The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-15
THE ROOT LECTURES.


 Yale University can be accounted for on two grounds. In the first place MT. Root was the victim of his own great reputation and more was expect ed of him than could possibly have been given by any man under the cir cumstances. In the second place all thcughtful men who have considered the questions which enter into a gen eral consideration of the main question of good citizenship have long ago ar rived at the same conclusion and advo- cated the same reforms in the political methods used.
 This can be said, however, of Secre- tary Roots lectures, they covered high minded ground and were elegantly ex- pressed. Though his temperament Is not exactly what one would call warm one, and though he lacks in that quality of personal magnetism which saves so many ordinary takers from embarrassment, he possesses; on the whole, convictions regarding the du. ties of American citizenship and the attitude of the government which make for higher standard in our po- litical life. It Is evident that he owes his convictions, too, to his own experi- euce. He did not get them from books, and we should judge from what he said of the doubtful usefulness of higher education as a prep aration for the cares of public life he has little respect for text-books. He said Monday evening, for example, "On the other hand, 1t is very doubtful whether the higher aca- der,ic education contributes much to capacity for political usefulness. AS a rule, political wisdom, in the best sense, comes in life and not in study, and the tendency of highly educated men to neglect all political duties is unfortunately too general We are far from wishing to take issue with Secretary Root in this connection, though we are led to inquire If after all men who neglect their political du- ties can fairly be called highly edu- cated men, The whole theory of ed ucational processes is that they shall stimulate the best thought of man and increase his ambition to serve his fel- bowman more generously and intelli- gently than the man who has, through no fault of his. been deprived of similar preparation.
 Without quoting him at length in an- other connection, we can say that he was extremely felicitous in Illustrating the difference in the outlook of the old order of things political and the new as established in this country He said, for example, speaking of our po- litical experiment. for experiment it is: ''It is the longing in the heart of man for better things up through education to broader Knowledge and higher life; 1t is the vast elemental forces of hu- manity moving great masses of men in violent protest against the ills of life, to the destruction of social order; 1t fs the instinct of self-preservation which rallies other multitudes in de- fense of vested interests and tradition to be realized by changing everything, and the reverence for the past that Is mortified by changing anything" That is 8 description which is full of imag- ination colored by a fine poetic sense, and almost suggests the swirling chap ter devoted by Victor Hugo to the im- mortal Shakespeare in his work on the writings of that bard. One Is almost tempted to conclude that Mir Root un- consciously had the sweep of Hugo's pen in mind when he so brilliantly set forth the conflicting forces which go to make up a national life bent upon the redemption of all of the pledges given in the declaration of independence and in the federal constitution.
 Secretary Roots defense of the use of money in the conduct of campaign is rather clever than profound. No one questions the usefulness of the con- tribution which go to make up a party treasury, and no one can doubt the helpful effect upon the man making the contribution and thereby stirring his patriotism. MT. Root estimates that in the last presidential election the campaign fund amounted to only three and a half cents per capita fol the people of the United States, on one side and probably somewhat less on the other; the great bulk of it is ap- piled to the political education of the voter" Granted, but the fact still re- mains that the money is not collected from the people of the country in any such modest suns. It comes from