Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-19
MEN ON HORSEBACK
AND THE DARK HORSE
America in the Throes of Inventing
Hero-Elements of Mystery
and Legend That Gather
About Presidential Timber

HNHEY tell us that after all it was Boswell
L who created Doctor johnson and Plato who
invented Socrates The biographer is begin
ming to be recognized as poet, man with an
imagination greater. very often, than the man
he writes about. America is poet, and every
four years the country writes great and
romantic biography. 1t invents hero-and
then elects him President
That these biographies tell white lies, fasci-
mating hbs, does the country credit 1t builds
up an ideal man for itself 1t sends him
tingling with warm praise to the White House.
It explains away his past errors as the result
of red.blooded impulse, his evasive silences as
signs Of dignity and strength. And woe to
him that houts his fame and does not meas
up!
Just how do we choose a President? OF
course there is the machinery of primaries
conventions and election. To say such things
create him would be like saying that the
meals a poet eats produce his poems. The
three real ways of creating President are
to acclaim man military or diplomatic
hero-one and the same thing, for diplomacy
is yelled war; to accept him as the political
offspring of his powerful predecessor, to
identify his personality with the latest popular
cry and wreathe about him legendary per-
sonifcation of the spirit of the nation. Sum-
ming up, these three ways are Horseback"
Inheritance" and Slogan"
There is fourth way, which we can ignore:
the accident of party split resulting in a
triangular fight, in which the best organized
party, of course. wins. We can ignore that
because third parties are transient in America.
Horseback and Idealsm
There have been too many sneers at "the
Man Horseback" We always elect our
E,,t
elect our military heroes Governors and
Mayors We elect Governors and Mayors for
some concrete success in some special field
of legislative or business reorganization But
when it comes to a President we do not look
for the concrete, special effort There must
be a general glow about him, the earnest of
all virtues-strength the ideal sense about
him of an all-embracing humanity conquerng
all obstacles. OF course we made out Grant
and Roosevelt to be better than they We're.
But they suffered more than we did by our
mistake. They were the vehicles of our
idealism. We elected not them, but their horo.
scopes.
And this glamour sometimes stays with a
man. 1t makes him capable of debating his
successor. The two great examples of such
dictation Van Buren, and Taft. Van Buren,
was different from Jackson, who forced his
selection his successor. as Taft is from
Roosevelt, who said "Take Taft or me" Van
Buren's personality resembled Taft's in many
ways deliberate, circumspect, polite, unas-
sertive, amiable, you shall not dim my fame"
that is what Jackson and Roosevelt seemed
to say Of their manufacturers In the second
case there seems to have been an even deeper
foresight in the selection, if the Colonel had
said You shall not spill my third cup of
coffee"
But the important point-pathetic beautiful,
If ysu willis that the majority of a whole
hundred million people should put their faith
in one man and let him choose their king. For
such methods are royal There has been much
idle talk about the analogy between our PPesi-
dents and kings. But the most important at.
tribute of kings abides in the President, after
all Both represent the whole people directly |
and not a section or party. The Premier of |
England leads party. There would be the
same loss to the spirit of English nationality /
through the loss OF the monarchy as there
would be loss TO the spirit of American ma
tIonality through the loss of the presidency.
It is not a bad thing that we play the ma
tional anthem our President enters, that we
pore over the pictures Of his sons ana daugh-
ters and grandchildren, that we thrill and
raise our hats at his passing. The meaning
of his office is more than the man. A great
President sometimes Iegislates. But greater
President does not legislate, He leads.
Why Slogans Are Needed
The third way OF creating a President-by
Identifying him with a slogans 5kst now the
most interesting. For we have no hero and no
inheritor. The eatehword win win. The
Of Wilson, SO far IN the campaign,
Is the lack OF slogan. His effort to take
Preparedness from Roosevelt has not been
particularly convincing. Tie best slogan tbs
supporters Of Wilson could use might be some
thing Ike this. xrAA courage q 40 what