Part 2 (1/2)
You can't begin too early in politics if you want to succeed at the game. I began several years before I could vote, and so did every successful leader in Tammany Hall. When I was twelve years old I made myself useful around the district headquarters and did work at all the polls on election day. Later on, I hustled about gettin' out voters who had jags on or who were too lazy to come to the polls. There's a hundred ways that boys can help, and they get an experience that's the first real step in statesmans.h.i.+p. Show me a boy that hustles for the organization on election day, and I'll show you a comin' statesman.
That's the a, b, c of politics. It ain't easy work to get up to q and z. You have to give nearly all your time and attention to it. Of course, you may have some business or occupation on the side, but the great business of your life must be politics if you want to succeed in it.
A few years ago Tammany tried to mix politics and business in equal quant.i.ties, by havin' two leaders for each district, a politician and a business man. They wouldn't mix. They were like oil and water. The politician looked after the politics of his district; the business man looked after his grocery store or his milk route, and whenever he appeared at an executive meeting, it was only to make trouble. The whole scheme turned out to be a farce and was abandoned mighty quick.
Do you understand now, why it is that a reformer goes down and out in the first or second round, while a politician answers to the gong every time? It is because the one has gone into the fight without trainin', while the other trains all the time and knows every fine point of the game.
Chapter 5. New York City Is Pie for the Hayseeds
THIS city is ruled entirely by the hayseed legislators at Albany. I've never known an upstate Republican who didn't want to run things here, and I've met many thousands of them in my long service in the Legislature. The hayseeds think we are like the Indians to the National Government--that is, sort of wards of the State, who don't know how to look after ourselves and have to be taken care of by the Republicans of St. Lawrence, Ontario, and other backwoods counties. Why should anybody be surprised because ex-Governor Odell comes down here to direct the Republican machine? Newburg ain't big enough for him. He, like all the other upstate Republicans, wants to get hold of New York City. New York is their pie.
Say, you hear a lot about the downtrodden people of Ireland and the Russian peasants and the sufferin' Boers. Now, let me tell you that they have more real freedom and home rule than the people of this grand and imperial city. In England, for example, they make a pretense of givin'
the Irish some self-government In this State the Republican government makes no pretense at all. It says right out in the open: ”New York City is a nice big fat Goose. Come along with your carvin' knives and have a slice.” They don't pretend to ask the Goose's consent.
We don't own our streets or our docks or our waterfront or anything else. The Republican Legislature and Governor run the whole shootin'
match. We've got to eat and drink what they tell us to eat and drink, and have got to choose our time for eatin' and drinkin' to suit them. If they don't feel like takin' a gla.s.s of beer on Sunday, we must abstain.
If they have not got any amus.e.m.e.nts up in their backwoods, we mustn't have none. We've got to regulate our whole lives to suit them. And then we have to pay their taxes to boot.
Did you ever go up to Albany from this city with a delegation that wanted anything from the Legislature? No? Well, don't. The hayseeds who run all the committees will look at you as if you were a child that didn't know what it wanted, and will tell you in so many words to go home and be good and the Legislature will give you whatever it thinks is good for you. They put on a sort of patronizing air, as much as to say, ”These children are an awful lot of trouble. They're wantin' candy all the time, and they know that it will make them sick. They ought to thank goodness that they have us to take care of them.” And if you try to argue with them, they'll smile in a pityin' sort of way as if they were humorin' a spoiled child.
But just let a Republican farmer from Chemung or Wayne or Tioga turn up at the Capital. The Republican Legislature will make a rush for him and ask him what he wants and tell him if he doesn't see what he wants to ask for it. If he says his taxes are too high, they reply to him: ”All right, old man, don't let that worry you. How much do you want us to take off?”
”I guess about fifty per cent will about do for the present,” says the man. ”Can you fix me up?”
”Sure,” the Legislature agrees. ”Give us somethin', 'New York City Is Pie for the Hayseeds,' try harder, don't be bashful. We'll take off sixty per. cent. if you wish. That's what we're here for.”
Then the Legislature goes and pa.s.ses a law increasin' the liquor tax or some other tax in New York City, takes a half of the proceeds for the State Treasury and cuts down the farmers' taxes to suit. It's as easy as rollin' off a log--when you've got a good workin' majority and no conscience to speak of.
Let me give you another example. It makes me hot under the collar to tell about this. Last year some hay-seeds along the Hudson River, mostly in Odell's neighborhood, got dissatisfied with the docks where they landed their vegetables, brickbats, and other things they produce in the river counties. They got together and said: ”Let's take a trip down to New York and pick out the finest dock we can find. Odell and the Legislature will do the rest.” They did come down here, and what do you think they hit on? The finest dock in my district Invaded George W.
Plunkitt's district without sayin' as much as ”by your leave.” Then they called on Odell to put through a bill givin' them this dock, and he did.
When the bill came before Mayor Low I made the greatest speech of my life. I pointed out how the Legislature could give the whole waterfront to the hayseeds over the head of the Dock Commissioner in the same way, and warned the Mayor that nations had rebelled against their governments for less. But it was no go. Odell and Low were pards and--well, my dock was stolen.
You heard a lot in the State campaign about Odell's great work in reducin' the State tax to almost nothin', and you'll hear a lot more about it in the campaign next year. How did he do it? By cuttin' down the expenses of the State Government? Oh, no! The expenses went up. He simply performed the old Republican act of milkin' New York City. The only difference was that he nearly milked the city dry. He not only ran up the liquor tax, but put all sorts of taxes on corporations, banks, insurance companies, and everything in sight that could be made to give up. Of course, nearly the whole tax fell on the city. Then Odell went through the country districts and said: ”See what I have done for you.
You ain't got any more taxes to pay the State. Ain't I a fine feller?”
Once a farmer in Orange County asked him: ”How did you do it, Ben?”
”Dead easy,” he answered. ”Whenever I want any money for the State Treasury, I know where to get it,” and he pointed toward New York City.
And then all the Republican tinkerin' with New York City's charter.
n.o.body can keep up with it. When a Republican mayor is in, they give him all sorts of power. If a Tammany mayor is elected next fall I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the whole business and arranged it so that every city department should have four heads, two of them Republicans.
If we make a kick, they would say: ”You don't know what's good for you.
Leave it to us. It's our business.”
Chapter 6. To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin'
There's only one way to hold a district: you must study human nature and act accordin'. You can't study human nature in books. Books is a hindrance more than anything else. If you have been to college, so much the worse for you. You'll have to unlearn all you learned before you can get right down to human nature, and unlearnin' takes a lot of time. Some men can never forget what they learned at college. Such men may get to be district leaders by a fluke, but they never last.
To learn real human nature you have to go among the people, see them and be seen..1 know every man, woman, and child in the Fifteenth District, except them that's been born this summer--and I know some of them, too.