Machine Politics 145 



knows every man in his district who can control any 

 number of votes : an influential saloon-keeper, the 

 owner of a large livery stable, the leader among a 

 set of horse-car drivers, a foreman in a machine- 

 shop who has a taste for politics, with all alike he 

 keeps up constant and friendly relations. Of course 

 this fact does not of itself make the boss a bad man ; 

 there are several such I could point out who are ten 

 times over better fellows than are the mild-man- 

 nered scholars of timorous virtue who criticise them. 

 But, on the whole, the qualities tending to make a 

 man a successful local political leader under our pres- 

 ent conditions are not apt to be qualities that make 

 him serve the public honestly or disinterestedly ; and 

 in the lower wards, where there is a large, vicious 

 population, the condition of politics is often fairly 

 appalling, and the boss of the dominant party is gen- 

 erally a man of grossly immoral public and private 

 character, as any one can satisfy himself by exam- 

 ining the testimony taken by the last two or three 

 legislative committees that have investigated the af- 

 fairs of New York City. In some of these wards 

 many of the social organizations with which the 

 leaders are obliged to keep on good terms are com- 

 posed of criminals, or of the relatives and asso- 

 ciates of criminals. The testimony mentioned above 

 showed some strange things. I will take at random 

 a few instances that occur to me at the moment. 

 There was one case of an Assemblyman who served 

 several terms in the Legislature, while his private 



business was to carry on corrupt negotiations be- 

 7 VOL. I. 



