Evening star., 1912-09-15

Washington do not always like to admit it,
you will see in nine cases out of ten that
the folks out in the country are absolutely
right.
That is one danger of the life in Washing
ton. That city IS a place where the social
side of life is always predominant, where
experts and prophets" OF politics as
scmble, where theories of every sort are de
veloped and discussed. There is created an
atmosphere Of too much officialdom and too
much hot air There is always the tendency
to look at things from strained or academic
viewpoint And, when you reach the point
where YOU begin to think that all the wise
people and all the theorists are enabling you
to decide questions with greater wisdom and
deeper insight than is enjoyed by your con
Stituents, you had better pack your little
grip and run back to the home folks. Their
talk and their views clarity judgment that
the Washington atmosphere has obscured
The experienced politician knows that the
closer he keeps to his people the better poll
tician and wiser statesman he IS. 1t IS, as
q matter of fact amusing to see how tins is
cxempificd in the House. There IS mem
Der from Pennsylvania mark this, an hon
est millionaire Congressman from Pennsyl
vania!- who goes to his little town every
Friday night and spends Saturday in his
office listening to what his people have tc
saw He perches behind his desk, looking as
wise as a tree full of owls, and devotes an
hour of mature deliberation and exhausting
argument to trying to figure out how some
old soldier can get his pension increased two
dollars a month That is some work for
millionaire; but it is a shining example OF
the fact that any man, whether he be
millionaire or paupcr, must stick close to
his constituents.
GETTING back to what a man learns by
- being in politics, there is this great fact
Every American is by instinct and native
ability politician. And in the American
people one Of the most remarkable and one of
the grandcst things is the ability of the aver
age American to rise equal to any situation
or emergency. That is why |, who got into
Congress by accident, and why Others, who
got there by similar accidents, Immediately
began to learn and to master the real game
of politics Until you do learn it, you can
form no adequate idea of the intricacies, the
bewildering net of circumstances, the swiftly
succeeding events, that go to raise up or de
strov a mans public life. Your district may
love YOU, you may be the strongest man in
all the counties you represent, there may not
be a single cloud on the horizon; but over
night YOU may ALLEVIATE the voters and write
your own death warrant by a thoughtless
comment on some comparatively obscure
public question treated by another politician
in speech at Portland, Maine. There are at
work in every county and every State all
the time more or less puzzling currents and
cross currents of personalities or new-fledged
ambitions. In the situation your friends and
your enemies take the leading parts, and you
are necessarily drawn into them. 1t is in
dealing with this phase of life and with pub
lie questions that you reach the highest pin
naclc possible for yourself in politics and that
you finally accomplish your own destruc-
ton.
There may be a few exceptions to this
general rule; but YOU can put it down as a
safe proposition that YOU who are in politics
will sooner or later be caught in the tragedy
of politics. While you are doing your work
and taking part and mingling in the public
and private affairs of your people, you are
naturally making some enemies. As rule,
the enemies you make remain your enemies,
and you go on and on, no matter how meri-
torious or conscientious your efforts may be,
adding to the list of hostility against you.
At last those enemies, impotent against you
at the start, unable to unseat you for years,
will down you.
HAVING succeeded in politics with a
greater degree Of public notice than
comes to some men, have often been asked