Mr. Jerome alone among American politicians has made a specialty
of plain speaking. He has revolted against the tradition in our politics
which seeks to stop every leak with a good intention and plaster every
sore with a "decorative phrase." He has, says Mr. Hodder, "a partly
Gallic passion for intellectual veracity, for a clear recognition of the
facts before him, however ugly, and a wholly Gallic hatred of
hypocrisy." It is Mr. Jerome's intellectual veracity, his somewhat
conscious and strenuous ideal of plain speaking, which has been his
personal contribution to the cause of reform; and he is right in
believing it to be a very important contribution. The effective work of
reform, as has already been pointed out, demands on the part of its
leaders the intellectual virtues of candor, consistency, and a clear
recognition of facts. In Mr. Jerome's own case his candor and his clear
recognition of facts have been used almost exclusively in the field of
municipal reform. He has vigorously protested against existing laws
which have been passed in obedience to a rigorous puritanism, which,
because of their defiance of stubborn facts, can scarcely be enforced,
and whose statutory existence merely provides an opportunity for the
"grafter.
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