ENDS AND MEANS
modern societies have Abolished the hereditary principle in
politics; idiots can no longer rule a country by right of
blood. In the world of finance and industry, however, the
hereditary principle is still admitted; morons and drunkards
may be company directors by divine right. In the world
of politics, the chances of getting imbecile leaders under an
elective system could be considerably reduced by applying
to politicians a few of those tests for intellectual, physical
and moral fitness which we apply to the candidates for
almost every other kind of job. Imagine the outcry if
hotel-keepers were to engage servants without demanding
a 'character* from their previous employers; or if sea
captains were chosen from homes for inebriates; or if
railway companies entrusted their trains to locomotive
engineers with arterio-sclerosis and prostate trouble; or if
civil servants were appointed and doctors allowed to
- practise without passing an examination! And yet, where
the destinies of whole nations are at stake, we do not
hesitate to entrust the direction of affairs to men of notori-
ously bad character; to men sodden with alcohol; to men
so old and infirm that they can't do their work or even
understand what it is about; to men without ability or
even education. In practically every other sphere of
activity we have accepted the principle that nobody may
be admitted to hold responsible positions unless he
can pass an examination, show a clean bill of health and
produce satisfactory testimonial^ as to his moral character;
and even then the office is given, in most cases, only on the
condition that its holder shall relinquish it as soon as he
reaches the threshold of old age. By applying these rudi-
mentary precautions to politicians, we should be able to
filter out of our public life a great deal of that self-satisfied
stupidity, that authoritative senile incompetence, that down-
right dishonesty, which at present contaminates it.
To guard against the man of active, paranoid ambition,
174