One of the most prominent and promising young men in the political life in the United States is Joseph Wingate Folk, who was elected governor of Missouri in the fall of 1904. Though Governor Folk’s rise has been a very rapid one, it has been the result of qualities which make for the most substantial and enduring kind of political success. Dominating factors of Governor Folk’s career have been honesty and a rigid performance of duty. For these he has courted defeat and failure, has even undergone danger to his life. He has refused to listen for a moment to some of the largest financial offers that have ever been made to tempt a servant of the people to betray his trust. Not only has the power of money, but also the corrupt personal influence of many able men, been brought to bear upon him in his work as circuit attorney in St. Louis. Many of his friends, even, endeavored to persuade him that his course of action toward the political leaders in St. Louis would result only in disaster to himself. But Governor Folk’s invariable answer was that he accepted public office for no other purpose than to do his duty. The result has been a great surprise to both his friends and enemies, and the introduction of an uplifting influence in American politics. Governor Folk has won a great personal triumph in his election to the governorship of Missouri, and the indications are that he will rise to still greater heights. His prominence and influence are rendered all the more notable by the fact that he is only thirty-five years old, and rose from the position of an obscure lawyer to American leadership in the short space of four years. Governor Folk was born in the town of Brownsville, Tenn., in 1869. He finished his college education at Vanderbilt University, where he was known as a clever, whole-souled young man who devoted much attention to his books, but by no means neglected athletics and the general life of a college boy. He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and began the practice of law in St. Louis, where for some years his experiences were those of the average struggling young attorney. During this period of his career he became a friend of Henry W. Hawes, who was afterward one of his bitterest political enemies. Hawes rapidly rose to a position of considerable power in St. Louis, and when, in 1900, he was asked by the Democratic boss of the city, Edward Butler, to suggest a likely man for the place of circuit attorney, he at once recommended his friend Folk. Butler knew very little of the young lawyer, but on the strength of Hawes’ word he accepted him as being sufficiently pliable to serve the corrupt uses of the political machine.