Arizona republican., 1911-04-18
Our Public Men and Their Epigrams

Relative to the mobilization of the
army. an epigram is credited to the
president
4 sent the army to Texas" Mr..
Taft is quoted as saying, so that if
l should happen to need the army in
Texas I would have it in Texas"
It is the best explanation that has
been offered for the much discussed
|army "maneuvers", and the epigram
is neat enough for the president to
claim, even if he didn't say it.
incidentally it is worthy Of note
that not many pointed sayings have
come from Mr.. Taft, and in no small
way it is his misfortune that this is
So. The public man is fortunate who
has the gift Of stating in a phrase or
sentence a fact which he wishes the
public to readily comprehend. He is
still more fortunate if he has the
gift of epigram so that his point Of
view is thereby made plain to the
people and his own convictions become
identified with his personality.
Daniel Webster's phrase: THE Union
one and indivisable"c caught the pop
ular fancy and made him conspicuous
as the champion of the idea of Am
erican nationalism.
Henry Clay's I would rather be
right than president fixed in the
popular mind the conviction that he
was above all else a man Of con-
science.
Lincoln, more than any other Am
erican, was gifted with the ability to
condense whole chapters of argu-
ment into a sentence This happy
faculty enabled him to reach with
certainty the very hearts Of the peo-
pie. Columns could be filled with
his tabloid statements of sentiments
which the people vaguely felt and
had waited for him to express in
graphic form. His phrase: a gov
ernment of the people, ror the peo-
pie, by the people" probably will live
the longest Of all his sayings. because
it most clearly portrays to the popu-
lar mind his conception Of what the
American government should be.
Probably no achievement of Grants
on the field of battle did so much to
win popular confidence as his blunt
remark: Il propose to fight it out
on this line if it takes all summer"
Again. when president, his attitude
toward grafters in his administra-
ton was so aptly stated in his Let
no guilty man escape" that his own
honesty was emphasized in the public
mind
Although Cleveland's state papers
Were as a rule tediously ponderous,
and his style generally stiltedly John
sonian. they often revealed a para
doxical facility in epigrammatic die
ton For example, he began an ex-
.ceedingly heavy message on the tariff
with a sentence descriptive Of the
unnecessary surplus in the treasury
and the ACCESSIBILITY of revising tariff
schedules, which Illuminated the
whole situation like a flash of lightn-
ing i'm the dark, when he said: 1T is
condition and not a theory which
confronts us" 1t is not too much
to say that this sentence enriched the
English language. And he added to
the gaiety of nations, unwittingly, OF
course, when his very righteousness
gave forth the phrase, "innocuOus des-
uetude" He there coined phrase
which will live with him in history.
Most of all, however. Cleveland will
be remembered for his public office
is a public trust, because that SEN
tence is so clear a portrayal of his
own character.
Even this hasty allusion to our rich
treasury of American epigram would
be incomplete without at least a men