As Mr. Harding knew little competition in Marion so he has known
little competition in public life which in this country is not
genuinely competitive. Mr. Lloyd George is at the head of the
British government because he is the greatest master of the House
of Commons in a generation and he is chosen by the men who know him
for what he is, his fellow members of the House of Commons. An
American President is selected by the newspapers, which know little
about him, by the politicians, who do not want a master but a
slave, by the delegates to a national convention, tired, with hotel
bills mounting, ready to name anybody in order to go home. The
presidency, the one great prize in American public life, is
attained by no known rules and under conditions which have nothing
in them to make a man work hard or think hard, especially one
endowed with a handsome face and figure, an ingratiating
personality, and a literary style.
The small town man, unimaginative and of restricted mental horizon
does not think in terms of masses of mankind. Masses vaguely appall
him. They exist in the big cities on which he turned his back in
his unaudacious youth. His contacts are with individuals. His
democracy consists in smiling upon the village painter and calling
him "Harry," in always nodding to the village cobbler and calling
him "Bill," in stopping on the street corner with a group, which
has not been invited to join the village club, putting his hand on
the shoulder of one of them and calling them "Fellows.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42