BRIEF REFERENCE TO MANY NOTED DISCLOSURES OF GOVERNMENTAL
CORRUPTION MOSTLY IN STATE AND FEDERAL AFFAIRS SINCE THE
INSTITUTION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES.
It is an unpleasant task, that of dragging to light past records of
malversation in office, and it is nearly equally unpleasant to inspect
them after production; and though it be necessary for the purpose in
hand to set before the reader a number of instances of such misdeeds,
the tale will be condensed and shortened as much as possible, down
almost to a mere enumeration of the scandals referred to. Most writers,
native and foreign, who have undertaken to criticize official
delinquency in this country, have been content to rely upon their
readers’ general knowledge of the facts. The present writer is aware
that his readers also are probably already prepared to give from memory
and tradition a general assent to the accusations herein contained, but
he wishes for present purposes to refresh this recollection and to
fortify this tradition. After all, most of us have but a dim remembrance
of even the most interesting details of past history; that is why each
generation repeats the mistakes of the last one. The distinguished
Spanish philosophical novelist Blasco Ibañez has been frequently heard
to say that nations learn but little by their mistakes; that when
disaster comes the people cry aloud in pain, anger and indignation, and
make strong resolves of future amendment; but when the trouble passes
they forget alike the lessons learned and the good resolutions taken.
The writer earnestly desires to create in the minds of his readers such
a feeling of indignation as can only arise from a clear and definite
realization of the facts, and yet it is impossible to give them in
detail; the volume would be too great. The scandalous instances referred
to in this chapter and elsewhere in this book are but a very small part
of the story of popular misgovernment in the United States under the
manhood suffrage régime, and even if to them were added every other
instance of official misconduct discovered or published for the period
we are considering the whole would fall far short of a full measure of
the mischief done, for it would amount to no more than a recital of its
superficial indications and symptoms. We all know that gross but hidden
corruption may long fester in the body politic, or in a public
institution, unknown to the world at large, until disclosed by some
flagrant display, which like a spot on the surface of an apple reveals
the decay and putridity within. And so here, the whole American
political system has been corrupted by the virus of the controllable
vote; and these scandals are but the eruptions denoting the diseased
inward condition. Besides this, the reader is asked to bear in mind that
the instances here given by no means constitute a complete record; they
are only a few of the most important publicly disclosed cases. No
attempt was made at thorough research or investigation; only those are
mentioned which are generally known, and which came readily to the
writer’s memory, or appeared on a cursory examination of a few
publications; whereas out of one hundred discovered, an average of but
ten are publicly denounced and but one judicially convicted. Here are
only the large and important, only the national and state plunder
conspiracies; the misdeeds of the chiefs and masters; for each one of
these there have been a hundred smaller thefts, pilferings and frauds; a
thousand village, town and county knaveries. Below or attached to each
chief were scores or hundreds of subordinates or followers; how many of
them escaped the contagion of the evil example of their leaders and
superiors? These half hundred scandals about to be set down in this
chapter, properly considered, do not merely represent the trespasses of
fifty individuals; they really show forth the misconduct and depravity
of a class and the corruption and disgrace of an entire political
system.
The Golphin claim for $43,000 was an old revolutionary claim originally
made not against the United States, but against Georgia. In 1835 a
politician named Crawford became attorney for the claimants on a
contingent fee of one-half. In 1848 a bill authorizing its payment out
of the U. S. Treasury was passed through Congress without discussion,
and the claim was paid in full. In 1850, this same Crawford being
Secretary of War, the Treasury Department was induced by some one to pay
the claimant $191,000 for back interest in addition to the principal
already paid. Of this sum Crawford received $94,000. The names of three
cabinet officers were smirched by the scandal which ensued on the
discovery of the facts.
A majority of the Wisconsin legislature of 1856 was bribed to vote for a
valuable land grant to the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad Company.
Stocks and bonds to the amount of $175,000 were distributed among
thirteen senators, and $335,000 among members of the Assembly. The
Governor received $50,000; his private secretary $5,000, and other
officials corresponding sums all in bonds of the company. (_Rhodes_,
III, p. 61.)
“The investigation of the scandal of the Milwaukee and La Crosse Railway
Company in Wisconsin (1858) showed that about $900,000 worth of bonds
had been distributed among legislators and prominent politicians in the
state. Conditions like these have probably obtained in all the states at
some time or other.” (_Reinsch_, p. 231.)
In 1857 three members of the National House of Representatives were
proved guilty of corrupt practices, and resigned their seats to avoid
expulsion.
In 1867-8 was the famous Erie Railroad scandal which for months occupied
the attention of the public of the entire country. It presented a series
of dramatic incidents, and the merest possible outline of its history is
sufficient to enlighten the reader as to the rotten conditions then
prevailing in New York State politics. William M. Tweed was the
political boss of New York City and was aiming to control the
Legislature. The judges of the New York Supreme Court had been elected
by manhood suffrage and one of them named Barnard was one of his
creatures. Jay Gould, a financial adventurer of New York City, who died
worth fifty millions of dollars, was then at the beginning of his
career; one of his associates was a still more picturesque adventurer
named Fisk. The Vanderbilts, then and now a very wealthy family of New
York City, desiring to get control of the management of the Erie
Railroad Company started to purchase in the open market enough shares of
its stock for that purpose. To defeat this project one Drew, then in
control of the Erie Railroad Company, issued 58,000 new shares of Erie
stock. It was charged that this issue was illegal and that Drew kept
printing the shares as fast as the Vanderbilts could buy them. Jay Gould
was reported to have pocketed several millions by the transaction.
Thereupon, the Vanderbilts took legal proceedings to annul this 58,000
shares. Drew, Fisk, Gould and others escaped during a fog in rowboats
from New York City across the Hudson River to New Jersey and began a
suit for conspiracy against the Vanderbilts and Judge Barnard of the
Supreme Court. An attempt to kidnap them and bring them back to New York
was made and failed. Gould obtained a handsome residence in New Jersey,
and the Drew clique and he began an effort to acquire a corrupt control
of the New Jersey Legislature for the purpose of getting their acts
legalized, and also had a bill introduced into the New York Legislature
with that object. Doubtless it was hoped to set the two legislatures of
New York and New Jersey underbidding each other for the Drew-Gould
money. The New York legislators were only getting $300 a year salary at
that time, and were eager for a share of the money which was expected to
be distributed in payment for this legislation. All ordinary business of
the New York legislature was comparatively neglected, while groups
gathered about the hallways and the cloak room of the Capitol in Albany
talking in undertones. A fair rate for members’ votes was mentioned as
between $2,000 and $3,000 each. The Erie people, however, at first
offered only $1,000 a vote, $500 down and $500 when the bill became a
law. Boss Tweed advised the members to stand firm and they would get
more from the Vanderbilts. The matter got before the Railroad Committee
of the Assembly. The Committee was reported to be divided. Suddenly a
rumor started that Vanderbilt and Drew were compromising. This created a
panic among the Albany legislators. Some of them it was said began to
offer to take $500. Soon the Assembly Railroad Committee reported
unanimously against the bill; the report was agreed to and the bill was
supposed to be killed. A member of the Assembly named Glenn then stated
openly that he had been approached and offered a bribe of $500 to vote
for the Erie Bill and asked for a committee of investigation. The
committee was appointed and reported that they had examined the books of
the railroad company and found that no money had been used to influence
the legislature. Glenn resigned his seat. Finally the bill actually
passed the Legislature. This was followed by vehement charges of
corruption in the public press and elsewhere. It was stated that one
senator had obtained $15,000 from one side, and then $20,000 from the
other side; and still not satisfied, wanted $1,000 more for his son who
acted as his private secretary. Another committee of investigation was
appointed which subsequently reported that they could find no proof of
wrong doing. Vanderbilt and Drew now compromised matters and Tweed
joined the Drew, Gould and Fisk combination and was made a director of
the Erie Company as part of a scheme to obtain the votes of the counties
through which the Erie Railroad ran for Hoffman, who was Tweed’s man, as
Governor. Tweed was to manage the courts in the interests of the Erie.
Then began an effort by the Erie to get control of the Albany &
Susquehanna Railroad and thereupon ensued another fight in the courts,
Judge Barnard, who was Tweed’s judge, issuing orders on one side in New
York and Judge Peckham making counteracting orders in Albany. Gould and
Fisk secured the Grand Opera House at Eighth Avenue and Twenty-third
Street, New York City, for the main offices of the Erie Railway Company,
where they also established their personal headquarters. Miss Josie
Mansfield, a well-known friend of Fisk’s, took an adjoining house, where
it was alleged Judge Barnard held court and issued injunctions and
orders of various kinds. The Susquehanna Railroad people found it
impossible to get service upon either Gould or Fisk of court orders
issued on their behalf, because no one who was not known to be friendly
could get into the Opera House where the clique in power were well
guarded. The President of the Albany & Susquehanna Company thereupon
sent his own son to New York to serve papers. They never were served and
the body of the young man was found a corpse in the Hudson River soon
afterwards.
The Erie Railroad scandal was connected with the Wall Street conspiracy
to corner the gold market as it was called, in which Fisk and Gould were
also interested. Gold coin was then selling at a premium everywhere in
the United States; the price fluctuated from hour to hour; a New York
Brokers Exchange, called the Gold Room, was entirely devoted to this
speculation; a daring attempt was made by Gould, Fisk and others to
monopolize the gold supply and advance the price enormously. The mystery
as to what, if any, high politicians were concerned in this plot was
never solved. Says Henry Adams: “The Congressional Committee took a
quantity of evidence which it dared not probe and refused to analyze.
Although the fault lies somewhere on the administration and can lie
nowhere else, the trail always faded and died out at the point where any
member of the administration became visible.... The worst scandals of
the Eighteenth Century were relatively harmless by the side of this,
which smirched executive, judiciary, banks, corporate systems,
professions and people, all the great active forces of society, in one
dirty cesspool of vulgar corruption.” (_Education of Henry Adams_, p.
271.)
On March 18, 1875, Governor Tilden, in a special message to the New York
State Legislature, stated that for five years ending Sept. 30, 1874,
millions had been wasted on the canals by unnecessary repairs and
corrupt contracts. Upon ten fraudulent contracts New York State had paid
more than one and one-half million dollars while the proposals at
contract price called for less than half a million. The exact figures
are:
Paid by the State $1,560,769.84
Amount of Contracts 424,735.90
A commission to investigate was created. Indictments were found against
the son of a state senator, a member of the board of canal appraisers,
an ex-canal commissioner, two ex-superintendents of canals, and one
division engineer. (See _Political History of New York_, Alexander, p.
324.)
From 1867 to 1872 were in progress the Union Pacific Railroad
irregularities commonly known as the Credit Mobilier frauds in which a
number of prominent United States Congressmen were implicated.
The Freedmen’s Bureau (Federal) irregularities covered 1871 and 1872,
and after investigation large sums remained unaccounted for.
From 1872 to 1874 were exposed the Internal Revenue Moiety frauds,
involving millions and implicating Secretary Richardson of the United
States Treasury and many other Treasury and Internal Revenue officials.
In 1874 were investigated and exposed the District of Columbia
government scandals involving “Boss” Shepherd and others connected with
the Washington City administration.
The noted whiskey ring frauds were perpetrated from 1869 to 1874 and
were exposed about the latter date. In those frauds a number of
important United States government officials were implicated and the
Treasury was defrauded out of over two millions thereby.
Pennsylvania State politics have for over half a century had the
reputation of being extremely corrupt. One of its most noted political
bosses was Simon Cameron, who was at the head of the principal
Pennsylvania ring for about twenty years prior to 1877. He was able more
than once to force or purchase his election as United States Senator and
was also able to deliver the vote of the State of Pennsylvania to
Lincoln in the Chicago Convention of 1860 thus defeating Seward. For
this service and as the result of a bargain then made he was appointed
by Lincoln Secretary of War in 1861. His administration of that office
was so scandalous that he was soon compelled to resign. (_Arena_,
January, 1905.)
The Belknap War Department scandals covered the period from 1870 to
1876. Belknap was Secretary of War and being threatened with impeachment
resigned his office.
The Star Route frauds exposed in 1881 were the result of conspiracies
between high post-office officials at Washington, a former United States
Senator Dorsey of Arkansas and others. Large sums of government money
were obtained by means of fraudulent mail contracts.
_Philadelphia._ Next to the New York Tweed Ring the most famous in
American municipal life was the Philadelphia gas ring (1870-1881). Its
boss (Republican), named McManus, absolutely controlled about twenty
thousand voters who were dependent on the ring in one way or another. No
candidate hostile to the ring could be nominated for office. The
possession of the great city offices gave the ring members opportunity
to make fortunes and at the same time the power to contribute large sums
to the party funds. Great numbers of city employees were put under pay.
The debt of the city, which was $20,000,000 in 1860 rose in 1881 to
$70,000,000. Finally a committee of one hundred citizens was created to
obtain redress and there were legal proceedings against those implicated
and some convictions. Referring to this episode a writer says:
“Its debt (Philadelphia’s) increased at the rate of three millions a
year without any important improvement being introduced into the
municipal plant; inefficiency, waste, badly paved and filthy streets,
unwholesome and offensive water and a slovenly and costly management.
The ring manufactured majorities at the polls by means of frauds in the
voting and counting of the ballots; it bought votes wholesale and
retail, forcing all those who received salaries from the city to provide
the wherewithal for corruption. The policemen themselves had to
contribute. Like the Tammany Ring, the Gas Ring stopped the mouth of the
press by regular subsidies so that not a single paper could be found to
plead the cause of honest government.” The story of the Philadelphia Gas
Ring is well told by Mr. Bryce. (_American Commonwealth._)
Philadelphia municipal scandals have been so numerous that they would
require a volume to themselves to treat them fully. In 1901 there was
the Street Franchise scandal. Fourteen street franchises worth millions
were granted free by the Philadelphia city government to members of a
political ring. As proof of the rascality of the transaction John
Wanamaker publicly offered the city $2,500,000 cash for these same
franchises, admitting that they were worth much more. The political
corruption there was said to equal that of anything ever known in New
York except in Tweed’s time. In certain parts of the city in 1905 about
forty per cent of the vote cast was said to be fraudulent. “Crimes
against the ballot box no longer seemed to affront the public
conscience.”
In 1898 there was a great scandal in connection with the failure of the
People’s Bank of Philadelphia in which United States Senator Quay and
State Treasurer Haywood were implicated. About $500,000 state funds and
$50,000 city funds disappeared and were never recovered.
In 1900 occurred the Grand Rapids Water Scandals. Bribes to the amount
of $100,000 were distributed to City officials. The City Attorney was
convicted, and there were twenty-four indictments of ex-aldermen,
politicians, newspaper men and others.
_Spanish War Scandals._ These were numerous. Here is one specimen of
many. In 1899 military goods were sold for $10,500 and purchased back
for $60,000. There were indictments and convictions.
In January, 1903, President Roosevelt instituted an investigation in the
Post Office Department which resulted in the revelation of a large
number of fraudulent contracts by which the government had been robbed
of thousands of dollars, and the criminal conviction of two United
States senators.
_St. Louis._ The following interesting story of political rascality
appeared in _McClure’s_ in November 1902. In 1898 one Snyder, capitalist
and promoter, came to St. Louis with a traction proposition inimical to
the interests of the city railways, who were then paying seven members
of the council $5,000 each per year to protect them, besides paying
another councilman a special retainer of $25,000 to watch these seven
boodlers. Snyder set about buying the members, who then went back on
their first bargain, and arranged a meeting to see if they could not
agree on a new price. The meeting broke up in a row and each man started
in to work for himself. Four councilmen got from Snyder $10,000 each,
one got $15,000, another $17,500, another $50,000; twenty-five members
of the House of Delegates got $3,000 each. In all Snyder paid $250,000
for the franchise, and as the traction people had raised only $175,000
to beat it, the franchise was passed. Then Snyder sold out to his old
opponents for $1,250,000. He was criminally convicted some years later
on charges growing out of this affair.
_Missouri_--1903. Baking Powder Scandal. Various members of the
legislature charged with accepting bribes in connection with legislation
in favor of the baking powder monopoly.
1904--_Oregon Land Scandal_. Senator Mitchell, Congressman Williamson
and others were charged with conspiracy and bribery in an attempt to
defraud the government. Two congressmen were convicted.
_St. Louis._ In an editorial in the _Arena_ for January 1905 it is
stated that in St. Louis free government has been destroyed by shameful
crimes; and in an article by Lee Meriwether, formerly Labor Commissioner
for Missouri, and author of a number of books of travel, the writer
describes a transaction by which a street franchise was obtained in St.
Louis in January 1902 by one Turner. The amount to be paid the municipal
council for the franchise was $135,000 which was put in a safety-vault
box of which an agent had one key and the boodlers the other. The
franchise was granted, but a citizen obtained an injunction from the
courts, whereupon the agent refused to pay. Afterwards Turner became
State’s evidence; the box with the $135,000 was produced in court, a
number of the members of the municipal council were convicted, and some
fled the country.
_California Legislature._ In 1905 the California Senate appointed a
committee of seven to investigate alleged mismanagement of certain
building and land associations. A majority of the committee selected an
agent to approach the officers of one of the associations, with the
result that the sum of $1400 was agreed upon and paid to stop the
investigation. The agent confessed; four senators were expelled, and two
were convicted by the courts.
_Ohio._ An important investigation was undertaken by the Drake Committee
of the Ohio Senate in 1906. In inquiring into the affairs of Cincinnati,
the committee caused the return to the public treasury of over $200,000,
which had been given as gratuities to (state) treasurers, by banks
favored in the deposit of Hamilton County funds.
_New York Insurance Frauds._ A New York legislative committee
investigated the great life insurance companies in 1905-6. Results
showed that Republican as well as Democratic legislators had been
bought, and that enormous corruption funds had been contributed to both
political parties. Bribery expenditures were classified on the various
insurance companies’ books as “legal expenses.” In 1904 alone, the
Mutual Life Insurance Company thus disbursed $364,254, the Equitable
Life Assurance Society $172,698, the New York Life Insurance Company
$204,019. From 1898 to 1904 the Mutual Company expended more than
$2,000,000 in so-called “legal expenses” supposed to be payments to
influence legislation. From 1895 to 1904 the total payments made by the
New York Life to its chief lobbyist at Albany were $1,312,197.
_Boston, Mass._ In 1907 public hearings before a committee of
investigation resulted in eleven indictments mostly of city officials
and contractors for frauds against the city. Gross incompetency, neglect
and non-efficiency of some of the city departments and officials and
mismanagement of city business was revealed.
_Pennsylvania_, 1907. The State Capitol scandals. About $9,000,000 was
paid for furniture for the State Capitol, being an excess of $6,000,000
over actual cost. There were a number of criminal convictions of public
officials in connection with this affair.
_San Francisco_--1907 and 1908. The Ruef Scandals. These related to the
procuring of street franchises by the bribery of members of the San
Francisco board of supervisors through the agency of Abraham Ruef, a
political boss. Nearly one hundred indictments were filed, and there
were some confessions and convictions.
_Lorimer Scandal._ A general corruption fund called “the jack-pot” was
made in 1908, from which payments were made to the Illinois legislators
for their votes. Lorimer was elected United States Senator, January
11th, 1909, through a Republican-Democratic combination. There were
negotiations for the delivery of a block of fifteen votes at prices
reported to be as high as $30,000. Certain votes were purchased at $900
to $2500. There were judicial proceedings and some confessions.
_The New York “Yellow Dog” Scandal._ On the investigation of charges
that Senator Allds of New York had in 1910 accepted money for preventing
legislation, it was shown that in the course of a few years two or three
joint funds were raised among bridge-building companies for political
“protection” at Albany. The names of a former speaker of the
legislature and another member, both dead, were given as having received
these bribes.
_Colorado._ In the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_ for December, 1910, it was
stated that on one occasion, when the franchises of some public service
corporations were in peril, a Republican leader took $20,000 of his
campaign fund to Democratic headquarters to save the day for his
“interests.” As many as 8,000 fraudulent votes have been available in
Denver for whichever party was slated by the “interests” to win.
_Pennsylvania._ William Flinn, who together with Senator Quay was in
control of Republican politics for many years in Pennsylvania, testified
before a senatorial committee in 1912 that he had contributed so far
that year nearly $150,000 to the political campaign, both for the work
in the primaries before the convention, and for the presidential
campaign after the convention.
In an article entitled “Case of the Quaker City” (_Outlook_, May 25,
1912) the writer states that Philadelphia has paid a contractor $520,000
each year to remove its garbage, which he has then resold in the form of
profitable products; in an outlying district people have been arrested
for feeding their own garbage to their own pigs; the contractor wanted
it. Upon a change of administration in 1912, over $800,000 of unpaid
bills for 1911 and previous years were found. It required about
$4,000,000 of borrowed money to make up the deficiency in appropriations
for current expenses for 1912, and about as much more to provide for
routine items of neglected maintenance, such as condemned boilers,
elevators, dilapidated sewers, dangerous bridges. All this
notwithstanding the fact that, in addition to funds raised from taxation
and other current revenue, $51,000,000 was borrowed in the last four
years with practically nothing to show for it. Commenting on this state
of affairs the writer says:
“To democracy are we committed. Does this mean that we are forever to
live loosely, scandalously, until nature rebels and we have to fly to a
violent cure, a political Carlsbad, a civil war, be cleansed only to
begin over again each time? Does the theory of democracy exact more than
human nature has to give?”
_Congress._ The United States Congress, judged by any proper ethical
standard, has been for a long time past a more or less corrupt body, as
has frequently appeared by its frequent large and scandalous
misappropriations of public funds made on the demand of a very low class
of voters manipulated by rascally politicians. The money thus stolen and
wasted has earned the euphonious title of “Pork,” and has usually been
distributed in the shape of appropriations for unnecessary public
buildings, or harbor improvements. Federal court houses costing very
large sums have been extravagantly built and are being maintained in
places where the court sits only a few days in a year, and where
therefore the hiring of a few rooms for the occasion of the court’s
session would have been sufficient. Among the items represented in the
appropriation bill for 1913 are the following:
The City of New Haven, with a population of 180,000, for a post-office,
pink marble, $1,200,000.
For court houses:--
At Texarkana, Texas, where court is only held four days a year,
$110,000. At Harrison, Arkansas, having a population of 1600, where
court is only held nine days in a year, $100,000. At Evanston, Wyoming,
having a population of 2500, where court is only held two days in a
year, $15,000. At Mariana, Fla., where court only sits two days a year,
$70,000.
Gadsden, Alabama, a small town, Federal building, $188,000. At Anderson,
S. C., a court house at $70,000 was ordered, and at Pikeville, Ky., and
in twelve other towns where there was no court sitting, court houses
were voted.
Post-office at Gainesville, Fla.: population 6000; cost $150,000.
In Virginia the Federal building at Big Stone, with a population of
about one thousand, cost or is costing $100,000 and a few years ago it
was stated that at that time there were twenty-five others being
erected or recently built in that State in similar small towns costing
from $5,000 to $75,000 each.
Expensive post-offices were ordered at Newcastle, Wyoming, with a
population of 975; Jasper, Ala., with a population of 2500; Vernal,
Utah, with a population of 836, and another place with a population of
942. Four other small towns in Utah each have expensive post-offices.
These are samples of the Federal Building Bill or “Pork” Bill as it was
called, of 1913, amounting to $45,000,000, which was rushed through both
houses on the log-rolling principle. It was in effect a congressional
conspiracy to plunder the government. Of this bill Senator Kern said
that it was the “boldest and most audacious raid on the public treasury
that has been attempted in recent years. The pork in this barrel is of
such quality that it smells to Heaven.” This kind of rascality has been
increasing. There was bought a few years ago at Seattle for a federal
building at a cost of $160,000, land which was seven feet under water.
In 1906 the Federal Government had only 503 buildings in the United
States, and therefore the rate prior to that time had only been four new
buildings a year. In 1916 it had 967, an increase of 464, at the rate of
46 a year for the preceding ten years. These appropriations were
generally made with the object of getting the votes of political
contractors and laboring people, who are supposed to represent a
propertyless class, and not being required to pay any direct taxes are
believed to be indifferent to the depletion of the public treasury.
_Pension Frauds._ Under President Cleveland the Commissioner of Pensions
Lockrien unearthed enormous pension frauds; he dropped 2266 names from
the rolls and reduced the ratings in 3343 cases. The cases of clear
fraud amounted to $18,000,000 a year.
Former Secretary of War, Stimson, states that from 1878 to 1908 the cost
of the Federal Government increased nearly 400 per cent, while the
increase in population was less than 84 per cent.
MISCELLANEOUS MINOR SCANDALS.
_Illinois_--1901. Investigation disclosed that $65,000 a year was being
collected by politicians from the salaries of those employed at the
State Insane Hospital and other State Institutions.
_Minnesota_--1903. Minneapolis City scandals. Conviction of Chief of
Police and an ex-Mayor on charges of blackmailing gamblers, etc.;
attempted bribery of County Commissioners.
_Land and Post-Office._ In 1903 politicians and others were indicted in
Nebraska for corrupt land and post-office transactions.
Other similar post-office irregularities in McKinley’s administration,
implicating high officials; many indictments; gross department
incompetence and carelessness revealed (1903).
_New York_, 1904. Fire Department scandals, fraudulent hose purchases of
$23,410.
_Kansas_, 1905. Government land frauds implicating a state senator and
other officials.
_New York_, 1905. “The notorious ‘Ten’ carried through a scheme in the
New York Senate, by which the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railway bonds
were to be included in the savings bank bill as proper securities for
investment. The ‘Black Horse Cavalry’ had succeeded in a similar deal
formerly and members had made a large profit on the consequent
appreciation of the bonds in question.” (_Reinsch_, p. 248.)
_New York_--1906. Ahearn scandals; padded payrolls, illegal purchases,
etc., amounting to millions, involving office of Borough President.
_New York_--1914. Hunts Point Bathing Place; value $4300, sold to the
City of New York in 1914 for $247,000.
_Indiana_--1908. Conspiracy to defraud the State; former legislative
speaker indicted.
_New Jersey_--1913. One Kuehnle, political boss of Atlantic City,
sentenced to prison for voting as a water commissioner to award a
contract to a company of which he was a stockholder.
In 1899 a book of about eight hundred pages, entitled _Thirty Years of
New York Politics_, was published by Breen who had been for a generation
active in New York politics and had held office as member of the state
legislature and as local magistrate. It presents a vivid picture of the
corruption, rascality and incapacity that characterized the politicians
of New York City and State from about 1860 to 1890. He tells of
forgeries of items in legislative tax bills, the true bills immediately
after passage by the legislature being altered by additions of items and
the forged tax bills placed before the governor and signed by him. Some
of Breen’s tales are even amusing, showing the open way in which the
business of official bribery has been carried on and the fun there was
supposed to be in the business. In one instance there was a gas bill
before the New York legislature opposed by the company interested. A
lobbyist was in charge whose original orders to pass the bill were
revoked and he was directed to kill it. In order to make his services
appear more valuable to the company the lobbyist had the bill reported
favorably. Subsequently he had it defeated and the members waited upon
him for their cash at the Kenmore House, Albany, N. Y., the fee of each
being $250. Meantime another bill had been introduced regulating the
price of gas and the members were told that they would get nothing until
they also killed the second bill. This was very annoying as it required
them to do two jobs for one fee; but it had to be done. Then the
lobbyist began paying off some of the members at the Kenmore House,
Albany, while to avoid suspicions which might be aroused by the presence
of too many members in one place his assistant undertook to pay off the
others at the Delavan House. By mistake eight of the members got money
at each hotel. When a return was demanded they, partly in joke and to
worry the lobbyist, refused, claiming that as they had done two jobs
they were entitled to two fees; but finally the duplicate money was
returned to the alarmed lobbyist. The reader will thus see that there is
sometimes entertainment as well as profit in the vote traffic, when well
understood by the participants and spiritedly conducted. One veteran
member used to say that he considered it injurious to the health to have
anything to do with a “contingent bill,” that is to say where the bribe
depended upon the result. “I never can sleep at all when I have a
contingent bill on my mind; it undermines my health and my life is
valuable to the state. Spot cash is my gait; it saves all bother.”
Another interesting incident told by Senator Breen is that of one
Hackley, a contractor, who put in a bid for a street-cleaning contract
in New York. The aldermen delayed voting the contract. Hackley received
a letter unsigned requesting him to leave $40,000 in a package on a
table in the City Hall. He left the money in $500 bills on the
aldermanic table in a package without any address. As he entered to do
so he saw four of the aldermen casually conversing by the door; when he
came out they were still standing there. Nothing was said. The next day
he got the contract. The courts were for some years occupied with some
questions of legality regarding this contract and incidentally this
little episode came to light.
If the reader has been at all interested, or edified by the display
already made in this book of the product and operations of the manhood
suffrage governments, perhaps he would like a glimpse of the methods by
which these worshipful bodies are from time to time originally created.
Here is a specimen account of a recent event, taken from the _New
Republic_ of September 29, 1917. There was a contest for the Republican
leadership of the Fifth Ward, Philadelphia, in which ward, as it
happens, Independence Hall is situated. The police were under the
control of a local boss named Deutsch who was himself subject to the
Vere Brothers. The opposition boss was named Carey. Ten days before
election thirty patrolmen were transferred to other districts and their
places taken by men who could be relied on to work for Deutsch. There
were nightly fights and arrests; even reporters were arrested on false
charges of disorderly conduct. On the eve of election the followers of
Deutsch attacked a Carey meeting while a number of police stood quietly
by. The following morning a detective was murdered and a district
attorney slugged. The mayor himself was accused and was subsequently
arrested on a charge of conspiracy in connection with the affair.
Another sample of manhood suffrage in operation was exhibited at the
primary elections at St. Louis in 1904 when Folk was nominated for
governor of Missouri. A magazine writer describing what took place says
that the ring opposed to the nomination of Folk “stationed thugs outside
the polling places with orders to slug, kick, beat, and if necessary
kill,--anything to defeat Folk,” and that scores of men, some of them
prominent, were knocked down in broad daylight, kicked and beaten, etc.,
while the police stood idly by. Also that “there have been instances
where for weeks before an election members of the police department have
gone about locating vacant houses and assisting in registering
fictitious names from such houses” and he gives instances of houses
where many more names were registered than it was possible there could
be residents at the house. The result was that of the population of
600,000 people, not one delegate favorable to Folk was elected. “Former
Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, Norman J. Coleman, and Secretary of
Agriculture under President Cleveland, stood long in line to vote,
without making any progress. He stepped out to make an investigation and
found that men were being admitted into the polling place by a rear door
and that there was no chance for him. Finally a politician whom he knew
came up to him and said: ‘I will get one of the men out of the line up
here and give you his place.’ As he was about to give Mr. Coleman the
place he asked him for whom he was going to vote. ‘For Folk, of course,’
was the answer. ‘Then I can’t do anything for you.’”
The intelligent reader needs no argument to convince him that under a
rule of substantial property qualification none of the above described
ruffianism would find a place in politics. Under such a rule none of
these precious gangs would appear at the polls or primaries; their
leaders would be without political influence; a mayor or governor
supported by such blackguards would never be chosen and would not even
be a candidate.
In 1891, Roosevelt, as Civil Service Commissioner, went to Baltimore to
examine the primaries and made a report from which Ostrogorski prints an
extract. He there saw a fight for the offices between two factions of
the Republican party. There was fraud and violence. Democratic repeaters
were voted; accusations of ballot box stuffing freely made; a number of
fights took place; many arrests, including some of the election
inspectors; bribery was charged; cheating was talked of as a matter of
course; men openly justified cheating as fair, provided you were not
caught. Usually, however, primaries and elections are comparatively
quiet; the previous manipulation of the controllable vote has been so
perfectly done, the managers are in such complete accord, and opposition
is so hopeless, that even the most violent and headstrong of the
defeated party are subdued into silence, often no doubt quelled by
envious admiration for the victorious scoundrels. Such must for instance
have been the case at the elections in Colorado in 1904, when women
voted and they as well as men took part in wholesale frauds. In eight
precincts a thousand fraudulent votes were cast. Each candidate for
governor charged gigantic frauds against the other. Investigation showed
that both charges were true. In one county nine thousand fraudulent
votes were cast. A number of election judges and others were convicted
of ballot box stuffing, repeating, etc.
In 1908 Helen Sumner made a prolonged investigation of political
conditions in Colorado, and thus describes the failure of universal
suffrage in that new and prosperous state.
“Both sexes stay away from caucus and convention because they know they
are helpless and that they can succeed only by debasing themselves to
the level of hired political workers. The caucus and convention are
arranged long in advance. Corporations, the saloon element, and special
interests that seek control can afford to furnish the bosses abundant
funds to hire these professional workers, and both men and women who
value their honor and patriotism will not descend to these mercenary
methods.” (_Equal Suffrage_, p. 94.)
It is useless to multiply instances of fraud and humbug at popular
elections; the whole business is one gigantic piece of fraud and humbug.
Its extent may most easily be described by the amount of money it costs.
Ostrogorski says that: “It is considered that in 1896 the Republican
National chairman disposed of a campaign fund of seven million dollars.
In 1900 of three millions and a half, and in 1904 of three millions.”
This national campaign fund of $3,000,000 to $7,000,000 is only a small
portion of the total amount collected and disbursed for the purpose of
misleading, defrauding, deluding, and humbugging the nation into giving
a preference to one of two organized gangs over the other for two or
four years more. Probably from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000 in all is
expended in this way in a Presidential election. The latter figure is
the estimate of the historian Sloane. And then we are told with
well-simulated indignation of the expenditure of $2,000,000 a year for
the support of the British Royal family. If only our millions were spent
as innocently as in maintaining royal dignity or dignity of any sort!
But our cash goes for the purpose of creating and maintaining
indignities rather than dignities; to pay for the assertion and
publication of lies and slanders; to stir up strife at home and abroad;
to forward the interests of political managers and those behind them and
to hire cheating and fraud at elections. The latter crimes are still
being perpetrated. Wholesale election frauds were committed in New York
City at a recent mayoralty election and many election officials were
convicted. As late as November, 1919, there were widely distributed the
circulars of the “Honest Ballot Association,” whose officers included
New York men and women of considerable prominence and political
experience. Its object was stated to be “To insure clean elections in
New York City, and to prevent honest votes from being offset by trickery
and fraud.” It states in its circular that “through its efforts the
fraudulent vote of the city, which before its organization was a public
scandal, has been materially reduced. Much remains to be done to prevent
recurrence of like frauds.” In other words, the public authorities of
New York City cannot be trusted to supervise and procure a fair
election, and it is generally believed that in that respect New York is
better off than some other large cities.
* * * * *
Nine States of the Union, namely, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee,
have been driven by misgovernment in one form or other under the régime
of manhood suffrage to repudiate their solemn financial obligations.
_Alabama._ In 1819 the State of Alabama began to establish state banks,
all of which became insolvent in 1842. To the debt of about $3,500,000
incident to this business, represented by bonds held by innocent holders
in London and New York, was added obligations amounting to $21,000,000
incurred in the negro suffrage reconstruction period, elsewhere
described. In 1876 the State scaled down the whole debt to $12,574,379,
a repudiation, including interest, of about $15,000,000 State debt.
_Arkansas._ In 1837 and 1838 Arkansas issued about $3,000,000 of bonds
in aid of two state banks. Part of this debt was subsequently
repudiated. During the reconstruction period about $8,000,000 of state
bonds were issued under legislative authority for railroad and levee
construction and all were repudiated in 1880, thus reducing the state
debt from $17,000,000 principal and interest to about $5,000,000.
_Florida._ In 1833 the Territory of Florida issued $3,000,000 bonds to
the Union Bank, and in 1831 and 1835 $900,000 more to other banks. These
obligations were definitely repudiated when Florida entered the Union
in 1845. Under an Act passed in 1855, the state issued $4,000,000 bonds
in aid of railroad construction; and these also have been repudiated, on
the claim that the legislature lacked authority to authorize them.
_Georgia._ From 1868 to 1871 the State of Georgia issued about
$8,000,000 of bonds in aid of railroad construction. In the years 1875,
1876 and 1877 all these bonds were repudiated by state legislation.
_Louisiana._ The debt of Louisiana at the outbreak of the Civil War was
about $10,000,000. The Civil War debt was ignored. Reconstruction
legislation brought up the state debt to about $50,000,000. This was
scaled down by legislative enactment to $12,000,000 and the rest
repudiated.
_Mississippi._ In June 1838 the State of Mississippi issued $5,000,000
of state bonds in payment of five thousand shares of stock in the Union
Bank of Mississippi. Four years later these bonds, then held by innocent
third parties, were repudiated by the state, although the highest court
in Mississippi had declared that they were legally issued. A similar
issue of $2,000,000 of state bonds issued to the Planters Bank was
repudiated in 1852. The State of Mississippi has never redeemed its
honor or paid the bonds.
_North Carolina._ In 1879 North Carolina passed a funding bill by which
in settlement of a long controversy with its bond-holders it repudiated
about $15,000,000 of State indebtedness. Bonds issued before the Civil
War were redeemed at fifty cents on the dollar; bonds issued after the
war to secure pre-war debts at twenty-five cents; and reconstruction
bonds at fifteen cents on the dollar.
_South Carolina._ South Carolina was in debt about $3,800,000 at the
time the Civil War began in 1861. The war debt was repudiated. The
reconstruction debt amounted to nobody knows how much, say $20,000,000
and upwards. Nearly all of the state debt was practically repudiated in
1879 and prior thereto.
_Tennessee._ In 1852 the State of Tennessee authorized the issuance of
state bonds in aid of turnpike and railroad companies. There were also
state debts incurred in aid of state banks, for the building of the
state capitol and other purposes; in all $21,000,000. About $14,000,000
more bonds were issued after the war in aid of railroads. In 1883 the
state repudiated about one-half of this debt.
The various acts of repudiation took different shapes in different
states, but in every instance the state government was a manhood
suffrage institution; none of them have had any other system. It is
perfectly fair to charge every dollar of these stolen and wasted
millions and every repudiation spot and stain on the fame and record of
these nine states to manhood suffrage. In fact the candid historian
cannot, if he would, escape the damning record and the inevitable
conclusion. Manhood suffrage has shamefully bankrupted and dishonored
nine American states.
* * * * *
Oh, that some one with ability, money and patience would get together
materials for a complete “History of Manhood Suffrage,” and with clear
and burning pen, would give to the world the story of its iniquitous
century career. Even if he omitted its record of blood and corruption in
France, and confined himself to this country, the work might easily
swell to many volumes. He could spend twenty busy years visiting one
village, town and city after another, gathering up the facts and figures
of the briberies, corruptions, frauds, cheatings, embezzlements,
defalcations and thefts; the public riots, the drunkenness, the civil
and criminal court proceedings, directly produced by manhood suffrage;
the story of the rogues and incompetents whom it has put in public
offices high and low, their follies and villainies. Its grotesque
legislation, its wretched administration, its wastes, extravagances,
blunders stupidities and misgovernments would fill an encyclopedia of
human unwisdom. But no such work has ever been undertaken, and this
volume only presents a hint of the direful totality. After all it is
enough. The category of official crime in this one chapter contained is
sufficiently convincing.
These fifty cases are not like fifty instances of peculation discovered
by expert eyes under a watchful system, leaving it pretty certain that
there was no more behind. Fifty individual thefts in eighty years would
not make a shocking story as the world goes. But this collection is
merely illustrative of an immense mass of similar material which cannot
be produced to the home reader any more than an ore bed could; though
the existence thereof any one may verify by proper investigation. The
opportunities of public men for improper acquisition are limitless;
there is no one over them to prevent them: they are themselves the
watchmen; and if they work with outside rogues detection is ordinarily
impossible. The discovery of each of these fifty instances was the
result of a blunder on the part of these very careful and intelligent
thieves; of a quarrel amongst themselves, a mere chance of some sort,
and by the law of chances may be taken to represent fifty thousand
similar undetected frauds. Consider too the character of many of these
items; some represent a foul episode in the history of a state; others
in that of a great city; in one case the fact that the politics of a
rich commonwealth have been corrupt for half a century is compressed
into a statement of a few lines which is capable of being expanded to a
volume of separate accusations. Fifty years of spoliation of a great
state: eighteen thousand days; say one hundred separate acts a day: one
million eight hundred thousand large and petty frauds, thefts and
peculations are crowded into this single chapter. Each of the fifty
foregoing items affords a glimpse at rivers, seas, regions of official
rascality. In one case it is a state legislature which goes wrong. This
means that back of each of its tainted members there is a whole history
of putridity, a rotten county, a score of rotten townships, years of
local crookedness, trickery, intrigue, falsehood, bribery and
corruption. The district and county which sells or traffics its honors;
which sends an unworthy man to represent it in the councils of the
nation, must itself first have undergone a process of degeneration the
details whereof would alone require a volume. The instances in the
foregoing list do not represent individual or sporadic cases of disease;
they indicate a moral pestilence, the result of widespread filth and
unsanitary conditions of long standing and the existence whereof is
proven by the additional testimony of the array of intelligent, unbiased
and high-minded men and women, statesmen, students, publicists, lawyers
and teachers, already quoted. Taking the whole evidence together, the
record and the witnesses, it amounts to a mass of absolutely convincing
and even overwhelming proof of the thoroughly evil and corrupt character
of this government which for the past eighty years has been imposed upon
the American people by the political oligarchy directing the
controllable vote.