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Episode 18 - On the Use of Money in Politics · Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

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  Chapter eighteen on the use of money in politics. The Civil Service Gang has
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  always howling about candidates and offafaeholders putting up money for campaigns, and about corporations
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  chipping in. They might as well howl about giving contributions to churches. A
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  political organization has to have money for its business as well as a church,
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  and who has more right to put up than the men who get the good
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  things that are going Take, for instance, a great political concern like Tammany
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  Hall. It does missionary work like a church. It's got big expenses and
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  it's got to be supported by the faithful. If a corporation sends in a
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  check to help the good work of the Tammany Society, why shouldn't we take
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  it like other missionary societies. Of course, the day may come when we'll
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  reject the money of the rich as tainted, but it hadn't come when I
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  left Tammany Hall at eleven twenty five am to day. Not long ago,
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  some newspapers had fits because the assemblyman from my district said he put up five
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  hundred dollars when he was nominated for the Assembly last year. Every politician in
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  town laughed at these papers. I don't think there was even a citizens Union
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  man who didn't know that candidates of both parties have to chip in for campaign
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  expenses the sum they pay or according to their salaries and the length of their
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  terms of office if elected. Even candidates for the Supreme Court have to fall
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  in line. A Supreme Court judge in New York County gets seventeen thousand,
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  five hundred a year, and he's expected when nominated to help along the good
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  cause with a year's salary. Why not? He has fourteen years on the
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  bench ahead of him, and ten thousand other lawyers would be willing to put
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  up twice as much to be in his shoes. Now, I ain't saying
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  that we sell nominations, that it's a different thing altogether. There's no auction
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  and no regular bidden. The man is picked out, and somehow he gets
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  to understand what's expected if him in the way of a contribution, and he
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  ponies up all from gratitude to the organization that honored him. See, let
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  me tell you an instance that shows the difference between selling nominations and arranging them
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  in the way I describe. A few years ago, a Republican district leader
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  controlled the nomination for Congress in his congressional district. Four men wanted it.
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  At first, the leader asked for bids privately, but decided at last that
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  the best thing to do was to get the four men together in the back
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  room of a certain saloon and have an open auction. When he had his
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  men lined up, he got on a chair, told about the value of
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  the goods for sale, and ask for bids in regular auctioneer style. The
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  highest bidder got the nomination for five dollars. Now that wasn't right at all.
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  These things ought to be always fixed up nice and quiet. As to
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  office holders, they would be ingrates if they didn't contribute to the organization that
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  put them in office. They needn't be assessed. That would be against the
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  law. But they know what's expected of them, and if they happen to
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  forget, they can be reminded polite and courteous. Dan Donnegan, who used
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  to be the Wiskinsky of the Tammany Society and received contributions from grateful office holders,
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  had a pleasant way of reminding if a man forgot his duty to the
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  organization had made him, Dan would call him the man smile as sweet as
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  you please, and say you haven't been around it to hall lately, have
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  you. If the man tried to slide around the question, Dan would say
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  it's getting off cold. Then he would have a fit of shivering and walk
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  away. What could be more polite and at the same time more to the
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  point, no force, no threats, only a little shivering, which any
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  man is liable to even in the summer. Just here, I want to
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  charge one more crime to the infamous Civil Service law. It has made men
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  turn ungrateful. A dozen years ago, when there wasn't much civil service business
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  in the city government, and when the administration would turn out to almost any
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  man hold an office, Dan shiver took effect every time, and there was
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  no ingratitude in the city departments. But when the Civil Service Law came in
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  and all the clerks got lad pipe cinches on their jobs and gratitude spread right
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  away. Dan shivered and shook till his bones rattled, but many of the
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  city employees only laughed at him. One day, I remember he tackled a
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  clerk in the Public Works department who used to give up pretty regular and after
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  the usual question began to shiver, the clerk smiled. Dan shook till his
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  hat fell off, Clerk took ten cents out of his pocket, handed it
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  to Dan and said, poor man, go and get a drink to warm
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  yourself up. One that's shameful. And yet if it hadn't been for the
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  Civil Service Law, that Clerk would be contributed right along to this day.
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  The civil service law don't cover everything. However, there's lots of good jobs
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  outside his clutch, and the men that get them are grateful every time.
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  I'm not speaking of Tammany Hall alone. Remember it's the same with Republican federal
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  and state office holders and every organization it has or has had jobs to give
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  out, except of course, the Citizens Union. The CITs held office only
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  a couple of years, and knowing that they would never be in again,
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  sit officeholder held on for dear life to every dollar they came his way.
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  Some people say they can't understand what becomes of all the money that's collected for
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  campaigns. They would understand fast enough if they were district lead them. There's
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  never been half enough money to go around. Besides the expenses for meetings,
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  bands and all that, there's the bigger bill for the district workers who get
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  men to the polls. They're ease workers who are mostly men who want to
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  serve their country but can't get jobs in the city department on account of the
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  civil service law. They do the next best thing by keeping track of the
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  voters and seeing that they come to the polls and vote the right way.
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  Some of these deserving citizens have to make enough on registration and election days to
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  keep them the rest of the year. Isn't it right that they should get
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  a share of the campaign money. Just remember that there's thirty five Assembly districts
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  in New York County and thirty six district leaders reaching out for the Tammany dobag
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  for something to keep up the patriotism of ten thousand workers. And you wouldn't
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  wonder that the cry for more more is going up from every district organization.
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  Noun forevermore Amen. End of Chapter eighteen.