Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-04

Scholarship in politics took a slump after
the early days of the country's history, but
seems to be recovering its lost position.
Maybe tits and maybe 'tsn't but never mind.
Burton's Financial Crises" though pub
lished dozen years ago or more, still ranks
as a standard work. His Corporations and
the State" is said to be another good evil
dence of his mastery of a subject, and his
Life of John Sherman" reveals the grace
funess with which the author can handle
his facts. AS chairman of the Committee on
Rivers and Harbors in the House of Rep
resentatives Burton became known as "the
most useful member of that body. His
knowledge of waterways and of waterway
pork-he's n friend of the former and q
sworn enemy of tho latter-took on the char
acter of what we may call very practical,
political scholarship. Burton can make
speeches In Greek or Latin or Old Testament
Hebrew If he wishes.
But this kind of scholarship can sometimes
be disastrous to a politician, be he states
manlike they make 'em. Burton was
running for Mayor of Cleveland once on a
time. He had been persuaded by Republican
citizens to become candidate after he had
refused them several times "Jacta est alea,"
he began his first speech in the campaign.
Anybody knows what that means. 1t means
1.-THE die is cast" Burton was defeated.
The reason, one of the contributing rea-
sons was too much Latin-three words of
it. But if classical scholarship, which Bur-
ton possesses, and a hail -fellow-well-met
manner, which Burton does not possess have
won him no political victories, the confidence
of the people in his Republicanism and his
statesmanlike intentions have brought him
tn in n q
long as he wanted to stay there. Except
that-or to put 1t another way, the only man
who ever defeated Burton in political con-
test was Tom L. Johnson, once for Mayor
and once for Congressman.
No Time Clock for Burton
The scholarly Burton, with the resonant
voice, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio,
and by the time he was ten he was busly
studying Blackstones Commentaries When
he was twelve the villagers had him reading
the war bulletins to the assembled C, owds
on the 'mmon. At the age of three. he
went tu Iowa to live with his uncle on a
farm. I was part of his work to watch the
sheep. and he could Go that well enough while
mastering, In the quiet solitudes, the declen-
sions and conjugatioLs of the Latin language
Very likely he addressed the sheep on polemic
themes Then he went to college,, First it
was Grinnel College, where he took TO him
self nearly all the available prizes: then it
was Oberlin College, where he won the key
of Phi Beta Kappa Never did Theodore
go in for sports or games. A little walk
ing now and then is all the exercise he
gets. SO fond OF work is he that after he
had been up till o'clock one night at some
committee meeting or other in Washington
and had returned to his bachelor apartments
with his secretary he exclaimed, when his
eyes fell on batch of unopened mail, Lets
go through the mail now as long as we're
here"
Burton studied law with Lyman Trumbull
in Chicago. Bryan later studied in the same
office. On admittance to the bar young Bur-
ton, who specialized in handling large estates,
began to make money hand over fist. He
didn't go through any starvation period as
a struggling young lawyer. He invested his
earnings wisely, and now. as we say he's
very we'll off indeed.
Maybe we'll hear more of Burton In ma
tional politics. maybe not. At any rate,
Burton will be busy at work or study or at
both' but what's the difference?