The Self-Made Have a Hard Time,
Those Born Rich Are Mostly Useless,
Says Speaker Cannon.
Somebody asked Speaker Cannon this question: "What would you say if a
young man of intelligence, education, and force, undecided as to what he
should adopt as a life career, should come to you for advice?"
Of his reply, as printed in the New York _World_, we quote the salient
passages, answering the further query as to the advisability of going into
politics:
I should say yes to the young man of intelligence, culture,
and efficiency, if these things were crossed with
patriotism. In the main those who go into public life are
picked men, and by just so much as they are picked men they
are ahead of the average. This is a fact in spite of the
oft-repeated assertion that the representatives of the
people are only of average grade.
If among a dozen young men, each of whom should decide to
devote his life to the public service and should qualify and
work hard and conscientiously for it, one--just one--should
get himself into public life and sustain himself with credit
to himself and benefit to the country, I should consider it
a great return for the effort put forth.
The man who has to make his own way, who is without a
competency to start with, and who enters public life these
days before he has saved enough to live independently of his
income as a public man, has a hard time before him.
Hard Time for the Poor Man.
The young man who has never earned his living for himself,
no matter what his advantages of circumstances or training,
is sure to make many mistakes through ignorance of hard,
practical life. Not personally having the same needs as the
man of the people, he doesn't know what to do or how to do
it.
Young men who enjoy the advantages of special training and
the opportunities that wealth gives may become especially
qualified for public life; such opportunities and training
are necessary to complete qualifications, but often they are
not equal to them. That which may be had without effort is
not often highly prized.
But all young men of ability, whether favored by fortunes or
not, owe it both to themselves and to the nation to give
attention to public affairs, to keep themselves in touch
with things, to be in constant preparation for public life
if the opportunity or necessity comes to them.
Everybody knows there is a large number of such young men in
the great business and industrial centers who give no
attention, or very little, to public affairs. The
manufacturing, the commercial or financial operations, the
contracting or transportation enterprises which they take up
give them so much better financial returns than public life
would yield that they lose sight altogether of the
government, upon whose proper conduct their success in their
various callings and enterprises depends--upon which, in
fact, the very chance to enter these callings and carry on
those enterprises rests, and whose demoralization would wipe
out everybody's chances in life.
Now, we can't prevent the evolution of such conditions in
this or any other civilized country. But these people, thus
completely absorbed in their callings and enterprises, whose
standpoint of self-interest now prevents them from giving
attention to public affairs, will surely be forced more and
more to broaden their culture--thorough knowledge of public
affairs is as necessary to truly broad culture as any other
sort of knowledge--as well as their patriotism.
Must Give More Than Money.
I don't say that these people should give, give, give--it
won't do for them to try to meet the situation merely by
being charitable with their money. Giving only gratifies
the giver. As a general rule, it pauperizes the people who
receive. The multimillionaire of to-day must give more than
his money. He must give some of his time, his attention, and
his thought to other and more important things than personal
money-getting.
The human animal accomplishes only as he works under the
pressure of necessity. The extensive development of the
United States in the last half century has kept the people
so busy in various industries, speculations, and
enterprises, in order to do their part in this development,
that many of them have neglected their duties as citizens,
or perhaps I should say as co-sovereigns in the government
of the great empire that has been built up by their efforts,
in which all men are equal at the ballot-box.
I myself am acquainted with many men who, merely because of
lucky location, though only of respectable ability, have sat
on the gateway of commerce, and, by simply levying toll,
have accumulated great fortunes.
In all their lives they have never got into touch with
public life; they know little about public questions, and
they give them no attention. These men, when pinched by the
unwise action of the majority of their fellows, are able to
do little except cover the latter with abuse.
Sometimes, however, such men try to enter public life
themselves. But then the people do not always acknowledge
their fitness for public position. Sometimes they seek
protection for their interests by improper methods instead
of trying to contribute their share in building up a wise
public sentiment.
The Most Dangerous Men.
It goes without saying that the most dangerous men in the
republic are those who, by inheritance or otherwise, have
vast fortunes, yielding great incomes, which enable them to
command the services of those who have ability, but not
conscience, and thus seek to control the average man--the
man who lives by the sweat of his face--by playing upon his
prejudices, his hopes, and his fears.
Is there a remedy for this? An offset to such evil
influences? Yes. A most efficient remedy. In the fulness of
time the multitude will find out from some actual and
painful experience that they have been misled. When, through
being misled, they begin to suffer; when they begin to be
oppressed they will seek to find new leadership and will
apply the proper remedies through the ballot-box.
Fortunately, in this republic there are plenty of men of
culture, ability, and wisdom--themselves of the people--who
cannot be bought or controlled by material considerations,
and who are daily performing the duties of citizenship, from
whom to select the required leaders not only among the rich
and well-to-do, but also among those who live by their daily
labor.