The Washington times., 1909-08-07
A LITTLE STUDY IN MA
TIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.

Reading the newspapers and the mag
azines, taking account of the expires
sions of individual citizens, and general
" appraising the sentiment of this
country between the Allegheny and the
Rocky mountains, one must be impress
ed that there is a curious ferment in
the mind of the community. Without
doubt, too, it is significant develop
ment.
Apparently two personalities are on
the mind of the country. They are Aid
rich and Cannon. These two personal
tiles have been brought to represent,
in the aggregate of the eommunity's
intellectual processes, the idea of boss
ism and machine methods in the legis-
lative branch of the country. Senator
Aldrich and the Speaker may be lead
ers, not bosses. They may be most ex-
cellent, useful. and elf-saerifcing men.
They may be doing nobly the unpopu-
lar, but very necessary, task which they
find at their hands. Without much
doubt they both believe they are doing
Just that.
But after knowing them both a long
time. and after aequainting itself pretty
thoroughly with their methods and
their relations TO affairs, the community
as a whole has decided that they rep
resent the powers of selfshness rather
than of altruism; Of greed, rather than
OF liberality; that they are bosses, not
leaders; and that. instead Of nobly re-
ceiving the shafts of ignorant and ma
lieious criticism in silence because of
lofty purpose to serve even an unwill-
ing country, they are in truth merely
reckless Of public opinion, willing 10
counter and deride it so long as they
have the power and may gain their
ends
Il is not proposed here to suggest
which view meets the sympathy Of this
newspaper, but merely TO express an
impression as to the significance of the
phenomenon Of community sentiment
toward these two men. The views OF
this newspaper as to the quality and
inspiration of these mems services have
been made plain enough heretofore.
It Is an interesting fact, in the psy-
chology of communities, that there
must always be a personality to stand
as the representative of an idea People
viii not be for an idea; they insist on
being for a man whom they conceive e
represent an idea. They insist upon
having a hero. When they get him
they will follow him, as they would not
follow the mere abstraction Of a prinei
pie.
These United States had a long period
Of hero worship just preceding the in
auguration of President Taft. Mr.
Roosevelt wasn't everybody's hero; b,
was anathema to many But on the
whole he vas the big figure that filled
the public eye. People who chose could
see in him a villain. # they preferred il
that way; the larger number made a
hero OF him.
The fact is that since Mr.. Roosevelt
went from US, the country has beer
without a hero. The public mind, cast
ing about for a new hero. failed to find
one measuring mp to its demands; and
inasmuch as IL must have personality
as an objective about which TO crystal
lie its ideas, it has finally, quite un
consciously, hit upon the device Of
struggling along for time without a
hero, and having, instead, a villain al
the center Of the stsge. It chancet
that Messrs. Cannon and Aldrich wer,
by force Of circumstances made, at. tn,
moment, equally available for the role
they were at the center of the spot
light area, the scenes inevitably turn
ed about them; and they didn't impress
the country as being just the right ma
terial for heroes. So it made them tn
twin villains, and the bitterness whicl
has developed toward them ever sine
has been a natural consequence.
Thackeray wrote great novel an.
labeled it "a novel without a hero.
There was indeed a heroine in IL, bu
Becky Sharp was not the conventions
heroine. She was rather a yillainess
but she was the central figure. an
around hen one Of the great novels u.s.