New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1922-03-29
The Leadership Of Ideas.

uncOmmOnly well written editorial gaining
resolutely for political leadership. 1t re-
minded us that this too, is the great re-
current cry of our liberal contemporaries.
They are never weary of calling attention
to the dismal lack of leadership in public
affairs and of pouring forth their deep
desire that some great leader should be-,
miraculously perhaps, raised up. Ihls
rather remarkable demand set us wonder
inc, first what sort of leadership our con-
temporaries want; and second, why they,
instead of calling for leadership and be-
wailine the lack Of leadership, do not
themselves furnish little more of the
right kind Of leadership than they are IN
the habit of offering to a nation cropping
in darkness. To ask for leadership among
our politicians at Washington-except as
the word is understood in the glossary of
party organization-is naive enough; to
intimate that leadership could be exer-
cised among them is still more naive.
Our contemporaries should be aware that
the present epoch is one for merely IN
strumental statesmen, and that none Of
another type could possibly gain a place
in our public life, let alone hold one for
forty-eight hours after he had gained It..
The instrumental statesman gains his
his place and holds it upon what Professor
Huxley (who knew the breed) wittlly
called the coach-dog theory of leadership
that of looking sharp which way the
coach is going, and then running out IN
front of it and barking. There is plenty
of that sort of leadership, and our system
of politics in this epoch has no place for
any other kind
But the epoch is passing. We hope
that it will pass without calamity, though
we are by no means sure that it will. In
the epoch which is now hard at hand, we
can forsee a considerable place for another
kind of leadership, the leadership of such
as can apply thought to politics, OF such
as live by ideas rather than by claptrap
and dwell habitually in the realm of the
idea rather than in the realm of buncombe.
We are so sure of that that we venture
to bring the prospect to the attention OF
our liberal friends and to their strange
pro tenn. bedfellow, our powerful daily
contemporary. Why might they not even
now, indeed, try the experiment OF them
selves applying little thought to politics,
of themselves venturing occasionally a
little way into the realm of~the idea, in
order to prepare the way of the leader,
when the present epoch closes, and make
his paths straight? One might draw dis
agreeable differences from the conjunction
of their unwillingness to do this and their
insstence upon leadership, but we do not
wish to do anything of the kind. We
wish instead to point to an example which
our respondent friends who cry for leader
ship may find practical and suggestive.
1t is contained in the writings of
Edmund Burke; to be exact, it is among
the last words he ever wrote. Burke
lived at time which was in some re-
spects much like our own. He fought
the influence of the French Revolution
with all the force of utter repugnance and
terror. No American banker ever more
dreaded the nightmare Of bolshevism
than Burke dreaded the miasma spread
over Europe by the wiper brood Of can't
ing egoists" in Paris Yet in December,
1871, he ends his Thoughts on French
Affairs with these words: ...
The evil is stated in my opinion, as it exists.
The remedy must be where power, wisdom and in
formation 1 hope, united with good in
tentions than they can be with me. I have done
with this subject, I believe, for ever 1t has given
me many anxious moments for the last two years.
So much for his sincere convictions
about what he regarded as the utter mi
guilty and madness of the French Revolu-
ton. But mark the marvellous words
that follow: %.'~ ~
If a great change is to be made in human affairs
the minds of men will be fitted to it; the general
opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every
fear, every hope, will forward it; and then they who
persist in opposing this mighty current in human
affairs, will appear rather to resist the DEGREES of
Providence itself than the designs of They
will not be resolute and firm, but perverse and OBJ
stinate. W.. ...s5 @., .@l
No wonder that Matthew Arnold says
that this return which Burke makes upon