Mrs. Protheroe
Great Men's Sons
“IN THE FIRST PLACE”
The old-timer, a lean, retired pantaloon, sitting with loosely
slippered feet close to the fire, thus gave of his wisdom to the
questioning student:
“Looking back upon it all, what we most need in politics is more good
men. Thousands of good men _are_ in; and they need the others who
are not in. More would come if they knew how _much_ they are
needed. The dilettantes of the clubs who have so easily abused me, for
instance, all my life, for being a ward-worker, these and those other
reformers who write papers about national corruption when they don't
know how their own wards are swung, probably aren't so useful as they
might be. The exquisite who says that politics is 'too dirty a
business for a gentleman to meddle with' is like the woman who lived
in the parlour and complained that the rest of her family kept the
other rooms so dirty that she never went into them.
“There are many thousands of young men belonging to what is for some
reason called the 'best class,' who would like to be 'in politics' if
they could begin high enough up--as ambassadors, for instance. That
is, they would like the country to do something for them, though they
wouldn't put it that way. A young man of this sort doesn't know how
much he'd miss if his wishes were gratified. For my part, I'd hate not
to have begun at the beginning of the game.
“I speak of it as a game,” the old gentleman went on, “and in some
ways it is. That's where the fun of it comes in. Yet, there are times
when it looks to me more like a series of combats, hand-to-hand fights
for life, and fierce struggles between men and strange powers. You buy
your newspaper and that's your ticket to the amphitheatre. But the
distance is hazy and far; there are clouds of dust and you can't see
clearly. To make out just what is going on you ought to get down in
the arena yourself. Once you're in it, the view you'll have and the
fighting that will come your way will more than repay you. Still, I
don't think we ought to go in with the idea of being repaid.
“It seems an odd thing to me that so many men feel they haven't any
time for politics; can't put in even a little, trying to see how their
cities (let alone their states and the country) are run. When we have
a war, look at the millions of volunteers that lay down everything and
answer the call of the country. Well, in politics, the country needs
_all_ the men who have any patriotism--_not_ to be seeking
office, but to watch and to understand what is going on. It doesn't
take a great deal of time; you can attend to your business and do that
much, too. When wrong things are going on and all the good men
understand them, that is all that is needed. The wrong things stop
going on.”