THE POLITICAL BOSS
At an assembly-room in New York I met a famous American political
"boss." Many governors in China do not have the same power and
influence. I had letters to him from Senators ---- and ----. I expected
to meet a man of the highest culture, but what was my surprise to see a
huge, overgrown, uneducated Irishman, gross in every particular, who
used the local "slang" so fiercely that I had difficulty in
understanding him. He had been a police officer, and I understand was a
"grafter," but that may have been a report of his enemies, as he
commanded attention at the time of the election.
This man had a fund of humor, which was displayed in his clapping me on
the back and calling me "John," introducing me to a dozen or so of as
hard-looking men in the garb of gentlemen as I have ever seen. I heard
them described later as "ward beetles," and they looked it, whatever it
meant. The "Boss" appeared much interested in me; said he had heard I
was no "slouch," and knew I must have a "pull" or I would not be where I
am. He wished to know how we run elections on "the Ho-Hang-Ho." When I
told him that a candidate for a governmental office never obtained it
until he passed one of three very difficult literary examinations in our
nine classics, and that there were thousands competing for the office,
he was "paralyzed"--that is, he said he was, and volunteered the
information that "he would not be 'in it' in China." I thought so
myself, but did not say so.
I told him that the politicians in China were the greatest scholars;
that the policy of the Government was to make all offices competitive,
as we thus secured the brightest, smartest, and most gifted men for
officials. "Smart h----!" retorted the "Boss." "Why, we've got smart
men. Look at our school-teachers. Them guys[9] is crammed with guff,[10]
and passing examinations all the time; but there ain't one in a thousand
that's got sense enough to run a tamale[11] convention. The State
governor would get left here if all the boys that wanted office had to
pass an examination. We've got something like it here," he said, "that
blank Civil Service, that keeps many a natural-born genius out of
office; but it don't 'cut ice with me.' I'm the whole thing in the
ward."
Despite his rough exterior, ---- was a good-hearted fellow, as they
say, no rougher than his constituents, and I was with him several days
during a local election with a view to studying American politics. Much
of the time was spent in the saloons of the district where the "Boss"
held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white
Chink," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the
"Boss" took and the cigars he smoked _per diem_. Perhaps it is as well I
did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd,
that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and
Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If
a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an
enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his
fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a "slugger," that
counted for much in such an assemblage, and he confided to me one
evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid
down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was
"Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best
drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in
his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine
such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as
good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into
respectable persons in New York and other cities.
"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is
peculiar," but I doubt if he is more so than the political system of the
United States, where every man is supposed to be free, but where a few
men in each town own everything and everybody politically. The American
thinks he is free, but he has in reality no more freedom than the
Englishman; in fact, I am inclined to think that the latter is the
freest of them all, and I doubt if too much freedom is good for man.
Politics in America is a profession, a trade, a science, a perfect
system by which one or two men run or control millions. Politics means
the attainment of political power and influence, which mean office. Some
men are in politics for the love of power, some for spoils ("graft" they
call it in slang), and some for the high offices. In America there are
two large parties, the Republican and the Democratic. Then there are the
Labor, Prohibition (non-drinking), and various other parties, which, in
the language of politics, "cut no ice." The real issues of a party are
often lost sight of. The Republicans may be said to favor a high
tariff; the Democrats a low tariff or free trade; and when there is not
sufficient to amuse the people in these, then other reasons for being a
Democrat or a Republican are raised, and a platform is issued. Lately
the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have
"buried" them. The Democrats are now trying to invent some new
"platform"; but the Republicans appear to have included about all the
desirable things in their platform, and hence they win.
In a small town one or two men are known as "bosses." They control the
situation at the primaries; they manage to get elected and keep before
the people. Generally they are natural leaders, and fill some office.
When the senator comes to town they "escort" him about and advise him as
to the votes he may expect. Sometimes the ward man is the postmaster,
sometimes a national congressman, again a State senator; but he is
always in evidence, and before the people, a good speaker and talker and
the "boss." Every town has its Republican and Democratic "boss," always
striving to increase the vote, always striving for something. The larger
the city, the larger the "boss," until we come to a city like New York,
where we find, or did find, Boss Tweed, who absolutely controlled the
political situation for years.
This means that he was in politics, and manipulated all the offices in
order to steal for himself and his friends; this is of public record. He
was overthrown or exposed by the citizens, but was followed by others,
who manipulated the affairs of the city for money. Offices were sold;
any one who had a position either bought it or paid a percentage for it.
Gambling-dens and other "resorts" paid large sums to "sub-bosses," who
become rich, and if the full history of some of the "bosses" of New
York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or any great American city could be
exposed, it would show a state of affairs that would display the
American politician in a dark light. Repeatedly the machinations of the
politicians have been exposed, yet they doubtless go on in some form.
And this is true to some extent of the Government. The honor of no
President has been impugned; they are men of integrity, but the enormous
appointing power which they have is a mere form; they do not and could
not appoint many men. The little "boss" in some town desires a position.
He has been a spy for the congressman or senator for years, and now
aspires to office. He obtains the influence of the senator and the
congressman, and is supported by a petition of his friends, and the
President names him for the office, taking the senator for his sponsor.
If the man becomes a grafter or thief, the President is attacked by the
opposition.
In a large city like New York each ward will have its "boss," who will
report to a supreme "boss," and by this system, often pernicious, the
latter acquires absolute control of the situation. He names the
candidates for office, or most of them, and is all powerful. I have met
a number of "bosses," and all, it happened, were Irish; indeed, the
Irish dominate American politics. One, a leader of Tammany in New York,
was a most preposterous person, well dressed, but not a gentleman from
any standpoint; ignorant so far as education goes, yet supremely sharp
in politics. Such a man could not have led a fire brigade in China, yet
he was the leader of thousands, and controlled Democratic New York for
years. He never held office, I was told, yet grew very rich.
The Republican "boss" was a tall, thin, United States senator. I was
also introduced to him--a Mephistophelian sort of an individual--to me
utterly without any attraction; but I was informed that he carried the
vote of the Republican party in his pocket. How? that is the mystery. If
you desired office you went to him; without his influence one was
impotent. Thousands of office-holders felt his power, hated him,
perhaps, but did not dare to say it.
The "boss" controls the situation, gives and "takes," and the other
citizens get the satisfaction of thinking they are a free people. In
reality, they are political slaves, and the "boss," "sub-boss," and the
long line of smaller "bosses" are their masters. Very much the same
situation is seen in national politics. The party is controlled by a
"boss," and at the present this personage is a millionaire, named Hanna,
said to be an honest, upright man, with a genius for political
diplomacy, a puller of wires, a maker of Presidents, having virtually
placed President McKinley where he is. This man I met. Many of the
politicians called him "Uncle Mark." He has a familiar way with
reporters. He is a man of good size, with a face of a rather common
type, with very large and protruding ears, but two bright, gleaming
eyes, that tell of genius, force, intelligence, power, and executive
talents of an exalted order. I recall but one other such pair of eyes,
and those were in the head of Senator James G. Blaine, whom I saw during
my first visit to America. Hanna is famous for his _bonhomie_, and is a
fine story-teller. Indeed, unless a man can tell stories he had better
remain out of politics, or rather he will never get into politics.
As an outsider I should say that the power of the "boss" was due to the
fact that the best classes will have none of him, as a rule (I refer to
the ordinary "boss"), and as a consequence he and his henchmen control
the situation. I think I am not overstating the truth when I say that
every city in the United States has been looted by the politicians of
various parties. It is of public record that Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
Louis, and New York citizens have repeatedly risen and shown that the
city was being robbed in the most bare-handed manner. Bribery and
corruption have been found to exist to-day in the entire system, and if
the credit of the republic stands on its political _morale_ this vast
union of States is a colossal failure, as it is being pillaged by
politicians. Every "boss" has what are termed "heelers," one function
of whom is to buy votes and do other work in the interest of "reform." A
friend told me that he spent election day in the office of a candidate
for Congress in a certain Western town, and the candidate had his safe
heaped full of silver dollars. All day long men were coming and going,
each taking the dollars to buy votes. By night the supply was exhausted,
and the man defeated. I expressed satisfaction at this, but my friend
laughed; the other fellow who won paid more for votes, he said. I was
told that all the great senatorial battles were merely a question of
dollars; the man with the largest "sack" won.
On the other hand, there are senators who not only never paid for a vote
but never expressed a wish to be elected. The foreign vote--Italians and
others--are swayed by cash considerations; the negroes are bought and
sold politically. The "bosses" handle the money, and the senators
consider it as "expenses," and doubtless do not know that some of it has
been used to influence legislators. The Americans have a remarkable
network of laws to prevent fraudulent voting. Each candidate in some
States is required to swear to an expense account, yet the wary
politician, with his "ways that are dark," evades the law. The entire
system, the control of the political fortunes of 80,000,000 Americans,
is in the hands of a small army of political "bosses," some of whom, had
they figured as grafters in "effete" China, would have been beheaded
without mercy.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Slang for citizens.
[10] Slang for information, facts.
[11] Mexican hash in corn-husk.