You see, this whole question of good government is right up to _you_.
_You_ are the remedy for bad government, young man--_you_ and not somebody else, not some theory. So be a committeeman or some sort of a "worker" in real politics. Help run our inst.i.tutions _yourself_, or, rather, be a part of our inst.i.tutions yourself.
If you have neither the time nor apt.i.tude for such active work, at least be a citizen. That does not mean merely that you shall go to the polls to vote. It does not even mean that you shall go to the primaries only. It means a great deal more than that.
At the very least be a member of an active political club which is working for your party"s success. There are such clubs in most wards of our cities.
They are the power-houses of our political system. Party sentiment finds its first public expression there--often it has its beginnings there in the free conversations which characterize such American political societies. You will find the "leaders" gathering there, too; and in the talks among these men those plans gradually take form by which nominations are made and even platforms are formulated.
These "leaders" are men who, in the practical work of politics, develop ability, activity, and effectiveness. There is a great deal of sneering at the lesser political leaders in American politics. They are called "politicians," and the word is used as a term of reproach, and sometimes deservedly. But ordinarily these "leaders," especially in the country districts of the Republic, are men who keep the machinery of free inst.i.tutions running.
The influence of no boss or political general can _retain_ a young man in leadership. Favoritism may give you the place of "local leader"; but nothing but natural qualities can keep you in it. The more we have of honest, high-grade "local leaders," the better.
Whether you, young man, become one or not, you ought at least to be a part of the organization, and work with the other young men who are leaders. But be sure to make one condition to your fealty--require them to be honest.
"I have no time for politics," said a business man; "it takes all my time and strength to attend to my business."
That means that he has no time for free inst.i.tutions. It means that this "blood-bought privilege" which we call "the priceless American ballot" is not worth as much to him as the turning of a dollar, or even as the loss of a single moment"s personal comfort.
"Come down to the club to-night; we are going to talk over the coming campaign," said one man to another in an American city of moderate size and ideal conditions.
"Excuse me," was the answer; "we have a theater party on hand to-night."
Yes; but while the elegant gentleman of society enjoys the witty conversation of charming women, and while the business man is attending to his personal affairs and nothing else, the other fellows are determining nominations, and under the direction of able and creative political captains shaping the policies of parties, and in the end the fate of the Nation.
Of course that is all right if that is your conception of American citizenship. But if this is going to be "a government of the people and by the people," _you_, as one of the people, have got to take part in it. That means you have got to take part in it _all the time_.
Occasional spasms of violent civic virtue amount to little in their permanent results. They only scare bad men for a day or two. Their very ardor soon burns them out. The citizen has got to do more than that--he has got to take an every-day-and-every-week interest in our civic life. If he does not, our brave and beautiful experiment in self-government will surely fail and we shall be ruled not even by a trained and skilful tyrant, but by a series of coa.r.s.e and corrupt oligarchies.
In ancient Israel a certain proportion of the year"s produce was given to the Temple. In like manner, if popular government means anything to you, you have got to give up a certain portion of your time and money to _being a part_ of this popular government.
Just this is the most important matter in our whole National life.
Recently there died the greatest master of practical politics America has produced. Firmly he had kept his steel hand upon his state for thirty years. A dozen times were mighty efforts made to break his over-lordship. Each time his resourcefulness, audacity, and genius confounded his enemies. But finally that undefeated conqueror, Death, took this old veteran captive.
He left an able successor in his seat of power, but a man without that prestige of invulnerability which a lifetime of political combat and victory had given the deceased leader. "Here," said every one, "is an opportunity to overthrow the machine." Within a few months an election occurred--not a National election, but one in which the "machine"
might have been crippled.
But, _mirabile dictu_, the "good people," the "reformers," the "society" and "business" cla.s.ses, _did not come out to vote_. They not only formed no plans to set up a new order of things, _they did not even go to the polls_. Yet these were the descendants of the men who founded the Nation and who set free inst.i.tutions in practical operation.
This shows how American inst.i.tutions, like everything else, have in themselves the seeds of death if they are not properly exercised. When the great body of our citizens become afflicted with civic paralysis, it is the easiest thing in the world for the strong and resourceful "boss," by careful selection of his precinct committeemen and other local workers all over his state, to seize power--legislative, executive, and even judicial. It has been done more than once in certain places in this country.
Where it is successful, _the Republic no longer endures_. The people no longer rule; an oligarchy rules in the name of the people. And where this is true, the people deserve their fate. And so, young man, if you do not expect this fate to overtake the entire country, _you_ have got to get right into "the mix of things."
_You_, I say, not some other man, but _you_, _you_, _you_. _You_--you yourself--YOU are the one who is responsible. Quit your aloofness. Get out of any clubs and desert all a.s.sociations which sneer at active work in ward and precinct. Do not get political locomotor ataxia.
It was a fine thing that was said by a political leader to a singularly brilliant young man from college who, with letters of unlimited indors.e.m.e.nt from the presidents of our three greatest universities, asked for a humble place in the diplomatic service. He wanted to make that service his career.
"I like your style," said the man whose favor the young fellow was soliciting. "Your ability is excellent, your recommendations perfect, your character above reproach, your family a guarantee of your moral and mental worth. But you have done nothing yet among real men.
"Go back to your home; get out of the exclusive atmosphere of your perfumed surroundings; join the hardest working political club of your party in your city; report to the local leader for active work; mingle with those who toil and sweat.
"Do this until you "get a standing" among other young men who are doing things. Thus you will get close to the people whom, after all, you are going to represent. Also this contact with the sharp, keen minds of the most forceful fellows in your town will be the best training you can get for the beginning of your diplomatic career."
"Now let me tell you this," said President Roosevelt to this same young man: "You may have a small under-secretaryship; but let me tell you this," said he; "do not take it just yet. You are only out of college. Take a postgraduate course with the people. Get down to earth. See what kind of beings these Americans are. Find out from personal contact.
"If you belong to exclusive clubs, quit them, and spend the time you would otherwise spend in their cold and unprofitable atmosphere in mingling with the people, the common people, merchants and street-car drivers, bankers and working men.
"Finally, when you get your post, do as John Hay did--resign in a year, or a couple of years, and come home to your own country, and again for a year or two get down among your fellow Americans. In short," said he, "be an American, and never stop being an American."
That is it, young man--that is the whole law and the gospel of this subject. Be an American. And do not be an American of imagination. You cannot be an American by seeing visions and dreaming dreams. You cannot be an American by reading about them. Professor Munsterberg"s volume will not make you an American any more than a study of tactics out of a book will make you a soldier.
It is the field that makes you a soldier. It is marching shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers that makes you a soldier. It is mingling with other Americans that makes you an American. Our eighty millions will make you American. Keep close to them. The soil will make you American. Keep close to it.
Utilize your enthusiasms. Do not neutralize them by permitting them to be vague and impersonal. Be for men and against men. Be for policies and against policies. And remember always that it is far more important to be for somebody and something than to be against.
There is an excellent though fortunately a small cla.s.s of citizens in this and every other country who are never for anybody but always against somebody. Frequently these men are right in their opposition; but their force is dissipated because they are habitually negative.
I know of nothing better for a young man"s character than that he should become the admirer and follower of some noted public man. Let your discipleship have fervor. Permit your youth to be natural. But be sure that the political leader to whom you attach yourself is worthy of your devotion.
Usually this will settle itself. Public men will impress you not only by their deeds, words, and general att.i.tude; but also through a sort of psychic sense within you which illumines and interprets all they say and do, and makes you understand them even better than their spoken words.
This subconscious intelligence which the people come to have of a public man is seldom wrong.
Somehow or other the people know instinctively those who really are unselfishly devoted to the Nation"s interest. _In the end_ they never fail to know the man who is honest.
This instinctive estimate of the qualities of mind and soul of public men will probably select for you the captain to whom you are to give your allegiance. Be faithful and earnest in your championship of him.
In this way you make your political life personal and human.
You give to the policies in which you believe the warmth and vitality of flesh and blood. And, best of all, you increase within yourself human sympathies and devotions, and thus make yourself more and more one of the people who in due time, in your turn, it may be your duty to lead, if the qualities of leadership are in you.
This matter of leadership among public men is becoming more and more important, because personality in politics is meaning more every day.
Obeying generally, then, your instinct as to the public men whom you intend to follow, subject your choice to the corrective of cold and careful a.n.a.lysis.
It is probably true that the greatest danger of our future is the peril of cla.s.ses, and inseparably connected with cla.s.ses the menace of demagogy. The last decade has revealed signs that the demagogue, in the modern meaning of that word, is making his appearance in American civic life.
Such men always seize the most attractive "cause" as argument to the people for their support. They are quite as willing to pose as the especial apostles of righteousness and purity as they are to enact the character of the divinely appointed tribunes of patriotism. Whatever the political fashion of the day may be, your demagogue will appeal to it. It makes no difference what methods he finds necessary to use, so that he can achieve the power and consequence which is his only purpose.
If the ruling tendency be for honesty, these men will make that serve their purpose, or commercialism, or expansion, or war, or peace, or what not. There is no conviction about them. Sometimes such a man will represent himself as a great conservative. He does this not because he is conservative (sometimes he does not even know what that word really means), but because he thinks by a.s.sociating his name with this word he can capture the "solid" elements among the people, business men and the like.
These ill.u.s.trations can be multiplied without limit. They are as numerous as the "issues" which can be used to influence the people.
Beware of the demagogue in whatever guise he presents himself. Look out for the play-actor in politics. Whether he wear the cloth of the pulpit, the uniform of the soldier, the garment of the reformer, he is always the same at heart, never for the people, always for himself; never for the Nation and the future, always for power and the present.
Make sure, then, that the captain whom you elect to follow is above all other things sincere. Insist upon his being genuine. See to it that he is intellectually honest. I do not mean that he should be honest in money matters alone, or in telling the truth merely. I mean that he should be square with himself, as well as with you and the world. When a public man is honest and in earnest, you know it--know it without knowing why.
It is safe to follow such a man as this even when you do not agree with all of his public views. You know that he is honest about them; and a man who is honest _within himself_ will change his views, no matter how dear they may be to him, when he finds that he is mistaken about them. The first and last essential of the men who are to voice the opinion and enact the purposes of the American people is an honesty so perfect that it is unconscious of itself.
"He does not deserve the least credit for being square," said Dr.
Albert Shaw, the eminent editor, scholar, and publicist, concerning a public man; "he was born that way. His mind is so upright that he cannot help saying what he thinks. It would be impossible for him to tell you or the people a falsehood. He is truth personified. His honesty works as naturally as his heart beats, quite free from the influences of his will."
That is the kind of a political leader you ought to attach yourself to, while your young days last and your political and civic character is forming. But follow no man who is striving merely to advance his personal interests. What are they to you? Be sure that the man you choose for your chief is trying to do something for the Nation rather than for himself.