WHENEVER Tammany is whipped at the polls, the people set to predictin'
that the organization is going' to smash. They say we can't get along
without the offices and that the district leaders are going' to desert
wholesale. That was what was said after the throwdowns in 1894 and 1901.
But it didn't happen, did it? Not one big Tammany man deserted, and
today the organization is stronger than ever.
How was that? It was because Tammany has more than one string to its
bow.
I acknowledge that you can't keep an organization together without
patronage. Men ain't in politics for nothin'. They want to get somethin'
out of it.
But there is more than one kind of patronage. We lost the public kind,
or a greater part of it, in 1901, but Tammany has an immense private
patronage that keeps things going' when it gets a setback at the polls.
Take me, for instance. When Low came in, some of my men lost public
jobs, but I fixed them all right. I don't know how many jobs I got for
them on the surface and elevated railroads--several hundred.
I placed a lot more on public works done by contractors, and no Tammany
man goes hungry in my district. Plunkitt's O.K. on an application for
a job is never turned down, for they all know that Plunkitt and Tammany
don't stay out long. See!
Let me tell you, too, that I got jobs from Republicans in
office--Federal and otherwise. When Tammany's on top I do good turns for
the Republicans. When they're on top they don't forget me.
Me and the Republicans are enemies just one day in the year--election
day. Then we fight tooth and nail The rest of the time it's live and let
live with us.
On election day I try to pile up as big a majority as I can against
George Wanmaker, the Republican leader of the Fifteenth. Any other day
George and I are the best of friends. I can go to him and say: "George,
I want you to place this friend of mine." He says: "Mi right, Senator."
Or vice versa.
You see, we differ on tariffs and currencies and all them things, but
we agree on the main proposition that when a man works in politics, he
should get something out of it.
The politicians have got to stand together this way or there wouldn't
be any political parties in a short time. Civil service would gobble up
everything, politicians would be on the bum, the republic would fall and
soon there would be the cry of "Vevey le roil".
The very thought of this civil service monster makes my blood boil. I
have said a lot about it already, but another instance of its awful work
just occurs to me.
Let me tell you a sad but true story. Last Wednesday a line of carriages
wound into Cavalry Cemetery. I was in one of them. It was the funeral of
a young man from my district--a bright boy that I had great hopes of.
When he went to school, he was the most patriotic boy in the district.
Nobody could sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" like him, nobody was as
fond of waving a flag, and nobody shot off as many firecrackers on the
Fourth of July. And when he grew up he made up his mind to serve his
country in one of the city departments. There was no way of gettin'
there without passin' a civil service examination. Well, he went down to
the civil service office and tackled the fool questions. I saw him next
day--it was Memorial Day, and soldiers were marchin' and flags flyin'
and people cheerin'.
Where was my young man? Standin' on the corner, scowlin' at the whole
show. When I asked him why he was so quiet, he laughed in a wild sort of
way and said: "What rot all this is!"
Just then a band came along playing "Liberty." He laughed wild again and
said: "Liberty? Rats!"
I don't guess I need to make a long story of it.
From the time that young man left the civil service office he lost all
patriotism. He didn't care no more for his country. He went to the
dogs.
He ain't the only one. There's a gravestone over some bright young man's
head for every one of them infernal civil service examinations. They
are underminin' the manhood of the nation and makin' the Declaration
of Independence a farce. We need a new Declaration of Independence,
independence of the whole fool civil service business.
I mention all this now to show why it is that the politicians of two big
parties help each other along, and why Tammany men are tolerably happy
when not in power in the city. When we win I won't let any deservin'
Republican in my neighborhood suffer from hunger or thirst, although, of
course, I look out for my own people first.
Now, I've never gone in for nonpartisan business, but I do think that
all the leaders of the two parties should get together and make an open,
nonpartisan fight against civil service, their common enemy. They
could keep up their quarrels about imperialism and free silver and high
tariff. They don't count for much alongside of civil service, which
strikes right at the root of the government. The time is fast coming
when civil service or the politicians will have to go. And it will be
here sooner than they expect if the politicians don't unite, drop all
them minor issues for a while and make a stand against the civil service
flood that's sweepin' over the country like them floods out West.