Ironies of Practical Politics

much of American political history has been made by men who have not been doctrinaires of the right or the left. There have been few Calhouns in public life, men of inflexible principle. For the most part, our politics have been dominated by the Lyndon Johnson type—leaders who believe that politics is the art of the possible. Perhaps the most interesting modern advocate of this kind of statecraft is James F. Byrnes, former U.S. Senator, former “assistant president,” former Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, former Secretary of State, and former Governor of South Carolina. All in One Lifetime (Harper, $4.50), a book of memoirs by Mr. Byrnes, tells how one leader of this type acted in political crises at home and abroad.

Mr. Byrnes writes of government as it is, not as one might wish it to be. His political philosophy emerges in the first chapter of the book. “As a young man,” he writes, “working as a court stenographer, I had begun to learn that in all relationships in life success and happiness can be achieved only by a willingness to make concessions.” He notes that in the House and Senate “the art of legislating is the art of intelligent compromise” and adds that an obstinate man “is likely to see a ‘principle’ in every issue.”

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Anthony H. Harrigan

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

much of American political history has been made by men who have not been doctrinaires of the right or the left. There have been few Calhouns in public life, men of inflexible principle. For the most part, our politics have been dominated by the Lyndon Johnson type—leaders who believe that politics is the art of the possible. Perhaps the most interesting modern advocate of this kind of statecraft is James F. Byrnes, former U.S. Senator, former “assistant president,” former Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, former Secretary of State, and former Governor of South Carolina. All in One Lifetime (Harper, $4.50), a book of memoirs by Mr. Byrnes, tells how one leader of this type acted in political crises at home and abroad.

Mr. Byrnes writes of government as it is, not as one might wish it to be. His political philosophy emerges in the first chapter of the book. “As a young man,” he writes, “working as a court stenographer, I had begun to learn that in all relationships in life success and happiness can be achieved only by a willingness to make concessions.” He notes that in the House and Senate “the art of legislating is the art of intelligent compromise” and adds that an obstinate man “is likely to see a ‘principle’ in every issue.”