Part 15 (1/2)

close association with thehit did have On the other hand, the ideals of veryreformers did not relate to the questions of real and vital interest to our people; and, singularly enough, in international s were no ue or shortsighted spoils politicians I felt that these men would be broken reeds to which to trust in any vital contest for betterment of social and industrial conditions

I had neither the training nor the capacity that would have enabled round Nor did I believe that the effort to build up aconditions would meet the needs of the situation so far as the people were concerned I therefore made no effort to create aover the heads of the anization, and appealing directly to the people behind the control over the great bulk of the islature; but in the last resort the people behind these legislators had a still greater control over them I made up my mind that the only way I could beat the bosses whenever the need to do so arose (and unless there was such need I did not wish to try) was, not by attemy appeal as directly and as emphatically as I kne to the mass of voters themselves, to the people, to the men who if waked up would be able to impose their will on their representatives My success depended upon getting the people in the different districts to look atthem to take such an active interest in affairs as to enable them to exercise control over their representatives

There were a few of the Senators and asse theuments; but most of them were too much under the control of the machine for me to shake them loose unless they knew that the people were actively behindwith an entirely different constituency fro cities, liked to think of itself as the ”better eleood citizenshi+p I was dealing with shrewd, hard-headed, kindlywork of earning their own living, and irown to feel that the associations with the word ”reformer” were not much better than the associations with the word ”politician” I had to convince these ood faith, and, moreover, ofpartisans, and an outrage had to be very real and very great to shake them even partially loose from their party affiliations Moreover, they took little interest in any fight of mere personalities They were not influenced in the least by the silk-stocking reform view of Mr Platt

I knew that if they were persuaded that I was engaged in a ainst him, that it was a mere issue between his ambition and ht would be lost

But I felt that I could count on their support wherever I could show theht was not made just for the sake of the row, that it was not ainst Senator Platt and the organization, but aged froible causes such as the pro powerful moneyed e They stood bythe canal department, the insurance department, and the various departments of the State Government run with efficiency and honesty; they stood bywealthy ht to pay; they stood by me when, in connection with the strikes on the Croton Aqueduct and in Buffalo, I promptly used theand violence

In the latter case my chief opponents and critics were local politicians ere truckling to the labor vote; but in all cases coories I had serious trouble with the State leaders of the et Mr Platt and the other heads of the machine to accept my views, and to convince theht I never wantonly antagonized or humiliated them I did not wish to humiliate them or to sees that I thought it essential to the men and women of the State to secure If I could finally persuade theood; in such case I continued to ith them in the friendliest manner

If after repeated and persistent effort I failed to get theht in the open, and in athrough the legislation which I wished In theory the Executive has nothing to do with legislation In practice, as things now are, the Executive is or ought to be peculiarly representative of the people as a whole As often as not the action of the Executive offers the only islation they deood executive under the present conditions of Aetting the right kind of legislation, in addition to perforle to the public welfare More than half ofneeded and i the people, and riveting their attention on as done

Gradually the people began to wake up more andthe up grew eneral, not hout most of the Nation, the power of the bosses waned Then a curious thing happened The professional reforan to change toward thee presidents, corporation lawyers, and big business men, all alike, had denounced the bosses and had taken part in refor as these refors that were superficial, or with fundas that did not affect themselves and their associates But the majority of these reat new ainst privilege in business no less than against privilege in politics, as one for social and industrial no less than for political righteousness and fair dealing The big corporation laho had antagonized the boss in arded as purely political stood shoulder to shoulder with the boss when the movement for betterment took shape in direct attack on the combination of business with politics and with the judiciary which has done so e in the economic world

The reformers who denounced political corruption and fraud when shown at the expense of their own candidates by machine ward heelers of a low type hysterically applauded similar corrupt trickery when practiced by these saainst ramme the reformers were not in sympathy I had always been instinctively and by nature a democrat, but if I had needed conversion to the democratic ideal here in America the stimulus would have been supplied by what I saw of the attitude, not reatest wealth, but of the bulk of the men who most prided theood faith to grapple with the wrong and injustice of our social and industrial syste, no h they stood in business or in politics, at the bar or on the bench

It hile I was Governor, and especially in connection with the franchise tax legislation, that I first becahly aware of the real causes of this attitude a the reat wealth

Very soon after my victory in the race for Governor I had one or two experiences with Senator Platt which showed in a fashi+on how absolute the rule of the boss was in the politics of that day Senator Platt, as always most kind and friendly in his personal relations with me, asked me in one day to talk over as to be done at Albany

He had the two or three noanization with him They were his lieutenants, who counseled and influenced him, whose advice he often followed, but hen he had finally istered and carried out his decrees After a little conversation the Senator asked if I had any member of the asse that the coed I answered no, and expressed my surprise at what he had said, because I had not understood the Speaker who appointed the coreed upon by the members-elect ”Oh!” responded the Senator, with a tolerant smile, ”He has not been chosen yet, but of course whoever we choose as Speaker will agree beforehand to make the appointments ish” I made a mental note to the effect that if they attempted the same process with the Governor-elect they would find themselves mistaken

In a few days the opportunity to prove this arrived Under the preceding Adrave scandals about the Erie Canal, the trans-State Canal, and these scandals had been one of the chief issues in the can for the Governorshi+p The construction of this as under the control of the Superintendent of Public Works In the actual state of affairs his office was by far the most important office under h character and capacity who could be trusted to do the work not ard to politics A week or so after the Speakershi+p incident Senator Platt asked me to come and see him (he was an old and physically feeble man, able to move about only with extreme difficulty)

On arrival I found the Lieutenant-Governor elect, Mr Woodruff, who had also been asked to colad to say that I would have a most admirable man as Superintendent of Public Works, as he had just received a telegra that he would accept the position! He handed ram The man in question was a man I liked; later I appointed him to an important office in which he did well But he ca the line of the canal, so that I did not think it best that he should be appointed anyhow; and, moreover, as far more important, it was necessary to have it understood at the very outset that the Administration was my Administration and was no one else's but mine So I told the Senator very politely that I was sorry, but that I could not appoint his man This produced an explosion, but I declined to losethat I must decline to accept any man chosen for h I was very polite, I was also very firm, and Mr Platt and his friends finally abandoned their position

I appointed an engineer froe, who had served in Mayor Low's administration He was an excellent man in every way He chose as his assistant, actively to superintend the work, a Cornell graduate na at all, picked simply because he was the best equipped man for the place The office, the most important office under hout my Administration; I doubt if there ever was an important departher standard of efficiency and integrity

But this was not all that had to be done about the canals Evidently the whole policy hitherto pursued had been foolish and inadequate I appointed a first-class non-partisan coineers ent into the matter exhaustively, and their report served as the basis upon which our entire present canal syste whether the canal officials ere in office before I becauilty of any action because of which it would be possible to proceed against them criminally or otherwise under the law

Such cri the cawump) press To determine this matter I appointed two Democratic lawyers, Messrs Fox and MacFarlane (the latter Federal District Attorney for New York under President Cleveland), and put the whole investigation in their hands

These gentle several rave delinquency in the prosecution of the work, delinquency which justified public condemnation of those responsible for it (ere out of office), but that there was no ground for criislature with a h standing in the State who, after studying the report of counsel in this case and the testiree with them as to the impracticability of a successful prosecution Under such circue in the e has been made”

When my successor in the Governorshi+p took office, Colonel Partridge retired, and Elon Hooker, finding that he could no longer act with entire disregard of politics and with an eye single to the efficiency of the work, also left A dozen years later--having in the meantime made a marked success in a business career--he becaressive party

My action in regard to the canals, and the ement of his office, the e, established my relations with Mr Platt froht basis But, besides various small difficulties, we had one or two serious bits of trouble before my duties as Governor ceased It must be ree part of, and soislature There were a few entirely independent is Post, and Alford Cooley, in each of the two houses; the remainder were under the control of the Republican and Democratic bosses, but could also be more or less influenced by an aroused public opinion The two machines were apt to make common cause if their vital interests were touched It was my business to devise methods by which either the two machines could be kept apart or else overthrown if they caether

My desire was to achieve results, and not merely to issue manifestoes of virtue It is very easy to be efficient if the efficiency is based on unscrupulousness, and it is still easier to be virtuous if one is content with the purely negative virtue which consists in not doing anything wrong, but being wholly unable to accoood My favorite quotation froain applies: It is so much easier to be a harmless dove than a wise serpent My duty was to combine both idealism and efficiency At that tiards many species of political and businessthe next decade it became sensitive I had to ith the tools at hand and to take into account the feeling of the people, which I have already described My aim was persistently to refuse to be put in a position where what I did would seeainst Senator Platt My aie it that there could be no question in the minds of honest men that my prime purpose was not to attack Mr Platt or any one else except as a necessary incident to securing clean and efficient government

In each case I did my best to persuade Mr Platt not to opposeto wrest the organization froave him in detail the reasons why I felt I had to take the position I intended to adopt It was only after I had exhausted all the resources of my patience that I would finally, if he still proved obstinate, tell hiht anyhow As I have said, the Senator was an old and feeble o about very little Until Friday evening he would be kept at his duties at Washi+ngton, while I was in Albany If I wished to see hienerally had to be at his hotel in New York on Saturday, and usually I would go there to breakfast with hi in the nature of a secret or clandestineopenly Sole to their custo, werewith Platt” Whenever I breakfasted with him they becanificance The worthy creatures never took the trouble to follow the sequence of facts and events for themselves If they had done so they would have seen that any series of breakfasts with Platt alwayshe did not like, and that I was trying, courteously and frankly, to reconcile him to it My object was toas there was no clash between us there was no object inhim; it was only when the clash came or was imminent that I had to see him A series of breakfasts was always the prelude to some active warfare[] In every instance I substantially carried h in soinally hoped

[] To illustrateI quote from a letter ofto get e Y I wrote: ”There is a strong feeling ae Y ought not to have Judge X ju it I am inclined to think that the solution I mentioned to you is the solution I shall have to adopt Relas Robinson's at 8:30”

There were variousand querulous assent without any break being threatened I secured the reenactment of the Civil Service Lahich under my predecessor had very foolishly been repealed I secured athe enactment of laws to increase the number of factory inspectors, to create a Tenes resulted in further and excellent legislation to iulate and i rate of wages law effective, to secure the genuine enforce to the hours of railorkers, to coulate the working hours of woerousprovisions for works, to provide seats for the use of waitresses in hotels and restaurants, to reduce the hours of labor for drug-store clerks, to provide for the registration of laborers for municipal employment I tried hard but failed to secure an employers' liability law and the state control of e over some of these bills, and, as et round the law by trickery and by securing its inefficient enforceotten in touch while in the Police Departh whom I first became interested in settlement work on the East Side Once or twice I went suddenly down to New York City without warning any one and traversed the tene various sweat-shops picked at random Jake Riis accoot not only an improvement in the law but a still more marked improvement in its adood sense of Dr

John H Pryor, of Buffalo, and by the use of every pound of pressure which as Governor I could bring to bear in legitie--we succeeded in getting through a bill providing for the first State hospital for incipient tuberculosis We got valuable laws for the far the adulteration of food products (which laere equally valuable to the consuislation I was able to do a good deal for forest preservation and the protection of our wild life All that later I strove for in the Nation in connection with Conservation was foreshadowed by what I strove to obtain for New York State when I was Governor; and I was already working in connection with Gifford Pinchot and Newell I secured better administration, and some improvement in the laws themselves The iame and forest wardens, was secured partly as the result of a conference in the executive chauides and woodsislation, even that affecting labor and the forests, I got on fairly ith thebusiness” and the kind of politics which is allied to big business werewith Senator Platt anization, and with the organized islature One clash was in connection with the Superintendent of Insurance, a man whose officebusiness circles of New York The then incumbent of the office was an efficient man, the boss of an up-State county, a veteran politician and one of Mr Platt's right-hand ations which I ht--showed that this Superintendent of Insurance had been engaged in large business operations in New York City These operations had thrown him into a peculiarly intimate business contact of one sort and another with various financiers hom I did not deem it expedient that the Superintendent of Insurance, while such, should have any intientleman in question represented the straitest sect of the old-time spoils politicians I therefore deteret his successor confirmed, however, he would stay in under the law, and the Republican machine, with the assistance of Tammany, expected to control far more than a majority of all the Senators

Mr Platt issued an ultimatum to me that the incuht, and that if he chose to fight the man would stay in anyhow because I could not oust him--for under the New York Constitution the assent of the Senate was necessary not only to appoint a man to office but to remove him from office As alith Mr Platt, I persistently refused to lose my temper, no matter what he said--he was much too old and physically feeble for there to be any point of honor in taking up any of his reood-huentle able to get his successor confirislature adjourned I could and would appoint another man temporarily Mr

Platt then said that the incuislature reconvened; I admitted that this was possible, but added cheerfully that I would reislature adjourned, and that even though I had an uncouarantee to make my opponents n of reaching an agreement