Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-05
THE CALL FOR A STATESMAN

IL would he n mistake to elect to
the Presidency for the sole reason that he
Is a business man lawyer or a teacher
what not else. The President must,
FIRST he n man fitted to perform the duties
of the ofice. After that cares what
he has done for living long as he has
been honest.
| MORE twaddle and punk have been writ
1Fl ten in recent years about the Importance
of electing a business man to the Presidency,
the Governorship or the Mayoralty than about
any other political subject.
We have been told that all the ills of gov.
ernment would be cured if only a successful
business man were put In charge. But ex.
| perience has proved that business admins.
! tratons" so called are usually more unsatis.
factory than political administrations.
Among the sancst words spoken on the sub
ject were those Of which George Wharton
Pepper delivered himself to a writer for the
EVENING LEDGER last summer when he re-
fused to become candidate for the Mayor.
atty nomination. Mr. Pepper said that his
training had not been in public affairs that
he was not equipped to fiji the office of Mayor
and that no man could fill the office success.
fully unless he had had proper preliminary
training in the study of municipal problems
and in the practical work of their solution.
There Is no greater fallacy prevalent in
popular thinking than that business man
Just as a business man can enter political
life and serve the public better than an ex.
pert who has been trained in the art and the
practice of government.
The Business Mems Presidential League,
which is printing petitions in the newspapers
throughout the country asking for the NOM
ination of "a business man as President of
tna is n
this popular mseonceptlon for the benefit of
some particular candidate not yet openly
named. It matters not who he Is; IL he Is
business man and nothing more. he would
make q miserable failure in the Presidency
An expert buyer and seller of commodities is
no more fitted for the Presidency than he Is
fitted to be a surgeon He has not had the
necessary training. His vision has been con.
fined to the balance sheet of n ledger and has
not ranged over the whole realm of human
interests. He has had to consider popular
sentiment only as 1t affected his profits. The
President must consider public sentiment as
1t affects the conditions under which people
must live in human society, which is a much
mora complex and much broader question.
It is possible for business man to be n
statesman also, just as lawyer, or college
professor, a farmer, or an iron founder
may be n statesman. One OF lne uDleSI
men in the Senate is John Sharp Williams, of
Mississippi, and he is a planter. But he is
q statesman not because he Is a planter, but
because he has devoted years Of hard and
earnest study to questions of government.
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts is a
man of wealth who entered public life be.
cause he thought it was his duty as a cit
zen. His profession is politics. No one
would deny him the title of statesman.
President Wilson is n college professor but
what success he has achieved in statesman
ship is not due to his training to teach young
men. Mr.. Taft was one of the most admirably
trained Presidents in the history of the coun-
try, and one of the least successful. He has |
the intellectual characteristics of a judge and
the political instincts of hermit. Roosevelt's |
preliminary training was much less eXhaus' |
tive than that of Taft. His followers do not |
care what he is called, because they believe |
that he is better able than any other citizen |
to give them what they want. His gift for |
leadership is unsurpassed by that of any con- |
temporary American. 1t would be the same
II he had earned his living by dealing in silk |
ribbons instead of being independent of |
trade through a small fortune left him by his |
father. And Justice Hughes is looked to
with hope by many citizens nowadays, not |
because ne Is Il lawyer because ne mas
been Governor OF New York. but because he |
has proved before the public eye that he has |
political instincts and political knowledge.
Craftsmanship is profession which must |
be learned 1t is astonishing to every |
thoughtful student OF American history that |
our affairs have been managed so we'll by |
men chosen to manage them who have had |
no previous training in craftsmanship AS |
soon as a popular hero appears we propose |
that he be elected to the Presidency. He may |
be lawyer who has sent a notorious MUIR |
derer to the gallows, or he may be a soldier |
who has won little battle in little war. |
But the country is growing too old for such |
childish things.
In this critical year it is imperative that
the man nominated for the Presidency shall |
be chosen not because OF his success in buy
ing goods for so cents and selling them for
81, nor because of his ability in reducing the |
dxed charges in the operation OF a factory,
but because he is statesman of the first |
rank, with a broad grasp on the history of his
own country and intelligent eomprehen-
sion of the great world problems in the solu-
ton of which this nation must participate in
the near future
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