The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-07
Answer to Test Question what
Has He DOneP'
Reporter, Lawyer, Judge, Gov
ernOr General, Cabinet.
A PECULIAR POSITION
Events of Past 10 Years Placed
Him Where He Had to Win.
Learn Science of Government
or Become Public Failure.
A PECULIAR POSITION

Bonaparte's inevitable question.
"What has he done?" which was pro-
pounded whenever any man was pro-
posed to him for high military COM
nand or responsible civil office, was
based upon the soundest of common
sense.
When a board of directors seeks
general manager of a railroad, or
when a housekeeper is looking for a
cook. the first thing to be done is to
determine what the applicant has
done as an indication of what he can
do. The most natural thing in the
world is to test a mans future career
by his past performances. A recon-
mendation from a previous employer,
a record of good work, demonstra-
ton of executive capacity, are the
things which tell in business and pro-
fessional life the world over.
Men who are about to be given the
custody of trust funds are selected be-
cause of their probity and Of their ca
pacity alike The honest fool is al
most as dangerous as the clever
knave. The man of affairs must COM
bine capacity with honesty, and in the
corporation or the household the ma
tural instinct is to insist on an unim-
peached record as an indiSpensa bic
requisite for responsible employment.
The rule which works so we'll in
the business world and in the house
hold should be applied in the same
degree to public affairs. The people
have a right. although they do not al
ways exercise 1t, to insist that men
proposed for important public service
shall have demonstrated not only
their honesty but their capacity.
Public Peril to Be Met.
IT. loV 20 ian h ion n
institutions. as shown by the history
of these United States, unGuestionably
lies In the proneness of the people to
be led away by demagogues and to
take men at their own estimate.
This great country of ours Is en-
titled at all times and in every posi-
ton to the services of men who are
specially trained and specially adapt
ed for their work. Now and then
new man in public life accidentally
makes success. Now and then
trained public man makes a failure in
some new environment. As a rule,
however, the people are best served
by those who unite executive capacity
with irresistible integrity.
With two men equally honest, the
people will stand the best chance
with him who has demonstrated his
capacity in different ways. Exper-
fence is often a, bitter teacher, but 1t
is always a teacher with those who
are willing to learn.
In politics, as in business, or in the
law, or medicine, the intelligent man
who profits by his opportunities and
who has been tried in many different
capacities is certain to succeed in a
greater percentage of cases than he
who has to attack each problem as a
novelty. The young medical student
just starting on a professional career
might perform a difficult operation
with entire safety to the patient, but
the average man would hate to take
the chance.
No great corporation with a case
involving millions of dollars would in
trust 1t to the young graduate from
the law school, however intelligent he
might be. No board OF directors
would intrust the property of their
railroad and the lives of it's patrons
TO a general manager who had had
no more experience than that gained
az rear brakeman on suburban
train.
Wrecks of Political History.
1t seems almost idle to express the
opinion that training is necessary to
success in any walk of life which re-
quires unusual executive CAPACITY and
yet our political history is full of the
plumbers of inefficient public men for
which the people were responsible and
OF which they were, unfortunately, also
the victims
a
man can turn a clever sentence or
sway the passions of a multitude, or
look we'll at the head of a procession,
that he is necessarily fitted to be
mayor Of a great city or governor of
an important state.
The people have a right to expect
that the men who come before them
for important public offices shall be
able to demonstrate by their record
that they are likely to succeed with
the trust imposed upon them. The
modern theory Of civil service all tends
to the idea that men should be tried
In small things. promoted to greater
ones, and finally elevated to command
only by demonstration of honesty,
ability. and peculiar capacity.
Burden of the Presidency
The presidency of the United States
under modern conditions is not merely
the greatest honor. but the greatest re-.
sponsioility that can come to a living
man.
The successful performance of the
duties OF that office involves not alone
devotion to the interests Of the neonIe
and unquestioned integrity, for these