3 2 
EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 
Some of the veterans were at first amused at the precocious 
assaults of the young member from the Twenty-first District, and 
rather inclined to laugh at his undisciplined energy. But they soon 
found that he was a fighter who could not be kept under. He was 
a ready and attractive speaker, good-natured yet hard-hitting, and 
could be savagely sarcastic when he had some piece of rascality to 
expose. His good clothes and eye-glasses made some of the members 
think him effeminate, but they were not long in learning that he had 
plenty of courage, both mental and physical, and public opinion outside 
of the legislative halls was quickly in his favor. 
Thus from the start young Roosevelt made his mark in that 
career upon which he had now definitely launched himself. He was 
a born reformer and strongly backed all measures for the public good 
that came before the House. A new and reformed charter was badly 
needed for New York City and for several years attempts had been 
vainly made to enact one. It was this for which he most ardently 
fought. The corrupt city departments had found strength in union, 
and intrenched in this they defied the reformers. Roosevelt attacked 
them separately and one by one he overthrew them. He was twice re¬ 
elected and during his three terms in the Legislature he saved the 
people hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, which would other¬ 
wise have gone into the “grab-bag” of the grafters. 
Shall we give some of the particulars of his legislative career? 
One of the most significant came early in his first session, one in which 
he took his stand and made his mark as a born foe of corruption. He 
was new then to the ways of legislators. He was soon to learn some¬ 
thing of them and to teach his fellow-members something of his own 
ways and ideas. 
The occasion was the following: Such high officials as the 
Attorney-General of the State and a judge of the Supreme Court 
became involved in an unsavory bit of corruption connected with an 
elevated railway ring. The people were aroused by the scandalous 
affair and petitioned the Legislature. Young Roosevelt waited to see 
what they would do. That the honor of the judiciary should be 
smirched was a thing of horror to him. When he saw that they 
proposed to do nothing and smother the inquiry, the knightly spirit 
in him arose. 
