=The methods of the politician.=—­Hence it will be seen that, in the right sense, merchants, physicians, and ministers are all politicians in that they seek to expand the sphere of their activities.  Like the politician they study the wants of the people in order to win a starting point for leadership.  True, there are quacks, charlatans, hypocrites, and demagogues, but none of these, nor all combined, avail to disprove the validity of the principle.  It has often been said that the churches would do well to study and use the art of advertising that is so well understood by the saloons.  This is another way of saying that the methods of the politician will avail in promoting right activities as well as wrong ones.  The politician, whether he is a business man or a professional man, proceeds from the known to the related unknown, and thus shows himself a conscious or unconscious student of psychology.  He studies that which is in order to promote that which should be.

=Leadership.=—­The politician aspires to leadership, and that is praiseworthy, provided his cause is a worthy one.  If the cause is unworthy, the cloven foot will soon appear and repudiation will ensue, which will mark him unsuccessful as a politician.  He may be actuated by the motive of self-interest, in common with all others, but this interest may focus in the amelioration of conditions as they are or in the advancement of his friends.  The satisfaction of leadership is the sole reward of many a politician, with the added pleasure of seeing his friends profit by this leadership.  A statesman is a politician grown large—­large in respect to motives, to plans and purposes, and to methods.  The fundamental principle, however, remains constant.

=The politician worthy of imitation.=—­The successful politician must know people and their wants.  He must know conditions in order to direct the course of his activities.  Otherwise, he will find himself moving at random, and this may prove disastrous to his purposes.  Much misdirected effort has been expended in disparaging the politician and his methods.  If the man and his methods were better understood, they would often be found worthy of close imitation in the home, in the school, in the church, in the professions, and in business.

=Education and substitution.=—­Education, in the large, is the process of making substitutions.  Evermore, in school work, we are striving to substitute something better for something not so good.  In brief, we are striving to substitute needs for wants.  But before we can do this we must determine, by careful study and close observation, what the wants are.  Ability to substitute needs for wants betokens a high type of leadership.  The boy wants to read Henty, but needs to read Dickens or Shakespeare.  How shall the teacher proceed in order to make the substitution?  Certainly it cannot be done by any mere fiat or ukase.  Those who are incredulous as to the wisdom of establishing colleges of education and normal schools to generate and promote methods of teaching have here a concrete and pertinent question:  Can a college of education or normal school give to an embryo teacher any method by which she may effectively substitute Shakespeare for Henty?