io8 The Eighth and Ninth 



As regards the eighth commandment, while the 

 remark of one of the founders of our government, 

 that the whole art of politics consists in being honest, 

 is an overstatement, it remains true that absolute 

 honesty is what Cromwell would have called a 

 "fundamental" of healthy political life. We can 

 afford to differ on the currency, the tariff, and for 

 eign policy; but we can not afford to differ on the 

 question of honesty if we expect our Republic per 

 manently to endure. No community is healthy 

 where it is ever necessary to distinguish one poli 

 tician among his fellows because "he is honest." 

 Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute pre 

 requisite to efficient service to the public. Unless 

 a man is honest we have no right to keep him in 

 public life, it matters not how brilliant his capacity, 

 it hardly matters how great his power of doing 

 good service on certain lines may be. Probably 

 very few men will disagree with this statement in 

 the abstract, yet in the concrete there is much 

 wavering about it. The number of public servants 

 who actually take bribes is not very numerous out 

 side of certain well-known centres of festering cor 

 ruption. But the temptation to be dishonest often 

 comes in insidious ways. There are not a few public 

 men who, though they would repel with indignation 

 an offer of a bribe, will give certain corporations 

 special legislative and executive privileges because 



