32 EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 



Some of the veterans were at first amused at the precocious 

 assaults of the young member from the Twenty-first District, and 

 rather incHned to laugh at his undisciplined energy. But they soon 

 found that he w^as a fighter who could not be kept under. He was 

 a ready and attractive speaker, good-natured yet hard-hitting, and 

 could be savagely sarcastic when he had some piece of rascality to 

 expose. His good clothes and eye-glasses made some of the members 

 think him effeminate, but they were not long in learning that he had 

 plenty of courage, both mental and physical, and public opinion outside 

 of the legislative halls was quickly in his favor. 



Thus from the start young Roosevelt made his mark in that 

 career upon which he had now definitely launched himself. He was 

 a born reformer and strongly backed all measures for the public good 

 that came before the House. A new and reformed charter was badly 

 needed for New York City and for several years attempts had been 

 vainly made to enact one. It was this for which he most ardently 

 fought. The corrupt city departments had found strength in union, 

 and intrenched in this they defied the reformers. Roosevelt attacked 

 them separately and one by one he overthrew them. He was twice re- 

 elected and during his three terms in the Legislature he saved the 

 people hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, w'hich would other- 

 wise have gone into the "grab-bag" of the grafters. 



Shall we give some of the particulars of his legislative career? 

 One of the most significant came early in his first session, one in wdiich 

 he took his stand and made his mark as a born foe of corruption. He 

 was new then to the ways of legislators. He was soon to learn some- 

 thing of them and to teach his fellow-members something of his own 

 ways and ideas. 



The occasion was the following: Such high officials as the 

 Attorney-General of the State and a judge of the Supreme Court 

 became involved in an unsavory bit of corruption connected with an 

 elevated railway ring. The people were aroused by the scandalous 

 aflfair and petitioned the Legislature. Young Roosevelt waited to see 

 what they would do. That the honor of the judiciary should be 

 smirched was a thing of horror to him. When he saw that they 

 proposed to do nothing and smother the inquiry, the knightly spirit 

 in him arose. 



