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Copyright, 1885,     A  RIL     1 QQ07          Subscription Price
by HARPER. & BROTHERS   APRIL 1 5, 18.    per Year, 52 N umbers, $15
Extra       Entered at the Post-Office at New York, as Second-claas Mail Matter
MACHINE POLITICS
AND
MONEY IN ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY
BY
WILLIAM M. IVINS
Copyright, 1887, by HARPER & BROTHnRS
Books you may hold readily in your hand are thti most usefi u, after ad?
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No recent presentation of the abuses which have become part of
the working of the political machinery of our great cities has attracted so much public attention as that made by Mr. Win. M. Ivins,
the City Chamberlain of New York. His address before the Commonwealth Club, with its supplementary papers, has formed the subject of newspaper discussion throughout the country, and has awakened an amount of interest in the reform of party methods of
nomination and election which is well calculated to encourage those
who have long regarded this reform as one of the most pressing
necessities of our time. We have asked Mr. Ivins to place these
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to the people of this city, and bearing with manifest directness on
the conditions of pure politics in every part of the country. As an
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a contribution to the knowledge possessed by the great body of
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I




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
THE papers here published were entirely
occasional in their character. The first chapter was originally printed in the form of two
articles in Harper's Weekly in the fall of 1884;
the second and third chapters were part of
a speech delivered at the February, 1887,
dinner of the Commonwealth Club of New
York. When asked to estimate the cost of
an election in New York City, I found it
necessary, in order to make the matter clear,
to discuss not only our existing election law,
but the relation of our party machinery to
that law; and inasmuch as a knowledge of
the constitution of the "Machine" is absolutely essential to an intelligent understand



4


PREFACE.


ing of the motives and methods of the use
of money in our elections, I have now thought
it advisable to introduce the entire subject
by the description of the "Machine" contained in the first chapter. The fourth and
fifth chapters were called out by the general interest shown by the press and the
public after the publication of the speech
at the Commonwealth Club.   They were
contributed to the New York Evening Post,
with the view of somewhat elaborating the
points already touched upon, as well as of
suggesting a remedy for the evils which I
had already tried to describe. It has been
suggested that in reprinting these papers I
should also present a draft of a bill embodying the general suggestions contained in the
English law, and adapting them to our own
system of election machinery. After mature
consideration, I have thought it better to
leave such a draft-bill as I had prepared unpublished for the present. Furthermore, this




PREFACE.


5


course will have the effect of attracting all
adverse criticism to the general plan, and not
to any special details of a remedial measure.
It is much better, at the present time, that the
general outlines of the English system should
be discussed than that criticism should be
diverted to the consideration of minor details,
such as the number of new officers to be appointed to distribute the ballots at each polling-place, the number of agents to be allowed
to each candidate, the limit of permissible
expenditure, etc. I am convinced that the
fastening of attention on these subordinate
and variable features would now be a mistake, for we are not yet near enough the time
when it shall be necessary to determine upon
them irrevocably. The bill when prepared
should be the result of the most mature
thought of the most experienced men, and
one which will meet all possible objection
other than such as may be fundamental and
general. I therefore think it wiser not to




6


PREFACE.


propose a detailed measure until the debate
has been completed, and yielded its full fruit
of suggestion and criticism. I hold with
Renan that "Time is the necessary collaborator of reason. The main point is to know
how to wait."
I have added, in the form of an Appendix,
a chapter on the actual results of the present
English law as compared with those of a
time antecedent to its enactment, which I
hope will be found of interest to all students
of the subject, although it is scarcely more
than a compendium of newspaper articles.
I now offer the following pages to the public simply as documents pour servir, in the
sincere hope that they may aid in the solution of the very difficult problem of democratic government in great cities.
W. M. I.
NEw YORK, March, 1887.




MACHINE POLITICS
AND
MONEY IN ELECTIONS
IN
NEW YORK CITY.
CHAPTER I.
THE MACHINE.
IT has been truly said that a citizen of New
York generally knows little, if anything, more of
the actual organization of political parties in this
city than a Frenchman or an Englishman. The
external working of party machinery is familiar,
but the methods and motives which control the
Machines are very little understood. The Machine
may be organized nominally on the basis of Assembly Districts, as in Tammany Hall and the Republican party, or on that of Election Districts, as
in the County Democracy; but there is really no
difference between the two systems, the actual unit




8


MACHINE POLITICS.


of organization always being the Assembly District. Of these latter there are in the city of New
York twenty-four, which, in turn, are at present
(1887) divided into eight hundred and twelve election districts, as will be shown more in detail hereafter. The Machine is governed directly-from the
centre, and is a close corporation. The Assembly
District organizations receive their policy, even in
matters purely local, fronl the central authority,
although this is not so uniformly the rule in the
Republican as in the Democratic party.
Nominally all power ultimately falls into the
hands of a caucus of the leaders of the twentyfour Assembly Districts, but it actually rests with
one or perhaps half a dozen individuals in this
interior cabal, who are absolute. This one or tlese
few are men who hold prominent offices, or who
have independent means and are ambitious for
control. The former of these two classes supply
offices for their subordinates and followers, and
the latter class contribute out of their personal
means for campaign purposes. In conferencewhich is a formality always strictly adhered tothese leaders can invariably compel adherence to
their views by at least a majority of the caucus,




THE MACHINE.


9


and thus through the formal government of the
majority give the semblance of democratic methods to the course pursued. In these caucuses the
inquiry is not what the district leaders or the people of the districts really think best, but what the
few men in control have decided upon. So true
is this that there are few men of practical experience in politics who have not at times heard as
serious complaints from the captains of tens and
of hundreds because of their inability to find out
exactly what is expected of them, as because they
are deprived of a voice in framing the policy of
the party.
A single department is of itself enough to furnisl the foundations of a Machine. It only requires that the department be one in which there
are a score of fair places for superior politicians,
and a laborers' pay-roll for the rank and file. A.
great department like that of the Public Works
can, when in the hands of a politician, always be
controlled for the maintenance of a powerful organization which shall for all practical purposes
be the personal property of the departmental head.
The better offices are distributed among those who
are expected to fill the position of district leaders;




10


MACHINE POLITICS.


or if, as is frequently the case, some man who has
a passion for politics, but who does not care for
an office, assumes the leadership of a district, one
of the better offices is given to such person as he
shall select, who becomes the district lieutenant.
These leaders and lieutenants are expected, in conformity with the tacitly understood terms of their
contract, to obey the central power uncomplainingly, and to devote so much of their days, nights,
and salaries as may be necessary to keep their
districts properly organized, and as much of the
remnant of their time as they conveniently can to
the service of the city. The offices thus come to
be regarded by professionals simply as a means of
supplying a livelihood to those who are willing to
devote tlemselves to politics and the service of
their leaders. In other words, the offices only too
frequently are used merely as a means of paying
politicians for pursuing their profession in the service of a party or of a particular individual. And
while a majority of the leaders and subordinates
who hold office perform sufficiently faithful service to the city, but a small minority escape the detailed duties of the Machine in addition to those
which they render the public officially. The capi



THE MACHINE.


11


tal of the Machines thus consists of the nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-five subordinate places
on the pay-rolls; this number does not include the
Congressmen, Senators, Assemblymen, Aldermen,
and eighty-three important officers, such as heads
of city departments or bureaus, nor does it include
any subordinate employes of the state or national
Government whatever.
The duties of an Assembly District leader are
manifold. If he wishes a strong following in his
district he must be at the service day and night
of his neighbors, who, in return for the services
rendered them, are willing to attend primaries or
vote at elections. A young man is arrested for
fast driving: the district leader must visit a police
justice and intercede for him. An old man wants
to keep an apple-stand on a frequented corner: the
district leader must see his Alderman and have a
special ordinance passed over the Mayor's veto. A
city ordinance has been violated, and the violator
reported by the police to the Corporation Attor:
ney: the district leader must see the Corporation
Attorney and have the complaint pigeon-holed;
or, if he fail in this, he must see the justice and
have it dismissed when it is called for trial. If a




12


MACHINE POLITICS.


laborer who can serve him is out of work, he must
find something for him to do on the streets, or on
the aqueduct, or in the parks. If a builder employing a number of men, or a lot-owner who is
putting up a house, wants four or five feet of the
city's property, free of cost, on which to build a
"swell front" or a bay-window, the leader must
see that the application runs through the board,
with or without the Mayor's consent. If a corporation wants to dig a vault under the street to its
very centre, he must lend a hand to put the matter
through. If a liquor dealer is arrested for selling
without a license, he must leave no stone unturned
to secure his escape unpunished. Finally, if a poor
devil is in want of a dollar, he must let him have
it. He must attend all political meetings, go to
club picnics, attend church fairs, not permit himself to be forgotten in the liquor stores and other
places of frequent resort, and must hold himself
generally in readiness to do whatever is required
of him by the superior chiefs.
He needs a number of captains, and if any respect be paid to the plan of organization on the
basis of election districts, lie should have one in
each of these minor divisions. Eacll of these cap



THE MACHINE.


13


tains has some sort of place for himself, or his son,
or his nephew, and has some sort of control over
the voters of two or three thickly populated houses.
If he is enterprising, he buys a horse and cart and
hires a driver, and then has them employed in the
service of the city, in street repairs, in removing
ashes and sweepings, or in sprinkling the streets.
If he is enabled to put two or three carts to work,
he is peculiarly fortunate, is sure of an income,
can enjoy his leisure, and devote himself to demonstrating the honesty, capacity, and superior democracy or republicanism  of his employers, besides
doing all manner of neighborly offices for those
who may need them. He obeys his Assembly District leader, whoever he may be, respecting the office rather than the man. Whenever the central
caucus or the boss desires it, they can reorganize
the district, and select a new leader, to wlhom all
the captains must report, or surrender their livings. They consequently succumb, and give the
most perfect demonstration of the "cohesive power of public plunder," or, as Demosthenes called
it, the "cement of office." There is no patronage,
however, that a district leader desires so much and
seeks so eagerly as places on the police force. As




14


MACHINE POLITICS.


a patrolman his friend can, in an unobtrusive and
quiet way, render him and the party valuable service. A roundsman is more desirable still, while a
sergeant'or captain is a real power if he takes any
interest in politics-and some of them do.
It is in this connection that the Civil Service
laws are destined to play havoc with the Machine,
because, although removals for disobedience of political orders can still be made, the places cannot
be disposed of to new men. The most thoroughgoing Machine politician, if Commissioner of Public Works or of Street Cleaning, could no longer
make either of those departments the cadre of a
political organization in the good old - fashioned
way, for all appointments other than of laborers
and heads of bureaus have now to be made from
lists submitted by the Civil Service examiners.
Consequently it is now better for a commissioner,
if a politician, to overlook political disobedience,
if not too grave, than to create a vacancy, and run
the risk of losing the political value of the place
altogether through the possible necessity for appointing some qualified veteran of the war, some
person of opposite political faith, or some graduate from a counting-house, who may have taken a




THE MACHINE.


is


high mark in the competitive examinations. The
politicians, always fertile in expedients, are continually inventing ways to evade the spirit of these
laws, but it will not be long before their resources
for evasion shall be exhausted and all possible contingencies fully provided for by the regulations
and schedules.
In this way a compact body of men is always in
existence for party purposes. First, there are the
bosses, sachems, commissioners, or what not; then
the Assembly District leaders; then eight hundred or more minor lieutenants or election district captains for each organization, each of whom
can command the services, in return for those rendered by themselves, of from five to ten voters.
Tlhe figures thus run up into thousands, and the
organization not only being compact, but reaching
into every district, the material exists for large and
enthusiastic mass-meetings, for well-attended primaries, for an active canvass throughout the city,
and, above all, for a thorough manning of the
polls on election day. The internal organization
of parties is such that independent and thoughtful
voters can take part in preliminary party activity
only as counters in a game played by professionals,




16


MACHINE POLITICS.


or at the cost of seeing every effort at independent activity nullified by the power of the Machine. Sometimes this nullification is effected by
a suborned majority, sometimes by physical violence, and sometimes through outright fraud and
the falsification of the records. If this be objected to, and an appeal be taken to the central
body, a hearing may be accorded, but there is no
record of a case in which such an appeal has ever
been determined against the district leader, or the
man whom the "bosses" had prearranged should
be assisted to supplant the district leader.
The Machine organization, then, takes some such
form as this: A County Committee, consisting of
so many members from each of the several Assembly Districts, who in their several localities make
up the Assembly District committees; an executive committee of the County Committee, made up
of the leaders of each Assembly District and a few
of their most influential lieutenants and friends;
a sub-committee of this executive committee, consisting of the Assembly District leaders, about
twenty-four in number, who in their turn are governed by those who employ them for political service and pay them out of the public fund. The




THE MACHINE.


17


boss consults with the leaders, and does what they
wish if it accords with his views; otherwise the
leaders do what the boss wishes. Then they call
the Executive Committee together in order that
it may act spontaneously in the premises, which it
generally does in such a way as to prove conclusively the unanimity of purpose in that body.
The necessary resolutions are then passed for submission by way of report to the General Committee of the county, by whom they are uniformly
carried, thus expressing the single will of that body.
At first sight it would appear that a body of two
thousand or more men could not be easily handled,
and neither could it be if each one had individual
views; but the politicians well know that, with
such organizations as theirs, a large body is much
more easily managed than a small one. Each dis- 
trict leader is expected to, and does, answer for his
district contingent, and in the city of New York,
consequently, it only needs that thirteen out of the
twenty-four leaders should be agreed for these thirteen to carry committee or convention, since they
are really and directly responsible for all of the
representatives from  their districts.  Tills rule
works particularly well in the case of certain-con2




1i


MACHINE POLITICS.


ventions, like the County Convention, where there
are always two thousand or more delegates, and
which Convention is practically the General Committee under another name. The twenty-four leaders first having agreed with the boss upon a ticket,
the Convention is called together, and the twentyfour (who are always members of the Convention),
through their subordinates, confirm the work as
agreed upon. If any one objects he is laughed at;
perhaps he is heard, but no harm is done, and the
vote will stand anywhere from unanimity to two
thousand against ten or a hundred.
By such a Machine the politicians really control
the city, for they know that the very laws conspire in their favor. The politicians begin by
making it impossible for any man who earns his
living outside of politics to keep up with them,
and then the law steps in and calls for the election of so many persons that it is practically inpossible for the voter to learn anything about the
candidates, or to wisely determine for whom he
should vote, much less to put any one in nomination with the hope of election.  He usually
falls back upon his party nominee, and so the Machine is justified and kept in power by the votes




TIlE MACHINE.


19


of the very people whom it has practically deprived of political equality. In this way leaders
who do not get appointive offices are elected to
the Board of Aldermen, the Senate, the Assembly, or to a civil justiceship, as the case may be.
Thus the vicious circle is completed.
The politicians and many of the newspapers
alike say that the remedy is for the people to attend the primaries. Now of these latter there are
three classes: the Republican, where the voting is
done by Assembly Districts and from the rolls of
the district organization; the Tammany, where it
is done by Assembly Districts, and where every
one whom the inspectors permit may vote; and
the County Democracy, where it is done by election districts and from the registry lists. In the
case of the Republican primaries the elections are
controlled by committees on Revision of Rolls, by
shortening the hours for voting, by loading the
line, and by the inspectors who make the returns.
In the case of Tammany there is nothing to be
done except formally to register the will of the
leader, and what is called the primary is usually
only a gathering of the clans to get a drink, and
incidentally vote the ticket put into their hands.




20


MACHINE POLITICS.


In the case of the County Democracy there is a
greater show of fairness at the polls in election
districts, but one can never tell who has been
elected in case of a contest until the matter has
been submitted to a committee on contested seats,
and then the overwhelming strength and startling
regularity of the leader's friends are always demonstrated. A point of the utmost consequence is
the determination of the place at which the primary is to be held, and the place being named by
the district leader, the voting is usually done at
that liquor store, cigar store, livery-stable, or otlher
place where the contestant favored by the leader
can best control the house, its exits and entrances,
and can most easily and speedily gather his voters
together. As a consequence, nothing is more eagerly sought for, where it is apparent that there
is to be a closely contested primary, than the determination of the place for holding it.
The following very instructive table has been
prepared by Mr. Robert Graham, of New York,
showing how many of the primary and convention meetings held immediately preceding the
election of 1884 were held in liquor saloons or
next door to them:*
* See Appendix I.




— 4
EI


I                            - o                          -  @  E
Congressional Convention.  6   7    6.   19..   1....  1    3.. 3     6
Assembly Convention.... 17    18    19   9   63..   3   1   3   7    7         4  12   26
Aldermanic Convention... 17   19    19   9   64..   3   1   3   7    7   2     4  12   25
Primaries.............. 16   19  443    9  487..   3  65  3   71    8   2   204  12  226
Totals.... 56   63   487  27  633.. 10   67   9  86   25   7   215  36  28


Political Meetings held in Saloon............ 633
Political Meetings held next door to Saloon...  86
719
Political Meetings held apart from Saloons..  283
Total...................  1,002




22


MACHINE POLITICS.


The apparent disproportion between the County Democracy and the other organizations in the
use of liquor saloons is due to the fact that the
former has at least eight hundred and twelve primaries, one for each election district, while the latter have only twenty-four each, or one for each
Assembly District.  Where eight hundred and
twelve primaries are to be held the number of
voters to be accommodated at each is naturally
small, and inexpensive places have to be found.
To the local politician the public-house thus presents superior attractions from whatever point of
view it may be regarded.
Chief among all the benefits accruing to the
party through such an organization as has been
described is the control of the election booths and
ballots.  According to long-established custom,
each party must have a ticket booth for each
polling-place in the city, attached to which booth
there are a number of paid ticket peddlers, who
receive five dollars each on the average for their
day's work at the polls.  All tickets, folded,
bunched, and bagged, are originally distributed
from headquarters to the twenty-four Assembly
District leaders, and they in their turn carry the




THE MACHINE.


23


distribution down into election districts.  This
enables them to control the situation so far as
their localities are concerned, for they can unbunch any candidate they like, and bunch any
other they wish, and there are districts in which
all the chances are in favor of the bunch being
voted as made up. In their turn the election district peddlers at the polls can do the same thing
in a small way upon the day of election, and cut
and trade as they prefer or as they are directed.
Upon occasion this sort of business is done by the
bosses themselves, as in the Mayoral election of
1882, when the Republican machinists sent out
from headquarters the tickets of the Tammany
candidate for Mayor in place of those of their
own nominee. There are some districts in the
city where this ability to handle the tickets has
been worth a year's income to the local leaders.
These are but a few of the details of political
organization in the city of New York, and the
statements, necessarily general, are every one of
them  susceptible of rich illustration.  It is no
wonder that honest citizens can never get control
of the Machine from within, and can rarely successfully fight it from without, for in either event




24


MACHINE POLITICS.


they must devote so much time to it that tley
have not enough left to earn a living. The Machine is governed by a singleness of purpose,
which produces a compactness against which good
citizens can only break themselves to pieces when
fighting it from within, while if they organize an
outside opposition in which everything is done by
honest discussion, compactness is almost impossible
of aclievement. The single matter of properly
manning the polls requires tile action of at least
several thousand picked and loyal Imen, who sliould
stand at the bootls from  principle and not for
money, and to be sure of such a body requires little less tlan a revolution in public feeling. Tlose
who do this work for their parties are either office-lholders or paid peddlers, and in either case
are only earning their living.  Tlle politicians
would not be difficult to beat if the people would
organize for their own protection and from principle; but it is the Inatter of organization which
is difficult, and no one understands tills better
than tle bosses.
But the Machines have other immense advantages. Not only does our army of policemen contribute to the election expenses of the several Ma



THE MACHINE.


25


chines, but they have it within their power to
become the mightiest of electioneering agents, and
to compel great classes into voting as they wish.
In this respect, and notably when in Republican
hands, the District Attorney's office has sometimes
been a very powerful political engine.  It has
never been very difficult to tell how the liquor
dealers, gamblers, dance-house keepers, and the
drunken and disorderly generally would vote: like
other people, they are very careful to look out for
number one. The community thought tlat the
law entitling them to watchers at the canvass of
the vote after the close of the polls would secure
them an honest count, but the Board of Police
appoint the canvassers and poll-clerks whom tile
machinists select, and the intelligent and ingenious policeman, if a partisan, need never long want
all excuse for ejecting the official watchers fromn
the room, as more than one reputable but misguided man who has volunteered to serve as such
can testify.
The Machine suffices for all tilings, even for the
support of a powerful newspaper organ. Nothing
could excel the simplicity of the device by which
a certain daily paper in this city was at a critical




26


MACHINE POLITICS.


time kept alive as a distributor of news, as a defender of the " bosses," and at the same time made
self-supporting, and even enabled to pay a dividend on its stock, tile majority of which was held
by those very bosses. There are a good many
liquor dealers in New York; they are numbered
by thousands, and are all required to liave licenses.
These licenses are given by the Board of Excise.
Tlhis board, being agreed on party policy, had only
to demand of every liquor dealer the production
of his receipt for one or more subscriptions to the
daily organ before granting a license, and the circulation of the paper was assured, and in those
very places, the liquor stores and political exchanges, where it would do most good. And this
is no fanciful case, but matter of party history.
The Machine finds but little difficulty in raising
the necessary funds to defray its expenses. Tllis
is particularly the case with the majority Machines,
whose nominations are equivalent to electiois.
They can collect largely from actual office-holders,
and can practically put up the offices at auction to
the highest, bidder, and impose such assessments as
they see fit. If the natural expenses of a campaign
are heavy, so much the better for the Machine,




THE MACHINE.


27


and so much the worse for the people. The Machine can raise the money; the advocates of an
independent and honest movement cannot. And
yet in the long-run the people pay these expenses.
They are unwilling to contribute to secure good
government, but in effect they contribute to perpetuate the bad; for those who pay the assessments to rup the Machine get the money from
the people by way of salaries, and eventually it all
comes into the tax budget. But the average ratepayer is politically torpid, or timid and shortsighted.
It will be seen from this survey, as well as from
what is to follow, that the Machine is built up on
the spoils of place, and the necessity for voluntary
provision by the electors of an extra-legal election
machinery.




CHAPTER II.


THE ELECTION LAWS.
IN endeavoring to eliminate from the mass of
rumor and general indefinite knowledge definite
facts, as nearly as they are ascertainable, concerning the expenditure of money in elections, whlether
paid out of the public treasury or by individuals,
and the manner of its collection and disbursement,
it is necessary, after knowing something of the organization of the Macline, to understand the election laws. That the facts are such as to demonstrate the existence of a great evil, we all know in
a rough-and-ready way. How great that evil is,
and exactly how it affects and modifies the purposes for which the law invests us all with the
elective franchise, can only be known, however,
when the facts are laid before us with something
of the exactness and definiteness of a financial
statement; and while, to my mind, there is no
question of the day of greater importance than




THE ELECTION LAWS.


29


this, there is none concerning which accurate data
are more difficult of ascertainment. The figures
given in the newspapers or talked of at the clubs
are rarely to be relied upon, although sometimes
approximately correct. The men who raise and
the men who expend the money, as a rule, keep
their knowledge to themselves; and one not in
the secret is rarely if ever able to discover the
amount of money spent at an election by parties
as parties, or by the individual candidates as such.
The very secretness of the ways in which the
money is raised and disbursed renders tle correct
figures almost impossible of access. Nevertlheless,
it is necessary to get at tlem, not vaguely but accurately, if our work is to be more valuable than
a lot of useless guesses or unreliable gossip.
In this regard we are in exactly the samne position to-day that England was in prior to the passage of the Prevention of Corruplt Practices Act.
There the public was regarded as being so plainly
and clearly entitled to this knowledge that the
amount of permissible expenditure by candidates
is limited by law, and the candidate compelled to
make a sworn statement of the amount expended.
Here, however, we have no such aid to the discov



30


MACHINE POLITICS.


ery of the facts. Under our system it is impossible for any one to get at and understand the details
of election expenditure without a really thorough
and accurate knowledge of our election machinery
and our election laws. Not only is the present
expenditure in and about elections almost directly
attributable to the insufficiency of our election
laws, but our political Machines, with all their
worst evils, are the result of that insufficiency far
more than of any inherent tendency to corruption.
So long as the Election Law remains as it is today, party machinery will be dominant, corruption
will be rife, the primary will be a farce, and the
legislative recognition of parties, party machinery,
and party primaries will only intensify the evils.
The general theory of our law is that it takes
no notice of parties. Until very recently it did
not recognize their existence at all. The point of
view of the law was that every man is entitled to
vote as he pleases; to name his own candidate,
cast his own ballot, and, in a word, in the matter
of the franchise to act with perfect independence.
The original theory was that any voter might
write the name of any person whomsoever upon
any piece of paper, take it to the polls, and cast it




THE ELECTION LAWS.


31


as his ballot; that the law knew no difference between men or between parties, and that all men
being equal, if some saw fit to act together as an organized party, they were entirely in their right in
so doing. From the very beginning, however, the
independent voters were the stragglers, and parties practically controlled nominations, and one or
the other of the party nominees was almost invariably elected. The first expenditure in and about
elections, therefore, was that incident to securing
the control of delegates to conventions and leaders
of caucuses; the second, that to secure the election at the polls.
Under our early system the Election Law silmply called for the selection of sworn inspectors.
The inspector was supposed to know every voter
who came to the polls, either of his own knowledge or by the assistance of the neighbors of the
voter; and every one who came to the polls was
permitted to cast his ballot with no other impediment than that of swearing it in in case he was
challenged. It is not necessary to discuss the grad-ual evolution of the present Election Law in our
great cities. The simple primitive system practically held good in this city until the times of




32


MACHINE POLITICS.


William M. Tweed. Then it became necessary to
limit by legislation the almost complete and perfect freedom of individual action in and about
elections, in order to prevent frauds as great as
that which in this State resulted in the counting
out of one Governor who was elected and counting in of another who was not elected, as is generally believed to have been done in 1868. No
measure ever proposed by the Legislature of this
State really met with more opposition than the
original Registration Act for the city of New York.
It was decried as undenocratic; and had it not
been for tlhe absolute necessity for some such prevention of criminality at elections, it could not
lhave been passed.
This law provided for the registration and identification of all voters. It was the parent of our
present systen, which must be summarized in order to bring out clearly and perfectly the relation
between it and the political machinery of our different municipal parties.
At the election in this city tile ballot-boxes
used for receiving the ballots are marked and
numbered successively from one to eight, and are
supplied at the public expense. The manner of




THE ELECTION LAWS.


33


printing, folding, and indorsing the ballots, as
well as their size, shape, and the quality of paper
used, is generally prescribed by law. The polling-places are open at six o'clock in the morning,
and close at four o'clock in the afternoon. The
election and canvass of the votes is to be conducted in conformity with the general election laws
of the State, except as they are modified by
special legislation affecting the city itself. The
Board of Police is required to establish a Bureau
of Elections, the force of which bureau are subject to such rules, regulations, and orders as the
Board of Police may from time to time adopt;
and it is conducted by a single person, to be selected by the Board of Police, whose term of office is three years, and whose salary is fixed by the
Police Board, but which may not exceed $5000 a
year. It is the duty of the Board of Police to
cause books to be prepared for the registry of
names and facts required by law; the form   of
these registers is prescribed by statute. The Board
of Police is authorized to divide the city into election districts. Each election district is to contain,
as nearly as practicable, two hundred and fifty voters on the basis of the registration. Under the
3




34


MACHINE POLITICS.


present law the Board of Police may in every
even year divide such election districts as by
the registration of the two preceding years shall
be found to have an average of over four hundred voters. Ic is the duty of the chief of the
Bureau of Elections to preserve the records of
the Police Board pertaining to the conduct of
the affairs of his bureau, prepare and furnish all
necessary registers, books, maps, forms, oaths, certificates, blanks, and instructions for the use of
the inspectors of the election, and to have the
custody of and keep all records and papers. He
appoints a chief clerk, and the Board of Police
furnish him with such other clerical force among
the patrolmen in the Department as he may from
time to time need. All inspectors of elections
and poll-clerks in the city are selected and appointed by the Board of Police, who have power
to make all necessary removals and transfers, and
fill all vacancies. They are called upon to appoint
four inspectors in eacl district; and in a provision
of the law vesting them with this power we find a
most curious recognition of the existence of two
parties, and only two, which section of the statute
reads as follows:




THE ELECTION LAWS.


35


"It shall be the duty of the said Board of Police
annually, in the months of August and September
in each succeeding year, in each election district
of said city or county, to select to serve as inspectors of election four persons, two of whom on State
issues shall be of different faith and opinion from
their associates, and those appointed to represent
the party and political minority on State issues-in
the said city and county, to be named solely by
such of the Commissioners of the Police in the
Police Board as are the representatives of such
political minority."
These inspectors are required to be citizens of
good character, able to read, write, and speak the
English language, qualified voters of the city and
county, and not candidates for any office to be
voted for by the electors of the district for which
they shall be selected; but no person is required
to be a resident of the election district for which
he shall be appointed an inspector. After nomination and approval they are sworn into office, the
term of which is one year, unless they are sooner
removed for want of the requisite qualifications.
Two persons of different political faith and opinions on State issues, and possessing the same qual



36


MACHINE POLITICS.


ifications as those required for inspectors, are required to be in all respects similarly selected and
appointed as poll - clerks for each election district, their term of office being also for one year.
The law provides for the compensation of these
inspectors and poll-clerks at the rate of $7.50
per day for each day's service at any registration or election, which compensation is paid on
the certificate of the chief of the Bureau of Elections.
The inspectors are vested with power to preserve
order at the place of registration and at the polls
on election-day, to suppress riot, protect voters and
challengers, and to appoint electors to assist them
in so doing.  There are four registration days
prior to election. The registers are made in triplicate, and prior to election are published in full in
the City Record.
At the close of the poll the vote is canvassed by
the inspectors of election in public and without
adjournment, until it is completed, and no canvass
can be made unless at least six persons, if so many
claim that privilege, are allowed to be present and
so near that they can see whether the duties of the
inspector are faithfully performed; each candidate




THE ELECTION LAWS.


37


for an office to be filled at an election is permitted
to designate by certificate in writing, signed by
him, one person in each election district for which
he is a candidate to be present at the canvass of
the ballots for that office, and this witness is entitled
to the protection prescribed by the law.
The statute is long, intricate, and complex, consisting of ninety-two sections, the last but one of
which provides that the legal compensation of all
inspectors of election, and poll-clerks, and other
officers of election, the cost and expenses of all
necessary election notices, posters, maps, advertisements, registers, books, blanks, and stationery, the
rent and cost of fitting up, warming, lighting,
cleaning, and safe-keeping of the places of registration, of furnishing, repairing, and carting ballot-boxes, and of all supplies of every kind and
nature for all elections in the city of New York,
shall be a city charge.
This statute has been taken as a model in many
States, and it certainly does almost entirely prevent the evils from which we suffered so long,
that is, open frauds at elections in the casting and
counting of the ballots. But the occasion which
gave rise to the statute also dictated the limita



38


MACHINE POLITICS.


tions of its application. It has reference only to
so much of the machinery of election as refers
to the registration, taking and canvassing of the
vote; and although it prescribes the form in which
tickets are to be printed, the number of tickets, the
manner of folding and indorsing, it is entirely silent upon the vital point as to how the tickets are
to be distributed.
Now this very point is the pivotal one around
which the entire political machinery of this city
revolves, whether that machinery be Detnocratic
or Republican.  It exists for only one purpose,
the securing of the vote on election-day, and it is
organized accordingly. In its organization it actually makes the Election Law not only an adjunct
to the Machine, but treats the election officers as
so many men in the pay of the city, whom it can
count upon to cast their bailots as the party desires, and to keep a close scrutiny upon all voters
whatever, from a partisan as well as an official
point of view.*
* See Appendix II.




CHAPTER III.
THE COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY.
IN discussing the cost of elections, we must begin with the election machinery itself. In tile city
of New York there are to-day 812 election districts. The law provides for four inspectors and
two poll-clerks to each district, making an aggregate of 4872 election officers paid out of the City
Treasury; 2436 of which are Democrats, and 2436
of which are Republicans.  The Republican Police Commissioners appoint the Republican election officers; the Democratic Police Commissioners those who are Democratic.
The Democratic party, however, is divided into
a number of factions, and the Democratic members of the Board of Police have for years required that the representation of the factions
should be in proportion to their recognition as to
regularity by the Democratic State Committee,




40


MACHINE POLITICS.


In this way Tammany Hall Democrats have had
two-fifths of one-half, the County Democrats twofifths of one-half, and Irving Hall one-fifth of one
half of the election officers.
This system, sanctioned by the statute and the
Supreme Court, consequently enables the Republicans to supply places to three men for each election district in the city for five days each at $7.50
apiece a day, and the Democrats do the same thing
in the ratio of division which has been mentioned.
The total appropriation for all election purposes
whatever in the city of New York last year (1886),
made under the provisions of the Election Law,
was $226,000.
It is customary for the designation of the polling-places also to be treated as patronage, but it
is not bestowed directly on the political parties as in the case of inspectors and poll-clerks.
It is police captains' patronage. Under instructions of the chief of the Bureau of Electionswho was for many years, if he is not yet, a party
"boss "-the Superintendent of Police each year
asks'the captains to recommend one place in each
election district in their respective precincts to be
rented as a polling-place. The owner of a butch



COST OF ELECTIONS IN          NEW   YORK     CITY. 41
er's, baker's, barber's, or tobacconist's shop regards
the designation of his place as a valuable favor,
and the allotment is much sought after in the several election districts. It is not only a good advertisement, but the lessor of the premises is well
paid for advertising his business in this way. The
eight hundred and twelve places are accordingly
selected by the police captains, and the majority
being Republicans, the greater part of this patronage is awarded to Republicans of good party
standing.
The appropriation to the Police Board by the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment for last
year was made in detail as follows:
For compensation of inspectors and poll-clerks
(section 1854, New York City Consolidation
Act of 1882)........................ $145,480
For rent of polling-places and fitting up the
same, new ballot-boxes, carting ballot-boxes,
stationery, maps, and printing, etc..........  40,720
For advertising election districts, polling-places,
and the official canvass, for advertising election notices by Clerk of Common Council, for
advertising election notices by the Sheriff,
and for serving supervisors with notices of
elections by the Sheriff...................  25,000
For expenses of special election in Sixth Assembly District on December 29,1885......  2,800




42


MACHINE POLITICS..


For compensation of clerks to Board of Canvassers................................  $2,000
$216,000
For salary of the chief of the Bureau of Elections.................................  5,000
For salary of the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of
Elections..............................  1,500
6,500
$222,500
By subsequent transfer $3500 was added, making the total as
given at page 40 of $226,000.
In addition to this patronage growing out of the
express provisions of the State law, there is a
large volume of patronage of much the same cllaracter rising out of the application of the United
States law to elections in those years when United
States officers are chosen, or say every other year.
The national law calls for the appointment of two
supervisors of election for each election district,
who are to be paid $5 per day for not over ten
days' service. They are appointed by a judge of
the United States Court. During the last election
the supervisors served    from   one to seven days
each.   The   Treasury Department has decided,
whether rightfully or wrongfully, that none of
them can be paid for more than five days' service.
Assuming that they be paid for an average of five




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 43


days' service only, we have $25 for each supervisor, two supervisors for each district, or say $50
per election district for eight hundred and twelve
election districts, or $40,600.
In addition to the supervisors, the United States
Marshal is authorized to appoint on the application of two citizens in writing as many deputy
marshals as he pleases. During the last election
the United States Marshal appointed but two marshals from each district, and limited their term of
office to two days each, at $5 per day. This is the
smallest expenditure that has ever been made in
this respect since the enactment of the law under
which the assistant marshals are appointed, the
Republicans having invariably appointed a larger
number to serve for a greater length of time.
In addition to this, the United States Marshal
appointed a general aid for ten days at $5 per day,
and three Assembly District marshals for each district at $5 per day for six days each; he also appointed three marshals-at-large for ten days each.
He advises me that his printing bill for blanks for
applications, appointments, instructions, etc., was
$1500, and his payments to marshals $22,000,
which, with the payment to supervisors of $40,600,




44


MACHINE POLITICS.


makes an actual total for last year of $64,100
for this purpose. These places have heretofore
always been treated as party patronage, and the
money has been distributed accordingly.
The legal machinery of elections thus involves
the expenditure of $290,000 as a minimum, paid
out of the public purse and treated as party patronage, which expenditure in Presidential elections
of the past has been greater than this by fully
$200,000, incident to the immense number of appointments made by the United States Marshal,
and the special work done by the Chief Supervisor of Elections. I have not had the time at
my disposal to get the exact figures for any but
last year, however, and these latter I give on official authority. This fund of $290,000 is practically used, if not to purchase, at least to assure
and guarantee the vote of at least ten persons for
each election district. The election districts will
average about 300 voters, so that 3 per cent. of the
voters are employed in or about the elections in
accordance with the provisions of law as officers
of the law, and the election district leader sees
that they are the first men to vote, and to vote
right.




COST. OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 45


The inspectors, poll-clerks, supervisors, and marshals are generally selected for the same reasons,
and in the same way in which the workers at the
polls are chosen. It was customary during the
entire time the Republicans had control of the
appointment of the supervisors and marshals for
them to distribute a certain number of blanks
among the district leaders of the Republican party
and of Tammany Hall, to be filled up with such
names as the Assembly District leader should
choose; the men so chosen were appointed if their
character was not flagrantly bad, and many times
during the earlier administration of the law their
character was not looked to at all. As to the inspectors and poll-clerks, it is customary for each
organization, knowing exactly how many men it
should get, to divide the number up among the
Assembly Districts, and permit each Assembly District leader to name his representatives. This is
an element of personal strength to the leader, and
a guarantee of the political soundness, both as to
general faith and fidelity to the organization, of
the person appointed.
Now, as has been pointed out, the entire political machinery of New York City is incident to




46


MACHINE POLITICS.


the main fact of getting in the votes on electionday. Every part of the Machine is organized with
this object in view and no other.
There are three well-organized Machines in New
York City. Each of these Machines, it will be
remembered, has twenty-four district organizations, corresponding with the Assembly Districts
of the city. Each Assembly District organization consists of a committee varying in numbers
according to the general plan of organization. 
Ultimately and essentially, however, all the organizations are alike; each Assembly District is
actually controlled by the Assembly District leader, and the caucus of the Assembly District leaders
constitutes the main-spring of the party. It is the
source of all authority, and determines all questions of policy. Each of the parties asserts that
its policy is dictated either by its Conventions or
by its County Committee; but, in fact, the delegates to the Conventions or to the County Conmittee from  each Assembly District consist of
only such persons as are satisfactory to the district leader. The district leader himself is, as a
rule, chosen either by the boss of the party or by
a vote of the majority of the other district leaders,




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 47
except in those cases where they have compelled
their recognition by the strength of their personal
following in the district. Committees of the organization have the power of passing upon the
validity or invalidity of all primary and committee elections, and, as a rule, decide all colItsts as
the recognized district leader desires. For the
purpose of showing the best results in his district,
it is customary for each district leader to have a
representative to look after the election district,
commonly called an election district captain.
These men are of the utmost importance to the
Machine, and every Assein bly District leader strives
to quarter his election district captains on the city.
This he succeeds in doing sooner or later. If the
Republicans are out of power in every other department, and cannot take care of the " boys" in
any other way, they at least always have three
places to dispose of, which are worth $7.50 a day
for five days in each election district; but they
are not reduced to this sore necessity. The Democratic leader either finds a place for the friends
of the Republican leader, with whom he is co-operating, or when the Republican leader is in power it is the latter who finds places for his Demo



48


MACHINE POLITICS.


cratic friends and coadjutors; for the professional
or caste feeling is very strong, and the politicians
of all parties recognize their ultimate community
of interests at all times. Sooner or later, on the
pay-rolls of the city, which contain 9955 names,
exclusive of school-rolls, or 13,749 all told, which
latter figure includes 25 Aldermen and 83 chief
officers, and excludes all Assemblymen, Senators,
and national officers, at least four men are taken
care of by each party all the year round in each
of the eight hundred and twelve districts. The
Machine, for the purpose of securing their services in perpetuity, thus has the city pay them as
city employes. This is particularly the case with
regard to the Assembly District leaders. To be
sure, the money paid them out of the city, state,
or national Treasury cannot properly be said to
be money spent in elections, but it is money spent
in maintaining the solidity and perpetuity of the
Machine; it keeps it alive the year round, and
ready for all emergencies, and especially for the
great critical emergency of the election. Without
it each election would find the Machine broken and
scattered, and consequently it has to be considered.
New York City paid its Assembly District lead



COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 49


ers last year $330,000, or an average of $4750 for
each of the seventy-two leaders. This figure includes the estimated income of the Register's office
at $100,000. That is now, however, a salaried office,
yielding only $12,000 per year to its chief. The
amount which is now being actually received by
these leaders fromn the public treasury is $242,000.
Of this amount Tammany Hall gets about $119,000,
divided among eighteen out of twenty-four of its
district leaders. The County Democracy gets about
$90,000, divided among seventeen out of twentyfive of its district leaders. The Republican leaders,
being in the minority party, both in the city and
nation, do not fare so well; but they have hopes,
or have heretofore shared the pay of loyalty. Their
$32,000 is divided among eight of their twentyfour leaders. It must be said, however, in order
to be just, that many of the men among whom
these sums are divided are honest and efficient
public servants, and the city gets full value for the
salaries paid them.
The aggregate of these sums, say $242,000, may
be regarded as the city's permanent investment in
the machines for leadership alone. Certainly not
less than $1,000,000 more is invested in the same
4




50


MACHINE POLITICS.


way in political captains and followers, of whom
it must be said, also, that the great majority render fair service to the city for the salaries paid
them. The Machines thus supported all the year
round find themselves in good condition to take
up the work of organizing a campaign and conducting an election.
When our County Clerk and Register were respectively feed officers, they were frequently called
upon, not only to pay a very high assessment, but
to support a certain number of district leaders,
thus giving these leaders their liberty throughout
the entire year, which they were consequently enabled to devote to the interests of their party and
constituencies; $15,000 to $50,000 has not been regarded as too large an assessment to pay for these
offices. It is an open secret among politicians that
for a number of years three or four people had
from $3000 to $5000 apiece per annum from each
of these offices, who rendered no official service
whatever, and who, nevertheless, were quartered
upon the Shleriff,Register, and the County Clerk,
as only a fair distribution of the income from these
offices to the Machine which presented them to
their holders.




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 51


Prior to election-day each party formally, through
the action of its leaders in caucus, determines upon
how much money shall be allotted by the party,
as such, for expenditure in each election district,
to employ workers at the polls, as it is called.
These workers at the polls are paid an average
of five dollars a day each. The ballots are printed by each Machine for itself, although frequently
they all employ the same printer, which has sometimes in the past produced strange results. It is
usual to select a committee on printing, which
takes charge of the entire matter of getting up the
ballot, seeing that it conforms with the requirements of the law, and that it is folded, bunched,
and distributed throughout the organization.
The manner of distribution is as follows: The
printer bunches the tickets into complete sets.
He then puts, we will say, from two thousand five
hundred to five thousand sets in an election district bag, and then puts one of these bags for each
election district into a larger bag, which is marked
with the number of the Assembly District to which
it is to go. In Tammany Iall and the County
Democracy, on the night before the election, the
distribution of these bags is supervised by the




52


MACHINE POLITICS.


Committee of the organization, the Assembly District bag being given to the Assembly District leader; he in his turn calls together the election district leaders, and places in the hands of each of them
the election district bag. In the Republican party,
however, all tickets are delivered flat, as printed,
to the district leaders, who supervise the folding
and bunching, which is done by the leaders, each
for his own district. This is a right the Republican leaders have never been willing to surrender, as it would materially depreciate the value of
their franchise as leaders. As leaders of the minority party, and often holding the balance of
power, this is of great political or cash value to
them, and cannot be given up to the control of
the central organization any more than any other
valuable proprietary right.
The Assembly District leaders thus come into
possession of the whole of the vital part of the
election machinery. They could meet on the night
before election and destroy the tickets, and no election could take place. It is the possession of this
power which makes them valuable from the point
of view of purchase and sale. Many of the Assembly District leaders in the three organizations




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 53


have exploited this power so successfully and
profitably that they have been able to live throughout the entire year on their income derived from
the handling of the tickets. They can destroy,
rebunch, fail to distribute, and what not, as they
please, and thus give rise to such controversies as
that between Mr. Thorndike Rice and Mr. Michael
Cregan, in which the whole community was lately
interested. They rarely, if ever, take money nominally for dealing with the tickets. It is taken, or
alleged to be taken, for the purpose of securing
the distribution or peddling of the tickets at the
polls, or, as it is called, for the "employment of
workers."
The result of this system of machinery is that,
in order to compete with the professional politicians, it is necessary for any independent body of
citizens to have a very complex Machine, and frequently a very expensive one. In the first place,
the regular Machine is always equipped and prepared to print as well as to distribute a ticket.
These are expensive matters, and the fact of the
expense in this regard alone is a practical deterrent to independent movements for reform. The
Machines are always enabled to print the tickets




54


MACHINE POLITICS.


and distribute them by means of assessments levied
on candidates and office-holders.
First as to assessments-and these assessments,
be it understood, are something entirely distinct
and apart from the amount of moneys paid voluntarily by candidates in the prosecution of their
canvass independent of or accessary to the work
of the Machine. In good years, such as that after
the sale by the Board of Aldermen of the Broadway franchise, the Aldermanic office was nuch
sought after. There were many districts in the
city, consequently, in'which the Republicans, Tammany Hall, and the County Democracy alike assessed Aldermanic candidates from $15 to $25 per
election district. Membership in the Assembly is
not regarded as so valuable as the Aldermanic office, because the former body is larger, the pay
less, the members have to live away from home.
It is usual to assess the Assembly candidate from
$5 to $15 an election district. The office of State
Senator, because it is one of greater influence, and
the term is for two years, is much sought for, and
the assessments vary from $20 to $30 per election district. In some years the expenditure of
Senatorial candidates has been enormous. Thus,




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 55


when Bradley and O'Brien were running, it is understood that each spent $50,000 in the election.
When Morrissey and Schell were running, Morrissey paic an assessment of $10 per election district, wh' e Schell paid one of $50 per election district, anil on the night before election paid $2500
to each of the Assembly District leaders in his
Senatorial district, to "guarantee the result." We
all know how well he succeeded in guaranteeing
iMorrissey's election. In the last election at which
Senators were elected, the Democratic candidates
paid $15 for each election district to Tammany
Hall, and $15 for each election district to the
County Democracy, and $10 for each election district to Irving Hall. Their average assessment was
$500 apiece per Assembly District for the County
Democracy and Tammany Hall, and $10 per election district for Irving Hall. The Democratic candidates for the Senate alone paid at least $30,000
in assessments.
Candidates for Congress are called upon to pay
from $15 to $20 per election district, and when
they are nominated by two or all of the organizations, are required to make the same contribution
to each organization. When there is no union of




56


MACHINE POLITICS.


the Democratic factions for election of members
of Congress, each faction taxes its candidate from
$25 to $30 in an election district. Candidates for
judicial offices have paid as high as $20,000. From
$10,000 to $15,000 is the average assessment for
the Superior and Common Pleas bench, while the
assessment for the Supreme Court bench has frequently been higher than this. The assessment demanded of the Comptroller at his last election was
$10,000. Mayor Hewitt paid $12,000 apiece to
the County Democracy and to Tammany Hall, or
$24,000. Mr. Edson paid, or there was paid for
his account, $10,000 apiece to the County Democracy and Tammany Hall, and $5000 to Irving
Hall, or $25,000. Mayor Grace paid $10,000 to
the County Democracy when he last ran, and the
Citizens' Committee of that year expended about
$10,000 of voluntary contributions. In 1880 Mayor Grace paid $12,500 to Irving Hall and $7500 to
Tammany Hall. In 1878 Mayor Cooper practically created a party, at what cost to himself he only
knows. In 1876 Mayor Ely is reported not to have
paid over $5000. John Reilly is said, upon good
authority, to have paid Tammany an assessment of
$50,000 for the nomination of Register in 1883.




COST OF ELECTIONS IN         NEW    YORK    CITY. 57
An average year would show the following assessments on the basis of two candidates only running in each district, and on the basis of the minimum assessment:
Two Aldermanic candidates at $15 per district for 812
districts........................................  $24,360
Two Assembly candidates at $10 per district for 812 districts..........................................  16,240
Two candidates for Senate or Congress at $25 per election  district....................................  40,600
Four candidates for Judgeships at $10,000 each.......  40,000
Two candidates for Mayor at $20,000 each............  40,000
Two candidates for a county office such as Sheriff, County
Clerk, or Register, at $10,000.....................  20,000
Two candidates for Comptroller at $10,000...........  20,000
Two candidates for District Attorney at $5000........  10,000
Or, say a total of............................... $211,200
It is a fair estimate, year in and year out, that
there is distributed at each polling-place in the 812
districts of the city $75 to $100 by the County
Democracy, $75 to $100 by Tammany Hall, $40
to $50 by the Republicans, except in Presidential
years, when the distribution has been much larger,
$15 by Irving Hall, and $15 by the representatives of the different independent candidates, making a minimum of $220 and a maximum of $280




58


MACHINE POLITICS.


per election district, which for 812 election districts would give a mean total of $203,000. It is
usually calculated that the assessment of candidates will cover this item. At the last election,
for example, the County Democracy actually put
in the hands of workers at the polls in the Fifteenth Assembly District from $80 to $100 in each
election district, and $85 each in the Tenth Assembly District.
As we have seen, the legal election machinery
paid ten men for each district at the last election.
The miniInurm, $220 per district, distributed by the
party machinery, calculating that $5 was the average paid to each man, although on the total figure
this average is too high, and the money is really
divided among more people, would provide for 44
men, which, with 10 men paid by law, is 54 men
to each of 812 districts, or say 43,848 persons.
At the last election 219,992 votes were polled for
Mayor, so that over 20 per cent. of all the voters
actually received money in one form or another
for their election-day services —in a word, were
under pay.
In addition to the amount of expenditure at the
polls, there is to be calculated the cost of printing,




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 59
which in different years has ranged in the County
Democracy from $12,000 to $19,000 for printing
the tickets. To this item there has to be added an
expenditure of from $6000 to $8000 for folding,
addressing the envelopes, and mailing a set of tickets to each voter in the city. The entire printing
bill of each of the three organizations for all purposes whatever is not less than $25,000, or say
$75,000 in all, and it certainly costs not less than
$25,000 for meetings and miscellaneous expenses
for all three parties.
In the campaign of 1882, in which Allan Campbell ran against Franklin Edson, Mr. Campbell's
canvass was made in a period of ten days. For the
purpose of making that canvas, $63,000 was subscribed, for which Mr. Campbell subscribed $1000,
no assessment having been levied; for manning
the polls and supplying booths, about $25,000 was
expended; for printing the tickets, $10,000; for
their distribution by mail, $8000; for advertising,
$15,000; for meetings, music, central and local
headquarters, and other expenses throughout the
city, about $4500. Mr. Butler, the candidate for
County Clerk, told me that he personally spent
$25,000 in this fight. These figures I give only




60


MACHINE POLITICS.


approximately from memory, but they will serve
to show how much money was raised in a canvass
in which not one penny, to the knowledge of any
member of the Committee, of which I was one,
was improperly spent. The Republican party indorsed Mr. Campbell's candidacy, and the Committee was waited upon by a committee from the
Republicans, which demanded $15,000 in order to
pay the Republican workers at the polls, the same
to be distributed among the Republican district
leaders. This was objected to. I was subsequently told by two of these leaders that this accounted
for Mr. Campbell's defeat.  One of them said
that he was predisposed to knife Mr. Campbell
anyhow, but when he found that we were not
willing to contribute, he determined to put the
knife in up to the hilt. Another told me that he
called his " boys" together, and said they had only
$15 per election district in the treasury, that they
had made a call on the Independents for more
money and had been refused, and asked what had
better be done; whereupon they decided unanimously to run Mr. Edson's tickets out of their
booths as proper punishment for our niggardliness, although Mr. Campbell was the regular can



COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 61


didate of their party. They might have done as
was done by an Assembly District leader of the
County Democracy in 1884. He took the money
of the County Democracy, and subsequently, for
a higher price paid by Tammany Hall, destroyed
certain of the tickets for the distribution of which
he had been paid by the party.
The expenditures that I have tried to describe
in detail have no reference whatever to Presidential or Gubernatorial years. In Presidential
years, when we have uniformed parades, fireworks,
torch-light processions, great mass-meetings, and
a two months' campaign, the amount is increased
beyond all believing. In 1884 it cost the County
Democracy of the Tenth District $1300 for a
single parade in which 1500 men turned out, and
only 600 were uniformed. This corresponding
item in the Blaine canvass must have been something incredible. The nomination of Cleveland
alone cost the County Democracy leaders, who
were anxious to play the role of Warwicks, over
$100,000, as I have been told by some of those
leaders with the knowledge that I intended to
publish the fact. That sum was made up as follows:




62


IMACHINE POLITICS.


Taking twenty-five men from each Assembly District, with
leaders and delegates, to Chicago and back, say six hundred and fifty men, at $22 each.................... $14,300
Board allowed for six hundred and fifty men, at $10 per
day  each, for seven  days..........................  45,500
So-called parlor expenses, including wine in the committee-room.......................................  10,000
Or  say.........................................  $69,800
the rest having been spent by the six hundred
and fifty men for items other than those referred
to. Tammany Hall is estimated to have spent
about $50,000 on the same pilgrimage.
Neither do the details I have given include expenses in and about bar-rooms, loss of time, and
the demoralization of the community. As indicative of how great this latter can be, I would
say that I am credibly informed that on the evening of the last great Democratic parade in the
late Presidential campaign they took in $2200 for
liquors over the Hoffman House bar.
Any one familiar with politics can fix the expenditures in round figures at $100,000 to $125,000
apiece for Tammany Hall and the County Democracy in the average year; $10,000 to $20,000 for
Irving Hall; and $50,000 to $75,000 to the Republican party —say a minimum       of $265,000, or an




COST OF ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. 63


average of $307,500; while my calculation of
$203,000 distributed in districts, $75,000 for printing and $25,000 for meetings, &c., would give a
total of $303,000. In addition to this $307,500
there is to be calculated all of the expenditures of
candidates and their friends apart from these contributions to the Machine, a fair estimate of which
for the city at large is $100,000; and I believe it
to be a minimum estimate, after asking the opinion of a number of district leaders. This will
give an item, consequently, of $407,500, to which
let us add the $290,000 expended by the city and
by the United States, and we will have a grand
total in round figures of $700,000 for an average
year, and not a Presidential year. The item of
$307,500 disbursed by the organizations independent of the personal expenditures of candidates
is in excess of the aggregate assessments of candidates, which I estimated at $211,000, and the
difference is made good by the assessments on
office-holders, levies on public contractors, and contributions from the rich men of the party. The
difference of $95,500 to be thus accounted for in
all three parties is a most moderate estimate. The
Commissionership of Public Works and the Comp



64           MACHINE POLITICS.
trollership are great engines for facilitating this
work of subscription and collection, and have been
so used to great advantage in the past.
The entire machinery of politics thus pivots
on the manner of election, the legal recognition
of parties, the ability of parties to levy assessments on office-seekers and office-holders, the practical exclusion, because of the expensiveness of
elections, of independent nominations and work,
the resulting control of the ballots by Assembly
District leaders, and the distribution of ballots to
voters on election-day by their subordinates and
followers-which, in a word, amounts to a monopoly in the hands of the leaders of the Machines,
not only of the power of nomination, but of the
elective franchise itself.




CHAPTER IV.
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.
THE system of heavy political assessments, and
of the employment of large numbers of paid workers at the polls, is of comparatively recent growth.
It was between 1860 and 1872 that our municipal
politics developed those phases of corruption which
have since been a hinderance to the extension of
democratic institutions the world over. The characteristic features of the political evils of this period were three: gigantic frauds upon the public
treasury, the open use of immense sums of money
at the polls, and the almost equally open frauds in
polling and canvassing the votes. When the Tweed
Ring came into possession of both the political and
official machinery of the city, their method was an
exceedingly simple one.  They distributed the
nominations and the offices among themselves,
and tapped the public till to pay the expenses of
the election. There was no necessity for imposing
5




66


MACHINE POLITICS.


heavy assessments on candidates, for the organization, as such, did not assume the burden of responsibility for their election in the same way in which
it now does. Each candidate looked out for his
own election, employed his own men, and he and
they spent his or the city's money to carry the
day. The sums of money spent were quite as
large, if not larger than those spent to-day, but
they were not raised by means of assessments, and
were not disbursed through the agents of the party
machine as such.*  Thus, when John McCool ran
for Register, in 1864, he paid the highest assessment ever known up to that time, viz., $5000.
The successful candidate for Surrogate in 1862
and 1863 paid an assessnent of $100 each time,
and in 1866, when he was elected for the third
time, the fight being exceptionally severe, he was
assessed but $2000.  It was customary to tax
the candidate for the Street Commissionership, in
whose office were performed most of the duties
now falling upon the Commissioner of Public
Works, only $500. When Connolly ran for County Clerk, his assessment was $2500; and when


* See Appendix III.




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.           67
John Kelly last ran for Sheriff he was assessed
only $2000 by the party. He subsequently assessed W. R. Roberts $25,000 for the same office,
although it is understood that the latter refused
to pay so exorbitant a tax.  The aggregate of
Tammany's assessments on candidates in 1875, I
am told by a member of its Finance Committee
of that year, was $162,000, that being the first election after the wages of laborers on the city payrolls had been reduced by Tammany officials to
$1.60 per day, and a large fund being needed to
make good the defection.
The era of high assessments was ushered in by
Mr. Kelly, whose name belongs to history, and
whose deeds must be treated by history the same
as those of every other man who has filled a large
place in public life. He was a great leader and a
thorough organizer. No one knew better than he
the value of organization, and he centred everything in the organization. He saw the evil of the
expenditure of money by candidates, and sought
to reduce it by adopting a new system. He induced his party to levy, and its candidates to pay,
large assessments, and the organization then assumed the entire responsibility for the result.




68


MACHINE POLITICS.


This was at the time a decided improvement over
the pre-existing state of affairs; ultimately the
candidates spent less money and corruption was
less rife. This continued to be the case until the
factional dissensions in the Democratic party grew
to be such as to threaten the permanency of Tammany's power. By this time, as the result of several causes, of which the assessment system was
one of the chief, the tendency of the "organization" was to absorb both party feeling and patriotism. The organization came to be everything,
and it decided who of its leaders, and in what order, were to be compensated for their service and
fealty. Thus it was the custom for years for Tammany to require all who had received office at its
hands to practically delegate to it all subordinate
appointments. For instance, when vacancies for
commissionerships occurred, if Tammany had succeeded in electing its Mayor, the organization
would select the man for the vacancy and present
his name to the Mayor, who was expected to appoint the nominee. This is the reason why Tammany has fallen out with every Mayor ard every
Governor since 1872, the last ones always temporarily excepted. Sometimes the organization was




ITHE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


69


sufficiently gracious to submit a small list, and
thus afford a narrow margin for selection. In
this way each district leader knew that he would
be reached in order if he were loyal and energetic.
The esprit de corps of the machine thus became
almost as perfect as that of Napoleon's army.
The same tendency was developed in the Republican machine; and when the County Democracy
came into existence in 1881, being required to
fight a machine so organized, it soon adopted the
plan of "fighting the devil with fire." The assessment principle, as well as the principle of the
usurpation by the organization of the right to decide which of its members was to be honored by
appointment to office, were both adopted to their
fullest extent. This was from no motive of fraud
or corruption, but because it was the dominant
idea of the day, and seemed to be the only plan
by which an organization could be created successfully to combat Tammnany Hall. The contest
between Tammany and the County Democracy resulted naturally enough in both organizations carrying these principles to an extreme. Each needed
more money because of the conditions of the conflict, and each increased the assessments. Each




70


MACHINE POLITICS.


required a more marked party loyalty, a more
compact organization, and each viewed with greater jealousy all official acts which they required to.
be done as recognitions of the organization. A
Mayor, a Comptroller, a Commissioner of Public
Works, or a Police Commissioner could only prove
his fidelity to the organization by making his appointments from among those whom the organization and not he had selected. The system thus
reached its acme, and it so exists to-day. There is
a controversy now pending which perfectly illustrates this state of affairs. By section 1850 of
the Consolidation Act, as previously pointed out,
the Republican inspectors of elections and pollclerks are named by the Republican Police Commissioners solely, and the Democratic inspectors
and poll-clerks by the Democratic Commissioners.
Now, John Silnpson is the leader of the Republican district organization of the Sixth Assembly
District. Prior to the last election he prepared a
list of men whom he desired to be appointed as
inspectors and poll-clerks, and presented it to the
Republican President of the Board of Police, Mr.
S. B. French. There was, however, an opposition
to Simpson in his district committee, and the op



THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


71


position also prepared a list which it presented to
Commissioner French. The latter divided the appointments between the two factions. This so incensed Simpson's sense of political and legal fairness that he, claiming that as district leader he had
an absolute right to name tile men to be appointed
by the Republican Commissioners, has now preferred charges against the Republican President
of the Board of Police to the Republican County
Committee, of which both the accuser and accused
are members.   Mr. French quite naturally and
properly answers the charges by saying that the
organization has no jurisdiction to try him for his
official acts as Police Conmmissioner. But-such a
pretension as that of the district leader is the necessary and proper fruit of the political system by
which this city is now governed. It has been a
gradual growth; but now, having reached its cliIlax, the principles upon which it is founded have
become so firmly fixed that even when the organizations merge their differences and act in concert,
assessments are levied and workers are employed
just as though the Machines were at war, and after
the election each organization strives to secure
places for itself, and to say who shall fill them,




72


MACHINE POLITICS.


adapting their principles to their claims on the
half loaf as they would have done if it were the
whole.
All this, however, does not necessarily imply individual corruption on the part of the leaders. It
makes corruption easy, but it does not necessitate
it. The condition of the law presupposed some
machinery or other, not provided for by law, but
the Machines have grown stronger than the law.
The ultimate result is that one-fifth of our electors are under pay of parties or candidates on election-day; that offices are not unfrequently practically put up at auction to the highest bidder; that
public spirit is rendered both hopeless and helpless; and that the members of the Machines alone,
and not the people, truly enjoy the benefits of the
electoral franchise.
It is not even regarded as an open question in
this country whether the State should take any
part in so much of the machinery of elections as
applies to the manner in which candidates shall be
placed in nomination, or the expense of printing
and distributing the ballots to the electors shall be
borne. Up to the present time all the States of
our Union have uniformly decided this question,




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


73


so far as it has come up for decision, in favor of
the non-interference of the State in these particular matters, with the exception of some legislation
concerning Primary Elections.  Down to about
1870 our own State occupied this same ground,
even as to the matter of registration of voters;
and even to-day, throughout the rural districts, it
is not deemed necessary that the State should interfere to the extent of compelling a registration.
It was only the peculiar history of the elections
in our own city and in Brooklyn, between the
years 1860 and 1870, which compelled the State
to depart from this principle of non-interference,
to the extent of enacting the general principles
of the election laws now in force.
The law thus refuses to take any part in the action of individuals or parties looking to the nomination or election of candidates, other than to see
that no person, and he an elector, votes more than
once, and that each vote is counted for one and no
more. It is apparent, therefore, on its face that if
any election is to take place at all in great cities,
extra-legal machinery must be brought into existence. Party government is a natural and, I believe, a necessary outgrowth of our constitutional




74


MACHINE POLITICS.


system, and party government call only exist
coupled with party machinery, but not necessarily
the particular party machinery which we know.
The law presumes that the machinery of parties
will be sufficient to do, and do in the best possible
way, all those things incident to an election, concerning which the law itself is silent. It is unjust and improper, therefore, to condemn our Machines simply because they are Machines. They
are blameworthy only in so far directly as they are
engines of corruption, and indirectly as militating
against the true spirit of republican institutions.
If the law does not compel the public treasury to
bear the burden of printing the tickets for an election, which is quite as essential an expenditure as
that of supplying the ballot-boxes and the registry
of voters, the burden for the payment of wlich is
a public burden, it is because it is assumed that
this work will be done voluntarily by individuals.
The individuals who do it cannot work singly and
alone, but have to work in concert, and the very
minute this concert of action is organized you have
at least the beginnings of a Machine. It is natural
that those who have the greatest stake in the election-that is, the office-holders themselves-should




.


THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.          75
wish to continue in the employment of the Government and to perpetuate their influence. We
will assume that every one of them is honestly,
earnestly, and patriotically performing the duties
of his office, notwithstanding the fact that they
act together to make the necessary provision for
an essential part of the machinery of elections.
The community of their interests welds them into
an organized body; the permanency of their interest keeps them practically in the field at all times.
They are thus really only devoting themselves to
their own business when they are doing wliat the
law expects some citizens, if not all, to do. The
merchant, the banker, and the lawyer are no more
attending to their business when occupied in tleir
offices than the politician is in attending his club
or his committee meetings; and no man can be
blamed for attending to his own business, if his
business be recognized by law as honest and reputable. One man makes the public business so far
his own that the two are treated as practically identical, while the other man's affairs are entirely private in their character and disassociated altogether
from those of the public. The great majority of
those who, being public servants, are also practi



76


MACHINE POLITICS.


cally interested in the organization and management of political Machines, are painstaking and
careful officers who are actually doing at all times
what the law expects all men to do, and what the
newspaper press and the general public sentiment
is continually asserting all men should do. The
Machine really exists as incident to the assumptions of the law which have been spoken of, and
it is not necessarily corrupt. The remedy for the
evils incident to the existence of the Machines is
not by indiscriminately attacking the "practical
politicians " and office-holders. This has been done
to such an extent that many self-respecting men
no longer dare accept office or devote their abilities to the service of the public, either officially or
in active politics. That the Machines give birth
to corruption and degenerate into engines of evil,
there is no room for doubt; but no Machine, as a
Machine, is radically blameworthy so long as our
law remains as it is. From time to time, Machines
organized for temporary purposes spring into existence, conduct campaigns on virtually the same
principles as those pursued by the regular Machines, achieve victory or undergo defeat, and then
go out of existence. Such Machines are frequently




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


77


applauded for the good they do, and are rarely
condemned, for the reason that they are not permanent, and have not lived long enough to degenerate into corruption or to be a menace to political
equality.
We are shocked to think that twenty per cent.
of our voters are under pay on election-day; but
if the law makes no provision for the payment
of men to distribute the ballots, and the Machine
finds that it is impossible to get the ballots distributed except by their employment at a fair day's
wages, no one can complain. The price paid these
men is less, on an average, than that at which the
law actually employs its own election officers. Of
course, while it is every man's affirmative duty to
vote, it is no man's affirmative duty to stand at the
polls all day and supply other voters with tickets.
In like manner, while it is every man's duty to
vote, it is no man's duty to make voluntarily a
very heavy expenditure in order to supply the
tickets with which other men shall vote. The
party organizations, acting as such, whether from
patriotic or other motives, volunteer to do the
duty which the law assumes will be done somehow or other. The funds for the payment of the




woo
I 


MACHINE POLITICS.


expense absolutely and necessarily incident to legal election must be found in some way, and they
are naturally found by the men most interested in
the result-party leaders, office-holders, and candidates for office. It is natural, therefore, that they
should, as "practical" men, come to regard themselves and not the public as the true beneficiaries
of our political system.
Although it is certain that in this city much of
the money raised by organizations has from time
to time been misappropriated by the men who have
collected and have been relied upon to disburse it,
it is nevertheless true that far the greater part of
this money has been disposed of for the purposes
for which it was raised, and which the law does
not condemn.
The real and justifiable objections to the Machines are that they exist in perpetuity, and that
their leaders come to possess a monopoly of the
means for supplying the necessary extra-legal machinery of the election. Possessing these means,
they have to be sought by any one desiring a
nomination; and as a condition precedent to acting in any one's behalf, they can insist upon contributions to their exchequer such as they see fit




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


79


to impose. These are thepositive evils of the Machine, which tend naturally to corruption, because
they put a premium on it. The negative evils are,
that to conduct an election in opposition to the
Machines a maclinery of much the same kind has
to be adopted, involving almost equally large expense, and calling upon its leaders and subordinates for an amount of attention and care, loss of
time and contributions of money, tlat ultimately
amount to an absolute deterrent from political
activity,.except upon rare and unusual occasions.
The Macllines are thus left in practical sole occupancy of the field, and so far hold a monopoly
of the elective franchise that in this city any two
of the three can, by uniting, make the election of
their candidates a foregone conclusion. So true is
this that they can, by combination, guarantee the
election of candidates chosen at hazard from a hat,
or defeat almost any law that can be conceived
providing for the representation of minorities.
In 1873, when the present charter of this city
was enacted, the design was to provide for minority representation in electing the Board of Aldermen, where it was believed to be peculiarly needed. The law, however, was completely nullified




80


MACHINE POLITICS.


by the possibility of co-operation among parties.
Thus it was only necessary at any time for any
two of the three Maclines to agree as to which -
candidates they would vote for, dividing them
among themselves, and having their tickets printed accordingly, to make the election absolutely
certain. Consequently, instead.of providing minority representation, the law afforded the opportunity for guaranteeing the result of combinations between parties, thus making them, because
of the assurance of success, almost completely irresponsible for their nominations. This is only
one of the many ways in which it is possible for
the election machinery existing in virtue of the
theory of the law that elections will be voluntarily
conducted, to defeat the whole purpose of popular elections.
The remedies for the tyranny and irresponsibility of the Machines have been under discussion ever since the evils first became evident.
It is asserted continually that the only remedy
is an enlivened and enlightened public spirit.
For many years the pulpit and the press have
been calling upon the people to awake to a realization of their political duties. Once in a great




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


81


while public spirit is sufficiently aroused to accomplish something of good, and then dies out
again.  From  time to time new organizations
spring into existence with the view of becoming
permanent. At first, as new Machines free from
corruption, they declare war against the older and
corrupter ones and do good work; but if they live
long enough, they invariably fall into the habits
and methods of all Machines whatsoever, because
those habits and methods are absolutely incident
to the life of political organizations under existing
conditions.  Some would have us believe that
sporadic movements and temporary Machines,.
having so frequently proved a failure, are not to
be relied on, but that the Machine should be supplemented by a sort of organization within the
organization, which shall watch the manner in
which the party subordinates perform their duties.
This may be illustrated by the suggestion which
I have frequently heard, that while it is necessary
for both the Republican and Democratic parties
to fully man the polls on election-day with paid
workers, there should be another set of volunteer
patriots who should devote themselves to seeing
that the paid workers do their duty and faithfully
6




82


MACHINE POLITICS.


earn their pay. But this raises the old, old question, Quis custodiet iysos custodes?
For the purpose of meeting the corruption
which has prevailed in the matter of nominations
and preventing frauds at Primary Elections, the
law has departed from its principle of non-interference, and has recognized and sanctioned the
extra-legal machinery incident to placing candidates in nomination by primary meetings. This
is a radical departure from the general theory of
the law, and has so far almost wholly failed in securing any real improvement in the condition of
affairs, because the most honestly conducted primary is, after all, only a primary of the enrolled
or recognized members of a party availing themselves of the machinery supplied by the party. In
the long-run the majority at a primary meeting
represents the party, and under the existing systems of organization the party is for the purposes
of the Machine, as the Machine is for the purposes
of the party, nothing more than a number of autocratic leaders. Reform by the legal recognition
of the Machines is, consequently, not only a failure, but directly perpetuates the evil by the sanction implied in its recognition.




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


83


The last noteworthy fight by an independent
organization that has recently been made in this
city against the dominant Machines was in 1882,
when the Independent party had the nominal aid
and backing of the Republican organization, and
it nevertheless cost $63,000 to conduct the election. So long as the law remains unchanged, I do
not believe that it would be possible to have an
independent municipal canvass in this city at an
expenditure of less than that amount, unless the
movement were to be conducted in concert with
some already thoroughly organized and well-distributed body of citizens, such, for instance, as the
labor organizations which used their machinery in
the late canvass, in which Mr. George polled so
phenomenal a vote. Even then the expense is
very large-so large as for a long time to have
been a very serious deterrent to the attempt on
the part of the labor organizations to act in concert in any municipal movement.
Besides vesting the power of nomination in feesimple in those persons who practically own the
machinery for printing and distributing the ballots, the existing system amounts to an almost
complete exclusion from official public life of all




84


MACHINE POLITICS.


men who are not enabled to pay, if not a sum
equal to the entire salary of the office they seek,
at least a very large percentage of it. The poor
man or the moderately well-to-do man is thus at
once cut off from all political ambition, because
the only key to success is wealth or machine power.
The ablest lawyer at our bar could not secure a
nomination for a judgeship unless he were able to
pay an assessment of from $10,000 to $20,000,
while a mere political lawyer, if he have the means
of paying his assessment and stands well with the
party leaders, can without great difficulty secure a
nomination and even an election to an office for
which he has no peculiar qualifications.
When, under the old system, the evil became
unbearable, our present election and registration
laws were enacted. There is to-day another evil
equally unbearable, due, as the old evil was due,
to the insufficiency of the election laws, and those
laws will again have to be cllanged, not by undoing anything that has been done, but by extending their application, and by having the State or
city take into its own hands all the machinery of
elections whatever. All other suggested remedies
will prove futile, or at best only temporary. The




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


85


result of this will be that Machines will no longer
have to be fought by Machines, or by an aroused
public spirit, or by appointing watchers to watch
the watchers. Public spirit will have so fair a
chance that it will be awake at all times. If a
method can be found by which all men and all
Machines can be given political equality before
the law, actually as well as theoretically, the evil
will die a natural death. If the city were to print
and distribute the ballots, the result would be that
the organizations, no longer having control of the
machinery required for these purposes, would, as a
consequence, no longer have control of the power
of nomination and levying assessments. The mainspring of the Machine would be shattered. Enlightened public spirit would be no less necessary
than now. It would be strengthened and confirmed by the opportunity offered it by the law to
really and at all times count for something. A
poor man would have as good an opportunity as a
rich man, and the independent as fair a chance as
the partisan.
While, as a rule, social evils are more difficult of
treatment than any others, because of the complexity of the facts and the difficulty in locating




86


MACHINE POLITICS.


their causes, it is true that if the causes be once
clearly defined, the evil is already in a fair way to
cure itself. It suggests its own remedy. Let us
therefore try to summarize distinctly the causes
of the evil, and note the remedies which they naturally suggest.


THE EVIL
1. The necessity for voluntarily printing and distributing the
ballot justifies organization for
this purpose.
2. It practically vests the Machines with the monopoly of the
election machinery.
3. And, as a consequence, with
the monopoly of nomination.
4. It involves the necessity of
defraying the expenses of both
printing and distribution by
means of assessments on or contributions by candidates, officeholders, or party leaders.


THE REMEDY.
1. The printing and distribution of all ballots at public expense does away with the necessity of organization for this purpose.
2. And will deprive the political Machines of the monopoly
of an essential part of the election machinery.
3. It will enable any body of
citizens of the number prescribed
by law to have the name of their
candidate printed on the same
ballot with the names of all other candidates for the same office,
so that before the law and before
the voters all candidates and all
party organizations will stand on
a perfectly even footing.
4. This will dispense altogether with the necessity of and excuse for levying political assessments.




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


87


THE EVIL.
5. Which facilitates bribery
and corruption by affording them
convenient covers.
6. And debauches the electors
by leading them to become partisans for pay instead of honestly and from conviction performing their duty as citizens.


THE REMEDY.
5. And leave no legal cover
for bribery.  The law can describe and limit all permissible
expenditure, and compel the candidate or his agent to make a
sworn return with vouchers to a
proper public officer for all disbursements. It may punish all
violations with sufficiently severe
penalties.
6. And prescribe that no elector under pay of a party or candidate shall be permitted to vote,
thus making it more the interest
of candidates and parties not to
pay than to pay for election services, and thus deterring all honest electors from accepting pay.


These are the remedies naturally suggested by
the evil, whereas all other suggested remedies are
either the nostrums of political quacks, the dreams
of inexperienced enthusiasts, or measures of partial relief attacking the symptoms only and not
the causes of the evil. Almost all of the remedies
which are suggested from time to time are wholly
experimental, the results of which for good or ill
can only be guessed and not known. If the same
could be said of the remedies, the necessity for
which is disclosed by an intimate and thorough




88


MACHINE POLITICS.


knowledge of the wrongs to be cured, we should
all feel towards them as we do towards the others,
that is, we should doubt and mistrust them to the
point of letting them go untried, rather than run
the risk of intensifying or changing the character
of the evils of which we complain. As matter of
fact, however, these suggested remedies are not
untried or experimental. Tley have been tried,
and have already accomplisled exactly the result
to be expected of them.
A careful study of the English law of elections,
the Ballot Acts and the Prevention of Corrupt
Practices Acts, will not only suggest how our own
law can be modified, but will in many respects,
mutatis mutandis, afford a good guide in drafting
the legislation needed to embody and apply the
remedy. In addition to this it will show how
completely impossible it is, under such a law as
that which prevails in Great Britain, for the evils
from which we suffer to be perpetuated a single
day. After we have studied these laws in operation elsewhere, and considered the changes necessary to conform them to our own system, we shall
be prepared not only to solve the great and difficult problem of excluding fraud and corruption




THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.


89


from municipal politics, but how to supply a
means of actually divorcing municipal from state
and national politics, and of opening the way to
the best attainable administration of our municipal
business, which, while it bears no natural relation
to party politics, is to-day almost entirely sacrificed
to it, and made a mere counter in the game of personal or political ambition.


-.




CHAPTER V.
THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND.
THE whole of our existing political machinery
in the city of New York being shown to be incident to the fact that the laws anticipate some
extra-legal means for printing and distributing the
ballots, only one question remains to be asked,
viz., What are the practical suggestions as to the
manner in which the law should provide for the
performance of these functions?
The English Ballot Act of 1872 affords a most
practical and admirable model. This act provides
that at every poll at an election the vote shall be
given by ballot; that the ballot of each voter shall
contain the names and description of all the candidates for the particular office for which he is
voting, which ballot paper has a number printed
on the back of it, and is attached to a stub, or
" counter-foil," as it is called, with the same number printed on the face-of the stub. At the time




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 91


of voting, the ballot paper is marked on both sides
with an official mark, and delivered to the voter at
the polling-place. All voters are registered before
each election, and when the voter has registered
he is given a registration number. This registration number is marked on the stub of the ballot
at the time the ballot is delivered to him; the
voter then marks his vote on the ballot, which he
so folds as to conceal his mark, and casts it in the
box in the presence of the officer or inspector of
elections, after having shown him the official mark
on the back of the ballot, this being done for the
purpose of enabling the inspector to identify the
ballot as a legal ballot, distributed by the proper
officer. If any ballot is cast without the official
mark, or if, in the canvass, it appears that any
voter has voted for more candidates than he has
a right to, or if the ballot is so written upon or
marked that the voter himself can be identified
by reference to the ticket, it is to be treated as
void, and not counted by the canvassers.
Our own law with regard to the counting and
canvassing of the vote cannot be improved. Were
we to avail of the English experience, we should
have to establish alongside of or in our polling



92


MACHINE POLITICS.


place on election-day another place to which each
voter could go and get his ticket. This function
of distributing the tickets would be performed by
two or more officers, appointed in the same general
manner in wliich the other officers of election, say
poll-clerks and inspectors, are appointed.  The
tickets would be printed by the Bureau of Elections, however constituted, in the same manner in
which all the other blanks and papers incident to
election are now printed.
Under the English law it is only necessary for
any ten persons who desire to vote for a candidate
for a municipal office to make a certificate to that
effect.  When such certificate is filed with the
proper officer, it becomes his duty to print the
name of such candidate upon the common ballot.
It would probably be necessary, because of the
denseness of the population in this city and the
immense vote cast, to limit the right of nomination by certificate in this way to at least fifty electors for district officers, and a greater number for
officers running in the city at large. All such
nominations should be required to be made within
at least fifteen days before the election, after which
time no further nominations could be made. The




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 93


Bureau of Elections should be required to publish
in the City Record all nominations thus certified
at least two days before the third registration-day,
inasmuch as the number of electors who register
and vote is always largely governed by the character of the nominees. The election officers would
then proceed to get up the tickets and stubs as required by law, leaving a blank place on each ticket
to be used by the voter in case he wish to vote for
any one other than the certified candidates.
The following would be the form of the face of
the ballot paper and of the stub from which it is
torn when delivered to the voter:
Stub.                 Ballot.




Stub No....                BROWN.
r!:1       John Brown of -- East Tenth Street.
II     ________|,_Tailor.
I   fl o               JOHNS.,~ '|''2     Peter Johns of-  Broadway. Mer-c=  l,                    chant.
m -    Ii         *      CLARK.
*0 B    Il 3 Thaddeus Clark of - West Twelfth Street.
1Z '   j          ________ Printer.
- a     'Sherman.
Et     11 4  George Henry Sherman of  -  -
I. ~   01!            Street. Lawyer.
___i ________________
S;       5
zM     1;D r




94


MACHINE POLITICS.


Thus, if we were to adopt this system for any
aldermanic election in the Twentieth Assembly
District, for instance, any fifty electors could place
whomsoever they please in nomination, and his
name would be printed with the names of all other persons so nominated upon a common ticket.
This ticket being printed and distributed at public expense, and the names of all candidates alike
coining before every voter with perfect impartiality and absolute fairness, the Machine would lose
its entire value, because the nomination of any
fifty citizens would be just as good, just as valuable, as the nominations of the strongest organizations. The r6om for organized work would be
only such as was left for a fair and proper canvass
of the district prior to the election, and on election-day for the purpose of securing the most
votes possible for each candidate.
The following is the form of directions for the
guidance of the voter in voting, which is required
by the English law to be printed in conspicuous
characters and placarded in every polling-station
and in every compartment of every polling-station:
"The voter may vote for --  candidates. The
voter will go into one of the compartments (which




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 95


are like simple booths temporarily set up at each
distribution-place), and with a pencil provided in
the compartment, place a cross on the right-hand
side opposite the name of each candidate for whom
he votes, thus: +. The voter will then fold up
the ballot paper, so as to show the official mark on
the back, and leaving the compartment, will, without showing the front of the paper to any person,
show the official mark on the back to the presiding
officer (the inspector), and then in the presence of
the presiding officer put the paper into the ballotbox and forthwith quit the polling-station. If the
voter inadvertently spoils a ballot paper, he can return it to the officer, who will, if satisfied of such
inadvertence, give him another paper.
" If the voter votes for more than -   candidate,
or places any mark on the paper by which he may
be afterwards identified, his ballot paper will be
void and will not be counted.
"If the voter takes a ballot paper out of the
polling-station, or deposits in the ballot-box any
other paper than the one given him by the officer,
he will be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be subject
to imprisonment for any term with or without
hard labor,"




96


MACHINE POLITICS.


The schedule adds the following: "Xote.-These
directions shall be illustrated by examples of the
ballot paper."
Of course, the form of directions here would be
miade to conform to the particular provisions of
our own statute as to penalties, etc., as they might
be prescribed.
The English rules for the conduct of the election require that proper polling-places shall be
provided by the proper officers in much the same
way that our own law provides for the leasing of
proper places by the Bureau of Elections. The
election officers are required to provide the polling-place with materials to mark the ballot papers,
with instruments for stamping the official mark
upon them, and with copies of a registry of voters
or of such part thereof as contains the names of
the voters allotted to vote at such station. They
are required to keep the official mark secret.
In our own system not only is the register of
voters always present on election-day, but if extra
registers are needed for any purpose whatever,
they are easily had, in view of the fact that before
election the entire registry is printed by Assembly Districts in the City Record. Under the Eng



THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 97


lish system, tile officer designated by law is required, on the application of any voter who is
incapacitated by blindness or any other physical
cause from voting in the manner prescribed by
law, or of any voter who makes declaration that
he is unable to read, to cause the vote of such
voter to be marked on the ballot paper in such
manner as the voter directs, in the presence of the
agents of the several candidates, if they desire to
be present, and the ballot paper to be placed in
the ballot-box. The name and number of every
voter whose vote is marked in pursuance of this
rule, and the reason why it is so marked, is required to be entered on a list known to the law as
" the list of votes marked by the election officer."
The declaration of inability to read is required to
be made by the voter, at the time of voting, before the presiding officer at the election, who is
required to attest it. Any voter who has inadvertently dealt with his ballot in such a manner
as that it cannot be conveniently used as a ballot
paper, may, upon delivering it to the ballot officer,
obtain another ballot paper in the place of the
one so delivered up, and the spoiled ballot paper
is required to be immediately cancelled.
7




98


MACHINE POLITICS.


It is needless to go into minor details. It is
quite sufficient to point out these general features.
Our existing law would not require great modification or many amendments to incorporate into it
the best and most material features of this system.
If it were done, the plea for assessments, because of
the necessity of providing an extra-legal machinery
for printing and distributing the ballot, would at
once disappear; the immense tax, which is now
unequally borne by the electors, would be borne
by all alike, because these expenditures are as entirely public in their character as the expenditures
for registration or canvassing the ballots.
It would only be necessary to go one step further to remove the last great opportunity or opening for fraud or corruption in the contribution
or use of money. The foregoing suggestions, if
adopted and added to our existing laws, would
make them include, as they should, the entire
machinery of elections. But even if all of this
machinery were under the control of the State
it would still be possible for organizations and
candidates, by the lavish and corrupt use of money,
to secure the election by the purchase of votes.
No country in the world has probably ever suf



TIlE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 99


fered more from this evil than England, and we
may well profit by its experience.
There the first act for the prevention of corrupt
practices was passed in 1854. It has been followed
by a number of others of an amendatory character.
All elections are now conducted under the general
provisions of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act
of 1883.
The Municipal Corporations Act of 1882, by section 75, provides that a person guilty of corrupt
practices at a municipal election shall be liable to
the like actions, prosecutions, penalties, forfeitures,
and punishments, as if the corrupt practice had
been committed at a Parliamentary election. The
provisions of the Corrupt Practice Preventions
acts of 1854, 1858, and 1863 and 1883, are thus
made directly applicable to municipal and borough
elections.
The first of these acts as amended starts out with
a definition of BRIBERY which is so much fuller and
better than that of our own law as to justify its
quotation. The following persons are declared to
be guilty of bribery:
" 1. Every person who shall directly or indirectly
by himself or by any other person on his behalf. ee. 
eee —




100


MACHINE POLITICS.


give, lend, or agree to give or lend, or shall offer,
promise, or promise to procure, or to endeavor to
procure any money or valuable consideration to
or for any voter, or to or for any person on behalf
of any voter, or to or for any other person in order
to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting,
or shall corruptly do any such act as aforesaid on
account of such voter having voted or refrained
from voting at an election.
"2. Every person who shall directly or indirectly
by hinself or by any other person on his behalf
give or procure, or agree to give or procure, or
offer or promise to procure, or to endeaver to procure any office, place, or employment, to or for
any voter, or to or for any person on behalf of
any voter, or to or for any other person, in order
to induce such voter to vote or refrain from voting, or shall corruptly do any act as aforesaid on
account of any voter having voted or refrained
from voting at any election.
"3. Every person who shall directly or indirectly
by himself or by any other person on his behalf
make any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement as aforesaid to or for any person in order to induce such person to procure or
~:.:  *:
*  *:.*.:  *
eel ee




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 101


endeavor to procure the return of any person to
serve in Parliament (or any municipal office) or the
vote of any voter at any election.
"4. Every person who shall upon or in consequence of any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement, procure or engage, promise or endeavor to procure the return of any person
to serve in Parliament (or any municipal office) or
the vote of any voter at any election.
"5. Every person who shall advance or pay, or
cause to be paid any money to or to the use of any
other person, with the intent that such money or
any part thereof shall be expended in bribery at
any election, or who shall knowingly pay or cause
to be paid any money to any person in discharge
or repayment of any money wholly or in part expended in bribery at any election.
" Provided always that the aforesaid enactment
shall not extend or be construed to extend to any
money paid or agreed to be paid for or on account
of any legal expenses bonafide incurred at or concerning any election. The following persons are
deemed guilty of bribery:
" 1. Every voter who shall before or during any
election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by
eee e  1Noe
~9   ',




102


MACHINE POLITICS.


any other person on his behalf receive, agree, or
contract for any money, gift, loan, or valuable
consideration, office, place or employment for himself or for any other person, for voting or agreeing to vote, or for refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting at any election.
"2. Every person who shall at any election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other
person on his behalf, receive any money or valuable consideration on account of any person for
voting or refraining from voting or having induced any other person to vote or refrain from
voting at any election."
TREATING is defined by the Act of 1883:
" 1. Any person who corruptly by himself or by
any other person either before, during, or after an
election directly or indirectly gives, or provides,
or pays wholly or in part the expense of giving
or providing any meat, drink, entertainment, or
provision to or for any person for the purpose
of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to give or refrain from giving his
vote at the election or on account of such person
or any other person having voted, or refrained
froml voting, or1 beiln, about to vote or refrain
*?  * e*a?i "   * 




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 103


from voting at such election, shall be guilty of
treating.
" 2. And every elector who corruptly accepts or
takes any such meat, drink, entertainment, or provision shall also be guilty of treating."
UNDUE INFLUENCE is defined as follows:
"Every person who shall directly or indirectly
by himself or by any other person on his behalf make
use of or threaten to make use of any force, violence, or restraint, or inflict or threaten to inflict
by himself or by any other person, any temporal
or spiritual injury, damage, harm, or loss upon or
against any person, in order to induce or compel
such person to vote or refrain from voting, or on
account of such person having voted or refrained
from voting at any election, or who shall by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance impede or prevent the free exercise of
the franchise of any elector, or shall thereby compel, induce, or prevail upon any elector either to
give or to refrain from giving his vote at any election, shall be guilty of undue influence."
It will be noticed that every possible form of
corruption at an election, commonly referred to in
this country as bribery, is covered by these defini



104


MIACHINE POLITICS.


tions of bribery and treating. As to the provision
against undue influence, if we were to adopt it, it
would put an end to numberless evils which now
tend to defeat a free election, such as the compulsion of employes by their employers to vote for
any particular person, no matter how cunningly
such compulsion were to be disguised, the threat
of discipline by a party Machine, club, or other
political or social organization, or the threat to
boycott or expel from a trade-union or other labor
organization any person refusing to vote as such
organization might dictate, or any religious influence whatever. The necessity for some such legislation is urgent, although it must be admitted to
be difficult of procurement at the hands of our
Legislatures.
The law provides proper penalties for each of
the foregoing offences, as well as for the false and
fraudulent personation, or the procurement of the
personation, of any elector. These may be described as the great or major corrupt practices.
The minor corrinpt practices are referred to in the
succeeding sections of the statute, thus:
Sec. 7 of the Act prescribes —
"1. No payment or contract for payment shall




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 105


for the purpose of promoting or procuring the
election of a candidate at any election, be made" (a) On account of the conveyance of.electors to
or from the poll, whether for the hiring of horses
or carriages, or for railway fares or otherwise (but
electors are permitted to hire conveyance for themselves in common), or
"(b) To an elector on account of the use of any
house, land, building, or premises for the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice, or on account
of the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice.
" (c) On account of any committee-room in excess of the number allowed by the first schedule
to this Act.
" 2. Subject to such exception as may be allowed
in pursuance of this Act. If any payment or contract for payment is knowingly made in contravention of this section either before, during, or
after an election, the person making such payment
or contract shall be guilty of an illegal practice,
and any person receiving such payment or being
a party to any such contract, knowing the same to
be in contravention of this Act, shall also be guilty
of an illegal practice.
" 3. Provided that where it is the ordinary busi



106


MACHINE POLITICS.


ness of an elector, as an advertising agent, to
accept for payment bills and advertisements, a
payment to or contract with such elector, if made
in the ordinary course of business, shall not be
deemed to be an illegal practice."
Section 8 prescribes generally that subject to
such exception as is allowed in pursuance of the
act no sum shall be paid and no expense shall be
incurred by a candidate at an election, or by his
election agent, whether before, during, or after
the election, on account of or in respect to the
conduct or management of such election, in excess
of the maximum   amount specified in the first
schedule of the act; and any candidate or any election agent who knowingly acts in contravention
of these provisions is held to be guilty of an
illegal practice.
When a person knowingly provides money for
any entertainment contrary to the provisions of
the act, or for any expenses incurred in excess of
the maximum amount allowed by the act, or for
replacing any money expended in such payment
or expenses except as allowed in pursuance of the
act, he is guilty of an illegal payment. A person
convicted of an illegal practice under the forego



THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 107


ing sections of the act is liable to a fine not exceeding $500, and is incapable of being registered
as an elector for the period of five years.
Any person who corruptly induces or procures
a candidate to withdraw from being a candidate
at any election in consideration of the payment or
promise of payment, as well as any person withdrawing in pursuance of such an agreement, is
guilty of the offence of illegal payment.
No payment or contract for payment for the
purpose of promoting or procuring the election of
a candidate at any election is permitted to be
made on account of bands of music, torches, flags,
banners, cockades or ribbons, or other marks of
distinction. Any person making any payment for
such purpose is guilty of an illegal payment, and
any person being a party to such contract or receiving such payment is also held to be guilty of
illegal payment, if he knew the same to be contrary to law.
No person is permitted, for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of a candidate, to
be engaged or employed for payment or promise
of payment for any purpose or in any capacity
whatever, except for the purpose or capacity men



108


MACHINE POLITICS.


tioned in the schedules of the act. Any person
so employed, or any person so employing another,
is guilty of illegal employment.
Every bill, placard, or poster having reference
to the election is required to have the name and
address of the printer and publisher thereof on its
face.
No premises on which the sale by wholesale or
retail of intoxicating liquors is authorized by
license, or where intoxicating liquor is sold or supplied to members of a club, society, or association
other than a permanent political club, or wherein
refreshments of any kind, whether meat or drink,
are ordinarily supplied for sale on the premises,
or any public elementary school building, is permitted to be used as a committee-room for the
purpose of promoting or procuring the election
of a candidate at an election; and if any person
hires or uses any such premises or any part thereof
for a committee-room, he is guilty of illegal hiring
as well as the person letting such premises, if lie
knew the purposes for which they were intended
to be used. The section, however, does not apply
to any part of premises ordinarily used for chamnbers or the holding of public meetings, provided




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 109


such part of the premises has a separate entrance,
and has no direct communication with any part of
the premises in which liquors or refreshments are
sold.
On or before the day of nomination a person is
required to be named by or on behalf of each candidate as his agent for such election, and the candidate may name himself as his own election
agent, and thereupon become subject to the provisions of the law, both as candidate and as election agent. The name and address of the election
agent of each candidate is required, on or before
the day of nomination, to be notified in writing
by the candidate, or some one in his behalf, to the
returning officer (or say the Bureau of Elections),
who is required to give public notice of the name
and address of every agent so declared.  This
could here be published in the City Record at a
minimum of expense. No candidate is permitted
to appoint more than one election agent, but the
candidate may revoke the appointment of his
agent, in which event he is required to certify
such revocation and the new appointment to the
returning officer.
An election agent of a candidate is permitted to




110


MACHINE POLITICS.


appoint a number of deputies or sub-agents to act
in different election districts. One fill day before
the election the election agent is required to declare in writing the name and address of every
sub-agent to the returning officer (or inspector),
who shall make the same public. The election
agents of a candidate are required, either by themselves or their sub-agents, to appoint all polling
agents (or what correspond to our workers at the
polls), clerks, and messengers employed for payment in behalf of the candidate at an election, and
hired through or on behalf of a candidate.
Except as permitted by the act, no payment and
no advance or deposit is permitted to be made by
the candidate, or by any agent on behalf of the
candidate, or any other person, at any time, whether before, during, or after the election, in respect
to any expense incurred on account of or in respect to the conduct or management of such election, otherwise than by or through the election
agent of the candidate, whether acting in person
or by sub-agents.
Every payment in excess of forty shillings is
required to be vouched for by a receipted bill stating the particulars. All expenses at an election




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 111


are required to be paid within the time limited
by the act, which is twenty-eight days after the
day on which the candidates returned are declared
elected.
The candidate at any parliamentary election is
permitted to pay any personal expenses incurred
by him on account of or in connection with or incidental to such election to an amount not exceeding one hundred pounds, but any further personal
expenses are required to be paid by his election
agent. The candidate is required to send to his
election agent within the time limited by the act
a statement of the amount of his personal expenses
paid by himself.
Any person may, if authorized in writing by the
election agent, pay necessary expenses for stationery, postage, etc., to a total amount not exceeding
that named in the authority.
Within thirty-five days after the day on which
the candidates returned at the election are declared
elected, the election agent of every candidate is
required to transmit to the returning officer a true
return in the form prescribed by the second schedule of the act.
(a) A statement of all payments made by the




112


MACHINE POLITICS.


election agent, together with all the bills and receipts.
(b) A statement of the amount of personal expenses, if any, paid by the candidate.
(c) A statement of the sums paid to the returning officer for his charges. (We here would have
no such item.)
(d) A statement of all disputed claims of which
the election agent is aware.
(e) A statement of all the unpaid claims, if any,
of which the election agent is aware.
(f) A statement of all moneys, securities, and
equivalent of money received by the election agent
from the candidate or any other person for the
purpose of expenses incurred, or to be incurred,
or in respect of the conduct or management of the
election, with a statement of the name of every
person from whom the same have been received.
This return is required to be accompanied by a
declaration made under oath by the election agent
before a justice of the peace.  Where the candidate has named himself as his own election agent,
he is required to make a like return. At the time
the agent transmits the return, or within seven days
afterwards, the candidate is required to transmit




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 113


to the returning officer a sworn declaration setting
out the fact of his nomination, qnd declaring that
he has taken no part whatever in the election, and
further solemnly and sincerely declaring that he
has not, and no person, club, society, or association
at his expense has, made any payment or given or
promised or offered any reward, office, employment, or valuable consideration, or incurred any
liability on account of or in respect to the conduct
or management of the election, and further that
he has not paid any money or given any security
or equivalent for money to the person acting as
his agent, or to any person, club, society, or association, on account of the conduct or management
of the election, and that he is entirely ignorant of
any money, security, or equivalent for money having been paid, advanced, given, or deposited by
any one for the purpose of defraying any expenses
incurred on account of his election; and he further solemnly and sincerely declares that he will
not at any future time, except so far as permitted
by law, make or be a party to the making or giving of any payment, reward, office, employment,
or valuable consideration for the purpose of defraying any expenses at the election, or to provide
8




114


4MlACHINE POLITICS.


or be a party to the providing of any money, security, or equivalent for money for the purpose of
defraying such expenses.
A declaration of the same general character is
required to be made by the election agent, declaring that no moneys have been spent other than
those contained in his return of election expenses.
The returning officer at every election, within
ten days after he receives from the election agent
the return of expenses, is required to publish a
summary of the returns of expenses in not less
than two newspapers circulating in the county or
borough for which the election was held, acconpanied by a notice of the time and place at which
the returns and declarations can be inspected, and
they charge the candidate with the expense of such
publication.
The returning officer (here it would have to be
the Bureau of Elections) keeps the return of the
expenses and declarations at his office, or at some
convenient place which he designates, for two
years following the election.
All persons guilty of corrupt or illegal practice
are disqualified from voting.
General provision is made for the hearing of




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 115


persons before they are found guilty of corrupt
or illegal practice. All registration officers are
required to keep a list of all persons incapacitated from voting because of having been found
guilty of corrupt or illegal practice under the
statute.
The act provides for regular proceedings and
the trial in the Central Criminal Court on indictments for corrupt practice at the instance of the
Attorney-general; contains special provisions requiring witnesses to answer truly all questions
which they are required to answer by the Election Court, and no witness is excused from answering any question relating to any offence at or
connected with an election on the ground that the
answer would tend to incriminate them, but no
snch answer can in any proceeding, civil or criminal, be admitted in evidence against the witness,
except in case of a criminal proceeding for perjury in respect to such evidence.
The candidate is declared to be any person who
is nominated as a candidate at such election, or is
declared by himself or by others to be a candidate
after the issue of the writ for the election; but if
lie is nominated by others without his consent,




116


MACHINE POLITICS.


nothing in the act shall be so construed as to
impose upon him any liability as a candidate unless he afterwards gives his assent to the nomination.
Part I. of the first schedule refers to the persons who may be legally employed for payment:
1. One election agent, and no more.
2. One deputy election agent for each polling
district, and no more.
3. One polling agent for each polling station,
and no more. In a borough (which corresponds
to one of our cities) one clerk and one messenger
for every 500 electors in the borough.
In applying the principles of the act to this city
these figures, of course, would have to be much
modified.
The act further prescribes that any paid election
agent, sub-agent, polling agent, clerk, or messenger may or may not be an elector, but he may not
vote.
Part II. refers to election expenses in addition
to the expenses in Part I., and limits them to1. Certain sums paid to the returning officer in
conformity with the law.
2. Personal expenses of the candidate.




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 117


3. Expenfses of printing, advertising, publishing,
issuing, and distributing addresses and notices.
4. Expenses of stationery, messengers, postage,
and telegrams.
5. Expense of holding public meetings.
6. In a borough the expense of committee-room,
not to exceed one committee-room for each 500
electors.
7. In the county the expenses of a central committee-room.
Part III. provides that the expenses for miscellaneous matters other than those mentioned in
Parts I. and II. shall not, on the whole, amount
to a maximum of more than ~200.
Part IV. provides a maximum scale of permissible expenditures. In a borough the expenses
mentioned in Parts I., II., and III. of the schedule other than personal expenses and sums paid
to the returning officer for charges under the
law, shall not exceed on the whole a maximum
amount, as follows:
If the number of electors on the registry does
not exceed 2000, the maximum amount shall be
~350.
If it does exceed 2000, ~380, and an additional




118


1MACHINE POLITICS


~30 for every complete 1000 electors in addition
to the 2000.
If it is found that a corrupt practice has been
committed with the knowledge and consent of the
candidate, he is forever disqualified from holding
office, and is deprived of his franchise as an elector. If such corrupt practice is found to have occurred by the act of the agent with or without the
candidate's knowledge and consent, the candidate
himself is disqualified from serving during the
time for which he was elected, and can neither
hold office nor act as an elector for seven years.
Similar penalties are imposed on agents and subagents found guilty. These penalties are all in
addition to penalties of fines and imprisonment
after conviction on an indictment of bribery, undue influence, treating, illegal payments, or other
corrupt practices.
This system has finally so eliminated the opportunities and the possibilities of fraud and corruption in the use of money as practically to have
put an end to them, if it be considered what tley
have been any time' the last hundred years.*


* See Appendix IV.




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 119


The application of some such a system to our own
elections in combination with a system providing
for the printing and distribution of tickets at the
public expense (and our present election laws could
be readily amended il such a manner as to avail
of all of the best suggestions of the English systecI without complicating the elections, and without running counter to any honest public sentinment) would remove every one of the foundation
stones that lie at the base of our present organized
political machinery. It might be impracticable to
adopt these laws as applicable to municipal elections alone, without changing the time of the
election, in view of the fact that municipal elections now take place simultaneously with state or
national elections. Either the law would have to
be adopted for all elections whatever throughout
the State, or else the municipal elections would
have to take place at some time other than that
provided for state and national elections. The
opinion has long prevailed among the most thoughtful men in our great cities that the charter election should take place in the spring. The answer
to this, so far as any answer has been possible, has
invariably been that the charter election, as a rule,




120


MACHINE POLITICS.


does not elicit sufficient public interest to call out
the entire vote of the city; that such being the
case the only vote which would come out would
be the organized Machine vote, and that in that
event we should be even worse off than we now
are. It is contended that the advantage of having
the general and charter elections take place simultaneously is that the largest possible number of
voters come to the polls, and being there, vote on
municipal as well as general issues. This objection to spring elections has been sought to be answered by saying that some provision for minority
representation would entirely overcome it. At
the last session of the Legislature a bill for spring
elections in the city of New York was passed, and
provision was made for minority representation.
Although the Governor believed in the principle
of a spring election, he, nevertheless, found himself
compelled to veto the bill because of the provisions
providing for minority representation, and this was
justified in view of the fact that minority representation is a mere delusion and snare so long as
parties are organized and permitted to exist as at
present. If the objection to spring elections be
that the great body of voters would not vote, and




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 121


tlat the Machines would be more powerful under
such circumstances than they even now are, provisions for minority representation under our present election laws would only intensify the evil;
because, even if the entire voting population came
out, the party Machines could foreclose the possibility of defeat by combination, and thus be
practically irresponsible as to the candidates whom
they should nominate.
All of these difficulties would, however, be overcome if in the municipal election the Machine were
paralyzed through the deprivation by law of its
present monopoly of printing and distributing the
tickets, and if an act similar to the English Act
for the prevention of corrupt practices were to be
enacted, thus disfranchising all persons who took
money in working as canvassers for, or agents of,
the candidates, limiting the permissible expenditures of candidates, and requiring their sworn statements of the amounts actually disbursed. The result would be that the municipal elections, being
entirely disassociated from all general issues, could
take place in perfect freedom from such issues,
and party Machines, which are generally built up
around questions of national politics, and state or




122


MACHINE POLITICS.


national issues, would as such count for little or
nothing at the charter election. Thus, in charter
elections at least, the vote could be had of men
standing in perfect equality before the ballot-box
as regards every detail of the machinery of election from beginning to end. All general issues
being eliminated by the possibility of nominations
independent of all partisan considerations, and it
being possible to get the name of every candidate
before every voter at the public expense, the army
of paid workers would disappear as soon as their
trade was made criminal, and they were deprived
of their own votes. The Machines, and all that
appertains to them, exist only because the law has
not gone far enough. When it has gone further,
and assumed the performance of all the essential
functions of conducting an election, there will no
longer be either reason, opportunity, or room for
the Machine, and no occasion for assessing candidates or office-holders, for there will be no outlet
for the money.
Where only two or three, and they partisan, candidates are in the field, it is only natural that the
voter, since he has to determine the choice of evils,
should vote for the candidate of the party with




THE REMEDY AS APPLIED IN ENGLAND. 123


which he usually acts. Were the law first to provide the means for placing candidates in nomination, who shall occupy a position exactly as good
as that occupied by the party candidates, and then
separate the charter from the general election, the
means will be found once and for all on the part
of all public-spirited citizens for escaping the choice
of evils, and for acting in municipal matters from
a municipal point of view only, entirely independent of all state or national considerations. In
order to make such a remedy as has been suggested of real service, it would, under present constitutional conditions, be well to apply it only to elections to city offices, and to make the elective officers
as few as possible. Those officers now are the
Mayor, the Comptroller, President of the Board of
Aldermen, Recorder, Judges of the City Court,
City Judges, the Aldermen, and the Civil Justices.
The experience of such a law as reforming our
municipal elections and our municipal government, might lead ultimately to its adoption for all
state and county officers whatever, and work the
reform which is needed throughout the entire
State, though not so urgently needed as in our
great cities. It may be said that these reforms




124          MACHINE POLITICS.
are impossible. If so, I would reply in the words
of Mr. John Morley: "Nearly all lovers of improvement are apt, in the heat of a generous enthusiasm, to forget that if all the world were ready
to embrace their cause, their improvement could
hardly be needed. It is one of the hardest conditions of things that the more numerous and resolute the enemies 'of reform, then the more unmistakably urgent the necessity for it."




APPENDIX I.
TABLE OF LICENSED SALOONS IN ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS.
Q(    CO    -    1     CD
ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS..                W |     C c 
V   d 5V  V   V    V
First Assembly District........  4 10   923  88    47 1072
Second Assembly District........   5   467  12    27   511
Third Assemblv District........  3  8   309  20    28   368
Fourth Assembly District.......  174   2    27   203
Fifth Assembly District........  1   289   7    18   315
Sixth Assembly District........   1   232   2    53   288
Seventh Assembly District......  3  6   331  32    16   388
Eighth Assembly District.........     3  374  7   98   482
Ninth Assembly District.......  1  259  10    11   281
Tenth Assembly District........     1   315   3    48   368
Eleventh Assembly District.....  9 17   239  38    14   317
Twelfth Assembly District.......  318  9  63  390
Thirteenth Assembly District....  1   200  19    15   235
Fourteenth Assembly District....   1   164  13    36   214
Fifteenth Assembly District........    439   5    23   467
Sixteenth Assembly District......  6   302  15    24   347
Seventeenth Assembly District....   4   196  34    14   248
Eighteenth Assembly District....    1   277  24    25   327
Nineteenth Assembly District...     7   381  64    28   48)
Twentieth Assembly District.....  2   252  15    18   287
Twenty-first Assembly District..  1  6  101  29     8   145
Twenty-second Assembly District..  1   414  28    20   463
Twenty-third Assembly District...   516  26    44   586
Twenty-fourth Assembly District..  1   301   9   106   417
Total.......2183 7773 511 811 9199
Total number of licenses issued............... 574
" *   *'      (     existing............   9199
"    "   "    "   closed..............    406
'9605
9574
Discre ancv...............    31


- s




APPENDIX II.
The following tables showA. The elective offices in New York City.
B. The number of election officers for every state or
municipal election in New York City.
C. The number of Assembly Districts and election districts, and the total of registered voters in each Assembly District, and the average of registered voters
in each election district in New York City, for the
year 1886.
A.
ELECTIVE OFFICERS.


Mayor.
Comptroller.
President of the Board of Aldermen.
Twenty-four Aldermen.
Sheriff.
County Clerk.
Register.
Four Coroners.
District Attorney.
Twenty-four Members of Assembly.
Seven Senators


Seven Justices of the Supreme
Court.
Six Justices of the Superior
Court.
Six Justices of the Court of
Common Pleas.
Six Justices of the City Court.
Eleven District Court Civil Justices.
Recorder.
Judge of General Sessions.
City Judge.
Surrogate.




APPENDIX II.


127


B.
ELECTION OFFICERS.
Number P1oll  Total Inspectors  Total    Total
YRAK. Election clerks  Poll- of Election Inspectors Inspecors
Districts,  each clerks. each Dist. Election. Poll-clerks.
Dist.' Poll-clerks.
1884   712     2    1424      4       2848     4272
1885   712     2    1424      4       2848     4272
1886   812     2    1624      4       3248     4872
Duties of Inspectors of Elections.
There are four Inspectors of Election in each election
district. They must meet and be in constant attendance at the designated place of registration and polling
on the four appointed days of registration and on election-day. One of the four must be designated as chairman.   Their duties are clearly set forth in a "Manual"
issued by the Bureau of Elections, and are briefly as
follows: They must register the names, etc., of all duly
qualified voters who may apply for registration. The
chairman must, at the close of each day's registration,
deliver to the police-captain of the precinct in which
the election district is located a list of the names, etc.,
of every person who registered on that day. 2d. They
must keep six books, exact copies, of the names, etc., of
the persons who register. 3d. They must receive and
deposit the ballots of such registered voters on election



128


APPENDIX II.


day, and allow no person to vote whose name is not on
their registers. 4th. They must count and declare the
vote in their election district, and return duly attested
statements of the vote cast to the Clerk of the Board of
Aldermen, the County Clerk, and the Chief of the Bureau
of Elections.
Duties of Poll-clerks.
There are two poll-clerks in each election district.
Their duties are also set forth in the " Manual" referred
to, but are chiefly as follows: 1st. They must attend at
the polling-place at the opening of the polls on electionday, and remain in constant attendance. 2d. They must
each keep a poll list, and record therein the name of
every person who votes. They must also keep two tally
lists of the officers for which each person votes. 3d.
They must sign both poll lists and tallies, after comparison, and return, within twenty-four hours after the close
of the polls, one poll list and one tally to the Chief of
the Bureau of Elections, one poll list to the County
Clerk, and one tally to the Mayor.




APPENDIX II.
C.
1886.


129




ASSEMBLY
DIBTRICTS.
First..
Second.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth..
Sixth.
Seventh.
Eighth..
Ninth...
Tenth...
Eleventh.
Twelfth.
Thirteenth..
Fourteenth... 
Fifteenth..
Sixteenth...
Seventeenth.....
Eighteenth....
Nineteenth.. 
Twentieth.
Twenty-first..
Twenty-second..
Twenty-third....
Twenty-fourth..


1.


No. Election
Districts.
25
28
28
29
29
29
35
31
32
31
25
27
34
22
36
28
42
32
43
34
29
58
66
39


Total registered
voters.
6,283
7,368
7,500
9,157
7,058
8,671
8,838
8, 961
9,863
9,816
6,342
8,201
9,281
6,825
11,261
8,355
12,821
9,254
13,842
9,714
8,849
17,359
19,556
10,586


Av. No. reg.
voters each
Election Dis.
263A
2~r 4
2672 
5 2 2
31 5T
24311~
299
25218
29 2
2 8 WT
308j~
316~2534-iW,303~-f
272
310 
312 9
29811
305ff9
289A6
3214 3
29917
2966 6
27 1ff7
o-ru9 1




812         23,5761      2902


Average registered per Assembly District...........98239
Average No. Election Districts per Assembly District.   33ff
9




APPENDIX III.


I believe the general statement which I have made in
the text to be entirely correct as to the decade immediately preceding the fall of the Tweed Ring, notwithstanding the fact that I find the following editorial
article in the New York Herald for November 1, 1858,
which will be found very interesting in this connection:
"The outlay which these candidates for public office
have to make in the course of a campaign would form
a very curious study, and its results would be quite
suggestive.  First, the nomination has to be paid for,
and paid for liberally. The price, of course, depends
upon the salary of the office, or the estimate of what it
may be made to yield. It is known that $10,000 has
been paid for a nomination to the Mayoralty, and a like
sum  for that to the Street Commissionership. Some
people might possibly fail to see the great advantage to
be derived from paying $10,000 for an office the salary
of which for the whole term did not exceed $9000;
but office-holders and office-seekers have a knack of
reconciling this little anomaly in a mode profitable to
themselves, but not so profitable to the community.




APPENDIX III.


131


The nomination being secured, it then becomes necessary
to pay for the banners, for the music, for the torch-light
processions, for the speakers, and the platforms on which
they stand - for the artillery discharges, for the skyrockets and Roman candles, for the notices in the Sunday newspapers, and for the enthusiasm generally. It
costs about $2000 to be elected to the office of Coroner,
a like sum to be a member of the Common Council,
$5000 to get to Congress,$15,000 to be elected Street
Commissioner or Sheriff, $20,000 to be elected Mayor,
and so on in proportion to the estimated value of the
post, or of what may be made out of it. Independently
of the candidates for State offices and for Congress, we
have in New York sixty-four candidates for county offices, whose aggregate outlay in the effort to get elected
cannot fall far short of a quarter million of dollars.
With the expenditure for the State and Congressional
tickets, including the prices paid for nomination, the
whole sum spent in this city on the election may be
fairly set down at half a million of dollars. How publicspirited, generous, and munificent must be our politicians,
or else how corrupt must be the conduct of our officeholders! The records of the Grand Jury room and of
the criminal courts indicate pretty conclusively how the
matter stands."




APPENDIX IV.


HOW THE ENGLISH LAW HAS WORKED.
For many years the English law, like our own, has
been such that a fraud in polling or canvassing the vote
was a practicable impossibility. Nevertheless, the elections continually miscarried because of the prevalence
of corrupt practices and the enormous expenditure of
money at the elections. It was to cure these evils that
the Prevention of Corrupt Practices Act of 1883 and 1884
was passed. Now the value of legislation, like the value
of a business project, can only be measured by actual
results, and the best way to foretell what the result of
the application to this country of the general principles
of the English system will be, is to study what the effects
of that system have been in England itself. The history
of the elections of 1880 and 1886 shows a most marked
contrast between the elections of the two years, and
amounts to a demonstration of the efficiency of the law.
In 1880 an unusually large number of members of
Parliament were unseated for corrupt practices at the
elections. An investigation was made by a Royal Commission of twenty-four members. Among the seats con



APPENDIX IV.


133


tested was that of Alex.W. Hall, Conservative for Oxford.
The Mayor of Oxford testified before the Commission
that the majority of the electors always expected to be
employed on election-day as clerks and messengers; and
Mr. Hall's election agent swore that almost all of his papers were destroyed "because they would have disclosed
quasi-corrupt transactions." At Canterbury the agent of
the Liberal candidate who was defeated swore that his
principal had deliberately given him money for the express purpose of buying up poor voters. Mr. ButlerJohnstone, the former Liberal member, swore that he was
once elected by corrupt practices, and that at least 400
out of the 2700 voters in the constituency were corrupt.
At Macclesfield the agent of the Conservative candidate testified that he had bought up sixty Liberals at ~5
per head and their beer; that to try to conduct an election without money was a farce; and that although he
had only returned his expenses at ~610, they had actually
been ~2590. There were 5700 votes polled, and this
same witness swore that on one side or the other at least
4000 had been bribed. His candidate polled 2678, of
which he, the agent, had bought and paid for 1863, at an
average of six shillings and eightpence each, and had paid
550 others as clerks, messengers, and committeemen.
At Boston it appeared that twenty per cent. of the
voters were employed as clerks, messengers, canvassers,




134


APPENDIX IV.


committeemen, or what not. But it was at Sandwich
that the most interesting showing was made. The
special correspondent of the New York World summarized the evidence at the time, and I cannot do better
than quote his carefully prepared article from the issue
of November 28, 1880:
"Sandwich, in the fair county of Kent, consists of the
parishes of Deal, Walmer, St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Clement, and St. Bartholomew. Sandwich, with a population
of 14,916 and a registration of 2115 electors, freemen,
inhabitants rated for the relief of the poor and lodgers to
the value of ~10.  It returns two members to Parliament. In 1832 both were Liberals; in 1835 the delegation was divided; in 1837 the Liberals regained the
second seat, which they lost at a by-election in 1841;
in 1847 two Liberals were elected; in 1852 the delegation was amicably divided; in 1857, in 1859, and in
1865 the Liberals elected both members; and though
in 1866, at a by-election, the Conservative candidate
just secured the vacant seat, at the general elections of
1868, 1874, and 1880 the Liberal members, Messrs. E. H.
Knatchbull-IIugessen and H. A. Brassey, were returned,
In 1874 the Liberals polled 1035 votes, and the Conservatives 764; and the Liberal majority was so large that
in April last the Conservatives ran no candidates. In
May, however, Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen was elevated to




APPENDIX IV.


135


the peerage as Lord Brabourne, and for the vacant seat
against Sir Julian Goldsmid, Liberal, the Conservatives
put up Mr. C. H. Crompton-Roberts, a wealthy contractor,
who carried the borough by 1145 to 705. The result
was so manifestly obtained by irregular means that a petition was made, on which the Conservative member was
unseated on the ground of bribery by his agents; Sir
Julian's agents being similarly to blame, each side was
ordered to pay its own costs, and the House was recommended to suspend the issue of a new writ until the extraordinary prevalence of corruption had been investigated.
"A Royal commission, composed of Mr. William Hayworth Holl, Q. C., and Messrs. Richard Edward Turner
and Francis Henry Jeune, barristers, has been taking evidence in the doomed borough for several weeks past.
Both candidates, their agents, and several hundred voters
have been examined, and the story of an English Eatanswill is worth giving. I may prelude it by stating that
the expenses at the uncontested election in April were
~583, while in May those incurred by Mr. CromptonRoberts were returned at ~3153 5s. 3d., and those of
Sir Julian Goldsmid at ~888 13s. ld., or something over
$11 of your currency for each vote polled. But these
figures, circumstantial as they are, do not represent the
total expenditure; the third witness, Sir Julian's agent,




136


APPENDIX IV.


told how a single sum of ~1500 had been brought down
by the Liberals, gave it as his candid opinion that unless
a man were prepared to spend ~2000 it was idle for him
to contest the borough, and declared that he had told
Sir Julian at their first interview that ~3000 would be
needed to secure his election. Before the ballot all freemen used to receive ~1 each when they went to the poll.
Mr. Crompton-Roberts's solicitor admitted that corrupt
practices prevailed extensively at the election. Then the
Commissioners began to unearth these corrupt practices
in detail. One Liberal agent spent ~40 in treating and
~51 in buying voters at from 15 shillings to ~4 a head.
A Conservative agent spent ~390 in hiring public-houses
as committee-rooms at ~5 each; in all, the Conservatives
had ninety-one 'headquarters'-one for every 12 voters.
One spent ~96 in bribery; another, ~48; a third, ~80;
a fourth, ~52, and so on down a long list. One enterprising publican let his house to the Conservatives and
bribed for the Liberals. Another, who had been given
~30, kept ~22 19s. for himself, securing one other vote
besides his own: he charged ~10 for canvassing that
voter. The members of the 'Bold Forty-two' got ~3
13s. each from the Liberals and ~3 each from the Conservatives, and one particularly bold Forty-twoer got ~35
13s. in all by selling himself impartially to all canvassers.
This, indeed, was the common practice; over fifty voters




APPENDIX IV.


137


came up in succession to swear that they had been bribed
on both sides; one had been bought thrice. Several said
regretfully that they should like to have another such job.
The lowest price paid for voters was ~3, with a further sum
of ~2 promised after the election; not a few witnesses
said they hadn't yet received the ~2, but still hoped to get
it. One, a builder, declared that he had bribed at that
election, and at every previous election, and 'woula spend
money again if he had a chance.' Refreshments were profusely distributed to the free and independent. One man
spent ~20, and 'treated every one he saw;' another spent
~11, and so on. One landlord brought in a bill for '3 cwt.
of rope and refreshments.' Altogether, the Conservatives
spent between ~2000 and ~3000 on public-houses, and
the Liberals ~750-so small a sum, indeed, that the free
and independent voters went to Sir Julian Goldsmid in person to ask where any of his beer was to be had. But the
great device of this memorable election was-flags! The
town was described by one witness as 'a forest of poles;'
another said that people came many miles to see the display of bunting. There was one glorious pole from
which twenty flags floated, with, at the mast-head, a huge
pennant inscribed 'Our Illustrious Leaders,' and bearing
the names of the members of the Cabinet. First, the
flag and the pole are bought of voters at fancy prices;
then a site on which to erect the pole is rented from a




138


APPENDIX IV.


voter; then any number of voters are hired to put it up;
and finally a number of watchers are engaged to protect
it. One pole cost ~25; it took thirty men three days to
erect it, and two reliefs of watchers, each of six men,
stood sentry over it at ~2 apiece. One voter asked ~30
for a site on which to plant a flag-staff, but came down to
~2; another got ~3 for ' watching' a flag-the ' watching' consisting in 'looking at it' when he went to bed
and when he got up. One influential voter, whose annual rent is ~46, got ~84 for the use of five rooms of
his house during two weeks. One man sold his vote
twice, had his two children retained as messengers at ~1
each, and received ~1 for his services in 'walking up and
down the street.' There were some 230 messengers employed; among them were boys of nine, who were paid
4s. 6d. a day. One snug British tradesman appeared
who 'never altered his opinions- when there was an
election he gave one vote to one side and one to the other; all he wanted was to speak the truth-he did not
come there with a false tongue.' Another impartially
dressed his shop in blue, distributed Liberal bills, and put
blue bows on his children for one week, and the next
hung out red banners on his outward walls, distributed
Conservative documents, and put red neckties on his
children. One voter grumbled because the Commissioners refused to allow him his expenses when subpoenaed a




APPENDIX IV.


139


second time after the discovery that he had been bribed
twice, but had said nothing about the second bribery in
his first examination. Another, who had sold himself
for ~6, clamored for 5s. for loss of time in testifying to
his shame. Another, a journeyman boat-builder, demanded first-class travelling expenses. One agent swore
to having received-from 'a short, dark man' whom he
did not know-a sum of ~1000 or ~1300; when recalled upon the discovery that the amount was ~1700 it
came out that there had been 'such a rush to get it' that
he had not been able to count it before it was divided
up. In all about 900 of the 1850 voters swore to having been bribed. One agent declared that there were
not 300 persons in Deal who did not have money, that
sixty per cent. of the electors were venal, and that things
had changed since the old times, when from ~20 to ~30
was paid for a vote to a limited class of corrupt electors,
since 'now it was a general thing, and he could hardly
go into a house but the people asked what they were to
have.' If money was one side, the candidate on the other
would, he said, stand no chance; and besides having the
money, the Conservatives announced that if they were defeated they would never contest the borough again, so
that the residents, terrified at this prospect, elected Mr.
Crompton-Roberts, so as to compel the Liberals to put
him out at the next election.




140


APPENDIX IV.


"The evidence of the two candidates was deeply interesting. Sir Julian Goldsmid said that on going to
Sandwich his first ominous experience was hearing the
universal remark: 'We were afraid we were not going
to have a contest.' The Liberal agent told him it would
cost about ~2500 to carry the borough, and that the
custom of the locality was to pay cash. Sir Julian spent
~2230, or nearly thrice the amount returned to Parliament-the bulk of it, ~1500, being furnished by a contractor for public works at Rochester and Sheerness,
who said that he had 'generally paid Sir Julian's registration expenses, his subscriptions and such like.' The
money was sent in gold on a verbal message delivered
by a second person, and was given to a third person with
whom the contractor was not acquainted, and who merely
signed his initials to an unstamped and undated receipt!
Sir Julian found during his second day's canvassing that
the Liberals were only running him to have a contest,
and intended to defeat him; that the amount of fictitious employment was 'enormous;' that tradesmen were
being bought on all sides with orders for goods; that
strangers asked him in the streets for money-hence he
began taking notes for a petition before the election had
taken place, and the day after it was held consulted with
his friends, who declared it his duty to the public to
have the borough disfranchised.  'It was something




APPENDIX IV.


141


dreadful,' said the baronet, 'to have to go through what
I went through, and my main reason for petitioning was
that no other candidate should be placed in my position.' He was threatened with personal violence; one
voter, a leading Liberal, declared on the stand before
the Commission that after finding out how 'mean' his
candidate was (in pressing the petition) he would gladly
vote to have him drowned! It was offered by the Conservatives that if Sir Julian would withdraw the petition
and save the place from risk of disfranchisement, Mr.
Crompton - Roberts would resign and Sir Julian would
be allowed to walk over for the vacancy, and be paid
his expenses at both elections and on the petition. Mr.
Foord, the contractor already alluded to, said it cost him
about ~560 a year for party expenses.  The ~1500
went to Sandwich in May; in July Sir Julian thanked
him for sending the money; in September he said he
would repay it shortly, when he had some money coming
in, and Mr. Foord said, 'Pay when you like.' October
20th Sir Julian sent him a check, but the check had not
yet been put through the bank.
"But, oh, what a delightful witness Mr. CromptonRoberts was! He told his agent that it was hardly fair
to Sir Julian to engage so many public-houses, but the
agent assured him that there would be enough left for
the Liberals. He told his agent that he was bothered




142


APPENDIX IV.


by people catching hold of him in the street and asking
if they might not have some flags, and the agent said,
'Flags are illegal, and I cannot authorize any until the
other side start it.' Hearing that Sir Julian was to be
made a Forester, Mr. Crompton-Roberts thought he 'had
better become one likewise;' and 'having understood
that it was usual for new members to stand glasses
round, asked the President's permission to order them,'
whereupon Right Worthy-or whatever it is-Brother
Goldsmid remarked that that was 'sailing very near the
wind,' the law about treating being very rigid. On the
Bank Holiday Mr. Crompton-Roberts gave a regatta, at
which every boat got a money prize, and the townsfolk
were all admitted free to the pier to see it. When he
heard that only ~20 would be expended for the fireworks
on this holiday, Mr. Crompton-Roberts told his butler that
he had often spent more than that for fireworks on the
birthday of one of his children, and if the butler feared
the display was going to be shabby he was to add what
money he thought necessary. During the whole time lie
was in the borough Mr. Crompton-Roberts only saw 'one
man a little gone,' and he was 'astonished' when he received the petition with its allegations. He could not
believe them, and was further 'astonished' when his
solicitor informed him that there must be some fire where
there was so much smoke. The Conservative candidate




APPENDIX IV.


143


asked piteously 'If the borough was to be won by illegal
means, why was I made to work harder than I ever did
in my life for a fortnight? My agent, gentlemen, had
my complete confidence, and I was like a child in his
hands.' Poor Mr. Crompton-Roberts had to go round
making speeches with a bit off of the top of one of his
teeth, which made it agony for him to speak, but hisinexorable agent refused to let him stop, and declared he
was going to carry the election if he killed the candidate.
Mr. Crompton-Roberts spent ~6500 on the election, this
sum not including his personal expenses or his petition
costs, and thought 'this had been done economically, as
he had always thought an election cost something like
~10,000.' It is but just to say that he scattered much
money in a manner that was ludicrous rather than corrupt; he 'tipped' his sons lavishly; he gave money
freely to personal friends in gratitude for their expressions of hopefulness and sympathy; and he forced a ~20
note on his governess for showing an interest in his candidature. He gave ~18 to one local charity and ~5 to
another-the Foresters' Widow and Orphan Fund; bythe-way, his 'glasses round' on his election to the fraternity cost him ~12. His house-keeper was liberal in
distributing sums of f'rom 2s. to 10s. to poor people who
passed his house; his chemist got one order of ~8 for
soda-water alone; it took four butchers and five poulter



144


APPENDIX IV.


ers to supply the family with meat and poultry. Here
are some extracts from his canvassing-book:
"'1. W. H.-Paralyzed; wants help to get change of air and
rides out.
"'2. G. M.-Wants better pension.
"'3. D. B.-Very favorable, but poor.
"'4. T. J.-Promised; wants a little drop.
"'5. J. T.-Wants liquoring.
"' 6. W. R.-Wants cash.
"'7. G. C.-Wants much assistance; had much illness in the
house; half a year's rent at 3s.=~3 18s.
" 8. J. T.-Wife wants liquoring up.
"'9. T. H. S.-Mother wants a liquor up.
"' 10. G. T.-Some Brahee sugar powder.
"'11. T. S.-Expenses to Ramsgate to be paid; can bring two
others.'
"When examined as to these entertaining entries, Mr.
Crompton-Roberts declared that No. 1 'made that statement, and seemed to think he had a claim;' that he told
No. 2 he had no right to ask a candidate to get him an
increased pension; that the note about No. 3 was 'a
statement of his case,' and not a hint about corrupting
him; that No. 4 was 'a liquory kind of fellow,' and so
on."
All this was in 1880. Every one familiar with English history is more or less acquainted with the corruption which prevailed in the earlier days, when, in his will,




APPENDIX IV.


146


the Right Hon. George Venables made a bequest of five
thousand pounds to his "dear son-in-law towards the
purchase of a seat in Parliament;" when elections were
openly bought and sold; and when, for instance, one
thousand pounds were offered for a single vote, as was
once done at Malmesbury.  But in 1880 better things
were to have been expected, and although very great
improvements had been made on the election methods
and morals of the early part of the century, corruption
was still rife, because of the numberless ways of cloaking it which were offered on every hand. It was to
cure this evil that Sir Henry James's Act was passed.
When it was under discussion it was freely predicted that
it must fail of its purpose because the evils complained
of were not such as could be reached by legislation.
How admirably the law has succeeded, however, may be
seen from the following summary of the official returns
of election expenses for 1886, published in the Pall Mall
Gazette, under the title " The Cheapest Election on Record:"
"The official return showing the cost of the election
of 1886 which has just been published is drawn up in
the same way, and shows the same general features as
the similar return for the election of 1885. This earlier
return was analyzed so fully in our columns (September
10




146


APPENDIX IV.


6, 1886) from the point of view of the Corrupt Practices
Act that we need not dwell on this matter again. It will
suffice to state generally that every conclusion we then
drew is confirmed by the experience of a second election
under the Act.  The expenses have been reduced all
round by at least one-half; and not only so, but as a rule
those who pay highest no longer poll heaviest. On the
contrary, it would probably be found that the unsuccessful candidates throughout the kingdom spent considerably more than the elected members. This is notably the
case in Ireland, where Parnellites generally beat their opponents by double the number of votes and at half the
cost.  As another point of resemblance between this
election and the last, we may notice that Northampton
still retains its honorable position of being the cheapest
seat going; Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Bradlaugh paid only
6d. a vote-a reduction of 2d. on last time.
"But indeed the salient feature of this election
throughout on the financial side is its cheapness. Before
illustrating this point, however, in detail, we may give,
in the same form as on the last occasion, the actual figures. The following table is compiled from the Bluebook; in the'total expenses' column shillings and pence
are omitted throughout-this explains the apparent inaccuracy in the totals:




APPENDIX IV.


147


Total      Cost      Total      Cost
Expenses. per Vote. Expenses. per Vote.


England:
Counties...........
Boroughs..........
Universities........
Total England....
Wales:
Counties...........
Boroughs..........
Total Wales......
Scotland:
Counties...........
Burghs............
Universities........
Total Scotland....
Ireland:
Counties...........
Boroughs..........
Universities........
Total Ireland.....
Total United Kingdom


~
284,989
203,331
305


s. d.
5 2
3 1
2 8


~


s. d.


18,801   4 11
8,255   4  6


55,629
26,983
245


5 8
3 3


488,626
27,056
82,858
25,544
624,086


4 0
4 10


20,852


2 5


4,142    2  z
549    2 10.......


2 5
4 0


" The total cost of electing the present Parliament was,
it will thus be seen, ~624,086, that of electing the last
~1,026,645, showing a decrease of over ~400,000. This
enormous reduction was, however, partly due, of course,
to the simple fact that there were many more uncontested elections in 1886 than in 1885. In 1885 there
were 641 contests, in 1886 only 442. Now, uncontested
elections do not cost nothing, but they cost very little.
We shall not be far wrong, therefore, if, for the purpose
of comparison, we ignore the cost in these cases, and




148


APPENDIX IV.


bring the figures of the two elections to a common measure on the basis of the number of contests. On this
showing the cost of the 1886 election would-at the rate
of the 1885 one-have been ~707,920; it was ~624,086
-leaving even so a reduction of over ~80,000. The reduction will perhaps be brought out more clearly by the
following comparative table:


Average            Cost per vote.
Total Cost. cost per 
contest. England. Wales. Scotland. Ireland. Kiegdom
~       ~     s. d.   s. d. s. d. s.d.s.  d.  s. d.
1885.. 1,026,645  1,601   4  4   5  7   5  8   2   9   4  5
1886..   624,086  1,411   4  0  4 10    4  7   2   5   4  0


" It is a reduction, it will be seen, of about 10 per cent.
all along the line. Absolutely and relatively to the number of contests alike the election of 1886 is the cheapest on record.  'Unionists' may fairly boast that although they carried the Union in 1800 by bribery and
corruption, they 'maintained' it in 1886 on the cheap."
As was pointed out by the New York Evening Post,
the most significant fact disclosed by the English elections of 1886 is "that the grand total of expenditure by
candidates is only a little more than one-half of the grand
total allowed by the law."  The fact is, that competitive expenditure, as it exists in this country to-day, must
continue because of the essential nature of all competi



APPENDIX IV.


149


tion of this kind to increase the outlay of all candidates
whatever in a steady progression. Expenditure begets
expenditure; and assuming that a candidate is permitted
to spend as much as he pleases, his competitors will always be impelled to spend as much as he or suffer the
consequences. It is in this way that certain districts get
hopelessly debauched. Thus, when Mr. L. P. Morton
first ran for Congress in New York City, his district was
flooded with money; and when, subsequently, Mr. Roswell
P. Flower and Mr. W. W. Astor, both millionaires, ran
in the same district, the competitive expenditure was such
as to produce almost complete demoralization. The history of the English law shows that where the permissible
expenditure is limited the opposite effect is produced,
and that candidates no longer being allowed to test their
popularity by the length of their purses, find no motive
or incentive to spend even the moderate sums allowed
by law. In 1880, with about 3,000,000 voters in 419
constituencies, there was spent over ~3,000,000 or $15,000,000; while in 1886, with an increased number of voters, there was expended but ~624,086, or about $3,000,000. In 1880 ninety-five petitions alleging corrupt practices were presented, while only two were presented in
1885 and only one in 1886. To quote the New York
Nation, referring to these facts, " Corruption in politics
has been practically abolished." The most interesting




150


APPENDIX IV.


fact of all, however, is that already referred to, that the
expenditure did not reach the permitted limit; commenting on which fact the London Daily News says, "The
first thing which they (the figures) prove is the complete
success of Sir Henry James's Act. The chief feature of
that Act was that it laid down a maximum expenditure,
to exceed which would be a corrupt practice voiding
the seat.  The experts said that the maximum  was
placed too low-the experience of the last election demonstrates that, as usual, the experts were wrong, and that
on the contrary the maximum is too high. It would
be possible to reduce by at least one-fourth the sums allowed by law without in any way starving the elections.
There are very few cases in which the maximum was
reached."


THE END.




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information. In stating the results of his investigations, he writes with exemplary candor and impartiality, though not without the exercise of just and sound
discrimination.-N. Y. Tribune.
CAPE COD AND ALL ALONG SHORE: STORIES. By CHARLES NORDHOFF. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50; 4to, Paper, 15 cents.
Light, clever, well-written sketches.-N. Y. Times.
A lively and agreeable volume, full of humor and incident.-Boston Transcript
GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE. The Reasonableness of Christianity.
By CHARLES NORDHOFF.     6mo, Cloth, $1 00.
Mr. Nordhoff's object is not so much to present a religious system as to give
practical and sufficient reasons for every-day beliefs. He writes strongly, clearly,
and in the vein that the people understand.-Boston Herald.
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BY ALBERT STICKNEY.
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. A Study of Politics.
By ALBERT STICKNEY. pp. 170. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00.
It has the merit of independent, earnest, and original conviction. It is
throughout thoroughly American, and shows the democratic training that
has made New England life so forceful in all parts of this country.... The
book will arouse interest because of its freshness and evident and sensible
patriotism.-Philadelphia Times.
Mr. Stickney is thoroughly convinced that our present Constitution does
not meet the requirements of this nation, and his reasons for so thinking
he has given with great energy and clearness.... Mr. Stickney is an
unusually stimulating and suggestive writer.-Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle.
The exposition of the evil of professional politicians, of ring rule politics, and of divided responsibility should be read by every citizen.-N. Y.
Herald.
It is the aim of this volume to show that there is a remedy, and that
this is in simply returning to a truly popular representative government.... The volume will surely be accepted as a valuable contribution to the
political thought of the time.-N. Y. Times.
A clear, vigorous discussion of practical politics.... It is one of many
signs that people are thinking to the point, as well as a help to students
to formulate their own vague notions.-Atlantic Monthly, Boston.
An intelligently and forcibly considered study in politics, deals temperately, justly, vigorously, and from the stand-point of a consistent and conscientious Democrat, with the principles, precepts, and practice of democracy in its intended purity and impartial administration of justice.-New
Orleans Times-Democrat.
A TRUE REPUBLIC. By ALBERT STICKNEY. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 00.
Mr. Stickney writes well and forcibly, and some of his propositions are
undeniably true.... His elegantly made and interesting book will be classed
with the Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the Republic of Plato.-N. Y.
Evening Mail.
Mr. Stickney's book will be found very suggestive. He sketches the
different kinds of government people have lived under, and reviews our
own. Every thinking American should read it.-N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
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NEWCOMB'S POLITICAL ECONOMY.
PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.                               By
SIMON    NEwconB, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics,
U. S. Navy, Professor in the Johns Hopkins University, Author of "Popular Astronomy," &c.             pp. xvi.,
548. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50.
Nothing so good is, that we know of, to be found elsewhere. Every section, we might almost say every page, abounds in instruction.... The book
should be more than read; it should be carefully studied, and students who
make themselves masters of the problems set for them in the illustrations
and exercises interspersed among the chapters would know more of the
subject than many of the avowed professors of the science in our colleges.
— V. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
It is timely, useful, and invaluable. The questions considered are now
before the citizens of the United States for their decision. More valuable
help than that afforded by this volume towards a complete understanding
of these questions and towards conclusions that will promote national
prosperity, is not to be found.-Christian Intelligencer, N. Y.
In the present volume Professor Newcomb has directed his great powers
of analysis to the difficult subject of political economy. Whatever such a
man says about anything he never fails to make clear. The reader of this
exposition of a science little understood will never have the slightest doubt
of Professor Newcomb's meaning.-V. Y. Journal of Commerce.
In a broad and profound consideration of the subject on both its scientific and practical side; in an engaging candor, a mathematical clearness
and precision, and a weighty grasp of the great subject and its relations,
no previous work on political economy can compare with this by Dr. Newcomb.-Boston Evening Traveller.
The merit of Professor Newcomb's treatment consists in thorough
knowledge and mastery of the subject, in its freedom from partisanship,
its simple and clear logical statement and apt illustration, and in its general suggestiveness to the reader to inquire and think for himself from
what is given him. Through this combination of essentials to instruction
and independent investigation it has the power to accomplish more than
any other work.-Boston Globe.
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CAIRNES'S WORKS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY.
SOME LEADING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY NEWLY EXPOUNDED. By J. E.
CAIRNES, LL.D., late Emeritus Professor of Political
Economy in University College, London. Crown 8vo,
Cloth, $2 50.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome another contribution to Political Economy from the ablest living representative of the school of
Ricardo and Mill. Mr. Cairnes aims at restating and modifying some of
the doctrines which have hitherto passed muster as established principles.
He brings to the task a remarkable power of sustained and accurate
thought upon topics which are apt to bewilder an ordinary brain, and a
capacity for lucid expression which is hardly less rare and admirable.Saturday Review, London.
It not only throws new light on some of the most important problems
of the science, but it entirely recasts the theory of cost of production, and
thereby clears away, to a great extent, the mists and fogs by which the
doctrines of international trade and international values are surrounded.... The most important contribution which political economy has received
for many years.-Athlenmcum, London.
THE CHARACTER AND LOGICAL METHOD OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY. By J. E. CAIRNES, LL.D.
12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
Mr. Cairnes has rendered a great service to the literature of political
economy in bringing out a second and greatly enlarged edition of this remarkable work. The present volume has received so many and such valuable additions that it will be read with almost as much interest as if it
were an entirely new work. The general purpose of the book, which is to
show that the deductive method is that which should be adopted in the
pursuit of economic investigations, is dealt with by Mr. Cairnes in a most
masterly and conclusive manner.-Examiner, London.
The lucidity and logical coherence of Professor Cairnes's writings render
them admirable text-books for students, as well as useful for more mature
thinkers.-Saturday Review, London.
No economical writer in England has, since Mill, commanded so much
of public attention and respect.-Nation, N. Y.
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THE RAILWAYS AND THE REPUBLIC.
The Railways and the Republic.            By JAMES F. HUDSON. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00.
This book is of absorbing interest to every American, if only as a contribution to contemporary history. The facts concerning the railway system, which he has compiled with great industry, will be more novel and
more surprising to most readers than any narrative of party struggles in
Great Britain or of Russian aggression in Asia. Many writers have given
glowing descriptions of the growth of railways, of the ingenuity and energy
which have built them up, and of their services to civilization, showing
how they add efficiency to productive industry, improve and enlarge our
national resources, and overcome the narrowness of local and provincial
life by diffusing a broad national spirit. But Mr. Hudson, while recognizing the full force of these familiar thoughts, examines the subject from
another point of view,,and finds in it one of the gravest social and political
problems which ever confronted a great people. He shows that the railway corporations have acquired and now exercise a power over trade and
industry such as no government, however despotic, ever dared to usurp;
that the managers of the roads, by their secret and irresponsible control
of rates, became the arbiters of success or failure in mining, manufactures,
and commerce; that they can thus acquire unearned fortunes for themselves, and can largely dictate the distribution of wealth in society at large
according to their caprice or favor, and without regard to industry, enterprise, or merit. He describes in detail the process by which these powers
have been used in several typical instances to neutralize the laws of trade,
to destroy the natural advantages of particular places, to ruin whole groups
of independent competitors, and even to build up actual monopolies. His
account of the rise of the Standard Oil Company by the aid of discriminations made in its favor by the "Trunk Line" railroads, until from one
among many refiners of petroleum it has become absolute master of the
trade in this staple, is the romance of a career of conquest in business not
less marvellous than was Hannibal's in war. He explains how the rapid
development of agriculture in the Western States, with advancing values
of lands, has been coincident with a decline of the same interest in the
Eastern and Middle States, and an actual decrease in the value of farms,
as the direct result of the persistent discrimination of the railroads against
"local freights."  He sketches the history of "pooling" among the railroads, from its origin in the combination of two or three parallel lines to
destroy their mutual competition, down to the audacious and magnificent
scheme by which it is now proposed to subject all the great highways of
the nation to the dominion of a secret commercial oligarchy. He proves
clearly that if such a conspiracy is successful, it will have the power to
subjugate and rigidly monopolize other branches of trade far more important than that in oil.
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WHAT SOCIAL CLASSES OWE
TO EACH OTHER.
By WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER, Professor of Political and
Social Science in Yale College. 16mo, Cloth, 60 cents.
There is no page of the book that is not weighty with meaning.
The argument that runs through it is like a chain, strongly welded, link on to link. * * * Prof. Sumner gives clear, pointed, and
powerful utterance to much social and political wisdom.  The
teaching of the book is just of that sort which is most needed by
the young America of to-day.-Boston Commonwealth.
The conclusions he reaches are substantially unanswerable. * * *
No more important doctrine than this can well be proclaimed, and
our country owes a debt of gratitude to whoever will proclaim
it in the sturdy style of this book. We need not despair of the
Republic while our young men are fed upon such meat as this.
Whether they adopt his conclusions or not, they cannot fail to be
stimulated by his reasoning.-The Nation, N. Y.
Prof. Sumner has selected a subject of great interest and importance, and has treated it with ingenuity, penetration, and originality, and in a plain, homely, pungent, and effective style.-Brooklyn
Union.
His little book is full of excellent maxims of conduct formed on
the manly principle of doing hard work and letting everybody
have a fair chance. * * * These eleven short chapters are undoubtedly the ablest of recent contributions to matters on which much
unprofitable ink is spent.-N. Y. Times.
This volume contains a most instructive discussion of certain
economic questions which are of living interest touching upon the
duties of the State to classes or individuals embraced in it.-Boston
Globe.
The style is bright and racy, and the argument is allowed to lose
none of its force by the use of technical terms. The book is suggestive, and will be found helpful to those who desire to reach correct conclusions on subjects of practical importance.-Christian at
Work, N. Y.
Prof. Sumner has enforced in very few and very simple words
some of the most important and most neglected principles of political and social economy; has exposed, with temperate but none the
less telling sarcasm, the most absurd but not least popular crotchets
of modern philanthropic enthusiasm.-Saturday Review, London.
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VALUABLE WORKS ON POLITICAL SCIENCE,
FISH'S PARLIAMENTARY        LAW.    American Manual of
Parliamentary Law; or, The Common Law of Deliberative
Assemblies. Systematically Arranged for the Use of the
Parliamentarian and the Novice. By GEORGE T. FISH.
16mo, Cloth, 50 cents; Leather Tucks, $1 00.
NEWCOMB'S A B C OF FINANCE. The A B C of Finance; or, The Money and Labor Questions Familiarly Explained to Common People, in Short and Easy Lessons.
By SIMON NEWCOMB, LL.D. 32mo, Paper, 25 cents.
GUERNSEY'S THE WORLD'S OPPORTUNITIES. The
World's Opportunities, and How to Use Them; A View
of the Industrial Progress of our Country; A Consideration of its Future Development; A Study of the Spheres
of Woman's Work, and Estimates of the Rewards which
Art and Science, Invention and Discovery, have in Store
for Human Endeavor, with an Analysis of the Conditions
of Present and Prospective Prosperity. 620 Pages, embracing 150 Different Subjects, with Comprehensive Tables
of Statistics. By ALFRED H. GUERNSEY, Ph.D. Richly
Illustrated.  English Cloth, Emblematic Design, $4 75;
Full Sheep (Library Style), Marbled Edges, $5 75; Half
Morocco, Gilt Edges, $7 00. (Sold only by Subscription.)
WELLS'S ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. Robinson Crusoe's Money; or, The Remarkable Financial Fortunes and
Misfortunes of a Remote Island Community. Fiction
Founded upon Fact. By DAVID A. WELLS. Illustrated
by THOMAS NAST. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
OLD-WORLD      QUESTIONS AND       NEW-WORLD       ANSWERS. By DANIEL PIDGEON, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C. E.
12mo, Paper, 25 cents.
ATKINSON'S LABOR AND CAPITAL. Labor and Capital Allies, not Enemies. By EDWARD ATKINSON. 32mo,
Paper, 20 cents.
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IMPORTANT BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN.
ECONOMICS FOR             THE PEOPLE. Being Plain Talk on
Economics, especially for Use in Business, in Schools, and in Women's Reading Classes. By R. R. BOWKER. pp. vi., 280. 16mo, Cloth,
75 cents.
An unusually excellent book, which should have the widest possible circulation, being by all odds the best primer in political economy of which our litcrature can boast.-Beacon, Boston.
A clear and concise manual, written with commendable fairness.-N. Y. Sun.
POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. By CHARLES NORDHOFF, Author of "God and the Future Life," &c. pp. 200. 16mo,
Half Leather, 75 cents; Paper, 40 cents.
It would be difficult to find, indeed, a safer guide for a young man getting
ready to " cast his first ballot."- Nation, N. Y.
It is a book that should be in the hand of every American boy and girl. The
book of Mr. Nordhoff might be learned by heart. Each word has its value;
each enumerated section has its pith. It is a complete system of political science,
economical and other, as applied to our American system. —N. Y. Herald.
BLAIKIE'S HOW         TO GET STRONG. How to Oet Strong, and
How to Stay So. By WILLIAM BLAIKIE. Illustrated. pp. 296. 16mo,
Cloth, $1 00.
The author has viewed his subject from every essential standpoint, and has
produced a work that merits the earnest attention of all.... Tne volume is one
that should be in the hands of everybody who places a proper value upon health,
and the most practicable way of preserving it.-Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston.
OATS OR WILD-OATS? Common-sense for Young Men. By
J. M. BUCKLEY, LL.D. pp. 326. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
The volume is well adapted to give the kind of knowledge which a young
man needs to enable him to choose his work in life.... Dr. Buckley speaks
plainly, but discreetly.-S. S. Times.
We commend it to all young men as bracing to the moral sense and stimulating
to the mind.-Examiner, N. Y.
GOD AND THE FUTURE LIFE.                 The Reasonableness of Christianity.  By CHARLES NORDHOFF, Author of "Politics for Young
Americans," &c. pp. 228. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00.
A plain, straightforward, earnest appeal to the honest sense of thinking people.... It inculcates the value and honor of work and the need and power of
honesty in all things, and is really sound to the core.-Philadelphia Times.
Thoughtful, profound, and lucid.... Simple in its form and written so as to
be understood by children, the volume is one of the most powerful arguments
against doubt and infidelity that has lately appeared.-Hartford Courant.
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OATS OR WILD OATS?
Common-sense for Young Men. By J. M. BUCKLEY, LL.D.:
pp. xiv., 306.     12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
It is a good book, which ought to do good on a large scale.... Such
passages as those headed Tact, Observation, Reflection, Self-command, and
the like, may be read and re-read many times with advantage. —Brooklyn
Union.
A book which should be recommended to the consideration of every
young man who is preparing to go into a business career or any other in
which he may aspire to become an honorable, useful, and prosperous citizen.... Dr. Buckley knows the trials and the temptations to which
young men are exposed, and his book, while written in most agreeable
language, is full of excellent counsel, and illustrations are given by anecdotes and by examples which the author has observed or heard of in
his own experience. Besides general advice, there are especial chapters
relating to professional, commercial, and other occupations. So good a
book should be widely distributed, and it will tell on the next generation.
— Philadelphia Bulletin.
It is a model manual, and will be as interesting to a bright, go-ahead
boy as a novel.-Philadelphia Record.
The scheme of the book is to assist young men in the choice of a
profession or life pursuit by explaining the leading principles and characteristics of different branches of business, so that the reader may see
what his experiences are likely to be, and thus be enabled to make an
intelligent selection among the many avenues of labor. In order to make
his work accurate and comprehensive, Dr. Buckley has consulted merchants, lawyers, statesmen, farmers, manufacturers, men in all walks of
life, and specialists of every description, visiting and examining their establishments, offices, and studios. From the knowledge thus gained he
has prepared the greater part of his hook  The remainder is given to
general advice, and contains the old maxims familiar to all young men
from the time of Poor Richard. Success is won by good behavior, intelligence, and industry. These are the "Oats."  The "Wild, Oats " of laziness, carelessness, and dissipation bring ruin, disaster, and misery. The
work is likely to attract readers from its practical value as a compendium
of facts relating to the various departments of labor rather than on account of its moral injunctions. It cannot help being very useful to the
class of young men for whom it is intended, as also to parents who have
boys to start out into the world.-N. Y. Times.
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