124 Machine Politics 



spite of their not seeing how any immediate benefit 

 will result to themselves. 



REASONS FOR THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC DUTIES 

 BY RESPECTABLE MEN IN EASY CIR- 

 CUMSTANCES 



THIS class is composed of the great bulk of the 

 men who range from well-to-do up to very rich; 

 and of these the former generally and the latter al- 

 most universally neglect their political duties, for 

 the most part rather pluming themselves upon their 

 good conduct if they so much as vote on election 

 day. This largely comes from the tremendous wear 

 and tension of life in our great cities. Moreover, 

 the men of small means with us are usually men of 

 domestic habits; and this very devotion to home, 

 which is one of their chief virtues, leads them to 

 neglect their public duties. They work hard, as 

 clerks, mechanics, small tradesmen, etc., all day 

 long, and when they get home in the evening they 

 dislike to go out. If they do go to a ward meeting 

 they find themselves isolated, and strangers both to 

 the men whom they meet and to the matter on which 

 they have to act; for in the city a man is quite as 

 sure to know next to nothing about his neighbors 

 as in the country he is to be intimately acquainted 

 with them. In the country the people of a neighbor- 

 hood, when they assemble in one of their local con- 

 ventions, are already well acquainted, and therefore 

 able to act together with effect ; whereas in the city, 

 even if the ordinary citizens do come out, they are 



