The age-herald., 1901-11-17
RICHARD CROKER HIS CAREER IN POLITICS.

gressional politics, and even In national conventions has had to be reckoned with as the greatest single factor in the Dem ocratic party organization.
 Under Croker. Tammany- Hall has had the exclusive control of the disposition of budget that has exceeded in it's mag nitude the expenditures of any other city on earth. Approximately $100. 100000 a year has been what 1t has cost to run New York for some years past. ghere is not state in the Union that ms had anywhere near such sum to dispose of and there are even many governments of the old world whose entire expenses are less. It has been by the judicious use 0f the power conferred in the disbursement of this enormous sum that Richard Gro ker has been enabled to consolidate and perpetuate the power he has so long en- Joyed. Yet, with all this power and with the temptation and opportunities Tor plunder that Croker has enjoyed, he pears the reputation of honesty as re- gards his personal connection with pub He moneys It has never been charged that he personally footed public funds.
 Crocker's Supremacy in Tammany.
 It Is a singular illustration of the | power Croker has enjoyed and of how completely he has dominated the organ- ization of his party that in the recent campaign 1t was everything and any
 
 Hall. or the Democratic party. And even after the result of the balloting became known it was the same story. People said that "Croker'' was beaten and the newspapers generally did the same, ignor- ing the fact that it was his party that really suffered defeat. And the people and the papers were right. In former days this power was called Tammany Hall but for many years 1t has been called Croker, so completely has he dom mated the organization and effaced every other individuality in it. Louis XIV. said, "The state? I am the statei" MT. Croker, with equal justice. might have said at any time within the past dozen or so of years: ~@'I am Tammany Halll" and with no more fear of contradiction or dissent than had the illustrious Louis
 The personality of the man who has yielded such power and the methods by which he has attained it are subjects of interest not only to the man who makes of politics a business but to every man and woman who lives under 8 republican form of government and believes 1t the best ever devised by human ingenuity. What Is the life and history of the man whom statesmen has delighted to honor and whom financial and mercantile mag mates Nave consulted and are said to have enriched?
 Croker's Percentage and Birth.
 Richard Croker is of Irish percentage and birth. He Is now in his 62d year and was Il years old when he came to this country with his father in 1851 and settled in this city. He has been In turn a me chanic In a machine shop, prize fight CT, and leader in ward politics. he finally became an alderman, since which time he has never had any known business or interest, except politics and office holding. with the exception that in the last few years he has acquired an inter est in a real estate firm in this city, and has become identified with several cor porations. With such antecedents, there is something almost weired in the posi- ton he has attained today-the princely ease in which he lives and the imperial sway he exercises.
 Croker's first home In this city was in an old frame shanty just off Ninety eighth street, in place that Is now part of Central Park. It was "a crazy two story structure, surrounded by high rock and a growth of trees and rubbish. Here Crokers father, who had been a black smith in the old country. but had set up as veterinary surgeon when he