76 Colleges and Public Life 



means for ends as to become servile in his devotion to 

 his party, and afraid to leave it when the party goes 

 wrong. To deify either independence or party alle- 

 giance merely as such is a little absurd. It depends 

 entirely upon the motive, the purpose, the result. 

 For the last two years, the Senator who, beyond all 

 his colleagues in the United States Senate, has shown 

 himself independent of party ties is the very man to 

 whom the leading champions of independence in 

 politics most strenuously object. The truth is, sim- 

 ply, that there are times when it may be the duty of 

 a man to break with his party, and there are other 

 times when it may be his duty to stand by his party, 

 even though, on some points, he thinks that party 

 wrong ; he must be prepared to leave it when neces- 

 sary, and he must not sacrifice his influence by leav- 

 ing it unless it is necessary. If we had no party 

 allegiance, our politics would become mere windy 

 anarchy, and, under present conditions, our gov- 

 ernment could hardly continue at all. If we had 

 no independence, we should always be running the 

 risk of the most degraded kind of despotism, the 

 despotism of the party boss and the party machine. 

 It is just the same way about compromises. Oc- 

 casionally one hears some well-meaning person say 

 of another, apparently in praise, that he is "never 

 willing to compromise." It is a mere truism to say 

 that, in politics, there has to be one continual com- 

 promise. Of course now and then questions arise 

 upon which a compromise is inadmissible. There 

 could be no compromise with secession, and there 



