent good, beyond to-
days meal.
l once said to Scarborough: poll
tics is the science and art Of fooling
the people,
THAT Is true, as far as 1t goes,
he said. eff that were all, Justice
which is only another name for com
mon sense, would soon be established
But, unfortunately, politics is the art
of playing upon cupidity, the art OF
fooling the people into thinking they
are helping to despoil the other fell
low and will get share of the swag -
And he was right It is by subtle
appeals to the secret and shamefaced
but controlling, appetites of men that
the clever manipulate them. To get
man to vote for the right you must
show him that he is voting for the
personally profitable, And very slow
he is to believe that what ia right
can be practically profitable Have
not the preachers been preaching the
reverse all these years; have they not
been insisting that to do right means
treasure in heaven only?
1t was in my second term as sena
tor, toward the middle of it. was
speaking one afternoon, in defense OF
a measure fo% the big contributors
which the party was forcing through
the senate In face of fire from the
whole country. Personally, l did not
approve the measure. 1t was a front
al attack upon public opinion, and
frontal attacks are as unwise and as
unnecessary in politics as in war. But
the party leaders in the nation in
sisted. and, as the move would weak
en- their hold upon the party and sc
improve my own chances, was not
deeply aggrieved that my advice had
been rejected Toward the end Of