Editorial Comment
| Author | Chester C. Maxey |
| Date | 01 September 1948 |
| Published date | 01 September 1948 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591294800100306 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
271
EDITORIAL
COMMENT
A
PLEA
FOR
THE
POLITICIAN
by
CHESTER
C.
MAXEY
Whitman
College
I
z
Not
long
after
the
death
of
Boies
Penrose
a
memorial
statue
of
him
was
ceremoniously
unveiled
and
dedicated
on
the
capitol
grounds
at
Harris-
burg,
Pennsylvania.
If
the
speeches
made
on
this
occasion
echoed
upwards
to
the
Valhalla
of
political
warriors,
the
doughty
captain
of
the
wards
who
made
his
name
a
synonym
for
victory
in
Pennsylvania
politics
must
have
been
vastly
amused.
To
a
person
of
Penrose’s
sardonic
realism
nothing
could
have
been
more
mirth-provoking
than
the
fustian
eloquence
of the
Hon.
Joseph
R.
Grundy,
who
was
reported
as
saying
that
the
Penrose
chart
and
compass
was
governmental
policy
through
political
integrity,
founded
on
party
solidarity
under
capable
and
courageous
leadership
&dquo;with
a
single
eye
to
the
good
of
the
nation
as
a
whole&dquo;;
or
the
grandiloquent
tribute
of
the
Hon.
Charles
R.
Brown
who
pronounced
the
late
boss
of
Pennsylvania
&dquo;a
master
of
the
science
of
government -
a
statesman.&dquo;
Boies
Penrose
may
have
deserved
those
stilted
panegyrics
as
much
as
the
more
dubious
fame
which
attended
him
in
life,
but
he
would
have
been
the
last
to
seek
or
to
expect
them.
There
was
little
hypocrisy
in
Boies
Pen-
rose.
Never
did
he
pretend
to
be
an
altruist,
a
benefactor
of
humanity,
a
practitioner
of
the chaste
and
lofty
art
of
statecraft,
or
anything
other
than
the
practical
politician
and
organizer
of
victory
that
he
unquestionably
was.
For
this
lack
of
sham,
posterity
owes
him
a
debt
of
gratitude;
such
honesty
and
humility
are
as
refreshing
as
they
are
rare
among
public
men.
Customar-
ily,
those
who
rise
to
eminence
in
public
affairs
by
mastery
of
the
malodorous
trade
of
politics
prefer
to
conceal
as
far
as
they
can
the
true
nature
of
their
antecedents
by
liberal
use
of
the
deodorant
spray
of
&dquo;leadership&dquo;
or
&dquo;states-
manship.&dquo;
The
antics
of
these
virtuous
vote-snatchers
are
often
productive
of
delicious
comedy,
as,
for
example,
the
inspired
chorus
of
polite
protest
which
once
upon
a
time
(a
fairly
recent
time,
in
fact)
induced
the
editors
of
a
world-famous
encyclopedia
to
change
their
characterization
of
an
emi-
nent
officeholder
from
&dquo;American
politician&dquo;
to
&dquo;American
party
leader.&dquo;
Boies
Penrose,
needless
to
say,
was
not
the
hero
of
that
episode.
That
a
sort
of
polecat
stigma
adheres
to
the
term
&dquo;politician&dquo;
cannot
be
denied;
but
if ~ the
foxy
ballot-brokers
who
so
abashedly
shun
this
title
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