Machine Politics 125 



totally unacquainted with one another, and are as 

 helplessly unable to oppose the disciplined ranks of 

 the professional politicians as is the case with a mob 

 of freshmen in one of our colleges when in danger 

 of being hazed by the sophomores. Moreover, the 

 pressure of competition in city life is so keen that 

 men often have as much as they can do to attend to 

 their own affairs, and really hardly have the leisure 

 to look after those of the public. The general ten- 

 dency everywhere is toward the specialization of 

 functions, and this holds good as well in politics as 

 elsewhere. 



The reputable private citizens of small means 

 thus often neglect to attend to their public duties 

 because to do so would perhaps interfere with their 

 private business. This is bad enough, but the case 

 is worse with the really wealthy, who still more 

 generally neglect these same duties, partly because 

 not to do so would interfere with their pleasure, 

 and partly from a combination of other motives, 

 all of them natural but none of them creditable. 

 A successful merchant, well dressed, pompous, self- 

 important, unused to any life outside of the count- 

 ing room, and accustomed because of his very 

 success to be treated with deferential regard, as one 

 who stands' above the common run of humanity, 

 naturally finds it very unpleasant to go to a caucus 

 or primary where he has to stand on an equal foot- 

 ing with his groom and day-laborers, and indeed 

 may discover that the latter, thanks to their faculty 

 for combination, are rated higher in the scale of 



