The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-26
DIR. SMITH ON RING RULE
(contlnued from First Page.


 but at least that class of office-holders who are represented by the official who on the witness stand, when asked if he was faithful to his public duties, can didly replied that he always was except when they interfered with his political obligations. That kind of office-holder will naturally not be left out of the ring, if he can help it.
 3. The office-seeker. There will be as many of this class in the Ring as the Ring can find promised accommodations for in it's crowded political hostelry. It is here that we may observe ore of the most degrading influences of Ring Rule it robs honorable men of their own honor; for you know young men--l do, if you do not-who came from honora- ble antecedents, who graduated with honorable ambitions from our colleges, and who went into politics and wanted to get on. They were soon advised what they must do to get on. They proceeded to make to themselves friends of the powers that be. They got on. But they have sold the soul of their in- dependence for a mess of political pot tage. They have got on for a little ways. Broad is the way which leads to the spells of the lower politics of a people, and many there be who enter therein. But narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to the highest honors and the kingly thrones in the memory and the love of na- tion; and few there be who find it.
 f. Besides the office-seeker who en- ters the Ring to get on in his political business is another man, not so obvi- ously in sight, but very useful to the Ring, as it is very useful to him-the contractor. You will always find the contract-seeker hidden somewhere in every we'll ordered political ring. He is often the cuttle-fish lurking behind much aldermanic darkness. When one can catch sight of him it is interesting to watch how the contract-seeker works in the ring. He will sometimes put in his best w TX under provisions for let ting contracts which are carefully for mulated by his political friends, and which in themselves considered seem right and excellent. Thus he will have reserved to some municipal committee the right of discriminating between bids upon their best judgment of the re- sponsibility of the firms which may of fer them This, of course, is to protect the interests of the people from imper- feet or irresponsible work. He will have other plausible conditions provid- ed, which will render competition from outside the ring more difficult. Every thing will be done with apparent fair ness and for good reasons, and in the end, whoever bids, the willy contractor who is in the Ring, serving it and be- ing served by it, will not be likely to fail of his job. As the Ring is neces- sary from business point of view to the contractor, so the contractor is in- dispensable to the Ring in order that he may help feed the political beggars with the crumbs which fall from his plate at the municipal table.
 5. A fifth factor is desirable in every we'll conducted Ring Rule. It should have a newspaper organ. It usually either finds or makes one. Its paper possibly may be started as party or gan, especially if there should happen to be few thousand dollars of cam paign funds left over which might be utilized for that purpose. There are various ways in which a ruling Ring, directly or indirectly, may help and subsidize it. Much of the public adver- Using may quietly be made to flow to- wards it, regardless of its fitness as a means to enlighten the public who are most concerned in such advertising. A merchant advertises where he can ob- tain the large amount of publicity de- sirable for his business at the least cost. So a municipality would adver- tise, were it conducted on strictly busi- ness principles. So the political Ring does not usually conduct it's city adver- Using. Why should it? Its business and the business of the public are two entirely different things
 6. Still one more constituent of full blown political Ring should be noticed. It will have some social organization. Club life is too powerful a factor throughout all our modern life to be overlooked by the organizers of Ring Rule. Tammany has it's powerful social side; political clubs of various names and sizes are factors to which the boss es, or, as they now prefer to have us call them, the Masters" pay, and must pay, a large measure of their unselfish attention. So powerful is this social el- ement in our politics that it is doubtful whether any ring could long maintain it's rule over the people, if the small tyrants of the party were not adopts in the art of utilizing the political club. THE NATURAL WORKING OF THE RING.
 From this analysis of the constituent clements of the political Ring let us pass on and observe next it's natural working so long as it survives How does it thrive?
 1. It pays in part it's election expenses out of the taxes. Does any one inno gently ask how political expenses are paid to any extent out of the taxes Let me cite an instance which I find ir the Sun; and as every rule has an eX' ception, this may be true though we see it in the Sun. It is a long list o1 increased salaries made in the office of the corporation counsel of New York since the recent election. In one de- partment, according to this list, nine teen salaries were raised in sums vary. ing from $25O to $2,500, besides genera increase for all the typewriters anc stenographers. Tammany men, accord ing to this report, say they do not know what to make of these promotions; suppose that babes in the politica | woods clo111d pot he nyDhrtnH tO 11nder