WHEN I retired from the Senate, I thought I would take a good, long
rest, such a rest as a man needs who has held office for about forty
years, and has held four different offices in one year and drawn
salaries from three of them at the same time. Drawin' so many salaries
is rather fatiguin', you know, and, as I said, I started out for a rest;
but when I seen how things were goin' in New York State, and how a
great big black shadow hung over us, I said to myself: "No rest for
you, George. Your work ain't done. Your country still needs you and you
mustn't lay down yet."
What was the great big black shadow? It was the primary election law,
amended so as to knock out what are called the party bosses by lettin'
in everybody at the primaries and givin' control over them to state
officials. Oh, yes, that is a good way to do up the so-called bosses,
but have you ever thought what would become of the country if the
bosses were put out of business, and their places were taken by a lot of
cart-tail orators and college graduates? It would mean chaos. It would
be just like takin' a lot of dry-goods clerks and settin' them to run
express trains on the New York Central Railroad. It makes my heart bleed
to think of it. Ignorant people are always talkin' against party bosses,
but just wait till the bosses are gone! Then, and not until then, will
they get the right sort of epitaphs, as Patrick Henry or Robert Emmet
said.
Look at the bosses of Tammany Hall in the last twenty years. What
magnificent men! To them New York City owes pretty much all it is
today. John Kelly, Richard Croker, and Charles F. Murphy--what names in
American history compares with them, except Washington and Lincoln? They
built up the grand Tammany organization, and the organization built up
New York. Suppose the city had to depend for the last twenty years on
irresponsible concerns like the Citizens' Union, where would it be
now? You can make a pretty good guess if you recall the Strong and Low
administrations when there was no boss, and the heads of departments
were at odds all the time with each other, and the Mayor was at odds
with the lot of them. They spent so much time in arguin' and makin'
grandstand play, that the interests of the city were forgotten. Another
administration of that kind would put New York back a quarter of a
century.
Then see how beautiful a Tammany city government runs, with a so-called
boss directin' the whole shootin' match! The machinery moves so
noiseless that you wouldn't think there was any. If there's any
differences of opinion the Tammany leader settles them quietly and his
orders go every time. How nice it is for the people to feel that they
can get up in the mornin' without hem' afraid of seem' in the
papers that the Commissioner of Water Supply has sandbagged the Dock
Commissioner, and that the Mayor and heads of the departments have been
taken to the police court as witnesses! That's no joke. I remember that,
under Strong, some commissioners came very near sandbaggin' one another.
Of course, the newspapers like the reform administration. Why? Because
these administrations, with their daily rows, furnish as racy news as
prizefights or divorce cases. Tammany don't care to get in the papers.
It goes right along attendin' to business quietly and only wants to be
let alone. That's one reason why the papers are against us.
Some papers complain that the bosses get rich while devotin' their lives
to the interests of the city. What of it? If opportunities for turnin'
an honest dollar comes their 'way, why shouldn't they take advantage of
them, just as I have done? As I said, in another talk, there is honest
graft and dishonest graft. The bosses go in for the former. There is
so much of it in this big town that they would be fools to go in for
dishonest graft.
Now, the primary election law threatens to do away with the boss and
make the city government a menagerie. That's why I can't take the rest
I counted on. I'm goin' to propose a bill for the next session of the
legislature repealin' this dangerous law, and leavin' the primaries
entirely to the organizations themselves, as they used to be. Then will
return the good old times, when our district leaders could have nice
comfortable primary elections at some place selected by themselves and
let in only men that they approved of as good Democrats. Who is a better
judge of the Democracy of a man who offers his vote than the leader of
the district? Who is better equipped to keep out undesirable voters?
The men who put through the primary law are the same crowd that stand
for the civil service blight and they have the same objects in view--the
destruction of governments by party, the downfall of the constitution
and hell generally.