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Show 1AKEIT By , , a Frank H. FROM DAD Cheley Are All Politics Rotten? The Smithhoughs, father and son, were seated In their usual after-dinner corners, -Bob at bis b0)lis an(j fatner Wjn A his trade journal, :. M-mm.:: - magazines and pa-' pa-' ' ' ' Pers- 5 J "Dad, Tm going to " be a lawyer after r all." Bob's opening shot! "So," replied dad, i laconically. 1 , ' "I was going In for L , j public life possibly be a senator," said Bob, seriously, "hut I've about come to the conclusion it is not desirable after j all. Dad. are politics rotten?" "Been reading the papers a bit eh, ! Bob?" queried dad. "Well, I can hard- j ly blame you for coming to such a conclusion with all the graft and scandal in high places, yet, Bob, the law is a very highly respected profession profes-sion and just because here and there, now and then, a man high in public office sells his birthright for a mess of pottage you must not conclude that nil of our vast army of public officials are crooks, by any means. America Is what she is today as a nation, largely because of her type of government; a type of government which makes possible tremendous Initiative on the part of officials, plus the fact that we still have vast natural resources easily exploited and wealth is so comparatively compara-tively easily attainable by fair means or foul. "Remember how we all enjoyed the box of salted nuts the other evening. They were unusually fine until you bit Into a rancid one and then you didn't want any more. It would have been too bad to have concluded that you would never eat salted nuts agaiD because of one bad one to a box. "Let's go a little further, Bob.- The strength of American life is the quality qual-ity of its citizenry. Most men are honorable and honest. Of the probably prob-ably more than one hundred thousand public officials, a large . part of the leaders of which have a legal training, there is a very small per cent but that have rendered their day and time and constituency thoroughgoing honorable hon-orable service, many, at large personal sacrifice. Here I was just now reading read-ing a splendid quotation from Roosevelt Roose-velt that has an exact bearing on the point. " 'In our history there is now practically prac-tically no mention of any great financier, finan-cier, of any great business man, who merely made money for himself. If at Some crisis in the nation's history that financier rendered a great national na-tional service, or if be identified himself him-self in useful fashion with some great movement for good, whether in art or philanthropy or otherwise, then his name remains. But even under these conditions it remains as a secondary value. America's contribution to permanent per-manent world history has been made by the statesmen and soldiers whose devotion to the country equaled their efficiency, by men of science, men of art, men of letters, by sane and honest hon-est reformers and social workers, who did great work and treated that work as in itself a great reward.' "The history of our growth and development de-velopment as a nation is largely the story of the lives of high-minded men who have devoted themselves to the service of their fellows in some one of the thousand ramifications of our public life. "True it is, my boy, that we have, an over-supply of 'small fry' in the legal .profession, but it is also true in the other professions. Unman nature is no different in polities than in business busi-ness or medicine or the other sciences. sci-ences. "Somj one has told us that the real value of great lives is to fertilize the imaginations of our youth. When you think politics, think of the great game that Washington played with his Continental Con-tinental congress ; think of the great game that Lincoln played with millions mil-lions of human lives at stake. Think of the great and fascinating game that Herbert Hoover played to feed the starving children of the world. Do not let your ideals and conclusions be reached by dwelling too much on the petty graft and mistakes of the greedy and overly ambitious few. "True American citizenship means loyal service to God and country. Boys of sterling quality must be trained to enter polilics yes, to become be-come fighting politicians: live-wire citizens who do their share of the public pub-lic work, and Bob, you don't need to wait until you are a senator. Be a good straight-shooting, hard-hitting politician in school; in your club; in your camp; yes. in your gang. "We must recognize that there are defects in our land and weaknesses in our systems: that our plan of things is not perfect; that all our institutions can he bettered; and that only by preparation and co-operation to make America the great democracy where there is less and less fear, more and more confidence In each other and a united hope for even better things, will a new day come. "Good and had politics, Boh. bring up another point, too, that it is well to consider. Good politics is simply loyalty. Everybody likes the fellow who stands up for his family and his school, his friends, his team, and his country all of that Is not so hard to do." (. 1929, Western Newspaper Union.) |