Excerpt from Feudalism in American Politics

It is a thing pleasing to every patriotic man that the young men of this nation are displaying an increasing activity in poli tics. As the country grows richer and the people become more settled in habits and customs, a larger share of popular attention is naturally given to public affairs. Colleges and universities, through their courses of study in the political and social sciences, are forming an educated public opinion in men trained to reason and to think; and the participation of such men in the discussion of present day problems will add tremendously to their right so lution. Under the general subject, Feudalism in American Politics, certain baneful and dangerous tendencies will be con sidered, not because the evil situation is a hopeless one, but be cause its efficacious remedy can be so easily applied. It is not intended to present a pessimistic or unwholesome View of politic al conditions in America. On the contrary, the purpose is to arouse in capable hearts an aspiration for the destruction of pub lic abuses through a saving sense of civic obligation.

Politics is government. The right to govern in America is not placed in one man, as in a monarchy, nor in a few men, as in an oligarchy, but it is the heritage which every citizen receives from the fathers. The fatal neglect of that heritage invites its decay. Its preservation requires that every American should be in politics, - not for office, for that is the last thing a young man should seek, - l)ut to guard the State. While some progress has been made in establishing a civil service in this country, there is no permanent tenure, and no assured promotion in public life. With every change of government, thousands of experienced men are dismissed without due cause, only to find themselves un fitted for the exacting requirements of private business life. In England it is not so. Take a single department there - the Col onial office of Great Britain. There are twenty-four clerks in that of'fice.cvery one a graduate of either Oxford or Cambridge, with a degree as high at least as m.a. These men are retained atgood salaries until superannuated, and they handle and direct all the potent colonial energies of that mighty empire. The Col onial Secretary may or may not be an able statesman; in either case he knows but little of the details of his own administration. In England when a young man aspires to a public career, he is graduated from the university, and duly enters Parliament. If he displays signal ability he becomes a permanent figure in po litical life. When one is invited to dinner to meet the public servants of England, he knows that he will come in contact with men trained to great affairs; the empire can offer him no more stimulating intercourse. Here it is different. Our public men rise to view for a moment, and then disappear. We have no diplomatic service, and the great embassies and missions are be stowed as the spoils of victory, frequently on men who are over weighted by their honors. There is but one exception, for cus tom now demands that our ambassador to Great Britain must be the most eminent available man in this Republic.

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