Smyrna times., 1886-11-03
The Liquor Seller In Politics.

Theodore Roosevelt contributes an
article to the November Century on
" Machine Politics in New York City, -
from which we quote the following
" The strength of our political organi-
cations arises from their developments
as social bodies; many of the hardest
workers are neither oflicehOlders nor
yet paid henchmen, but merely mem
bers who have gradually learned to
identify their fortunes with the party
whose hall they have come to regard as
the headquarters in which to spend the
most agreeable of their leisure NOM
ents. Under the American system it is
impossible for a man to accomplish
anything by himself; he must asso-
ciate himself with others, and thev
must throw their weight together.
This is just what the social functions of
the political clubs enable their mem
bers to do. The great and rich society
clubs are composed of men who are
not apt to take much interest in poll
tics anyhow, and who never act as a
body. The immense effect produced
by sociol organization for political
purposes is shown by the career of the
Union League Club; and equally
striking proof can be seen by every
man who attends a ward meeting.
There is thus, however, much to be re-
GREETED it may be, a constant tendency
towards the concentration Of political
power in the hands of those men who
by taste and education are fitted to en-
joy the social side of the various politi-
cal organizations.
" 1t is this that gives the liquor sell
lers their enormous influence in poll
tics. Preparatory to the general cleo
ton of 1884 there were held in the var
iOus districts of New York ten hun
dred and seven primaries and political
conventions of all parties, and of these
no less than six hundred and thirty
three took place in liquor-saloons-a
showing that leaves small ground for
wonder at the low average grade of
the nominees. The reason for such a
condition of things is perfectly evil
dent it is because the liquOr-saloons
are places of social resort for the same
men who turn the local political or
CARNATIONS into social clubs. Bar
tenders form perhaps the nearest ap-
proach to leisure class that we have at
present on this side of the water.
They naturally are on semi-intimate
terms with all who frequent their
houses. There is no place where more
gossip is talked than in bar-rooms, and
much Of this gossip is about politics
that is, the politics of the ward,
not of the nation. The tariff and
the silver question may be alluded to,
but the real interest comes in discuss
ing the doings of the men with whom
they are personally acquainted: why
Billy so-and-sO, the alderman, has
quarreled with his former chief sup
porter; whether old man x has re.
ally managed to fix the delegates to a
given convention the reason why one
faction bolted at the last primary; and
if it is true that a great downtown
boss who was an intimate friend of Cd.
posite political faith running in an up
town district has forced the managers
of his own party to put up a man OF
straw against him. The bar-keeper is
a man of much local power, and is, OF
course, hail-fellow-well-met with his
visitors, as he and they can be of mu-
tual assistance to one another. Even
if Of different politics, their feelings to-
wards each other are Influenced by per-
sOnal considerations purely and, in
deed, this is true of most of the small
Ter bosses as regards their dealings
among themselves, for, as one of them
once remarked to me with enigmatic
truthfulness, there are no politics in
politics of the lower sort-which, be-
ing interpreted, means that a profes-
siOnal politician is much less apt to be
swayed by the fact of a mans being a
Democrat or a Republican than he is by
his being a personal friend or foe. The
liquOr-saloons thus become the social
headquarters of the little knots or
cliques of men who take most interest
in local political affairs; and by an
easy transition they become the polit-
cal headquarters when the time for pre-
pairing for the election arrives; and, of
course the goodwill of the owners of
the places is thereby propitiated-and,
an important point with men striving
to control every vote possible"