The age-herald., 1898-11-16
THE GREAT BOSS
 OF MICHIGAN

try has seen. There has never been his equal in the running of a convention and in making the people do absolutely what he wants. That incidentally he does what they want does not alter the case. Politicians today admit that Quay, Platt and Croker, able they are in the control of organiza- tions and the mastery of the people, are not his peer.
 Today H. S. Pingree is the absolute mas- ter of Michigan His will is law and the people not only follow him wherever he leads, but they are proud of It. There is, to be sure a difference in the methods he employs. Pingree is honest. One of the chief faults his enemies find with him Is that he Is incorruptible. This is an un- usual charge to make against boss. But Pingree is an unusual boss.
 
 The election held last Tuesday in Michi- gan illustrates the control which Pingree has over Michigan politics. The boss him. self was candidate for governor. He won the nomination after the hardest kind of fight. Then he ran 30,OOO or more ahead of his ticket. He named most of the republi- can legislative candidates. He merely sent word to the conventions that he wanted so and so nominated. The conventions usually did his bidding. In those cases where the conventions did not obey him Pingree came out openly and fought the nominees of his own party He did not fight in secret in the usual fashion of the political bosses who make professions of loyalty and then pass the word along the line to knife the man whom they profess to support. Pin gree announced that such and such can- didate on the same ticket with himself ought to be defeated. And he was.
 
 Never has there been seen such a case of bossism there was in the Detroit legis- lative districts. Pingree sent down to the convention a printed list of the men who were to be nominated. He admitted 1t and glorled in it. The opposition called the nominees "the O. K.'d ten," and the branded slaves" They were held up to ridicule being owned by Pingree. The nominees did not resent 1t. They went on the stump and publicly announced that if ,-ey were elected they would have no higher ambition than to do exactly what Pingree advised them to do. The result was that they ran away ahead of their ticket.
 Can Croker, Quay or Platt show any par- allel to that?
 Pingree has his own methods. He is orig- inal. In the first place he came in to poli- tics by accident Before his nomination as mayor of Detroit in 1889 he did not know the first thing about politics. He was a republican because he was born in Maine. Beginning life as journeyman shoemaker, he had become proprietor of shoe fac- tory, and his political duties consisted in sending check each year to the cam paign committed
 Pingree was nominated for mayor in 1889 because Cleveland had carried the city a year before by 5000 majority and nobody else wanted what was considered an empty honor. As soon as Pingree realized this he became angry and announced that he would be elected. And he was, by 5000 majority, after a hard fight in which he pledged himself to redeem the city from corporation rule if elected. Workingmen supported him in spite of the fact that he was millionaire. Ruring the campaign he showed his genius for organization and knowledge of the wishes of the people. Elected, he fulfilled his pledges. He made the street railway companies reduce their fares to cents, improved the streets, had the gas rates cut in half taxed big con- cerns twice as much as they paid before, and, indeed, reformed so much that when he came up for nomination again the poli- ticians were against him. But the people were with him and he won. Four times in succession he was elected mayor of De- troit, and each time in spite of the polti- clans and the corporations. Each time his majority increased.
 Then he made his fight for the governor ship, promising that if elected he would do for the state what he had done for the city. Opposed to him were all of the veteran poll iticians like Senator McMillan, Alger, Bliss, Burrows and O'Donnell. But he beat them all and got the nomination.
 Election as governor followed as mat ter of course. Mckinley carried Michigan by 56,0OO plurality. Pingree's plurality was S3, ,000.
 Pingree set to work to reform the state. He found that Indiana secured about $2,- 800 900 year in taxes from railroads, while Michigan, with larger railway mileage, had been getting about $70000O from the same source. Pingree had bill introduced in the legislature giving the various coun- ties of the state the power of local taxation over the railroads and allowing them to assess railroad property the same as other property and collect taxes from the cor porations independently. The railroads opposed this, but the people approved and the result was the passage of a compro- mise bill increasing the taxation on gross earnings and doubling the amount of taxes received. But this was not satisfactory I he made his fight chiefly in favor of g. further increase.
 The general impression is that Pingree Is a demagogue. Those who know him do not believe this. He is a man of high ideals and exalted principles His reforms have always succeeded. None of them have been chimeras. In bringing them about he has used the methods of practical politi- clans and has proved himself their master. He has wonderful knowledge of human nature and he has used it to bring about the ends he has sought.
 In every way he has shown himself the master politician of the age. Quay does not own Pennsylvania as thoroughly as Pingree owns Michigan. Judging by re- suits, he is the greatest boss of all
 POINTED PARAGRAPHS.
 Where a woman coaxes a man threatens.
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