Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-03-24
CHAPTER b.
The Face in the Crowd.


Except the time given to the chill
! dren-there were presently three
my 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, | played the game more
| and more furiously. What | won,
once it was mine, seemed worthless
in itself. and worth while only if I
could gain the next point; and, when
| that was gained, the same story was
repeated. Whenever | paused to re-
! fleet. it was to throttle reelection half
| born and hasten on again.
"A silly business. this living, isn't
! it, said Woodruff to me.
"Yes-but-" replied l. 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, | 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 I 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 l have
| learned girds all men of intelligence
| who lead an active life. l think it is
that such men are like a civilized man
who has to live among 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
! fit and proper. Intelligent men Of ac-
! ton do see as clearly as the philoso-
! rhers; but they have to pretend to
adapt their mental vision to that of
the mass of their fellow men or, like
the philosophers, they would lead
! lives of prOiitless inaction, enunciat-
ing truths which are of no value to
mankind until it rediscovers them for
| itself No man of trained reasoning
power could fail to see that the Gold
en- Rule is not a piece of visionary al
trusm, but a sound principle of prac-
| teal self-interest 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
all those who seek to advance them
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.
| once said to Scarborough: Poll
ties is the science and art Of foolng
the people"
THAT is true, as far as it 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. 1t is by subtle
appeals to the secret and shamefaced,
but controlling, appetites of men that
the clever manipulate them. To get
a man to vote for the right you must
| snow MIN LHdL lie Is NOLlHB LOT the
personally profitable And very slow
he is to believe that what is 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 for the big contributors,
which the party was forcing through
the senate in face of fire from the
whole country. Personally, | 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 so
improve my own chances, | was not
deenIy aggrieYed that my advice had