The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-09-17

the district leader and told him l
could command two votes on election
day, Tommy's and my own. He
smiled and told me TO go ahead. If
/ had offered him a speech or a
bookful of learnin', he would have
said, oh, forget it,
That was beginning business in
a small way, wasn't It? But it's the
only way to become real lastin'
statesman" But, by and by, ac-
cording to the only Plunkitt, if
man abides faithfully by this advice
he won't have to go TO headquarters,
the district leader WIFI come and ask
him what he wants, and urge him,
IF you don't see what you want, ask
for it, And when a man has reach
ed that stage he begins to feel that
he's really getting to be a statesman.
"HoW to Hold Your District"
But" resumes Plunkitt, ''go to
him and say, L took first prize at
college in Aristotle; I can recite all
Shakespeare forward and backward;
there amt nothin' in science that
amt as familiar to me as blockades
on the elevated roads, and I'm the
real thing in the way of silver
tongued orators What will he an
L. At
you are not to blame for your mis-
fortunes, but we have got no use for
you here
Naturally Plunkitt has no use for
civil service. Its the curse of the
nation he says, and there can't be
no real patriotism while il lasts.
Just look at things in the city to-
day. There's ten thousand good jobs,
but we can't get more than a few
hundred of them" And more in sor-
row, than in wrath. ne asks, How
are we going TO provide for the
thousands of men who worked for
the Tammany ticket?" How, indeed?
isn't II enough ne asks fearful
ly, Ito make man sour on his coun-
try, when he wants to serve it, and
he won't be allowed until he an
swers a lot of fool questions about
lie number of cubic inches of water
in the Atlantic, and the quality of
tie sand in the Sahara desert?''
In another chapter ne tells how he
uses the civil service to square ac-
counts with the Citizens Union. Il
have plan that never fails. Watch
the city record to see when there is
going TO be a civil service examina-
ton for good things. Then l take
some enthusiastic young Cit in hand,
tell him all about the good thing, and
get Kim worked up till he goes and
takes the examination. 1 don't both
er about him any more It's a cinoh
that ne comes back to me in a few
days and asks to join Tammany Hall.
Come over some night, and I'll show
a list of names on our rolls marked,
C. S. which means, 'bucked up
against civil service
IEC AOlCSclI5 10 al CHdDltI on
How to Hold Your DISTRICT
which by the way is just what Plum
kit is trying to do these days. There
is the hottest kind of a fight on in
the Fifteenth Assembly district
The" McManus wants to be leader,
thinks he'd make lot better one
than Plunllitt Bat Plunkitt can't
see it that way, in fact regards any
such doctrine as fairly suicidal, and
objects strongly to McManus as lead
er, for the obvious reason that two
bodies cannot occupy the same space
at the same time, and he proposes to
keep on being leader himself. Just
now the question is whether ne is
giving a demonstration of How 20
Hold Your District" or whether
when it's all over but the shouting
., he'll be saying, Gentlemen, the eX-
= pertinent fails, but the principle re-
mains the same"
I Not Necessary to Steal.
The main items in the principle are
industry and kindness. Keeping the
leadership is a strenuous job In
common with every other Tammany
" leader, Plunkitt plays politics every