Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-17

requisite, could mean only weakness.
throughout his eight years of control of
our party 1t had had possession of all de-
partments of the national administration
except Of the House of Representatives
, during the past two years. This meant the
uninterrupted and unchecked reign of the
interests. To treat with consideration the
interests the strong men OF the country,
they who must have a free hand for de-
veioping Its resources, to give them privi-
legeS and immunites beyond what can be
permitted the ordinary citizen or corpora
tion-that is course which. however Often
slve to abstract justice. still has, as 1t
seems to me- practical justice in it. and.
az any rate, must be pursued so long AS
the masses of the voters are short-sighted.
unreasoning and in noserings TO political
machines a mans rights. whatever they
may be in theory. are in practice only
what he has the intelligence and the power
10 compel But. for the sake of the nation,
for the upholding of civilization itself. these
over-powerful interests should never be
given their heads, should be restrained as
closely as may be to their rights-their
| practical rights. Goodrich had neither the
sagacfty nor the Datriotism-nor the force
of will, for that matter-to keep them with
In the limits Of decency and discretion.
Hence the riot of plumber and privilege
which revolted and alarmed me when
came to Washington and saw politics In the
countrywide, yes, history wide horizon of
that viewpoint.
Probably 1 should have been more leis-
ureiy in bringing my presidential p ans to
a focus, had not seen how great and how
near was the peril to my party. 1t seemed
to me. not indeed perfect or even salts
factory, but the best available, instrument
for holding the balances Of order as even
as might be between our country's two OPP
posing elements of disorder-the greedy
punderers and the rapidly infuria:ing
plundered. And l saw that no time was to
be lost. If the party was not to be blown to
fragments. The first mutteIings of the
storm We're in our summary election from
control of the house in the midway election.
If the party were not to be dismembered, /
must Gust Goodrich, must defeat his plans
for nominating Cromwell. must nominate
Burbank instead. If l should succeed in
electing him. l reasoned that I could
through him carry out my policy of moder-
alton and practical patriotism-to yield to
the powerful few a minimum of what they
could compel. to give to the PROSTATE but
potentially powerful many at least enough
to keep them quiet-a stomachful The
world may have advanced; but patriotism
still remains the art of restraining the ar
rogance of full stomachs and the anger of
empty ones.
In Cromwell Goodrich believed he had
candidate with sufficient hold upon the
rank and file of the party to enable him
to carry the election by the usual means
a big campaign fund properly distributed
in the doubtful states. | said to Senator
Scarborough of Indiana soon after CrOm-
wells candidacy was announced: What do
you think of Goodrich's MANI?
Scarborough. though new to the Senate
then had shown himself far and away the
ablest of the opposition senators. He had
as much intellect as any of them; and he
had what theorists such as he. usually
lack, skill at grand tactics''-the manage
ment of men in the mass. His one weak
neSs-and that, from my standpoint, a
great one-was a literal belief in demo-
cratic institutions and In the inspiring but
in practice perncious principle Of exact
equality before the law.
''CromwelIs political SPONSORS" was his
reply, ARE two shrewd bankers as there
are in New York. l have heard it said that
a fitting sign for a bank would be: Here
we do nothing for nothing for nobody"
An admirable summing up of Cromwel's
candidacy. And l knew that it would so
appear to the country, that no matter how
great a corruption fund Goodrich might
throw into the campaign. should, in
that time of public evaporation. be routed
If Cromwell was our standard bearer-so
utterly routed that we could not possibly
get ourselves together again for eight,
perhaps twelve years. There might
even be a realignment of parties with
sort of socialism in control of
one of them. If control We're to be retained
by the few who have the capital and the
intellect to make efficient the nations re-
sources and energy my projects must be
put through at once.
had accumulated a fund of $500 600 for
my presidential fotation'-half of it con-
trbuted by Roebuck in exchange for a
promise that his son-in-law should have an
amba adorship If Burbank were elected;
the other half set aside by me from the
reserve" | had formed out of the year-by-
year contributions of my combine BY the
ludicious investment of that capital l pur-
posed to get Burbank the nomination on
the first ballot-at least four hundred and
sixty of the nine hundred odd delegates
In a national convention the delegates
are, roughly speaking, about evenly di-
v1ded among the three sections of the coun-
try-a third from east of the Alleghanies,
a third from the west, a third from the
south. 1t was hopeless for us to gun for
delegates in the east; that the especial
balllWlck of Senator Goodrich. The most
we could do there would be to keep him oc-
cupied by quietly encoura ging any anti
Cromwell sentiment and it existed a-pentv
Our real efforts We're to be in the west and
south.
l organized under Woodruff a corps OF
about thirty travelling agents Each man
knew only his own duties, knew nothing
OF the general plan, not even that there
was general plan. Each was a trained
pohlical worker, personal retainer of
ours. l gave them their instructions: Wood
ruff equipped them with the necessary cash.
During the next five months they were in
ceSsantiy on the gO-dealing with our mar
tvs western machines where thew cnu1d
settlng up rival machines in promising To-
calltles where Goodrich controlled tha reg
ular machines, using money here, diploma
cy there, both yonder. promises of patron
age everywhere.
Such was my department of secrecy. At.
the mead or my department of publicity 7
q
ana a newspaper man. He attended TO the
supsidlZlng or news agencies that siIpplied
.,ousanos OF country papers with boiler
piate matter to fill their inside pages. He
aiso subsidized and otherwise won over
many small town organs of the Marty
furiher' he and three assistants wrote each
week many columns of boom" matter ali
or which was carefully revised by Burhanif
niIhselt before 1t went out as ..syndicate
letters. II Goodrich hadn't been ignorant
OF conditions west of the Alleghanies and
confident that his will was law he would
nave scented out this department of public
ny OF mine and SO would have seen into
my notation. But he knew nothing he
yond his routine. l once asked him how
many country newspapers there We're in the
United States, and he said oh. I don't
Know Perhaps three four thousand"
Even had l enlightened him to the .xtent
or telling him that there were about Ave
times that number, he would have profted
nothing. Had he been able to see the inn
portance Of such a fact to capable politicaI
management he would have learned II long
before through years of constant use of the
easiest avenue into the heart of the people
He did not wake up to adequate action
until the fourth of that group of states
whose delegations to our national conven-
~