. I have heard him called a cave
man by some, by others a boor; but he is neither. He observes the
amenities of life so far as they are necessary, but only so far. He
is impatient of mediocrity; he will not tolerate stupidity and he
loathes hypocrisy. I would not say that he has bad manners; he has
none at all.

Throughout the recent eclipse of the Republican Party, which began
with the Roosevelt default, no member remained more steadfast than
the Pennsylvania leader. He accepted the inevitable and bided his
time like the politicians of the old school of which he is one of
the few conspicuous surviving examples. Expediency does not enter
into his make-up; he made no effort to keep himself in the
limelight, for he is by the Party, of the Party, and for the Party.

Now that the Party is back again, in power, more than one of his
colleagues suspect that Penrose, if his health permits, will emerge
from the background as the real leader of the Senate majority. His
political past is against him. But he knows men and his tutelage
under Aldrich has not been forgotten.

WILLIAM E. BORAH

Taken at its best, life, to William E. Borah, is little more than a
troublesome pilgrimage to the grave.

This does not mean that he is a misanthrope or a seer of distorted
vision. On the contrary his sympathies are broad and he has an
elusive charm, more apparent in the early years of his political
career than now. But, for some reason, probably temperamental, he
is in the habit of dwelling upon the dangers that beset the
republic--dangers which are sometimes very real. Nevertheless an
hour in his presence is more often than not depressing; it leaves
one with a sense of impending calamity. There are few bright spots
on his horizon.

It is not altogether to his discredit that his more venerable
colleagues look upon him as a young man--he is fifty-six; nor does
it imply merely arrested political development. For all of his
pessimism he maintains a certain freshness, if belligerency, of
spirit which is puzzling not only to those who have long since
accustomed themselves to the party yoke but to those whom
experience has taught the art of compromise. For Borah hates the
discipline that organization entails, in spite of his respect for
organization, and he dislikes compromise however often he is driven
to it.

This may be accounted for by the fact that he was not obliged to
fight his way laboriously upward on the lower rungs of po