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Episode 15 - Concerning Gas in Politics · Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

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  Chapter fifteen concerning gas in politics. Since the eighty cent gas bill was defeated
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  in Albany, everybody's talking about senators being bribed. Now, I wasn't in
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  the Senate last session, and I don't know the ins and outs of everything
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  that was done, but I can tell you that the legislators are often hauled
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  over the coals when they are all on the level. I've been there,
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  and I know, for instance, when I voted in the Senate in nineteen
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  o four for the Remsen bill that the newspapers called the Estoria gas grab bill,
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  they didn't do a thing to me. The papers kept up a howl
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  about all the supporters of the bill being bought up by the Consolidated Gas Company,
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  and the Citizens Union did me the honor to call me the commander in
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  chief of the black Horse Cavalry. The fact is that I was working for
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  my district all this time, and I wasn't Bribeberg. There are several of
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  these gas houses in the district and I wanted to get them over to a
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  Storia for three reasons. First because they're nuisances. Second because there's no votes
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  in them for me any longer. Third because well, I had a little
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  private reason, which I'll explain further on. I needn't explain how they're nuisances.
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  They're worse than open sewers. Still, I might have stood that if
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  they hadn't degenerated so much in the last few years. Ah, gas houses
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  ain't what they used to be. Not very long ago, each gas house
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  was good for a couple of hundred votes. All the men employed in them
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  were Irishmen and Germans who lived in the district. Now it is all different.
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  The men are Dagos who live across in Jersey and take no interest in
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  the district. What the use I have in ill smell at gas houses if
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  there's no votes in them. Now as to my private reason, well,
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  I'm a businessman and go in for any business as profitable and honest. Real
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  estate is one of my specialties. I know the value of every foot of
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  ground in my district, and I calculated long ago that if them gas houses
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  were removed, surrounding property would go up one hundred percent. When the Remsen
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  bill providing for the removal of the gas houses to Queen's County came up,
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  I said to myself, George, hasn't your chance come I answered, sure.
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  Then I sized up the chances of the bill. I've found it was
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  certain to pass the Senate and Assembly, and I got assurances straight from headquarters
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  that Governor Odell would sign it. Next, I came down to the city
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  to find out the mayor's position. I got it straight that he would approve
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  the bill too. Can't you guess what I did? Then, like any
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  sane man who had my information, I went in and got options on a
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  lot of the property around the gas houses. Well, the bill went through
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  the Senate and the Assembly all right, and the mayor signed it, but
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  Odell backslided at the last minute and the whole game fell through. If it
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  had succeeded, I guess I would have been accused of grafting. What I
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  want to know is what you call it. When I got left and lost
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  a pot of money. I not only lost money, but I was abused
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  for voting for the bill. Wasn't that outrageous? They said I was in
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  with the consolidated gas company and all other kinds are wrought, when I was
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  really only working for my district and trying to turn an honest penny on the
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  side. Anyhow, I got a little fun out of the business. When
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  Remsen Bill was up, I was trying to put through a bill of my
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  own, this by you Diable Bill, which provided for fillin in some land
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  under water that the New York Central Railroad wanted. Well, the Remsen managers
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  were afraid of beIN beaten, and they went around offering to make trades with
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  Senators an assemblymen who had bills they were anxious to pass. They came to
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  me and offered six votes from Mice bi Utant Diaovio bill in exchange from my
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  vote on Remsenville. I took them up in a hurry, and they felt
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  pretty sore afterwards when they heard I was going to vote for the Remsenville Anyhow,
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  a word about this by utan Dyovo bill. I was criticized a lot
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  for introducing it. They said, I was working in the interest of the
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  New York Central and was going to get the contract for filling in the fact
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  is that the fillin in was a good thing for the city, and if
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  it helped the New York Central to what of it? The railroad is a
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  great public institution, and I was never an enemy of public institutions. As
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  to the contract, it hasn't come along yet. If it does come,
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  it will find me at home at all proper and reasonable hours if there is
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  a good profit in sight. The papers and some people are always ready to
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  find wrong motives. And what a statesman do. If we bring about some
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  big improvement that benefits the city, and it just happens, as a sort
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  of coincidence that we make a few dollars out of the improvement, they say
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  we are grafters, but we are used to this kind of ingratitude. It
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  falls to the law of all statesmen, especially tammany statesmen. All we can
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  do is to bow our heads in silence and wait till time has cleared our
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  memories. Just think of mentioning dishonest grafting connection with the name of George Washington
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  Plunkett, the man who gave the city its magnificent of parks. It's Washington
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  Bridge, it's speedway, it's Museum of Natural History, it's one hundred and
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  fifty fifth Street Viaduct in its west side courthouse. I was the father of
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  the bills that provided for all these. Yet because I supported the remsen as
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  biutant, duiable bills, some people have questioned my honest motives. If that's
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  the case, how can you expect legislatures to fair who are not the fathers
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  of the parks, the Washington Bridge, the speedway, and the viaduct.
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  Now understand, I ain't defending the senators who killed the eighty cent gas bill.
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  I don't know why they acted as they did. I only want to
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  impress the idea to go slow before you make up your mind that a man
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  occupying the exalted position that I held for so many years has done wrong.
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  For all I know, these senators may have been as honest and high minded
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  about the gas bill as I was about the Remsen and Spiutant Daaville bills.
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  End of Chapter fifteen.