EXECUTIVE TRAINING PRICELESS BOON TO POLITICIANS

Mr. Frethingham was elected to Congress in 1920 and took up his duties at Washington last Spring. He is the representative from North Easton, Mass.

This is the third of a series of articles which the Crimson will publish concerning the college man and politics. Among others who will contribute are Governor Channing H. Cox L.L.B. '04, and Colonel Arthur Woods '92.

In writing me for an article on some phase of Government or politics of interest to college men, you state that your paper desires to interest college men in politics. I agree with you in this desire and think it a good thing for the college as well as for college men to have them engaged in public affairs. As a matter of fact, there are three hundred and fifty-two college men in Congress. As Congress consists of five hundred and thirty-one members, there being ninety-six Senators and four hundred and thirty-five Representatives, this is a goodly proportion, being practically two-thirds of the whole membership. Twenty-seven of these are graduates or have at one time been at Harvard.

Go in at the bottom. Become a member of your Town Committee, if you live in a town, or Ward Committee if you live in a city. Serve in town or city Government and then in the State Legislature, House or Senate. You will find the men you consort with are business and professional men. Government and the science of Government is the foundation of a country. No man is apt to be elected to Congress who is not a citizen of reputation and who has not made good in life. To appear before a constituency of 200,000 and win their approval and suffrage means that a candidate must be one who is well known and can stand public scrutiny.

University education is on vital importance. Its ability to give men training that will furnish leader of thought and action to the country is of prime value. An education that enables the world to receive an unending supply of virile and independent thinking man-hood, that can stand as adamant against the self-seeking selfishness of some who try to control and dominate through corporate greed and of some who go to excess in the labor movement, is an invaluable asset to a nation.

Strong Appeal for College Men

Matters that come before a National Representative body are ones which should appeal strongly to those who have had a college education. Take the matter of Foreign Affairs dealing with relations with other countries; sending Government relief to the starving people of Russia, refunding of the Foreign debt; and of course, in the Senate, the rectification of Treaties with any Foreign power; the Tariff, with its general intricacies and ramifications, much more complicated that it seemed even in college days when Professor Taussig tries to simplify it for our benefit. To many the Tariff is the one safeguard we have to balance the difference between the cost of production abroad and in this country, thus protecting our manufacturing industries and enabling the American workman to get better wages and live on a higher plane than his fellow workman in Europe. Today, the middle West is urging the imposition of Tariff duties on products of nature such as oil, cotton, wool, hides and other agricultural products, claiming that the day for protection of manufactured goods alone has long passed. This is a doctrine very alien to what is taught in the Eastern colleges and entirely revolutionary to he fundamental idea of what a Tariff should be. The difficult problem of raising revenue and deciding what should be taxed in order to collect the amount of money required to run the Government is another complicated subject which should interest college men. The size and personnel of the Army and Navy and the importance as learned from history, and past delinquencies of this and other countries of keeping these defensive arms of our country by land and by sea up to an adequate strength is an even present problem. With a country of one hundred and five million people, with our great sea-front and land area, and wealth, we have the smallest Army proportionally of any other country of importance.

Immigration is Vital Problem

The policy of the United States on the further restriction of immigration is one of the most important matters before the country. For many, many years the stream of people who have come and knocked at our doors and been admitted regardless of their education in our civilization and customs or our method of Government has cause serious apprehension for the continued stability of the nation. This Congress passed a law limiting those who could come in to 3 percent of any one nationality already here. But this Act was only temporary and expires June 30, 1922. Many sad cases have arisen under it where people have been brought here by Steamship Companies only to find that the quota or their country has been filed. A new measure has just been introduced in the House, providing for the suspension of immigration for three years with various exceptions. If this bill passes without the addition of further exceptions, it will be the most far-reaching law yet enacted.

Thus we see a great field for men of education in Congress. There are other departments where they can be and are of useful service too. The State, Law, Army, Navy, Treasury and all other Departments have many college men, and today in Washington, there is a great Conference in session where college men are much in evidence. After the Hague Conference of 1899 and 1907, not only was no curtailment of armaments agreed upon but each was followed by two dreadful wars. The failure of the Paris Conference tended to make people still more credulous of what such gatherings could accomplish. Yet the Washington Conference, though it may not produce all that was hoped for by some, will bring to the world greater results and much more far-reaching benefits than were thought possible by many.