service. The Greek derivation shows the nobler purpose. Politikos means
city-rearing, state-craft. And when we remember that city also meant
civilization, the spurious presentment, mean and sordid, drops away and
the real figure of the politician, dignified and honorable, a minister
to civilization, author and finisher of government, is revealed in its
true and dignified proportions.

There is always something about genius that is indefinable, mysterious,
perhaps to its possessor most of all. It has been the product of rude
surroundings no less than of the most cultured environment, want and
neglect have sometimes nourished it, abundance and care have failed to
produce it. Why some succeed in public life and others fail would be as
difficult to tell as why some succeed or fail in other activities. Very
few men in America have started out with any fixed idea of entering
public life, fewer still would admit having such an idea. It was said of
Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, being asked
when a youth what he proposed to do when a man, he replied, he had not
yet decided whether to be President or Chief Justice. This may be in
part due to a general profession of holding to the principle of Benjamin
Franklin that office should neither be sought nor refused and in part to
the American idea that the people choose their own officers so that
public service is not optional. In other countries this is not so. For
centuries some seats in the British Parliament were controlled and
probably sold as were commissions in the army, but that has never been
the case here. A certain Congressman, however, on arriving at Washington
was asked by an old friend how he happened to be elected. He replied
that he was not elected, but appointed. It is worth while noting that
the boss who was then supposed to hold the power of appointment in that
district has since been driven from power, but the Congressman, though
he was defeated when his party was lately divided, has been reflected.