ABSTRACT
The election shaping up in New York State raises an interesting question: what kind of role have the rich and well-born played in American political life? Actually the leaders of wealth and position so characteristic of eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century political life in America had been drawn primarily from the landed aristocracy. By the turn of America’s business century, however, a new brand of wealthy politicians was at the helm of the ship of state. The twentieth century, except for the business binge-and-bust during the twenties, has probably witnessed a real renaissance in American political leadership. American civilization, led by businessmen of daring enterprise and ingenuity, has produced the highest standards of living the world has ever known. Egalitarian democracy in America was a product of the frontier and factory. The continuing greatness of America will presumably depend on the nation’s ability to shoulder the burden of world political leadership.
