The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-07-21

The Occupational Vote.

euecs tnaS oemocfecy u Uoeak
method Of choosing mediossSs
for high ONCE and keepine r.sssa
great men out. But q little ~.
ton shows that there Il anc1ss
side TO the question. Tie 49,
individual may fear and envv n.
superior man, but he also -
need for Leadership which - -;
very strongly. Hence his grst ~
pacity for her0-worship, which ~
lyle points out. It Il evident ts.s
once the superior man ID ~.
into the limelight and demonsl,.s
ed conclusively that he has povs-
which the average man lacks ~
the average man tends to iolic.
him loyalty and even blindly. ~
tendency could be traced to pfini.
tive times. II there were ~.
here. Thus the medicine men 4,
shamans of all primitive tribes Az
superior men who have denim.
strated their abilities and have a..
tanned great power. But the witch.
es and sOrcerers, who are killsd
are individuals OF the same tn
who are overcome by envy and a.
tagonism before they attain pove,
1t takes only a glance at historv
to dee that many really great Al
superior men have attained lsnd.
ership, and that people have i'd
lowed them blindly. Christ, M
homet, Caesar and Napoleon versS
great men, each of whom was 4
law unto himself. Each Of thsm
encountered envy and Antagonist
at first, but later rose to power.
People win Follow Leaders
You can see in any democnc
the same tendency toward q blind
following of the man who seems 70
have demonstrated that he has IN.
spiration and personality. And Il
you will study the careers Of such
men you will generally find that
it is their peers-their fellow lead
ers-who have kept them from
power, and not the people. The
people seldom have really efiec.
tive power in the matter.
The two recent conventions
might be taken as text. Before
the Republican convention the men
who had interested tn people were
Hoover, johnson, Wood and Low
den. The first two, especially, had
made undoubted impressions, as
shown by the primaries, without
the aid of large campaign fund.-
Both of them were shelved BY the
leaders at the convention and a man
chosen who had attracted no popu-
lar attention at all. Harding, Of
course, may be second Lincoln.
He is, indeed a fine type of Amer
lean. The only fact to be pointed
out here is that he had not demon,
strated the fact to the people. The
convention thwarted the popular
will instead of fulfilling it. In 9TH
er words. it was their fellow lead
ers who distrusted the men Of prov
en- inspiration and personality, and
not the people themselves. Some
what the same thing was seen at
the Democratic convention, where
McAdoo was undoubtedly the man
most in the popular eye. Here
again, the candidate chosen may DO
a great man, and there is much in
his record to prove that he is. but
the fact remains that he was not
nationally known as a man Of prov
en- high ability.
This all seems to indicate thai
the people perhaps have better
sense, or at least sounder instinct
than they have been given credll
for. They try to follow the born
leaders, but those who hold power
will not let them. The tendency
then, on the part of these men in
power to play up little homely
facts about their candidate, and
their complementary attempt Il
find irrelevant scandalous facts
about the opposition candidate, look
like nothing so much as an attempt
to divert the average man from hi
| search for real leader by work
ing on his emotions-his sympa
thies and prejudices. These Ell
forts are SO much sand thrown II
our eyes.
This idea might be strongly sup
ported by a study Of the history O.
the presidency in this country, AMI
by examples from other walks O
life than politics, but space pre-
vents. 1t may be said, by way o
conclusion, that the average ma
stands In about the same RELATED
to the political powers-that-be as
small boy to a severe but k.ndl!
mother who offers him his chor'
l,etween a protzel and a cracter
bait keeps the chocolate creams d
b high shelf