Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-13

stinctive Legal honesty needs no dehni-
ton. Moral honesty defes definitiOn-how
untanglc its intcrtwinings of motives OF
fear, pride, insufficient temptation. sacrl-
flee of the smaller chance in the hope of
larger? Finally. there is instructive hon
esty--the rarest, the only bedrock. unas-
salable kind. Give me the man who is
honest simply because 1t never occurs to
him, and never could occur to him, TO be
anything else. That is Woodruff.
There is, to be sure, another kind of In
stinctively honest mamie who disregards
loyalty as well as self-nterest in his up
rightness. But there so few of these
in practical life that they may be disre-
garGed
Perhaps I should say something here as
to the finances of my combine, though it
was managed in the main precisely like all
these poitical-commercial machines that
control both parties in all the states, eX-
cept a few in the south.
My assessments upon the various mem
bers of my combine were sent. for several
years, to me, afterward to Woodruff dl-
rectly. in one-thousand. ive-thousand and
ten thousand dollar checks, sometimes by
mail and at other times by express or
messenger.
These checks We're always payable to
bearer; and | made through Woodruff for
I Kept to the far background in all my
combines affairs. arrangement with
several large banks in different parts of the
state including one at the capital. that
these checks were to be cashed without
question. no matter who presented them.
provided there was a certain flourish I'M
der the line where the amount was written
in figures. Sometimes these checks We're
signed by the corporation, and sometimes
they We're the personal checks of the pres
iGent or some other high official. Often the
signature was that OF person wholly dis
connected, far as the public knew.
Once, l remember. Roebuck sent me a
thousand dollar check signed by a distin-
guished Chicago lawyer who was just then
counsel TO his opponent in a case involving
millions. case which Roebuck afterward
wont
Who presented these checks? l could
more easily say who did not.
From the very beginning of my control
kept my promise to reduce the cost of the
political business to my clients. When got
the machine thoroughly in hand I saw I
could make ii cost them less than a third
OF what they had been paying, on the aver
age for ten years l cut off, almost at a
stroke. a horde of lobbyists. lawyers, threat
erers without influence and hangers-on OF
various kinds reduced the payments for
legislation to a system. instead of the
shameless. scandal-creating and wasteful
auctioneering that had been going on for
years.
In fact, so cheapIy did l run the ma
chine that saw It would be most i'm
prudent to let my clients have the full
benefit. CheapneSs would have made them
uncontrolabiy greedy and exacting, and
would have given them a wholly false idea
OF my value rs snon as ii had slipped their
short memories how dearly they used to
pay.
So I continued to make heavy as:sess-
ments, and put by the surplus in reserve
fund for emergencies, l thought. for ex-
ample. that might SOME day have trouble
with one or more members OF my combine
my reserve would supply me with the nlu-
nitions for forcing insurgents To return TO
Their agreements.
This fund was in na sense part of my prl-
vate fortune. Nowhere else, | think, do the