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Episode 22 - A Parting Word on the Future of the Democratic Party · Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

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  Chapter twenty two, A parting word on the future of the Democratic Party in
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  America. The Democratic Party of the Nation ain't dead, though it's been given
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  a lifelike imitation of a corpse for several years. You can't die while it's
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  got Tammany for its backbone. The trouble is that the party's been chasin after
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  theories and standing up nights reading books instead he of studying human nature, en
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  acting according as I've advised in tellin how to Hold Your District. In two
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  presidential campaigns, the leaders talked themselves read in the face about silver beIN the
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  best money in gold him no good, and they tried to prove it out
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  of books. Do you think the people cared for all that guff? No,
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  they hardly endorsed what Richard Crockerd said at die Hoffman House one day in
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  nineteen hundred. What's the use of discussin what's the best kind of money?
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  Said Crocker. I'm in favor of all kinds of money, the more the
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  better. See how a real Tammany statesman can settle in twenty five words,
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  a problem that monopolized two campaigns. Then imperialism. The Democratic parties spent all
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  its breath on that. In the last national campaign its position was all right,
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  sure, but you can't get people excited about the Philippines. They've got
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  too much at home to interest them. They're too busy makin a livin to
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  bother about the niggers in the Pacific. The parties got to drop all them
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  put you to sleep issues and come out in nineteen oh eight for something that
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  will wake the people up, something that will make it worth while to work
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  for the party. There's just one issue that would set this country on fire.
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  The Democratic Party should say in the first plank of its platform, we
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  hereby declare, in National Convention assembled, that the paramount issh you, now,
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  always and forever is the abolition of the iniquous and valicious civil service laws,
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  which are destroying all patriotism, ruining the country, and taken away good
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  jobs from them that earned them. We pledge ourselves, if our ticket is
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  elected, to repeal those laws at once and put every civil service reformer in
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  jail. Just imagine the wild enthusiasm of the party if that plank was adapted,
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  and the rush of Republicans to join us in restoring our country to what
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  it was before this College professor's nightmare called Civil service reform got hold of it.
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  Of course, it would be all right to work in the platform.
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  Some stuff about the tariff and sound money in the Philippines has no platform,
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  seems to be complete without them. But they wouldn't count. The people would
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  read only the first plank. Then hanker for election day to come to put
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  the Democratic Party in office. I see a vision. I see the Civil
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  Service monster lying flat on the ground. I see the Democratic Party standing over
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  it, with foot on its neck and wearing the crown of victory. I
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  see Thomas Jefferson looking out from a cloud and saying, give him another sock,
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  doggler, finish him. And I see millions of men waving their hats
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  and singing glory, Hallelujah. End of Chapter twenty two.