Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-04-09

has been described as man who at
tends to politics every day in the year.
This is but an adaptation of the re-
mark attributed, enormously, perhaps,
in both cases to Button and to Goethe,
that genius is nothing but the capacity
of taking pains. Disraeli came nearer
TO the mark in 'Contarini Fleming,
when he said that patience is a neces-
sary ingredient of genius.
Mr.. Platt in private life is president
of an express company, with business
interests which are supposed to en-
gross his time during the day. Having
done a full days work before dinner.
with more or less politics interspersed,
he devotes his evenings to governing
the republican party. His headquar-
tiers are in we'll known hotel in
Broadway, with large entrance hall
on the ground floor, which the archi-
tect seems to have designed especially
for the practice of politics. 1t is a po-
litical rendezvous, almost a political
shrine. Thither bend their steps the
! local political managers from all over
this immense state of New York
They bring grist to the Plat mill
which grinds slow but sure.
Here, perhaps, the secret, Or one
secret, of his power begins to be Wis
ible. He is in touch with every con-
stituency in the state. He has in
every electoral district his own man
ager-a local boss or several of them,
each controlling his own section Of the
party, each reporting direct to Mr..
Plat. taking his orders from him. loyal
to him personally and looking to him
as his true chief. How is such an Or
ganization as that to be disturbed or
overthrow, unless you first break up
the relations between the leader and
his followers, and how are you going
to do that SO long as the tie is a per-
sOnal One?'
Regarding the last annual struggle
Of the republican party to rid itself Of
Platt, Mr.. Smalley wrote: "He has
been for many years the boss Of that
party 1t is poor and vulgar word to
describe man of pre-eminent political
ability, but there is no other which eX-
presses quite all that is meant by it,
and [ suppose we must be content to
go on using it until a new term is in
vented. The effort to get rid of Mr.
Plat bore no resemblance to the eff
fort against Tammany, nor was there
any reason why it should. Mr.. Plat,
indeed, is a more absolute autocrat
throughout the state than ever Tam
many was. But his sway over the
republican party, though it may have
been corrupting, has never been COR
rupt in the sense that he sought or OBJ
tanned any money reward for himself.
His one aim has been to win repub-
lican victories. There were other re-
publicans who thought they could pro-
mote this laudable end better than he.
They proposed to obtain it, however, by
very much the same means that Mr..
Plat employed. There was no upris-
ing against a boss or against the
methods of the boss. There was an at
tempt to substitute one boss for an
other, or, since no man was named as
a possible successor to Mr.. Platt or as
his equal in the art of party manage
ment it might be more accurate to say
that Mr.. Platt's opponents tried to turn
him out, and were ready to trust to
luck for a substitute. That the repub-
lican party should be allowed to man
age it's own affairs seems to have oc-
Cured to nobody. Well, this effort
came to nothing. Mr.. Plat remains
MASTER
Mr. Plat is we'll into the sixties now
but he takes good care of himself, and
if he should live ten years longer peo-
pie who write about the efforts to dis
lodge him will probably close their
stories with the same four words used
by Mr.. Smalley.