Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-06-14
Public Office Does Not
Attract Business Men
HENRY FORD EXPRESSES HIS
IDEAS ON THE NATIONS
NEED OF LEADERS

ruptcy that a country can face is so
hopeless as bankruptcy in men. All.
other kinds of scarcity can be met and.
mastered, but scarcity of the hurnaL
Qualities of vision, wisdom and c0ur
age is fatal Perhaps more people are
scious of this today than ever before,
and the various conclusions they draw
are the most effective influences ac-
tive today upon the peoples outlook
toward the future.
What is it that is driving the people
to entertain the thought that perhaps
the nation bankrupt of men? There
is no doubt that it is nothing else than
the apparent scarcity of high-class ma
terrial in those regions where, for the
last hundred years, we have looked
for guidance. Our people, our nation
has always looked into the regions of
finance and politics for leadership.
The man of oratory and the man of
money were thought by the posses
sion of these powers to be the natural
leaders. 1t was very fine while it last
ed and doubtless it served the nation
during the period when those things
were most significant.
But, being established as the leading
classes, they attracted men whose am
billions were greater than their abili-
ties and whose shrewdness was great
er than their desire to serve. And so
the personnel of those classes began
to weaken in power and impressive
ness. 1t was like a business which be-
cause of its success attracts all man
ner of people who are much more in
terested in the profits than in the wei
fare of the business, and so the bust
ness gets a bad name and begins to
run down. We have so many men who
can make speeches today and so many
men who can make money that these
accomplishments have ceased to be
distinctive. That is, what we're form
erly the upper reaches of leadership
are now somewhat shabbier and much
less powerful than they were; the
power has gone out of them.
So that seeing this theepeople jump
to the conclusion that all the qualities
of leadership in the country ar going
to seed and that there is no&a rye
left. And country which gets itself
into that state of mind is not in good
national health.
1t is time to look at the matter in
what is probably truer light. If there
is one thing the history of our race
the history of our great ideas of re-
ligious freedom and political liberty
should have taught us it is this: peo-
pies dedicated to justice and service
are never bankrupt of men. The nat
ional reserve is always greater than
we believe.
1t is doubtless true that in official
circles we are witnessing great de-
cline in vision and ability or what
seems to be that. 1t may only seem to
be that 1t is not improbable. however,
that there is another element which
we overlook If things were still be-
ing done in the same old way, these
men might not seem to us SO helpless
as they appear now. That is, if they
had the same conditions to deal with
as obtained fifty years ago, or if con
ditions themselves were as suscepti
BILE of control as they were then, these
men might appear quite as able as
their professors.
But even conditions are not as phi
able to the old methods. We are ap-
preaching the end of a system OF
things, a system is irre<istibly bring
ing itself to an end, and all the tactics
all the skill, all the determination pre-
ductive of results fifty years ago are
powerless as a childs arm against the
immovable decree which has sounded
the end of a certain chain of exper
fence. The new time is pushing UP
under the old and the old personnel
has not the knowledge how to help it
They are irresistibly being pushed
aside by it. New things are to be done
in new ways and our official circles
belong, mostly, to the Old 1t may be
this fact, therefore, which gives them
the air of being more inefficient thar
they really are.
Now if the nation were obliged tc
stand or fall by the ability of officia
circles to become proficient in the
new order of things, the future would
be very doubtful But that is not the
alternative. AS the growth of the new
leaf pushes the old one off the stem
so does the pressure of new order
of public servants gradually urge the
old order into retirement.
The thing to bear in mind is tina
our official circles do not comprise
the nations wealth in able men. 1t il
probably true that never were officia
circles less attractive to really able
men than they are today. The nation
ablest men have been doing thei
work in other fields, and they hav,
been doing more effective work 70
the nation than the government ha