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Episode 17 - Tammany's Patriotism · Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

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  Chapter seventeen. Tammany's Patriotism. Tammany's the most patriotic organization on earth, notwithstanding
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  the fact that the civil service laws sappen the foundations of patriotism all over the
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  country. Nobody pays any attention to the fourth of July any longer except Tammany
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  and the small Boy. When the fourth comes, the reformers with revolutionary names
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  parted in the middle run off to Newport or the Adirondacks to get out of
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  the way of the noise and everything that reminds them of the glorious day.
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  How different it is with Tammany. The very constitution of the Tammany Society requires
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  that we must assemble at the Wigwam on the fourth, regardless of the weather,
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  and listen to the reading of the Declaration of Independence and patriotic speeches.
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  You ought to attend one of these meetings their liberal education in patriotism. The
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  great hall upstairs is filled with five thousand people suffocating from heat and smoke.
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  Every man jack of these five thousand knows that down in the basement there's a
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  hundred cases of champagne and two hundred cakes of beer redded a flow. When
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  the signal is given, yet that crowd stick to their seats without turning a
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  hair while for four solid hours the Declaration of Independence is read, long winded
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  orders speak, and the glee club sings itself. Horse talk about heroism in
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  the battlefield that comes and passes away in a moment. You ain't got time
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  to be anything but heroic. But just think of five thousand men sitting in
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  the hottest place on earth for four long hours with parched lips and non stomachs,
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  and knowin all the time that the delights of the oasis in the desert
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  were only two flights downstairs. Ah. That is the highest kind of patriotism,
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  the patriotism of long suffering and endurance. What man wouldn't rather face a
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  cannon for a minute or two than thirst for four hours with champagne and beer
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  almost under his nose. And then see how they applaud and yell when patriotic
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  things are said. As soon as the man on the platform starts off with
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  when in the course of human events, word goes around that it's the declaration
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  of independence and a mighty roar goes up. The declaration ain't a very short
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  document, and the crowd has heard it on every fourth, but they give
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  it just as fine as send off, as if it was brand new and
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  awful excitement. Then the long talkers get in their work, that is two
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  or three orders who are good for an hour each. Heat never has any
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  effect on these men. They use every minute of their time. Sometimes human
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  nature gets the better of a man in the audience and he begins to nod,
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  but he always wakes up with a hurrah for the declaration of independence.
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  The greatest hero of the occasion is the Grand Sakum of the Tammany Society,
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  who presides. He and the rest of us Sakim's come on the stage wearing
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  stovepipe hats according to the constitution, but we can shed ours right off,
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  while the Grand Sacum is required to wear his hat all through the celebration.
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  Have you any idea what that means? Four hours under a big silk hat
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  in a hall where the heat registers one hundred and ten and the smoke two
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  fifty, and the Grand Sacum is expected to look pleasant all the time and
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  say nice things when introducing the speakers. Often his hand goes to his hat
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  unconscious like then he catches himself up in time and looks around like a man
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  who is in the tenth story of a burning building seeking a way to escape.
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  I believe that Fourth of July's silk hat shortened the life of one of
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  our sacums, the late Supreme Court Justice Smith. And I know that one
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  of our sacoms refused the office of Grand Sacom because he couldn't get up sufficient
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  patriotism to perform this four hour hat act. You see, there's degrees of
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  patriotism, just as there's degrees in everything else. You don't hear of the
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  Citizens Union people holding Fourth of July celebrations under a five pound silk hat or
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  any other way, do you. The CITs take the Fourth like a dog
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  I had when I was a boy. That dog knew as much as some
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  sits any act just like them about the glorious day. Exactly forty eight hours
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  before each Fourth of July, the dog left her house and run and hid
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  himself in the Bronx woods. The day after the fourth he turned up at
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  home as regular as clockwork. He must have known what a dog is up
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  against on the fourth. Anyhow, he kept out of the way. The
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  name parted in the middle of Aristocrats act in just the same way. They
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  don't want to be annoyed with firecrackers and the declaration of independence. And when
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  they see the fourth coming, they hustle off to the woods like my dog.
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  Tammany don't only show its patriotism at Fourth of July celebrations. It's always
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  on deck when the country needs its services. After the Spanish American War broke
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  out, John J. Sannell, the Tammany leader of the twenty fifth district,
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  wrote to Governor Black, offering to raise a Tammany regiment to go to
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  the front. If you want proof, go to Tammany Hall and see the
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  beautiful set of engrossed resolutions about this regiment. It's true that the governor didn't
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  accept the offer, but it showed Tammany's patriotism. Some enemies of the organization
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  have said that the offer to raise the regiment was made after the governor let
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  it be known that no more volunteers were wanted, But that's the talk of
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  envious slanderers. Now a word about Tammany's love for the American flag. Did
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  you ever see at Tammany Hall all decorated for a celebration. It's just a
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  mass of flags. They even take down the window shades and put flags in
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  place of them. There's flags everywhere except on the floors. We don't care
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  for our expense where the American flag is concerned, especially after we have won
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  an election. In nineteen oh four, we originated the custom of giving a
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  small flag to each man as he entered Tammany Hall for the Fourth of July
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  celebration. It took like wildfire. The men waved their flags whenever they cheered,
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  and the sight made me feel so patriotic that I forgot all about civil
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  service for a while. And the good work of the flags didn't stop there.
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  The men carried them home and gave them to the children, and the
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  kids got patriotic too. Of course, it all cost a pretty penny,
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  But what of that We had won at the polls the preceding November, had
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  the offices and could afford to make an extra investment in patriotism. End of
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  Chapter seventeen.