Part 3 (1/2)

This is thekind of success, and it can be attained only by the man who has in hiree from his fellows But much the commoner type of success in every walk of life and in every species of effort is that which comes to the man who differs from his fellows not by the kind of quality which he possesses but by the degree of developiven that quality This kind of success is open to a large number of persons, if only they seriously determine to achieve it It is the kind of success which is open to the average man of sound body and fair mind, who has no reets just as much as possible in the way of work out of the aptitudes that he does possess It is the only kind of success that is open to reatest successes in history have been those of this second class--when I call it second class I a out that it differs in kind froe man it is probably more useful to study this second type of success than to study the first Froet uplift and lofty enthusiasm

From the study of the second he can, if he chooses, find out hoin a similar success himself

I need hardly say that all the successes I have ever won have been of the second type I never won anything without hard labor and the exercise ofin advance Having been a rather sickly and aard boy, I was as a young man at first both nervous and distrustful of my own prowess I had to train ards ards e in one of Marryat's books which always ie the captain of so to the hero how to acquire the quality of fearlessness He says that at the outset aloes into action, but that the course to follow is for the rip on hihtened After this is kept up long enough it changes from pretense to reality, and the man does in very fact beco fearlessness when he does not feel it (I ae, not Marryat's) This was the theory upon which I went There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging frohters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid Most men can have the same experience if they choose They will first learn to bear themselves well in trials which they anticipate and which they school therow on theencies which come upon them unawares

It is of course much pleasanter if one is naturally fearless, and I envy and respect theto ree can nevertheless stand beside the man who does, and can do his duty with the like efficiency, if he chooses to Of course he must not let his desire take the for a fearless man, and the more he dreams the better he will be, always provided he does his best to realize the dream in practice He can do his part honorably and well provided only he sets fearlessness before hier ards life itself as he should regard it, not as so to be throay, but as a pawn to be proer interests of the great gaed

CHAPTER III

PRACTICAL POLITICS

When I left Harvard, I took up the study of law If I had been sufficiently fortunate to come under Professor Thayer, of the Harvard Law School, it may well be that I would have realized that the lawyer can do a great work for justice and against legalishof the law books and of the classrooainst justice

The _caveat emptor_ side of the law, like the _caveat emptor_ side of business, see The ”let the buyer beware” maxim, when translated into actual practice, whether in law or business, tends to translate itself further into the sellerhis profit at the expense of the buyer, instead of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both It did not seee as it should sharp practice, and all other kinds of bargains except those which are fair and of benefit to both sides I was young; there was ment which I then formed on this matter which I should now revise; but, then as now,corporation lawyers, to whom the ordinary members of the bar then as now looked up, held certain standards which were difficult to recognize as co ed to earn every cent I spent, I should have gone whole-heartedly into the business ofboth ends meet, and should have taken up the law or any other respectable occupation--for I then held, and now hold, the belief that a ht and to take care of those dependent upon hireatest privilege and greatest duty for any man is to be happily married, and that no other form of success or service, for either man or woman, can be wisely accepted as a substitute or alternative But it happened that I had been left enough money by my father not tobread for et bread What I had to do, if I wanted butter and jam, was to provide the butter and jas In other words, I made up my mind that, while Imoney the secondary instead of the primary object of my career If I had had no money at all, then my first duty would have been to earn it in any honest fashi+on As I had some money I felt that my need for more money was to be treated as a secondary need, and that while it was itimately and properly could, yet that it was also my business to treat other kinds of work as

Alan to take an interest in politics I did not then believe, and I do not now believe, that any man should ever attempt to make politics his only career It is a dreadful row to feel that his whole livelihood and whole happiness depend upon his staying in office Such a feeling prevents hi of real service to the people while in office, and always puts him under the heaviest strain of pressure to barter his convictions for the sake of holding office A man should have some other occupation--I had several other occupations--to which he can resort if at any time he is thrown out of office, or if at any time he finds it necessary to choose a course which will probably result in his being thrown out, unless he is willing to stay in at cost to his conscience

At that day, in 1880, a youngup and convictions could join only the Republican party, and join it I accordingly did

It was no si before the era of ballot refor before the era e realized that the Government anizations The party was still treated as a private corporation, and in each district the organization forularly proposed for and elected into this club, just as into any other club As a friend of anization with a jimmy”

Under these circuanization, and considerable amusement and excitement to be obtained out of it after I had joined

It was over thirty-three years ago that I thus became a member of the Twenty-first District Republican association in the city of New York

The men I knew best were the men in the clubs of social pretension and the an to make inquiries as to the whereabouts of the local Republican association and thebusiness hed at anizations were not controlled by ”gentlemen”; that I would find them run by saloon-keepers, horse-car conductors, and the like, and not by men with any of whom I would come in contact outside; and, h and brutal and unpleasant to deal with I answered that if this were so it overning class, and that the other people did--and that I intended to be one of the governing class; that if they proved too hard-bit for me I supposed I would have to quit, but that I certainly would not quit until I had made the effort and found out whether I really was too weak to hold h and tumble

The Republican association of which I becae, barn-like rooy benches, spittoons, a dais at one end with a table and chair and a stout pitcher for iced water, and on the walls pictures of General Grant, and of Levi P Morton, to whose generosity ed the roos once or twice a month, and between tihts, as a kind of club-rooet accustoet accustoe, and so that each could begin to live down in the other's mind what Bret Harte has called ”the defective er” It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities coe of them This hat happened to me in connection with ood terms with a number of the ordinary ”heelers” and even so leader was Jake Hess, who treated me with rather distant affability There were proed, but they took little part in the actualof the machine was left to Jake Hess and his captains of tens and of hundreds

A these lesser captains I soon struck up a friendshi+p with Joe Murray, a friendshi+p which is as strong now as it was thirty-three years ago He had been born in Ireland, but brought to New York by his parents when he was three or four years old, and, as he expressed it, ”raised as a barefooted boy on First Avenue” When not eighteen he had enlisted in the Arn that closed the Civil War Then he ca a fearless, powerful, energetic young fellow, careless and reckless, speedily grew to so In that district, and at that tih business, and Tammany Hall held unquestioned sway The district was overwhelly Democratic, and Joe and his friends were De work for the local Democratic leader, whose business it was to favor and reward thereater leaders, becah which he had achieved prosperity After one election he showed a callous indifference to the hard work of the gang and coard of his before-election pro itself out, as usual, in threats and bluster

But Joe Murray was not ahis purposes and the necessity of being quiet Accordingly they waited for their revenge until the next election day They then, as Joe expressed it, decided ”to vote furdest away froe of Joe's youth--and the best way to do this was to vote the Republican ticket In those days each party had a booth near the polling-place in each election district, where the party representative dispensed the party ballots This had been a district in which, as a rule, very early in the day the Republican election leader had his hat knocked over his eyes and his booth kicked over and his ballots scattered; and then the size of the Democratic majority depended on an elastic appreciation of exactly how much was des went differently The gang, with a Ro that the Republican was given his full rights Moreover, they etic reprisals on their opponents, and as they were distinctly the tough and fighting element, justice came to her oith a whoop Would-be repeaters were thrown out on their heads Every person who could be cajoled or, I fear, intiiven the Republican ticket, and the upshot was that at the end of the day a district which had never hitherto polled more than two or three per cent of its vote Republican broke about even between the two parties

To Joe it had been merely an act of retribution in so far as it was not simply a spree But the leaders at the Republican headquarters did not know this, and when they got over their paralyzed astonishated to find out what it meant So ly they sent for him The room in which they received him was doubtless some place like Morton Hall, and the men who received him were akin to those who had leadershi+p in Morton Hall; but in Joe's eyes they stood for a higher civilization, for opportunity, for generous recognition of successful effort--in short, for all the things that an eager young man desires He was received and patted on the back by a reat man to the world in which he lived He was introduced to the audience as a young man whose achievement was such as to proiven a place in the post-office--as I have said, this was long before the day of Civil Service Reforht haveat all But in Joe Murray's case it ht a man, as fearless and as stanchly loyal, as any one whom I have ever e, integrity, and good faith He did his duty in the public service, and becaiven hi his way up; one of the proofs and evidences of which was that he owned a first-class racing trotter--”Alice Lane”--behind which he gave rew to like Joe and his particular cronies But I had no idea that they especially returned the liking, and in the first roe had in the organization (which arose over a movement, that I backed, to stand by a non-partisan ) Joe and all his friends stood stiffly with the machine, and my side, the reform side, was left with only some half-dozen votes out of three or four hundred I had expected no other outco my attitude

Next fall, as the elections drew near, Joe thought he would like todecided that his best chance lay in the fight for the noislature He picked me as the candidate hom he would be ht, it was Joe's; and it was to him that I owe my entry into politics I had at that time neither the reputation nor the ability to have won the noht of trying for it

Jake Hess was entirely good-hu anti-machine, my relations with him had been friendly and human, and when he was beaten he turned in to help Joe elect ht they would takeSixth Avenue The canvass, however, did not last beyond the first saloon I was introduced with proper solee, for this was before the days when saloon-keepers becaan to cross-exa with a suppliant for his favor He said he expected that I would of course treat the liquor business fairly; to which I answered, none too cordially, that I hoped I should treat all interests fairly

He then said that he regarded the licenses as too high; to which I responded that I believed they were really not high enough, and that I should try to have theher The conversation threatened to become stormy Messrs Murray and Hess, on some hastily improvised plea, took me out into the street, and then Joe explained toin Sixth Avenue any longer, that I had better go right back to Fifth Avenue and attend to my friends there, and that he would look after my interests on Sixth Avenue I was triumphantly elected

Once before Joe had interfered in similar fashi+on and secured the nomination of an asserown to feel toward this assemblyman that he must have fed on the meat which rendered Caesar proud, as he became inaccessible to the ordinary mortals whose place of resort was Morton Hall He eyed me warily for a short time to see if I was likely in this respect to follow inthat I did not, he and all my other friends and supporters assumed toward me the very pleasantest attitude that it was possible to assu They accepted as a ht and was trying to do the best I could in the Legislature They desired nothing except that I should make a success, and they supported me with hearty enthusiasm I am a little at a loss to know quite how to express the quality in my relationshi+p with Joe Murray and my other friends of this period which rendered that relationshi+p so beneficial to me When I went into politics at this ti in with the set purpose to benefit other people, but of getting for e to which I was entitled in common with other people So it was in my relationshi+p with these men If there had lurked in the innerht that I was in so noble by taking part in politics, or that I expected the smallest consideration save what I could earn on my own merits, I a would have been known and resented As a htest te or any one of such feelings I no more expected special consideration in politics than I would have expected it in the boxing ring I wished to act squarely to others, and I wished to be able to show that I could hold ainst others The attitude of my new friends toward me was first one of polite reserve, and then that of friendly alliance Afterwards I became admitted to comradeshi+p, and then to leadershi+p I need hardly say how earnestly I believe that ations in politics, of their duty to help forward great causes, and to struggle for the betterment of conditions that are unjust to their fellows, the men and women who are less fortunate in life But in addition to this feeling thereof real fellowshi+p with the other ed in the same task, fellowshi+p of work, with fun to vary the work; for unless there is this feeling of fellowshi+p, of common effort on an equal plane for a common end, it will be difficult to keep the relations wholesome and natural To be patronized is as offensive as to be insulted No one of us cares per to do hiood; ant is to ith that soood of both of us--any man will speedily find that other people can benefit him just as much as he can benefit them

Neither Joe Murray nor I nor any of our associates at that time were alive to social and industrial needs whichall of us recognize

But we then had very clearly before ourcertain elemental virtues, the virtues of honesty and efficiency in politics, the virtue of efficiency side by side with honesty in private and public life alike, the virtues of consideration and fair dealing in business as between man and man, and especially as between the man who is an employer and the man who is an employee