We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,546,490.69 | Books Available: 800,521 | Members Online: 258

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - In The Arena : Stories Of Political Life

In The Arena Stories Of Political Life
Author: Booth Tarkington

IN THE ARENA Stories of Political Life - 1913 - THE CONVEItSION OF THE SENATOlt FROM STACK POLE To My Father Boss GORGETT . THE ALIENS . . THE NEED OF MONEY . HECTOR . . PART PI. MRS. PROTHERO . E . . . r . r 207 IN THE FIRST PLACE The old-timer, a lean, retired pantaloon, sitting with loosely slippered feet close to t h fire, thus gave of his w... more »isdom to the questioning student Loo7cing back upon it all, what we most need in politics is more good men. Thousands of good men ARE in and they need the others who are not in. More would come i f they knew how MUCH they are needed. The dilettantes of the clubs who have so easily abused W, for instance, all my life, for being a ward-worker, these and tlwse other reformers who write papers about national corruption when they dont know how their own wards are swung, probably arent so useful as they might be. The exquisite who says that politics is too dirty a business for a gentleman to meddle with is like the woman who lived in the parhur and cmplained that the rest of her f a d y kept the other rooms so dirty that she never went into them. There are many t h o u s a d of young men belonging to what is for some reason called the best class, who would like to be in politics if they could begin high enough up - as ambassadors, for instance. That is, they would like the country to do something for them, though they wouldnt put it that way. A young man of this sort doesnt know how much h d miss i f his wishes were gratified. For my part, Id hate not to have begun at the beginning of the game. I speak of it as a game, the old gentleman went on, c c and in some ways it is. Thats where the fun of it comes in. Yet, there are times when it looks to me more like a series of combats, hand-tohand fights for life, and fierce struggles between men and strange powers. You buy your newspaper and thats your ticket to the amphitheatre. But the distance is hazy and far there are c W s of dust and you cant see clearly. To make out just. what is going on you ought to get down in the arena yourself. Once youre in it, the view youll have and the fighting that will come your way will more than repay you. Still, I dont think we ought to go in with the idea of being repaid. It seems an odd thing to me that so many men feel they havent any time for politics cant put in even a little, trying to see how their cities let alone their states and the country are run. When we have a war, look at the millions of volunhers that lay down everything and answer the call of the country. Well, in politics, the country needs ALL the men who have any patriotism - NOT to be seeking ofice, but to watch and to understand what is going on. It doesnt take a great deal of time you can attend to your business and do that much, too. When wrong things are going on and all the good men understand thenz, that is all that. is needed. The wrong things stop going on. BOSS GORGETT I GUESS Ive been what you might call kind of an assistant boss pretty much all my life at least, ever since I could vote and I was something of a ward-heeler even before that. I dont suppose theres any way a man of my disposition could have put in his time to less advantage and greater cost to himself. Ive never got a thing by it, all these years, not a job, not a penny - nothing but injury to my business and trouble with my wife. She begins going for me, first of every campaign. Yet I just cant seem to keep out of it...

ISBN-13: 9781408614297
ISBN-10: 1408614294
Publication Date: 1/31/2008
Pages: 292
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Read Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Back to the Top ↑

Search - In The Arena : Stories Of Political Life

Loading...