ere 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.
All of which suggests that the boss did not appoint in the first
instance, but was merely well enough informed to see what the people
wanted before they had formulated their own opinions and desires. It was
said of McKinley that he could tell what Congress would do on a certain
measure before the men in Congress themselves knew what their decision
was to be. Cannon has said of McKinley that his ear was so close to the
ground that it was full of grasshoppers. But the fact remains that
office brokerage is here held in reprehensive scorn and professional
office-seeking in contempt. Every native-born American, however, is
potentially a President, and it must always be remembered that the
obligation to serve the State is forever binding upon all, although
office is the gift of the people.

Of course these considerations relate not to