The Profession of Politics

NEW BOOK

THE PUBLIC LIFE--J. A. Spender--Stokes (2 vols., $10.00). Public life, as defined by the author for his purpose, is the profession of statesmen and politicians. This profession he exemplifies by some monographs on famous statesmen and politicians--Bright, Cobden, Palmerston, Disraeli, Gladstone, Chamberlain, Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, George--by analyzing the parliamentary duties of politicians, by contrasting the British parliamentary system with the systems of the U. S., France and Germany, by conducting a brilliant inquiry into the problems of statecraft, by examining the relations between people and press, press and government and by descanting on political ethics.

Mr. Spender, who recently wrote a biography of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,**; is a Liberal journalist of great repute. It will not be overpraise, taking due account of some Liberal bias and a few untenable observations, to say that The Public Life is the most important work of its kind which has been published in a decade.

These books are to some extent a continuation of Bryce's Commonwealth. The author begins where Bryce left off and accounts succinctly for recent developments in U. S. politics. But more important is the service which has been rendered to the people, no matter of what nationality, who wish to understand the workings of the body politic in Britain, and there is much to be derived from that recital of body politics in general. These are no textbooks requiring a scholarly mind to disentangle their sense, but rather are they full of trenchant observation, clear analysis and an ofttimes sparkling wit, written in the common tongue wth charm, force and a liberal supply of aphorisms.

Oratory: "A good House of Commons style is much applauded and . . . is a high accomplishment. But it abounds in jargon . . . consecrated phrases and sentences which mean nothing but occupy the time while the House is emptying or filling. . . . 'Mr. Speaker, Sir, the honourable member who has just sat down has charged my Right Honourable friend, the President of the Board of Trade, with having misrepresented the speech which the honourable and learned gentleman, the member for Colne, made earlier in debate. Sir, as I shall presently prove, the honourable member himself is guilty of misrepresenting the .speech of my Right Honourable friend, the President of the Board of Trade. For what did my Right Honourable friend say?' etc., etc. That is quite a typical opening. ..."

Diplomacy: "The dispatches of these times [Bismarck's] are full of secret signals and ciphers, the clue to which has been lost in subsequent times, and not a few of them missed fire even in their own time because their meaning was so elaborately concealed that nobody could discover it."

Cabinet Secrecy: "He [Gladstone] held strict notions of Cabinet secrecy. . . . He had a code of his own about disclosures. If he wrote a letter with no mark on it, the recipient of it might presume that it was intended for publication. If it was marked 'private,' it might be shown to anyone but not published ; if it was marked 'confidential,' it might be shown to colleagues and not withheld from wives; if it was marked 'secret,' it was not to be shown to wives, or, without the writer's consent, to anybody."

The Press: "In a modern community, the newspaper is an esential part of government by the people. Without newspapers, Parliament would be a secret debating society. . . ."

The U. S. Press: "To this day, the editorial has not recovered the place of power which it enjoyed at the time of the Civil War, and for some years later. But no one can have read American newspapers during the last few years without being conscious of a strong reaction from sensationalism to a serious and a careful handling of public affairs. With its immense headlines and splashing display, the front sheet of an American paper still retains its shop-window appearance [British newspapers have advertisements on their front pages], but turn the page and you will generally find a succession of long and serious articles written in a manner which the editor of an English popular newspaper would almost certainly consider far above the intelligence of his readers."

** Reviewed in TIME, June 23, 1924.