The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-10-12

icals to Croker and his fellow students
and otherwise this assistant hinderet
the intellectual development OF tn,
gang. So the gang set out to find tn,
Holy Grail In New York politics. anC
to show Mr.. Tweed what group Of
young men of high ideals and two MIN
BILE fists each may do toward attaining
the Good the True and the Beautiful
Croker being a husky boy was chosen
to run for alderman in due time in the
st. Georgian contest with he dragon
Tweed. Croker won. Tweed went 10
Albany and legislated Croker out of Of
flee. That was in 1871. Croker ran
again. Again he won. Tweed was
overthrown. The young gentlemen of
the Fourth Avenue Tunnel Gang tri-
! umphed. Croker took his Phi. d. In the
study of mankind, and entered upon
the active practice of his profession
CROKER AND TWEED.
When Croker ran for Alderman In
opposition to Boss Tweeds wishes. he
was elected, and helped to pull down
Tweed. Tweed fell, not because he
was a thief, but because he did not
tell the truth to his fellow-thieves:
they found they could not trust him.
and Croker learned in Tweed's down
fall the one trick which has given
Croker power-he learned to tell those
who trusted him the exact truth. and
to make lie the cardinal sin in his
CODE
AT the time that John Kelly rose to
the boss throne in Tammany, Croker
was district leader, and Kelly made
him sort of privy councillor, giving
him the office and title of city cham
berlain Mr. White says Croker con-
Quoted the various offices he held
coroner, city chamberlain and fire com
mssioner-decently and without scan
DIAL.
CROKER BECOMES KING.
when John Kelly died. the crown
came to Croker by natural selection.
He was elected chairman of the
finance committee of Tammany. That
is his office today. The finance COM
mittee is composed of five district lead
ers out of the thirty-seven in New
York. Under each leader are a score
of precinct captains, each of whom Is
set over four or five hundred people:
the people are divided into tribes of
nationality and also subdivided into
clans. This organization. which has
nothing to do with political creeds or
platforms but coheres out of greed for
public taxes and public privileges, is
the most perfect voting-machine on
earth. To the royal head of this sys-
TEN Croker came as journeyinan who
had worked up from bound-boy. He
was made king by grace of his strong
right arm and steel brain sharpened
on a man-hunters milestone. Pas
sionate-and by that token soft-hearted
simple as a child. acquisitive, shrewd,
in a narrow groove, like machine,
Sordid at the core, and ignorant of civ
liZation as Hun, Croker came to his
throne a troglodyte king over race
of cavemen."
HOW CROKER MADE HIS MONEY.
when he went into Wall street he
was as ignorant of the methods there
as the Mahdi. The men who played
his hand for him needed a friend at
the soul of things in New York City,
and they knew where the soul of
things was. They did not buy Croker.
He accepted no bride. He is true to
his friends, and his friends stand by
him. He made real estate investments,
and his advance knowledge of the pro-
posed public improvements made his
investments profitable. He bought
stock in city industrials and his friends
in office protected his investments,
and the stock rose and Croker skim
med off the cream. He frankly ac-
knowledges that what street parlance
calls his political pull represents HIS
capital. His life has been devoted to
accommodating this influence, and he
checks on 1t now as an old man would
check on his life's savings, rather
proudly than otherwise"