Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1905-06-16
His boss was horse trader, who stood
in" with the dominant minority.

His boss was horse trader, who stood
in" with the dominant minority.
An ordinary business man, ignorant
of the ways and means employed by po-
litical magnates to achieve their pur-
poses, would have been astounded at the
orders which one of the bosses sent over
the telephone wire that night. This
master directed his fellow" to rush
nearly dozen men to as many different
counties to Zine up" the bosses of the
counties. The uniformed business man
would have been justified in marveling
at the reckless disregard of expense i'm
piled in the order, for simple calcula-
ton would prove that to send the mes
sengers on their erra1ds meant large
expenditure of money for travelling and
hotel expenses alone.
But the man who has been on the in
side would know that one of the tricks
OF the trade is to make the taxpayers
furnish the funds for the bulk of the ex-
penses incurred by political leaders in
the management of their personal or
| CARNATIONS. All the Doodle which Is
squeezed out of any general assembly
would be insufficient by large margin
to supply working capital to the man
| ayers of the controlling political or
ganization. The amount of money an
nually spent by and through the men
who control state politics runs up into
astonishing figures. The leaders them
selves don't know how large is the ag-
| gregate; they don't want to know.
Comparatively few of the men who
stand in the limelight as political lead
ers are wealthy. A successful politician
by nature generally is generous, a free
spender, good liver and certainly not
thrifty. Yet, While he is on top, he
seems to have plenty of ready cash and
sends his couriers, agents, messengers
and ambassadors all over the state, ap-
parently without regard to expense.
A little study of the pay rolls of state
institutions and departments, of county
and city pay rolls and the items OF
mileage" travelling expenses" "spe-
cial expenses" and the like on the books
of public institutions and departments
will afford solution of the problem
The cities, counties and state are the
cash boxes from which the political
magnates, through their followers who
, have city, county or state jobs, take the
, money necessary to finance their person
, al organizations.
Political organization is founded OF
patronage. The most successful politi
clan is the one who can get the mos
public jobs for his own followers. Thes,
job holders are expected, and expect, t
contribute part of their salaries to tn
personal political fund of the man wh'
gets them their jobs. Nominees for of
fees and the members of the party gen
: orally are relied upon to make up tn
campaign fund, but the individual per
sonal expense fund of the job getter /
: maintained by the job holders. Whel
,, it becomes necessary for the boss to sen
!. his agents over the country, they trave
on railroad passes which the boss sc
cures without trouble, and their travel
;, ing expenses are paid by the government
: in whose employ" they are.
If the bosses are interested only i
c state politics, their working organiza
= ton smade up of men whose names ar
on the state pay rolls, and it will b
found that the majority of the position
Z held by such men are of the kind whic
will permit them to travel at the state
expense. A little incident which cam
to my notice will serve to illustrate on
. of the many ways employed to ''wor
II the graft" of travelling expenses out {
the public.
, In hot pre-convention campaign, i
:. which the controlling faction appeare
J to be in danger of defeat, our county We
= the key to the situation in a congre
:, sional district. 1t was planned to mal
- particularly active campaign in thu
= county, and the call was sent out
~ hurry men there to make house
:, house canvass; to travel the countI
N over in buggies and talk to all the farm
- ers. At one of the state insane asylum
" was a half-witted patient who was
- trusty; that is, he was given the fire.
dom of the town and used as an erraI
- boy. This trusty was sent by the 81
- perintendent of the asylum with me
>, - sage to the relative of one of the en-
ployes who lived in the county whe
~ the campaign was to be carried on. I'll
"a trusty had not arrived at his destinatiC
y. before score of more of the guard
employees, nurses and minor officia
were ordered into that county to ca
ie ture the escaped lunatic" The trus
u did his errand and returned to Il
~ asylum, but the men who had been Sc
IN to capture him dead or alive, spent t,
y days in the county canvassing and car
paigning, and every cent of expense i
uo Cured was charged up to the "captur
~ of the escaped" patient.
- This occurrence would have been b,
- enough had the asylum employees be-
sent out to work for the party in ge
"a eral election campaign, but it was mu
worse in this case, for they were us