The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-07-01

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 poIiti-
clan is the one who can get the most
public Jobs for his own followers. These
job holders are expected, and expect. to
contribute part of their salaries to the
personal political fund Of the man VINO
get. them their jobs. Nominees for Of
fees and the members Of the party gen.
orally are relied upon to make up the
campaign fund. but the individual per
E0nal expense fund Of the job getter is
maintained by the job holders. When
it becomes necessary for the boss to send
his agents over the country, they travel
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 il
state politics, their working organiza-
ton is made up of men whose names are
on the state pay rolls, and it will be
found that the majority Of the positions
held by such men are of the kind which
will permit them to travel at the states
expense. A little incident which came
to my notice will serve to illustrate one
Of the many ways employed to work
the graft" Of travelling expenses out Of
the public.
IN hot pre-convention campaign, in
which the controlling faction appeared
to be IN danger of defeat, our county was
the key to the situation IN congress
sional district. 1t was planned to make
a particularly active campaign in that
county, and the call was sent out to
hurry men there to make a house to
house canvass: to travel the country
over in buggies and talk to all the farm
eFs. At one of the state insane asyIums
was a half-witfed patient who was a
trusty. that is, he was given the free
dom of the town and used as an errand
boy This trusty was sent by the SD
sage to the relative OF one Of the en-
pIoyes who lived in the county where
the campaign was to be carried on The
trusty had not arrived at his destination
before a score of more of the guards
employees, nurses and minor officials
were ordered into that county to cap
ture the ESCAPED lunatic. The trasty
\. L. 4
asylum, but the men who had been sent
to capture him dead or alive, spent ten
days in the county eanvassing and cam
paigning, and every cent of expense in
Cured was charged up to the capture
of the escaped" patient.
This occurrence would have been bad
enough had the asylum employees been
sent out to wora for the party in gem
eraI election campaign, but it was much
worse in this case, for they were used
solely for the benefit Of a few men who
controlled the party's organizat ion-the
ruling. faction. The opposing faction
knew ali about the case, but said moth
ing, because If they got in they would do
the same thing; they, too, would use the
state pay rolls to supply the sineVs OF
war to their organization.
This. condition OF affairs was SO well
recognized BY members Of the Iegisla-
ttlre that when the estimates for appro-
priations for state institutions were lald
before the house committee on appro-
priations, the committeeman would fig
urez out about now much Of the estimate
was fntended for the Ssslush fund. Z
II all the members Of a state legisla-
ture were free men; If none of them owed
theft political lives to bosses, such a
thing as padding appropriations for
state government institutions would not
be possible. The padding is done for the
purpose of affording sufficient graft to
keep the big men in power. But the
methods in vogue for nominating mem
bers of the legislature make it compare
lively easy for the few men who con-
troll state patronage to control nominal
ing conventions. and having the SAY
so" in conventions, it is easy for them
to nominate their selected men for tie