Part 4 (1/2)
It was my first experience of the kind Various ht to look up to, prominent business men and lawyers, acted in a hich not only astounded me, but which I was quite unable to reconcile with the theories I had for--I was little e at the time
Generally, as has been always the case since, they were careful to avoid any direct conversation with e” in business and in politics, that is, of the alliance between business and politics which represents improper favors rendered to someignored or permitted
One member of a prominent law firm, an old family friend, did, however, takejust what it was that I wished and intended to do I believe he had a genuine personal liking for islature; that it was a good thing to have made the ”reform play,”
that I had shown that I possessed ability such as would ht kind of law office or business concern; but that I h, and that noas the tiht kind of people, the people ould always in the long run control others and obtain the real rewards which orth having I asked hi in politics He answered somewhat impatiently that I was entirely, of the kind of which the papers were fond of talking; that the ”ring,” if it could be called such--that is, the inner circle--included certain big business es ere in alliance with and to a certain extent dependent upon them, and that the successfulof the same forces, whether in law, business, or politics
This conversation not only interested me, but made such an ilimpse I had of that combination between business and politics which I was in after years so often to oppose In the A the people whoarded by everybody as preeood citizen The orthodox books on political econoland, ritten for his especial glorification The tangible rewards came to him, the admiration of his fellow-citizens of the respectable type was apt to be his, and the severe newspaperpoliticians and political methods ont to hold up ”business methods” as the ideal which ere to strive to introduce into political life Herbert Croly, in ”The Promise of American Life,”
has set forth the reasons why our individualistic deht that each man was to rely exclusively on himself, was in no way to be interfered with by others, and was to devote himself to his own personal welfare--necessarily produced the type of business man who sincerely believed, as did the rest of the co fortune was the man as the best and islature the problems hich I dealt were islative and administrative efficiency
They represented the effort, the wise, the vitally necessary effort, to get efficient and honest government But as yet I understood little of the effort which was already beginning, for the enuine social and industrial justice Nor was I especially to blaood citizens I then knew best, even when theue Billy O'Neill, and my backwoods friends Sewall and Doere noti
Their outlook was as narrow as my own, and, within its limits, as fundamentally sound
I wish to dwell on the soundness of our outlook on life, even though as yet it was not broad enough We were no respecters of persons Where our vision was developed to a degree that enabled us to see crookedness, we opposed it whether in great or small As a e to stand up openly against labor ainst capitalists when they rong The sins against labor are usually committed, and the improper services to capitalists are usually rendered, behind closed doors Very often the ainst labor when it is wrong is the only ht
The only kinds of courage and honesty which are perood institutions anywhere are those shown by rounds of conduct and not on grounds of class We found that in the long run the men who in public blatantly insisted that labor was never wrong were the very men who in private could not be trusted to stand for labor when it was right We grew heartily to distrust the reformer who never denounced wickedness unless it was ee; and that type of ”reformer” is as noxious now as he ever was The loud-hts who attacks wickedness only when it is allied ealth, and who never publicly assails any rant, if committed nominally in the interest of labor, has either a warped mind or a tainted soul, and should be trusted by no honest nant and conteues of this class which then prevented those of us whose instincts at botto the lines of governovernmental interference on behalf of labor
I did, however, have one exceedingly useful experience A bill was introduced by the Cigar-Makers' Union to prohibit the ars in tenement-houses I was appointed one of a coate conditions in the teneislation should be had Of ues on the committee, one took no interest in the ht, but that he had to vote for it because the labor unions were strong in his district and he was pledged to support the bill The other, a sporting Tammany man who afterwards abandoned politics for the race-track, was a very good fellow He told ainst the bill because certain interests which were all-powerful and hich he had dealings required hient, and that if I would look into the islation As a islation, and I rather think that I was put on the committee with that idea, for the respectable people I kneere against it; it was contrary to the principles of political economy of the _laissez-faire_ kind; and the business men who spoke to ned to prevent a ht to do as his own
However, my first visits to the tenement-house districts in question ht be, as a matter of practical common sense I could not conscientiously vote for the continuance of the conditions which I saw These conditions rendered it impossible for the families of the tenerow up fitted for the exacting duties of American citizenshi+p I visited the teneues of the committee, once with some of the labor union representatives, and once or twice by myself In a few of the tenement-houses there were suites of rooms ample in number where the work on the tobacco was done in roo In the overwhel majority of cases, however, there were one, two, or three roo the tobacco by , living, and sleeping rooms--sometimes in one room
I have always re On my inquiry as to who the third adult male was I was told that he was a boarder with one of the families There were several children, three men, and tomen in this rooside the foul bedding, and in a corner where there were scraps of food The men, women, and children in this roo, and they slept and ate there They were Bohelish, except that one of the children knew enough to act as interpreter
Instead of opposing the bill I ardently championed it It was a poorly drawn measure, and the Governor, Grover Cleveland, was at first doubtful about signing it The Cigar-makers' Union then asked ly did so, acting as spokesners who represented the Union and the workers The Governor signed the bill Afterwards this teneislation was declared invalid by the Court of Appeals in the Jacobs decision Jacobs was one of the rare tenears who occupied quite a suite of rooether exceptional What the reason hich influenced those bringing the suit to select the exceptional instead of the average worker I do not know; of course such action was precisely the action which thosethe law broken doere anxious to see taken
The Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional, and in their decision the judges reprobated the law as an assault upon the ”hallowed”
influences of ”home” It was this case which first wakedof the fact that the courts were not necessarily the best judges of what should be done to better social and industrial conditions The judges who rendered this decision ell- whatever of tene whatever of the needs, or of the life and labor, of three-fourths of their fellow-citizens in great cities They knew legalism, but not life Their choice of the words ”hallowed” and ”ho the ars in tenement-houses, showed that they had no idea what it was that they were deciding Iine the ”hallowed” associations of a ”ho of one room where two families, one of them with a boarder, live, eat, and work! This decision coislation in New York for a score of years, and hampers it to this day It was one of the most serious setbacks which the cause of industrial and social progress and reforht up to hold the courts in especial reverence The people hom I was most intimate were apt to praise the courts for just such decisions as this, and to speak of theic legislation These were the saes who rendered these decisions were apt to foregather at social clubs, or dinners, or in private life Very naturally they all tended to look at things from the same standpoint Of course it took ar Case to shake ht up But various decisions, not only of the New York court but of certain other State courts and even of the United States Supre the passage of this tenehly wake rew to realize that all that Abraham Lincoln had said about the Dred Scott decision could be said with equal truth and justice about the numerous decisions which in our own day were erected as bars across the path of social reforht sofor workingenerally
Some of the wickedness and inefficiency in public life was then displayed in simpler fashi+on than would probably now be the case Once or twice I was a ross and widely raovernmental abuses On the whole, the islature in which I served, when I acted as chairated various phases of New York City official life
The most important of the refor away from the Aldermen their power of confirmation over the Mayor's appointet citizens interested in the character and capacity of the head of the city, so that they would exercise soent interest in his conduct and qualifications But we found that as a et them interested in the Aldermen and other subordinate officers
In actual practice the Aldermen weremunicipal bosses, and where they controlled the appointe had no chance whatever to ht for the principle, which I believe to be of universal application, that what is needed in our popular governive plenty of power to a few officials, and to enuinely and readily responsible to the people for the exercise of that power Taking away the confirive the citizens of New York good govern kind of Mayor they would have bad government, no matter what the foret good govern as the old systeht in the way in which all siht The corrupt and interested politicians were against it, and the battle-cries they used, which rallied to the conservatives, were that ere changing the old constitutional syste the overnislative and executive pohich was the bulwark of our liberties, and that ere violent and unscrupulous radicals with no reverence for the past
Of course the investigations, disclosures, and proceedings of the investigating coht me into bitter personal conflict with very powerful financiers, very powerful politicians, and with certain newspapers which these financiers and politicians controlled A nu, some for their financial lives, and others to keep out of unpleasantly close neighborhood to State's prison This iven In such political struggles, those ent in for the kind of thing that I did speedily excited ani ratify their anied in this particular type of militant and practical reform movement was soon made to feel that he had better not undertake to push matters home unless his own character was unassailable On one of the investigating committees on which I served there was a countryman, a very able man, hen he reached New York City, felt as certain Ao to Paris--that the er applied With all his ability, he was not shrewd enough to realize that the Police Depart hiht red-handed by a plain-clotheswhat he had no business to do; and from that time on he dared not act save as those who held his secret permitted him to act Thenceforth those officials who stood behind the Police Department had one man on the committee on whohastly on a strong man's face than on the face of this man on one or two occasions when he feared that events in the coht take such a course as to force hiues would expose him even if the city officials did not
However, he escaped, for ere never able to get the kind of proof which would warrant our asking for the action in which this man could not have joined
Traps were set for more than one of us, and if we had walked into these traps our public careers would have ended, at least so far as following them under the conditions which alone make it worth while to be in public life at all A man can of course hold public office, and many a man does hold public office, and lead a public career of a sort, even if there are other men who possess secrets about hied But no , no ed independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character Nor will clean conduct by itself enable a ood service I have always been fond of Josh Billings's remark that ”it is much easier to be a harmless dove than a wise serpent” There are plenty of decent legislators, and plenty of able legislators; but the blae are not always coe active battle against the powers that prey
He h when his public or his private record is searched; and yet being clean of life will not avail him if he is either foolish or timid He must arily and fearlessly, and while he should never brawl if he can avoid it, he must be ready to hit hard if the need arises Let hiivable cri Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly
Like h various oscillations of feeling before I ”found myself” At one period I became so impressed with the virtue of complete independence that I proceeded to act on each case purely as I personally viewed it, without paying any heed to the principles and prejudices of others The result was that I speedily and deservedly lost all power of acco at all; and I thereby learned the invaluable lesson that in the practical activities of life no hest service unless he can act in coive-and-take between hian to believe that I had a future before hted and scan each action carefully with a view to its possible effect on that future This speedily made me useless to the public and an object of aversion to myself; and I then made up my mind that I would try not to think of the future at all, but would proceed on the assumption that each office I held would be the last I ever should hold, and that I would confineto do my work as well as possible while I held that office I found that for me personally this was the only way in which I could either enjoy ood service to the country, and I never afterwards deviated froards political advanceood deal At that ti Stalwart and Half-Breed factions of the Republican party were supporting respectively President Arthur and Senator Miller Neither side cared for islature I rose to a position of leadershi+p, so that in the second year, when the Republicans were in a minority, I received the h I was still the youngesttwenty-four years old The third year the Republicans carried the Legislature, and the bosses at once took a hand in the Speakershi+p contest I ht for the nomination, but the bosses of the two factions, the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, corined for the ht hard and efficiently, even though defeated, and that I had le-handed, with noas floor leader My defeat in the end thened my position, and enabled me to accomplish far more than I could have accomplished as Speaker As so often, I found that the titular position was of no consequence; what counted was the combination of the opportunity with the ability to acco; the position, whether titularly high or loas of consequence only in so far as it widened the chance for achievement After the session closed four of us who looked at politics from the same standpoint and were known as Independent or Anti-Machine Republicans were sent by the State Convention as delegates-at-large to the Republican National Convention of 1884, where I advocated, as vigorously as I kne, the noe F Edmunds
Mr Edmunds was defeated and Mr Blaine nominated Mr Blaine was clearly the choice of the rank and file of the party; his nomination on in fair and aboveboard fashi+on, because the rank and file of the party stood back of him; and I supported hin
The Speakershi+p contest enlightened s than the attitude of the bosses I had already had so” reforentlemen ere very nice, very refined, who shook their heads over political corruption and discussed it in drawing-roorapple with real men in real life They were apt vociferously to demand ”reform” as if it were some concrete substance, like cake, which could be handed out at will, in tangible h These parlor refor; and they delighted in criticising the ht to be done, but which they lacked the sineer to do They often upheld ideals which were not hly undesirable, and thereby played into the hands of the very politicians to whom they professed to be most hostile Moreover, if they believed that their own interests, individually or as a class, were jeoparded, they were apt to show no higher standards than did the men they usually denounced