a Political Factor 65 



experience as an instance in point. Outside of col 

 lege boys and politicians my first intimate associates 

 were ranchmen, cow-punchers, and game-hunters, 

 and I speedily became convinced that there were no 

 other men in the country who were their equals. 

 Then I was thrown much with farmers, and I made 

 up my mind that it was the farmer upon whom the 

 foundations of the commonwealth really rested 

 that the farmer was the archetypical good American. 

 Then I saw a good deal of railroad men, and after 

 quite an intimate acquaintance with them I grew to 

 feel that, especially in their higher ranks, they 

 typified the very qualities of courage, self-reliance, 

 self-command, hardihood, capacity for work, power 

 of initiative, and power of obedience, which we like 

 most to associate with the American name. Then I 

 happened to have dealings with certain carpenters' 

 unions, and grew to have a great respect for the car 

 penter, for the mechanic type. By this time it 

 dawned upon me that they were all pretty good fel 

 lows, and that my championship of each set in suc 

 cession above all other sets had sprung largely from 

 the fact that I was very familiar with the set I 

 championed, and less familiar with the remainder. 

 In other words, I had grown into sympathy with, 

 into understanding of, group after group, with the 

 effect that I invariably found that they and I had 

 common purposes and a common standpoint. We 



