The record-union., 1897-11-21
INITIAL POLITICAL WORK IN CIT
les

A very common complaint is that men
of easy circumstances and respectable
ity, who have much at stake in politica!
activity, take least concern in practi-
cal politics, and commit the initial work
in the making of laws and the admin
istering of government to those whose
interests are less and whose selfish
ness is greater-in fact to those who
last of all should be called to public
duty.
In an essay in a recent volume from
his pen, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, the
well-known publicist, accounts for this
negligence on the part of business and
well-to-do men by saying that the
tremendous wear and tension of city life
are chargeable. The men of small
means, modest means, as well as those
largely engaged in business, are gen
orally of strong domestic tastes and
habits. They work hard, and home
at the close of labor has for them
strongest attractions. Hence they are
least found at meetings, councils and
consultations concerning government,
State or municipal.
If these do go to a ward meeting they
find themselves Isolated and strangers
TO the larger body Of men they meet
there, as we'll as strangers to
For the city man knows next to moth
ing about his neighbors, while the man
of the country knows his intimately
When the people OF a country precinct
assemble they are we'll known to each
other, and are able to act together and
with effectiveness.
Then, too, the competition and pres
sure OF living in the city leaves the Cit
izen small time for rest or concern
about public affairs At least he so
conceaves his situation. Thus the ten
dency to specialism in all things OBJ
tains also in city politics, or rather in
politics in cities and large towns
The really wealthy even more neglect
their political duties says Mr.. Roose-
velt. The members of large mercan-
nle firms hold themselves rather above
political matters, and are in fact unused
no things outside the counting room and
Ehe warehouse. In short, says the es-
sayist, these men disdain, as we'll as
the greatly rich, to get down to ward
and precinct political concern, and meet
on level with their grooms and ser
rfz
political duty from the standpoint of
the question Does It pay?"
The purely intellectual class. the ed
ucated and refined men of letters and
literary fields and scholastic levels, are
negligent Of political duty because as a
rule they are too tfrnid to strike back
and have an unmanly fear of being
compelled to stand up for their rights
when threatened with abuse and insult.
So between all these political con-
Germs in cities falls under the manage
ment Of the classes most largely who
make it pay, who have office seeking
and political rewards as their inspira-
ton, and the welding of power as an
incentive. 1t is not surprising there
fore that methods are adopted and car
ried out which the negligent classes abb
hor and deprecate, but concerning
which they do nothing but complain.
The essayist then goes into an analy-
sis of the system of the workers IN pol
itics in cities, and treats them all class
by class from the ward boss TO the sa-
loon, the club, the officials with pat
ronage to dispense. the machine servi-
tors, the active committees, the heelers
and all the others. He considers the
social side Of these groups Of people,
who have pretty strong bond Of SYM
pathy, and respect an esprit de corps
that makes them stand up for their kind
and that keeps them pretty loyal to
their class
Unhappily. Mr.. Roosevelt, who as a
Police Commissioner of New York has
had special opportunities TO study these
things. is wholly unsatisfactory in the
conclusions he reaches. He really pro-
noses no practical remedies. He pre-
faces most Of his suggestions with II ,