LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
"MEN, NOT MEASURES ? "
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sre,—The last few weeks having been a sort of Sabbath in or- dinary business, you will, I hope, consider it not too late to revert to the Spectator of January 19th, and insert, or at all events consider and reply to, some doubts, and even criticism, suggested by your advice that in the municipal election shortly at hand we should be influenced, not by political, but by personal considerations. I cannot help doubting, in the first place, whether your injunction is practicable; in the second, whether it is wise. If you do not care to hear my views upon the latter point, let me at least beg you to give your attention to the first half of my letter. The difficulty of insignificant people who wish to exercise rightly their duty as citizens is far too little considered; it is one cause of the surprising and regrettable neglect of the poll at these municipal elections. You urge (I have not your words to refer to, but am sure of their purport) that we ought, quitting considerations of party, to inform ourselves of the characters and qualifications of the candidates, and give our suffrage accordingly. I have the choice of answering that statement lengthily, or rather rudely. As there is no doubt that in this case politeness would be a sure road to the waste-paper basket, I proceed to inform you that in thus advising us I consider you very ego- tistic. A newspaper editor may have or acquire such knowledge of a particular man as to enable him to decide that he is a desirable or undesirable worker on the London County Council on other grounds than that of his belonging to a particular party, but ordinary private persons can inform themselves on this matter merely from the newspapers, and the newspapers—yours among them—give us no help. Injunctions such as yours to exertion and investigation are common, but I cannot remember ever reading, in your paper or any other, any sentence really pointing out an individual who should be supported or opposed. For the negative course there are obvious and sufficient reasons, but why should you not tell us, for instance—"Mr. So-and-so, though a strong Radical, has so much valuable experience and special knowledge, that in the approaching election he deserves the help of Conserva- tives," or "Such a one is a determined enemy to Liberal principles, but he should on this occasion be supported by Liberals, because he has shown temperance and judgment in dealing with matters shortly to come before the attention of the School Board or the London County Council," as the case may be? I can quite conceive grounds for such a recom- mendation. Zealots of all causes are conspicuous, but one who has shown the power of considering both sides of a question is often thrown into the shade by his very temperance, and there are many readers of the Spectator by whom its recommendation on such a subject would always be carefully weighed, and sometimes acted on. It has not, so far as I rememher, ever given them the chance. No doubt one reason is that it would be extremely difficult to frame such suggestions, but it is a great deal more difficult for us to discover them for ourselves. A would-be Member of Parliament has generally something conspicuous about him. He is chosen for reasons often unworthy of entitling him to a place in the Senate, but usually visible to every person who helps to give him that place. For the municipal elections it is not so. I have voted uninterruptedly at all, and almost always on party grounds, because I had no other. If, answering me in my own style, you inform me that I must be very ignorant, I reply that that is why you ought to attend to me. These elections are decided by the ignorant,—if we all did our duty that would be even truer than it is now. I am much less concerned to contest the wisdom than the practicability of your advice to discard politics in the municipal elections, but I do question its wisdom. Suppose the only thing we know of a man is his politics, we must go by that ; but suppose we can ascertain a great deal besides, I still doubt whether his politics should not be a main element in our decision. Character must influence it, but mainly, I am afraid, in a negative direction. That a man is bad is a reason for voting against him, but that he is good is no reason for voting for him, unless he is also wise. Half the energy of the wise, it has been said, is occupied in remedying the mistakes of the good, and though I look for a tribunal in which those mistakes will be very insignificant in comparison with the aims beyond them, yet here and now we must all confess that pure and disinterested zeal may be, for the objects which public bodies can give and take away, just so much mischief. And to pronounce a man wise, from a political point of view, is to claim him for our own party. It is not that we must think every one a fool who does not agree with us ; the opposite of assertion, in this case as in others, is not denial, but doubt If a Liberal or a Conservative does not think political wisdom best shown by adherence severally to Liberalism or Conserva- tism, then his creed is a mere label adopted for convenience, taste, or fashion, and should be discarded at once. Nor let it be said that the subject-matter of the municipal elections lies outside the differences of party. There is no post which it is ever the duty of voters to fill to which the knowledge of political creed is irrelevant. In learning that a candidate for a School Board or a County Council is either a Liberal or a Conservative, we know in a very rough way what aims he will think desirable. For my part, I doubt whether we—the ordinary, ignorant voters—can know anything else which is equally certain and equally relevant. But I have said enough for one whose only claim is being a representative of that class, and who wishes to be known only as your constant
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