94 State Legislation 



heavily to the campaign expenses of an individual 

 or of an association so as to ensure the presence 

 in Albany of some one who will give him informa- 

 tion and assistance. 



On one occasion there came before a committee 

 of which I happened to be a member, a perfectly 

 proper bill in the interest of a certain corporation; 

 the majority of the committee, six in number, were 

 thoroughly bad men, who opposed the measure 

 with the hope of being paid to cease their oppo- 

 sition. When I consented to take charge of the 

 bill, I had stipulated that not a penny should be 

 paid to ensure its passage. It therefore became 

 necessary to see what pressure could be brought to 

 bear on the recalcitrant members; and, accordingly, 

 we had to find out who were the authors and spon- 

 sors of their political being. Three proved to be 

 under the control of local statesmen of the same 

 party as themselves, and of equally bad moral char- 

 acter; one was ruled by a politician of unsavory 

 reputation from a different city; the 'fifth, a Demo- 

 crat, was owned by a Republican Federal official; 

 and the sixth by the president of a horse-car com- 

 pany. A couple of letters from these two mag- 

 nates forced the last members mentioned to change 

 front on the bill with surprising alacrity. 



Nowadays, however, the greatest danger is that 

 the member will be a servile tool of the "boss" or 

 "machine" of his own party, in which case he can 

 very rarely indeed be a good public servant. 



There are two classes of cases in which corrupt 



