The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-03-17
SCHOLARS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

"The Scholar in Politics" forms the subject OF
an en~lighening editorial in the Philadelphia Pub
lie Ledger. Learning and life, declares the Pub
lie Ledger, are drawing closer together in public
affairs"
In many spheres OF activity learning and lie
have been closely associated all along or at least
since modern civilization got fairly under way.
In medicine it has been seen a long time that
careful preparation and training were absolutely
necessary and they have been demanded by law
This rule applies to medicine in all its specialized
forms In the ministry the demand Is stronger
all the while for trained men who can hold the
attention OF their congregations and meet the
onsaughts on the faith made by the ~uneodly.
In the law the large returns have usually gone to
the men who had the legal lore and the ability
TO use it.
But in the one business which touches the PEG
pie at more points than any other, in the busl-
ness OF governing and being governed, the specially
trained man has not been in demand.
The practical politician has been the man who
has been running the political business of the
country. The educated, scholarly man has been
thought to belong to the cloister rather than to
the hu1ly-burly of political life. But a change has
come. 1t has come to be recognized that there
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tivated, scholarly mind.
OF course the most conspicuous example OF the
scholar in politics is the President of the United
States. But there are many others. In our own
State and remembering that politics is nothing
but public business-we have a college president
called to CollabOrate with a judge and a business
man III considering a question OF vital importance
to the State and no one questions the wisdom of
the choice.
More and more are scholars and teachers being
called on to help solve national and State prob
lens. For It has been seen that they have espe
cial ability in delving down and getting at the
principles OF truth and justice as involved in the
complicated public questions that are constantly
coming up for solution.
To quote from the Public Ledger a hist of schol
ars in politics. there are two candidates for Gov
ernor Of the keystone State in the coming pr
mary election, one of them the superintendent O
the public schools Of Philadelphia and the othe,
the dean of the law school of the University o
Pennsylvania. Winston Churchill the Publ
Ledger continues, is at once a novelist and a mar
OF affairs. John Sharp Williams and Henry Cabo
Lodge, of the United States Senate, are scholar
who carry their fine training into the practice
life Of the country, While Theodore Roosevelt
may be thought Of as a lion hunter and 'roug
rider, he IS In every sense Of the word a man c
letters. Gradually our universities and college
are becoming political centers. All the politics
eggs are no longer Matched in saloons. The wor1
has advanced. Ex-President Eliot, of Harvard.
a political factor in the highest sense, and Davi
Starr Jordan, of Stanford, fills a large place in tt
political life of the world. Men of learning repr
sent US at the Court of St. James, Rome, Amste
dam and other capitals, and numerous example
might be cited, showing the trend Of scholarshi
toward practical things"