The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-03-25

"A
ful and worthy business man came tc
he with the request that I place his
brother in one of the departments. He
mentioned a position which paid fail
salary. I knew the mans brother to be
a worthless drunkard, and with some
heat | said:
In your big store you've got almost
as many men as are employed in this
city hall. Why can't you find a place
for your brother there?"
/ Well, Mr.. Mayor" he replied, "he's
not very strong and you know there's
a wide difference between private bust
ness and the public service You don t
demand SO much Of a man in the city
hall as We do in our shop"
Now this man, but short time be-
fore. had strenuously objected to the
amount Of personal tax assessed
against his establishment and in his
| argument had injected the statement
that if the public service were managed
more economically there would be no
need for such large taxes. I did not
| give his brother the wanted position,
and that business man became my per-
sopal and political enemy.
His was a typical case; one Of many
| such. Had I acceded to all of like re-
quests made during my term of Office
the city payroll would have read like
the columns of those directories which
contain only the names of the fashion
ables. Men representing the incest and
best people of my city begged me daily
to find some place in some department
where the family cast-om could be "em-
ployed' / soon discovered that the
salary had nothing to do with the case:
the family wanted to be able to refer
to the ne'er-do-well as a public Off
cial'' or-as one of the mayors friends"
and the public service was SO elastic.
1t never seemed to have occurred to
them that a mayor might have some
personal pride in his administration
Their selfish thoughtlessness blinded
their civic patriotism, and SO they
trooped to the mayors Office, exhibited
their family skeletons and brazenly
attempted to place their black sheep
co CuaiS RS upon Tile pubic.
There was a marked difference be-
tween such men and those presented by
the politicians. The latter were invet-
crate petitioners, but the majority of the
men they wanted to cline up" in front
of the public crib were wide-awake,
active, brainy fellows. They had in
them many qualities which characterize
men of success. Most OF them were
young and ambitious and looked upon
a public job not only as a reward for
services rendered their political supe-
riors but as a means tc advance them
in politics and the world in general
To be sure they regarded desk in the
city hall or the foremanship Of a street
gang as a sinecure, and this idea of
public service grew out of their politi-
cal creed, which was that the chief end
Of a ward worker" is to keep himself
and his friends in power.
These men were by nature not lazy
or given to Sinking their duties, al
though their city hall lives might in
dictate they were. They were ceaseIess
workers for the man whom they recog-
nized as their chief and sponsor. The
time and energy they consumed in his
service would rapidly advance them to
responsible high-salaried positions
should they put as much vigor and en-
thusiasm in a private business Some
of them were fanatieally loyal to their
ward bosses, and all of them were
ready to fight at the drop of hat for
their political masters.
This condition Of what might call
political feudalism was one of the most
embarrassing problems which / was
called upon to solve. It seemed to me
that il I gave a public position to a !
young man he ought to be my fellow, /"
my partisan. But I soon learned that
after all I was only the employment
agent-the principals were the local
leaders, who took care Of their follow
ers through me.
This humiliating truth was driven
home to me several times, and as often |
was / on the point of asserting myself |
by summarily discharging scores of /
employees who had been put on the pay
roll at the request of their ward lead
ers. But could not afford to lose the I
political influence of men who in I
their own communities were stronger t
than I, nor could I hope to upset a T
deep-rooted condition, which, after all, T
was entirely in harmony with our rep |
resentatiVe form OF government. So t
swallowed my pride and did just what T