The Rice belt journal., 1908-02-21
An American in Politics
APPOINTED TO CFTlC :
BY ERNEST MGAFFEI.

nv race for the aldermanlc hoin1h"'
tiOn, the other man had been holl'
inated ard duly elected, and my ell
emics in the ward were jub.Iant Ana
quite properly A defeat IN pcIlucS
is 4 defeat, and the word II mas
no rIace in the cashet Of p0llCclan
memory The fact remains Wheh
you are beaten and all the why's ana
wherofores in the dictionary Will not
change it, ard still was not IN the
Inast discouraged at the shipWreCk OF
nv initial venture on the turbnIeh'
sea of poItical candidacy. FInancla-
", no one had my money; as TO conn
dcnce. no one had betrayed my con
fidence, for | had cCuided IN no one
As an experience, it had very hu-
mOr0us angles. and the antics OF the
leader" who directed my ante-conV"n-
ton CAMPAIGN Cmeanin% ANTE IN
the nature Of before, had not Of "glV-
ing up" anything prior to the con-
yention) were really side-sNiitun9
He was not so chasrined at the buy
ing of the delegates by the opposition
from a point of morals, but he mated
TO have the opposition Checkmate him
at the eleventh hour by such an OBJ
viOusly easy move on the polltlcai
chess board. Like most trainers OF
a loser he also locked aSkance at my
political future At that time, to bor-
row from Artemus Ward, this seemed
to him to be at considerable dis
tance behind me. But brighter days
were to come. In all CT my talks with
the ward leaders | had not begged
for the aldermanic nomination. had
been simply in the receptive mood,
and at the convention, when | knew
the game was up had smilingly as
serted that | was perfectly satisfied,
as | had a better thing than that
This was partly III the way of
retrospective glance at my .profes-
sion. and other means of livelihood,
which would net me at least the sal
ary of an alderman, say, $1,000
year. 1t was also partly in the ma
ture of "fOur-fushing
However, the front put up about
the matter was destined to give me
the reputation later Of the subtlety
Of a serpent. 1t was not only to make
good my proud boast, but it was to
lead some of the ward boys to al
most believe that | had %bribed my
own delegates to vote for my oppo-
nent, so as to be in a situation to ac-
cept the very fiattering official posi-
ton to which | was very shortly aft
er appointed. No one would believe
that | did not know all about this
impending appointment. 1t seemed
absolutely incredible that | should be
ignorant of such cataclysm to be.
My enemies therefore figured it out
that | had been laughing in my sleeve
all the time at them, and that | had
given them 'the dOuble-cross' with a
vengeance. AS a matter of fact, | was
as innocent of guile about it all as
the babe unborn, but it was joyous to
| insist that | had not known the ap-
| pointment was coming, which was
strictly true, and at the same time
give the lie to this statement by a
smile, or a wink, thus causing my
| foes exquisite agony of mind.
My appointment came about this
way. An act providing for a board
known as the board Of local improve
ments, had been recently passed by
| the state legislature. 1t gave the ap-
pointive power to the mayor to select
four members of the board and the
| fifth member Of the board was an
affable and entirely able gentleman,
! who was under civil service, and al
| ready in the employ Of the city; and
who helped get up the BILL not over
looking any bets about his own con-
necton with the board. If he had
been careless as to this, he would
simply have been a lobster, and he
| did not belong to the order of crus-
tacae. The salary of a member of
this board was $4,000 year.
The duties were to look after the
engineering projects of the city in the
way of recommending improvements
such as sewers, water pipes, street
paving, the building of sidewalks, etc,
together with the letting of the con-
tracts relating thereto. We were to
look after work being done in all
these branches, hold meetings relative
to such work, and inspect material,
hear complaints from the public, and
in general do a great deal of 'impor-
tant work.
Shortly after this act had been in
cluded in the session laws | received
letter from the mayor informing me
that with my consent he would ap-
point me to position on this board.
| was strictly under the impression
at the time of receiving this commu-
nication that the appointment was
sC@ly in the nature of a non.salaried
position, like the school board or IL
brary board. AS an honor of that kind,
or of any kind, at the hands of the
mayor, appreciated it, acd resolved
70 nNf 4, IL