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CHAPTER V

"PRACTICAL POLITICS"

"Government is force. Politics is a battle for supremacy. Parties are the armies." So said a distinguished Senator from Kansas some years ago. That there is a large element of truth in his statement, the intricate organization and highly developed tactics of both major parties would seem to indicate. In no other country are the parties so well integrated. In no other country is the work so assiduously carried on. Precinct, district, city, county, state and nation are but units in an organization which operates with almost military precision.1 And drill goes on week in and week out. Always alert, the parties are like armies sleeping under arms.

A foreigner might exclaim: "What a wonderful country, in which people are discussing affairs of state all the year round!" But the work of the political organization is not, as we have seen, the discussion of public affairs: it is recruiting. How little part political argument plays in this is astounding. Although the methods of Tammany Hall cannot be used by the professional politician, without modification, outside 1 See chart, p. 58.

of New York City, yet adaptions of Tammany's tactics are everywhere used. It is not irrelevant, therefore, to pause to examine the Wigwam's methods. Nowhere can a franker or more vivid statement of them be found than in the words of George Washington Plunkitt, for forty years a Tammany leader. His description of the method by which he got his start and the tactics by which he held his district are sufficiently interesting in themselves to justify extensive quotation. He says:

"I can best explain what to do to succeed in politics by tellin' you what I did. After going through the apprenticeship of the business while I was a boy by working around the district headquarters and hustlin' about the polls on election day, I set out when I cast my first vote to win fame and money in New York City politics. Did I offer my services to the district leader as a stump speaker? much. The woods are always full of speakers. Did I get up a book on municipal government and show it to the leader? I wasn't such a fool. What I did was to get some marketable goods before going to the leaders. What do I mean by marketable goods? Let me tell you:

Not

"I had a cousin, a young man who didn't take any particular interest in politics. I went to him and said: 'Tommy, I'm going to be a politician and need a following; can I count on you?' He said: 'Sure, George.' That's how I started in the business. . . . I soon branched out. Two young men in the flat next to mine were school friends. I went to them, just as I went to Tommy and they agreed to stand by me.

a snowball rollin' down a hill.

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And so it went on like

I worked the flathouse

that I lived in from the basement to the top floor, and I got about a dozen young men to follow me. Then I tackled the next house and so on down the block and around the corner. Before long I had sixty men back of me, and formed the George Washington Plunkitt Association.

"You ought to have seen how I was courted and petted then by the leaders of the rival organizations. I had marketable goods and there was bids for them from all sides, and I was a risin' man in politics." 1

1

The striking fact brought out by the quotation is the total absence of political discussion in the gathering of a following, and in holding his district Plunkitt seemed to have had even less use for the advocacy of principles.

"For instance, here's how I gather in the young men.. I hear of a young feller that's proud of his voice, thinks he can sing fine. I ask him to come around to Washington Hall and join our glee club. He comes and sings, and' he's a follower of Plunkitt for life. Another young feller gains a reputation as a baseball player in a vacant lot. I bring him into our baseball club. That fixes him. You'll' find him working for my ticket at the polls next election day. Then there's the feller that likes rowin' on the river, the young feller that makes a name as a waltzer on his block, the young feller that's handy with his dukes—I rope them all in by giving them opportunities to show themselves off. I don't trouble them with political arguments.. I just study human nature and act accordin'." 2

1 Riordin, W. I. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, p. 141. 2 Riordin, op. cit., p. 47.

Social work, recreational and philanthropic-this is the cement that holds together such political organizations. Political clubs are the only clubs for the masses, and around them centers all the affection the college boy has for his fraternity or the well-to-do for their luxuriously furnished lounging places. But the political club is more than a recreational center. It is an employment agency, through which the deserving may obtain jobs. And as Plunkitt sees it, that is a very important part of the politician's work. "When the voters elect a man leader," he says, "they make a sort of contract with him. They say, although it ain't written out: 'We've put you here to look out You want to see that this district gets all the jobs that's comin' to it. Be faithful to us, and we'll be faithful to you.' " 1 But the district club is more than that. It is, perhaps, the greatest philanthropic center in the average city. To some extent this is a thing of the past in cities that have very efficient charitable associations, but not so the country over. Favors are still sought and obtained at political headquarters.

for our interests.

The question immediately arises why men who so far as their actions indicate are not particularly interested in matters of public policy, should devote so much time to the maintenance of political organizations. The answer to this can likewise be found in the philosophisings of Plunkitt. There exist in politics many "opportunities" for those who are seeking 1 Riordin, op. cit., p. 68.

personal gain, and these "opportunities," legitimate and illegitimate, are the explanation. The existence of approximately two and a half million political offices, with a pay-roll attached thereto of more than $3,000,000,000 a year, is in itself a considerable attraction. And when one remembers that about three-fourths of the states, even a larger percentage of the counties, and all but three hundred of the cities, do not even have the protection of a civil service law on the statute books, it becomes apparent that these offices are in large measure "rewards for the faithful."

In the purchase of supplies there is also an "opportunity" for a "rake-off," and again in the placing of contracts for public purposes. Political influence is not a disadvantage to the contracting firm that bids for work in connection with semi-public projects. The contractor who can expedite the obtaining of permits, who can secure the waiving of technical rules of construction, has a slight advantage over the firm which can offer no such inducement; which may, indeed, bring with it the enmity of "the powers at city hall" and all the obstructions that enmity may involve.

Tax manipulation is both possible and profitable. Appreciation will often be shown by a large property holder for a favor of this character. The custody of public money likewise affords those motivated by self-interest an excellent opportunity for selfenhancement. A considerable difference may very well exist between the interest the state receives for its

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