El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-16

lpaign A few months ago Croker wa.
eating dinner in public place. HI
saw a city official at table few
yards away. Calling across the room
he said:
We'll, how is that Murphy boy do
ing / sent your The city official re-
Piled that the boy was an exceptionally
capable young man. Croker was de
lighted. At the end of his felicitous
Iejacuiations. he cried: Good boy. How
much is he getting?' And then: You
just raise him a thousand tomorrow
Croker made no attempt at conceal
ment; used no cipher code. nor yet was
he brazen about it. He saw no reason
why he should not bestow the money
of the taxpayers at his discretion Was
he under an oath of office? And if he
wished to do benevolence whose bus
mess was it? The reader who would
understand the real Croker should not
confuse him with a mythical sort of
Croker that hero worshippers have
buiided out of the red mud of their
own ideals. He is not even ordinarily
shrewd in either business or politics.
When he went into Wall street he
was as ignorant of the methods there
as the Mahdi. The friends who played
his hand for him needed a friend at the
soul of things in New York city. and
they knew where the soul of things
was. They did not buy Croker. He
accepted no bride. He is true to his
friends and his friends stand by him.
He made real estate investments and
his advanced knowledge of the pro-
posed public Improvements made his
investments profitable. He bought
stock in city industrials and his friends
in Office protected his investments and
4, or, IL x,I <xT
the cream. He frankly acknowledges
that what the Street parlance calls his
political pull represents his capital.
His life has been devoted to accumu
1ating this influence. and he checks on
1T now as an old man would check on
his life'S savings rather proudly than
otherwise. To show Croker his moral
responsibility to the city would require
some sort of galvanic vitaliZation of
his moral sense. which is as badly at
rophied as his vermiform appendix.
In politics Croker knows only the
Tammany hall he has made. an edition
de luxe of the Fourth Avenue Tunnel
gang During the campaign last past |
Croker strung some insolent banners
along the line of march of great re-
publican parade. The act was revival |
OF the Tunnel gang instinct-smart. |
swagger. bullying. not shrewd. not eff |
fectiye. 1t reflected merely the men |
tai process OF boy.
i amt no statesman. said Gro
ker to the MaZet committee. Il am
looking out for my own pocket first
This is literally true. And when Gro
ker said it he saw no reason for min
eng matters. But very recently a fleshly |
ambition for wider influence seems to
have turned Cookers head. He faiD
would pose as a statesman. and presto
he talks to- prove his wisdom. He es-
relations with presidential
candidate. and in his simple way Gro
Ner believed that Bryan would win.
The TACT that Tammany was for Bryan
vas an anchor for the Croker shir Of
treanis- He knew no more of the SEN
imert of the country. of it's geography
IF its mental and moral attitude than a
'erSian satrap. He did not comDre-
iend the issues-even remotely The I
word ''seigniorage" and Industrial
md sociological tendencies with Gro |,
1er were words to he skipped in read I
nS aloud. and they were nothing .
more His serious suggestion of {
compromise with the gold democrats. II
~ changing the ratio of the silver
oinase as the silver market fuctuates. II
eveals the depth of economic thought 4
which he has fathomed. II
And yet. in American politics. Gro II
Ter is one of the great powers He IL
must be reckOned with am inclined !
o believe that his death today would !
70 calamity to his city. for no other ?
many in all Tammany. who might sue /
eed him. is so honest as Croker His Is
influence negatively is for good. in