I have stated that I am not proud of the way I used Senator Smith's speech
on the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. We were fighting veterans in the political
game, men who knew all the tricks and who did not scruple to play any of
them. In the rough school of practical politics I had been taught that
"you must fight the devil with fire" and that it is as legitimate in
politics as in war to deceive the enemy about your resources. But we
conducted politics on higher levels during the eight years in the White
House, when my chief, no longer an amateur, taught me, by precept and
example, that effective fighting can be conducted without resort to the
tricks and duplicities of those who place political advantage above
principle. Woodrow Wilson made new rules for the game, and they were the
rules which men of honour adopt when conducting their private business on
principles of good faith and truth-telling.




CHAPTER XI

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP


The election of Martine having been settled and the preferential vote
having been validated through the courageous handling of a delicate
situation, the new Governor was firmly in the saddle. His leadership had
been tested and only the fragments of the Old Guard machine were left. The
road was thus cleared of all obstacles in his own party that might be put
in the way of his programme of constructive legislation.