Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-06
IAMMANY'S BATTLE
They Are Always fascinating
in Their Rancour.
METHODS EMPLOYED
ALL FIGHTING IS IN SKIRMISHES
FOR LOCAL LEADERSHIP.
Organization Keeps Strictly Out of the
Local Contests-Defeat Accepted
in Good Humor.
METHODS EMPLOYED

| Special Correspondence OF lie Evening Stdf.
NEW YORK, September 5, 1904.
The results at the recent Greater New
York primaries were chronicled in the
usual mechanical. indolent and slipshod
style by the New York newspapers. The
McCarren win-out over in Brooklyn was
! worked up as the headline feature, al
though the triumph of Lead Pencil Pat,
as Devery used to call the home ruler Of
| Kings county, had long been prognosti-
| Gated and discounted.
But there were probably dozen inter-
necine and sanguinary primaries fights for
| the edge right in New York city that
| from the human interest point of view, at
any rate. were far more diverting and in
| structive to the political student of neu-
| trail notions than the scrap on the other
side of the bridge.
| Especially were some of the Tammany
fights at the primaries this year replete
| with storyful nubs The Tammany battles
at the primaries, in truth are always fas-
| cinatng in their rancor. Yet they all IL
| lustrate, when the contests are over and
the smoke of battle has cleared, the amaz-
ing get-together-at fveness and quick cohe-
siveness of that extraordinary political or
| ganization- The leader who has had to
| fight like a wildcat at bay for his preser-
| walton and the fellow who has kept the
| leader freed right up to the hour of the
| primaries announcements foregather in
| perfect social and political harmony the in
slant the name OF the winner Is made
known. and from that time they and their
| cohorts are as one battering ram in at
taking the stronghold of the enemy.
Get Into Line After the Scrap.
1t doesn't make any difference how much
ante-primaries mud they may have been
Singing al each other, nor how much
vicious personal abuse they may have
heaped upon each others heads in their
respective efforts to preserve, or achieve,
prestige at the within-the- party voting con-
tests. When 1.-The winners number is hung
out it is ease of ION right into line for
all hands. and all Of the pickering is stu
diousiy forgotten uSsil after the election,
when the fight for leadership may may
not be taken up again. according to how
the primaries figures may look to the chal-
lenger
For the purpose of illustrating how these
nte-prlmaries campaigns are waged within
the ranks of Tammany. take the typical
case of a Tammany district leader on the
west side of Harlem. who has been COM
PEELED to fight for his leadership at every
primaries contest during the past eight
years, and who has succeeded in repeIling
all of his challengeys for the leadership
one after the other. sometimes by large and
again by perilously close majorities :,
The leader of that district is an alert
and acute, but not very literate. Irish
American of thirty-eight or forty. He
stepped into the leadership by the natural
Iammany process of selection when his
predecessor died, But he has had to fight
for his billet like a wounded grizzly at the
END OF blind canyon. The worst of his
case is that on each occasion he has ma n, To
do battle with different challenger for
the leadership. He has been compelled to
ADOPT dlnerent tactics in each case but Of
course the basis of all these different tao
ties was fight till you're dead, and AFTER
he has successfully squenched four Irish
Americans of his own breed and STAMP. two
Germans, one influential Hebrew. and one,
nasive-oorn American. They all went after
the leadership with all kinds of fixed and
loose ammunition, and two or three of them
came mighty close to winning g
Joust for Leaders CoIors.
1t was one of the Irish-Americans who
Jousted with the leader for the leaders,
colors at the primaries just over. The
challenger has been, right up to the hour
or his announcement of his candidacy for
the leadership the closest kind of a per-
sonal pal of the installed leader. They
were FOUNDERS together and were rarely out
o. each others company during their
numerous hours of diversion. The chal-
Iehgef was the secretary of the leaders,
indian-named district club the political
headquarters of the district organiza tion
and was in nightly attendance at the club
doing his little clerkly chores and nIa ving
pin pool and slipping highballs with the
bunch He was well liked by all of the
clubs members, and his chumship with the
leader gave him an edge. which few of
his other eliminates possessed He ac
cepted the leaders little political favors1
ana some of them not SO lttle-as if thew
were all coming to him-which, as a matter
VI course they Internationally We're or he
wouldn't have got them
when the hour arrived for the apnor,ca
ment OF the primaries the split was instant
a any .oldl; me challenger withdrew from
.ile leader club and sent the header written
ana verbal word that he was going after
ms job. That's all there was to 1t. The
leader gr1nned sheepiShy, mopped his brow
IN reflective sort of way, and then turned
his club rooms.
inns goin' to trot me heat" he said.
mere stand?'
stan OF the challenger, and only awaiting
the hour of the announcement of the break
grlnned In each others faces and skunk OUT
The leader looked after their retreatfne
shapes without any apparent wrath or sore,
ness. They made up their minds that Jim
had chance, that is ALL and they were
willing to take chance with Jim for the
sake of what would be coming to them
from Jim in case he won. They had some
thing to gain In that event, and really not
much to lose. for when it is only a primaries
fight the Tammany door is always open to
the repentant sinner, and they knew that
II Jim lost out they could return to the
club and not hear a word of reproach as
to their disaffection from the triumphant
leader.
The Challenger Appears.
Thus the battle was on. Other withdraw
ais from the leaders club happened every
day. The Withdrawing members We're IN
some cases soreheads who hadn't been
taken care Of by the leader in the dis
tribution of jobs when Tammany came into
power the last time. Others were chaps
who were Jealous of the attention and con-
sideration bestowed upon fellow members
OF the club by the leader All of them had
specific promises of something from the
challenger in case he should "get by
The challenger, an engaging sort of /
chap with winsome grin that always
looked like the real thing and kind of in