The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-06-15
Daniel Tank and the
Unfinished Fight
BY P. G. Macfarlane


COPYRIGHT, 1870. THE PEARSON PUBLISHING CO.
You can't stop bribe-takin till you
stop bride givin'," announced Mr..
Tank, the Boss, with an air OF finality
/" Az long as there's givers there's
bound to be takers"
| The occasion of this profound OBJ
servation was the progress OF an inter
view which Mr.. Tank was enjoying
With Mr. Richard Dunno, the editor and
proprietor of a newspaper, who was
lust then engaged in campaign OF
municipal reform. Mr.. Dunno was
near enough to forty to have accumu-
lated plenty OF good hard sense, and
| enough under 1t to have preserved
bright and shining many of youths
Ideals. He had force and a genius for
news getting. Unaided save by his
own energies he had made himself
the master, at thirty-fiye or there
abouts, of great morning newspaper
in large city. Awake to the fact
that the control of a journal OF such
circulation and standing gave him tre-
mendous political power, he had de-
termined not to use it self1shly, for his
/ own advancement, but to make his
city, which was notably the most boss
ridden in the United States, one of
the most Independent and best gov
erned municipalities in the world. He
i had a sort Of consciousness that 1t
meant long. unpleasant fight, but he
knew that in .aa end he would be
victorious He would get the facts;
he would hold them UP to the sunlight
| through his paper and he had child
| ish faith in publicity. Sunlight will
/ kill disease germs, the scientists tell
US. So the reform movement began.
He put his cleverest men at work on
the matter of the new wing Of the City
Hail. Through his paper. the Morning
I Sentinel, he showed that there had
been serious Irregularities in the letting
Of the contract, that inferior brick had
gone into the building that supposedly
solid walls were only veneers with the
interstices filled with trash. He
printed pictures: he played up the
stories; he Illuminated editorially; he
flung open the municipal closet doors
and pointed to the grinning skeletons
and called upon the proper officials
to act There was much hubbub.
There was talk and more talk. There
was running to and fro of political
} henchmen. There was gathering Of
citizens in angry protest. The pulpits
Numbered. the woman's clubs resolved,
and the Professors up at the university
postulated. The City Council even
,. appointed investigating committees
The District Attorney announced that
he would bring the matter to the at
tention of the Grand Jury. The Judges
, solemnly selected the Grand Jury and
charged 1t, and it elected foreman
and proceeded to hear the law from
the District Attorney, and to hear the
reports of various committees, and to
interrogate witnesses, and then the
day for the voting of indictments
; came.
t But no indictments resulted.
The City Government was firmly in
the grasp of the Tank Machine. The
Tank Machine was. first and foremost
: Daniel Tank. himself coarse, rugged
Y beefy, who held the thickly populated
r wards in a grasp of iron and who
/ cheerfully bought and sold the rights
Of the people at the prices current but
after a fashion all his own. His
boosted assumption OF fatherly atti-
: tude involved the further assumption
that the people did not know how tc
Y govern themselves nor care to bother
s about 1t. together with the astonish
; ing presumption that he both knew
HOW " govern anu QlQ SO pdLIlOll
If he profited by the exercise OF hi
prerogative it was but by something
i in the nature OF contingent fees
n Since he was at much pains to govern
s the City, the City should not ob5ec
h that he was well paid for it.. especially
as he did not make the collection
out OF the City Treasury but out OF tn
. bursting Golfers of complacent corpora
tions, Tank was a stout-souled in
1t dividual and his sway was ruthles
N over those whom he sold and those
10 whom he sold, alike AS Tor the res
a Of the machine, IL consisted on the on
hand, as Dunno we'll knew. Of half
dozen district leaders. and on the othe
- hand of what Dunno barely even sus
: pected, Donnelly of the Trolley Con
panv, Manning who represented cor
trolling interests in gas, light an
: telephone companies. and Macy OF tt
Combined Trust Companies. all (
{ whom had OF long time found it
their interest to secretly wear Il
= Tankian collar.
1t CHANGED that on the very ate
noon that the Grand Jury dropped Il
investigation, Mr. Dunno, drivir
down town in his motor car. met NJ
Daniel Tank. driving down town
MS. rank was Dig, amldDIe ~
of man with huge, inscrutab
face and small blue eyes that look'
ont of place set SO brightly III tn
ar. leathery countenance. Little rippl
Il gathered round the eyes Of Tank, q
md Boss. and he smiled as he spoke to N
md Dunno, the Reformer. Mr.. Dunno r
49,, sponded with dignity his own sallo
Wv cheeks fiattening as his jaw tighten
az resolutely. Tank seemed to be laug
vel ing at him.
ks Thus far the reform moveme
the lacked something. The city had be
me, jobbed. No doubt of that But
will whom? This the Investigations h
WITH failed to show This much Mr.. Dun
had felt might be left to the of1icia
. He had let in the light. He had 20
aside the veil. He had flung open I
closet door The skeleton CRIME
y but as it grinned, also seemed to ri
a hollow eye. Mr.. Dunno had be
amazed The criminals had lost the
'. selves in the crowd. The city offici;
!. had busted themselves. They had M
:" up holy hands. They had express
. doubt and dismay and determinati
M