THERE'S thousands of young men in this city who will go to the polls for
the first time next November. Among them will be many who have watched
the careers of successful men in politics, and who are longin' to make
names and fortunes for themselves at the same game--It is to these
youths that I want to give advice. First, let me say that I am in a
position to give what the courts call expert testimony on the subject. I
don't think you can easily find a better example than I am of success
in politics. After forty years' experience at the game I am--well, I'm
George Washington Plunkitt. Everybody knows what figure I cut in the
greatest organization on earth, and if you hear people say that I've
laid away a million or so since I was a butcher's boy in Washington
Market, don't come to me for an indignant denial I'm pretty comfortable,
thank you.
Now, havin' qualified as an expert, as the lawyers say, I am goin' to
give advice free to the young men who are goin' to cast their first
votes, and who are lookin' forward to political glory and lots of cash.
Some young men think they can learn how to be successful in politics
from books, and they cram their heads with all sorts of college rot.
They couldn't make a bigger mistake. Now, understand me I ain't sayin'
nothin' against colleges. I guess they'll have to exist as long as
there's book-worms, and I suppose they do some good in a certain way,
but they don't count in politics. In fact, a young man who has gone
through the college course is handicapped at the outset. He may succeed
in politics, but the chances are 100 to 1 against him.
Another mistake: some young men think that the best way to prepare for
the political game is to practice speakin' and becomin' orators. That's
all wrong. We've got some orators in Tammany Hall, but they're chiefly
ornamental. You never heard of Charlie Murphy delivering a speech, did
you? Or Richard Croker, or John Kelly, or any other man who has been a
real power in the organization? Look at the thirty-six district leaders
of Tammany Hall today. How many of them travel on their tongues? Maybe
one or two, and they don't count when business is doin' at Tammany
Hall. The men who rule have practiced keepin' their tongues still, not
exercisin' them. So you want to drop the orator idea unless you mean to
go into politics just to perform the skyrocket act.
Now, I've told you what not to do; I guess I can explain best what to
do to succeed in politics by tellin' you what I did. After goin' through
the apprenticeship of the business while I was a boy by workin' around
the district headquarters and hustlin' about the polls on election day,
I set out when I cast my first vote to win fame and money in New York
City politics. Did I offer my services to the district leader as a
stump-speaker? Not much. The woods are always full of speakers. Did
I get up a hook on municipal government and show it to the leader? I
wasn't such a fool. What I did was to get some marketable goods before
goin' to the leaders. What do I mean by marketable goods? Let me tell
you: I had a cousin, a young man who didn't take any particular
interest in politics. I went to him and said: "Tommy, I'm goin' to be a
politician, and I want to get a followin'; can I count on you?" He said:
"Sure, George". That's how I started in business. I got a marketable
commodity----one vote. Then I went to the district leader and told him
I could command two votes on election day, Tommy's and my own. He
smiled on me and told me to go ahead. If I had offered him a speech or a
bookful of learnin', he would have said, "Oh, forget it!"
That was beginnin' business in a small way, wasn't it? But that is the
only way to become a real lastin' statesman. I soon branched out. Two
young men in the flat next to mine were school friends--I went to them,
just as I went to Tommy, and they agreed to stand by me. Then I had a
followin' of three voters and I began to get a bit chesty. Whenever I
dropped into district head-quarters, everybody shook hands with me, and
the leader one day honored me by lightin' a match for my cigar. And so
it went on like a snowball rollin' down a hill I worked the flat-house
that I lived in from the basement to the top floor, and I got about a
dozen young men to follow me. Then I tackled the next house and so on
down the block and around the corner. Before long I had sixty men back
of me, and formed the George Washington Plunkitt Association.
What did the district leader say then when I called at headquarters? I
didn't have to call at headquarters. He came after me and said: "George,
what do you want? If you don't see what you want, ask for it. Wouldn't
you like to have a job or two in the departments for your friends?"
I said: "I'll think it over; I haven't yet decided what the George
Washington Plunkitt Association will do in the next campaign." You ought
to have seen how I was courted and petted then by the leaders of the
rival organizations I had marketable goods and there was bids for them
from all sides, and I was a risin' man in politics. As time went on,
and my association grew, I thought I would like to go to the Assembly.
1 just had to hint at what I wanted, and three different organizations
offered me the nomination. Afterwards, I went to the Board of Aldermen,
then to the State Senate, then became leader of the district, and so on
up and up till I became a statesman.
That is the way and the only way to' make a lastin' success in politics.
If you are goin' to cast your first vote next November and want to go
into politics, do as I did. Get a followin', if it's only one man,
and then go to the district leader and say: "I want to join the
organization. I've got one man who'll follow me through thick and thin."
The leader won't laugh at your one-man followin'. He'll shake your hand
warmly, offer to propose you for membership in his club, take you down
to the corner for a drink and ask you to call again. But go to him
and say: "I took first prize at college in Aristotle; I can recite all
Shakespeare forwards and backwards; there ain't nothin' in science that
ain't as familiar to me as blockades on the elevated roads and I'm the
real thing in the way of silver-tongued orators." What will he answer?
He'll probably say: "I guess you are not to blame for your misfortunes,
but we have no use for you here."