COLLEGE professors and philosophers who go up in a balloon to think
are always discussin' the question: "Why Reform Administrations Never
Succeed Themselves!" The reason is plain to anybody who has learned the
a, b, c of politics.
I can't tell just how many of these movements I've seen started in New
York during my forty years in politics, but I can tell you how many have
lasted more than a few years--none. There have been reform committees
of fifty, of sixty, of seventy, of one hundred and all sorts of numbers
that started Out to do up the regular political Organizations. They were
mornin' glories--looked lovely in the mornin' and withered up in a short
time, while the regular machines went on flourishin' forever, like
fine old oaks. Say, that's the first poetry I ever worked off. Ain't it
great?
Just look back a few years. You remember the People's Municipal League
that nominated Frank Scott for mayor in 1890? Do you remember the
reformers that got up that league? Have you ever heard of them since? I
haven't. Scott himself survived because he had always been a first-rate
politician. But you'd have to look in the newspaper almanacs of 1891 to
find out who made up the People's Municipal League. Oh, yes! I remember
one name: Ollie Teall; dear, pretty Ollie and his big dog. They're about
all that's left of the League.
Now take the reform movement of 1894. A lot of good politicians joined
in that--the Republicans, the State Democrats, the Stecklerites and the
O'Brienites, and they gave us a lickin', but the real reform part of the
affair, the Committee of Seventy that started the thing goin', what's
become of those reformers? What's become of Charles Stewart Smith?
Where's Bangs? Do you ever hear of Cornell, the iron man, in politics
now? Could a search party find R. W. G. Welling? Have you seen the name
of Fulton McMahon or McMahon Fulton--I ain't sure which--in the papers
lately? Or Preble Tucker? Or--but it's no use to go through the list
of the reformers who said they sounded in the death knell of Tammany in
1894. They're gone for good, and Tammany's pretty well, thank you. They
did the talkin' and posin', and the politicians in the movement got all
the plums. It's always the case.
The Citizens' Union has lasted a little bit longer than the reform crowd
that went before them, but that's because they learned a thing or two
from us. They learned how to put up a pretty good bluff--and bluff
Counts a lot in politics. With only a few thousand members, they had the
nerve to run the whole Fusion movement, make the Republicans and other
organizations come to their headquarters to select a ticket and dictate
what every candidate must do or not do. I love nerve, and I've had a
sort of respect for the Citizens Union lately, but the Union can't last.
Its people haven't been trained to politics, and whenever Tammany calls
their bluff they lay right down. You'll never hear of the Union again
after a year or two.
And, by the way, what's become of the good government clubs, the
political nurseries of a few years ago?
Do you ever hear of Good Government Club D and P and Q and Z any more?
What's become of the infants who were to grow up and show us how to
govern the city? I know what's become of the nursery that was started
in my district. You can find pretty much the whole outfit over in my
headquarters, Washington Hall.
The fact is that a reformer can't last in politics. He can make a show
for a while, but he always comes down like a rocket. Politics is as much
a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or the drug business.
You've got to be trained up to it or you're sure to fail. Suppose a man
who knew nothing about the grocery trade suddenly went into the business
and tried to conduct it according to his own ideas. Wouldn't he make a
mess of it? He might make a splurge for a while, as long as his money
lasted, but his store would soon be empty. It's just the same with
a reformer. He hasn't been brought up in the difficult business of
politics and he makes a mess of it every time.
I've been studyin' the political game for forty-five years, and! don't
know it all yet. I'm learnin' somethin' all the time. How, then, can you
expect what they call "business men" to turn into politics all at
once and make a success of it? It is just as if I went up to Columbia
University and started to teach Greek. They usually last about as long
in politics as I would last at Columbia.
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 statesmanship. 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
quantities, 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.