The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-10-19

Waa q small man. He also Af00oo0
an opposition which finally dsstrey-
I'd his influence. Roosevelt, man
tas less stable and clear-sighted
Than either Of the.other twos hut
q born leader none the less. sue
ceeded to the presidency by acci-
dent. Other cases will readily sug-
gest themselves to the readers q
this series. Never has . supe1tof
man been dehbeDltely chosen. for
the presidency blythe political pow
ers-that-he.
Another fact which seems pretty
clear IL that these few superior
men who have slipped through ths
gaps in the political fence. have
been largely responsible for the
constructive mes sures which havs
kept the political machinery work.
ing. Il would take the space Of .
book to consider this question ade-
quately, and no doubt many except
tons would be found to the above
statement, yet 1t seems in general
to be borne out by this brief review
OF American politics. II you will
consider the administrations Of the
TYPICAL machfne-made presidents,
who were chosen by the politicians
and for the politicians, you will OBJ
serve that they usually bore one Of
two characters. II such a president
il in harmony with his congress, 1t
usually proceeds to enact q mass
Of partisan legislation, the product
Of many compromises among con-
tending interests aud without any
clear direction or consistency.
Such administrations produce the
enormous pork barrel bills for PEN
sions and rivers and harbors. Such
administrations produce our worst
and most unavoidable tariff and
taxation bills. Few constructive
measures Of lasting merit can b
traced to them. -......i
Strong Men Did the WORK.
Every man Of personality. cour-
age and intelligence who has held
the presidency, on the other hand,
has done something Of permanent
value. Without the fortunate acct
dents which bring such men to
power, it is hard to see how the
national machinery would have
been kept running. much less how
any progress would have been
made. Lincoln abolished slavery
and made the union a permanent
Internationally the two great
achievements OF any president.
What would have happened II Me-
Clellan or Traddeus Stevens had
landed in the presidential chair 1t
the Civil war period?
Cleveland set his face against
the spoils system, despite the In
evitable los sof popularity which
followed such action, and almoes
got writer's cramp vetoing pension
bills. He saw the fallacy Of bime-
tallism, as everyone sees it now.
and stood for the gold standard
when to do so was political suicide.
No politician president could pos
sibly have done either.
Roosevelt created the national
forests, and initiated the policy OF
conserving and developing natural
resources by federal action. The
absolute need for this policy seems
now to be admitted by every fair
minded student, and it awaits only
a strong man to carry it much
farther. Roosevelt may be said
also to have dug the Panama canal,
and to have given the United States
3 stronger and better standing In
the world ofsinternationl affairs.
, President Hayes, who ended the
> barbarities Of Grants "reconstruc-
! ton policy in the south, should
| perhaps also be given . place
among the presidents who really
served the country.
None Of these men, it is true
, wholly succeeded. None of then
. can be said to have emerged tri
Y umphant. One was killed, another
t defeated, another met with an i'm
: plicable opposition, which made tn,
( completion of his work impossible
y and a fourth was turned aside b,
q personal ambition. Yet every on
!. OF them gave the nation sometime
: OF unmistakable value, or savo1 {
s from some disaster. 1t seems a
r though the task Of being presiden
t is too big even for the biggest mei
: we can produce. Yet it seems cleai
e also. that the American government
is unavoidable without a genuin
leader at its head. For the averag
l. man, strong president whateve
n his faults, is better than a wea
e one, whatever his negative virtues