Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1901-05-31
PLATT AND CROKER.
A Striking Study Of Quality and Char
acteristics of the Two Bosses.

acterlstcs OF the TWO Bosses.
1t is all very well for New Workers
to say there is no difference between
Plat and Croker There may be no
choice, but there is a difference that
is significant. In brief it is this: Mr..
Piatt has descended, Mr.. Croker has
risen, to the common level where they
meet as equals. The Republican boss
is a gentleman by birth, breeding and
education; the Tammany tiger was a
tough-one of the old Fourth Avenue
unnel Gang. When Dick Croker
was learning the machinlst's trade,
Tom Plat was studying the classics
at Yale. While Croker after dark was
punching his way to the leadership of
his crew of hoodlums, his rival was
reading the lives of the great leaders
of the world. Young Croker was tried
for a murder done at the polls by
some one of his crowd of heelers at
about the stage where Platt was leav-
ing college.
Mr.. Platt is the class of man the
critics say ought to go into politics;
Mr.. Croker is the kind that these
same authorities tell us should be
driven out. Mir. Platt has a business
he is president of an express com
pany-pUlitics is his sport, and it is
said he makes not cent by it; Mr..
Croker has no business but politics,
and horse racing is his sport. Yet
Dr. Parkhurst spoke for thousands
when he said Plat was worse than
Croker. Why
Mr.. Platt knows betteI-he is a
cynic; Mr.. Croker doesn't know any
botter-he is sincere. In business
they say that the men who have been
ministers are the worst rascals to
deal with. Criminals will tell you
that the hardest men in their profess
ion are those who come of good fam
lilies. Newspaper men often remark
that the mCaneSt sources of news are
| the rCfOrmCrs, who typically are de-
| ceptive, unfair and unreliable. Mr.
Platt once said that no bunco man
ever buncOed a "COme-on' as William
l.. Strong buncoed him. and Mr.
Strong was one of the business men
New Workers are forever striving to
make mayors of. Both Plat and
| Croker sincerely distrust reformers
| and not alone because reform is a
menance to the machines.
This all is common observation, and
it applies in this case to the
disadvantage of the finer man. Mr.
4 Platt could give us better government
I Mr. Croker speaks from simple heart
when he says, as he often does say,
that New York is the best governed
city in the world. From Mr.. Platt
might have been expected the estab-
lishment in practice of the principle
that good government is good politics
He probably would sheer at the
thought. Mr.. Croker believes Just
that-only he is so ignorant that he
knows no ideals. He had no notion
OF street cleaning till Colonel Warning
showed how TO do it. He KNOWS
worse methods than Tammany's; he
helped overthrow Tweed. The man
has risen to a point where he is
amazed at himself and struck by the
things he has not done.
Mr.. Croker wouldn't do now many
things that he did without thinking
when he was young tough; Mr.
Platt does many a thing that he could
not have done when he was a young
student. Mr.. Croker has the sense
of virtue which a drunkard has who
has limited his drinks; Mr.. Platt has
the uneasy manner of a teetOtaler who
takes a nip on the quiet now and
then for a cold which has become
chronic. Talk to Croker about bad
men, and you will find him tolerant.
sweetly charitable; talk to Plat about
them, and he appears to believe worse
things than you know. Talk of good
men, and Mr.. Croker will be able and
willing to agree with YOU Mr.. Plat
will smile skeptically. Experience
-
evil; Mr. Croker compels many a bad
man to do good. Men who hate
Platt vote with him; they rather like
Croker, though they vote against him.
Mr.. Platt's intelligence often misleads
him into folly; Cookers instinct so
lights up his ignorance that it some
times has the effulgence of wisdom.
In Platt's carefully prepared state
ments you look at the hidden mean
ing; in Cookers rough and ready in
telviews you can catch glimpses of
the struggling sense breaking through.
Mr.. Croker is still something of a
bruiser-he yields club and throws
rocks; Mr.. Plat is much more sub
tie he attacks with stilletto. Mr.
Croker hasn't the taste to shake him
self free of number of his hoodlum
friends; he carries them, fights for
them, suffers abuse for their sake.
This is part of the loyalty which en-
dears him to the elemental man. Mr..
| Platt lacks that dubious virtue. He
has been compelled to sacrifice again
and again friends who have lost their
usefulness to him in his service. Mr..
| Croker has pursued enemies of his to
the hurt of himself and his party.
He can forgive, but he forgives the
man, not the politician, and his mo-
tive is generosity. Mr.. Platt was ad-
Yising Lou Payn, an upstate leader.
once to let up on an enemy in order
to win. Payn said he'd rather not
win. THAT explains, the senator
said, why you are the leader of a very
small part of the country Mr.. Platt
is vindictive, and he has gone on long
chases; but it is much more common
with him to compromise with his en-
emies and fight with his friends.
-lAinslee's Magazine.
The Workmen Could Give Him Points.
certain well known railway con.