132 Machine Politics 



etc. This man's statements were valuable because, 

 being a truthful person and of such dense ignorance 

 that he was at first wholly unaware his testimony 

 was in any way remarkable, he really tried to tell 

 things as they were; and it had evidently never 

 occurred to him that he was not expected by every 

 one to do just as he had been doing, that is, to 

 draw a large salary for himself, to turn over a still 

 larger fund to his party allies, and conscientiously 

 to endeavor, as far as he could, by the free use of 

 his time and influence, to satisfy the innumerable 

 demands made upon him by the various small-fry 

 politicians.* 



"HEELERS" 



THE "heelers/' or "workers," who stand at the 

 polls, and are paid in the way above described, form 

 a large part of the rank and file composing each or- 

 ganization. There are, of course, scores of them in 

 each assembly district association, and, together 

 with the almost equally numerous class of federal, 

 State, or local paid officeholders (except in so far as 

 these last have been cut out by the operations of the 

 civil-service reform laws), they form the bulk of 

 the men by whom the machine is run; the bosses 

 of great and small degree chiefly merely oversee the 

 work and supervise the deeds of their henchmen, 

 the organization of a party in our city is really 

 much like that of an army. There is one great 



* As a consequence of our investigation, the committee, of 

 which I was chairman, succeeded in securing the enactment 

 of laws which abolished these enormous salaries. 



