A literary
friend of mine said that he used to believe in the maxim that
"everything comes to the man who waits," but he discovered after awhile
by practical experience that it needed an additional clause, "provided
he knows what he is waiting for." Unless you know what you are looking
for and have trained eyes to see it when it comes your way, it may pass
you unnoticed. We are just beginning to do, systematically and
scientifically, what we ought long ago to have done, to employ the
Government of the United States to survey the world in order that
American commerce might be guided.
But there are other ways of using the Government of the United States,
ways that have long been tried, though not always with conspicuous
success or fortunate results. You can use the Government of the United
States by influencing its legislation. That has been a very active
industry, but it has not always been managed in the interest of the
whole people. It is very instructive and useful for the Government of
the United States to have such means as you are ready to supply for
getting a sort of consensus of opinion which proceeds from no particular
quarter and originates with no particular interest.
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