THE DEMOCRATIC CLtTB, PHILADELPHIA 



0iXbt When you were there in Philadelphia, besides 



working in thia literary field you were developing 

 an interest in politics, were you not? 



Cogginst Veil, somewhat* I guess I got it from my brother 

 and partly from the general feeling that polities 

 in Philadelphia were so bad that we all should do 

 something about it. ?ou know, at the time 

 Lineoln Steffens referred to Philadelphia as 

 "corrupt and contented.** There had been a great 

 deal of graft there. There had been a succession 

 of gangs for generations. Dave Martin was the 

 boss of one. He was followed by Israel Durham and 

 *rim McHichol. They were obviously grafters of 

 the boldest type. There was an Independent group 

 that repeatedly tried to reform the city, but 

 never very successfully. The Democratic Party 

 was very weak. Pennsylvania was Republican, a 

 tariff state. The social standing at the time 

 of a Democrat waa lower than that of a Socialist 

 today. The prevalent idea was that the Democrats 

 only wanted to get a chance to loot the national 

 treasury. 



