122 Promise and Performance 



tain to receive the applause of a few emotional peo 

 ple who do not think correctly, and the one fact 

 about him that can be instantly asserted as true be 

 yond peradventure is that, if he is a serious person 

 age at all, he is deliberately lying, while it is only less 

 certain that he will be guilty of base and dishon 

 orable compromise when the opportunity arises. 

 "Compromise" is so often used in a bad sense that 

 it is difficult to remember that properly it merely 

 describes the process of reaching an agreement. 

 Naturally there are certain subjects on which no 

 man can compromise. For instance, there must be 

 no compromise under any circumstances with offi 

 cial corruption, and of course no man should hesi 

 tate to say as much. Again, an honest politician is 

 entirely justified in promising on the stump that he 

 will make no compromise on any question of right 

 and wrong. This promise he can and ought to make 

 good. But when questions of policy arise and 

 most questions, from the tariff to municipal owner 

 ship of public utilities and the franchise tax, are pri 

 marily questions of policy he will have to come to 

 some kind of working agreement with his fellows, 

 and if he says that he will not, he either deliberately 

 utters what he knows to be false, or else he ensures 

 for himself the humiliation of being forced to break 

 his word. No decent politician need compromise in 

 any way save as Washington and Lincoln did. He 



