Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-04-23
DANIEL TANK AND THE
UNFINISHED FIGHT
BY p. c. Macfarlane.
Copyright, 1909. by r1e Pearson Pub
fishing Company.

stop bride givin'.' announced Mr.
Tank, the Boss, with an air Of fnality.
As long as there's givers there's
bound TO be takers
The occasion of this profound OBJ
seTvation 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
just then engaged in a campaign Of
municipal reform. Mr.. Dunno was
near enough TO forty TO have accumu-
lated plenty of good hard sense. and
enough under IL 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-five or there
abouts, of great morning newspaper
in a large city. Awake 10 the fact
that the control of a journal Of such
circulation and standing gave him ire
mendOus political power. he had de-
termined not TO use it selfshly. 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
erGec- municipalities II the world. He
had q sort of cOnsCiOuspesS that IL
meant 2 long. unpleasant fight. hut he
knew that in the end he would be
victorious. He would get TIE facts:
he would hold them Up 10 the sunlight
through his paper and he had a child
ism faith in publicity. Sunlight viii
kill disease germs, the scientists tell
US. So the reform movement began.
He put his cleverest men at work or
the matter of the new wing Of the City
Hall. Through his paper. the TCruiag
Sentinel. he showed that there had
ocen 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
interstiCcs filed with trash. He
printed pictures; he PLACED I'D the
stories; he Illuminated editOrially; he
flung open the municipal closet doors
and pointed to the grinning skeletons
AID called upon the proper officials
TO act. There was much hubbub.
There was tcik 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 10 the at
tentiOI Of the Grand jury. The Judges
solemnly selected the Grand Jury and
charged it, and it elected a foreman
and proceeded 10 hear the law from
the District Attorney, and to hear the
reports of various committees, and to
inteTrOgate witnesses, and then the
day for the voting Of indictments
came.
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,
beefy. who held the thickly populated
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 a fatherly atti-
tude involved the further assumption
that the people did not know how 10
govern themselves nor care to bother
about it. together with the astOnish-
ing presumption that he both knew
how to govern and did so periodically.
If he prOfited by the exercise of his
prerOCative il was but By something
in the nature Of contingent fees.
Since he was at much pains to govern
the City. the City should not object
that Re was well paid for it, especially
as he did not make the collections
out Of the City Treasury but out of the
bursting Golfers of complacent corpora
tons. Tank was 2 stOut-sOuled in
dividual and his sway was ruthless
over those whom he sold and those TO
whom he sold, alike. As for the rest
of the machine. it consisted on the one
hand. as Dunno well knew, of half a
dozen district leaders, and on the other
hand of what Dunno barely even sus-
pected, Donnelly OF the Trolley Com
paly, Manning. who represented con-
trolling interests in gas. light and
telephone companies. and Macy of the
Combined Trust Companies. all of
n hom Rad OF long time found it to
their interest to secretly wear the
Tankian collar.
II Glanced that on the very after
noon that the Grand Jury dropped the
Investigation. Mr.. Dunno. driving
down town in his motor car, met Mr..
Daniel Tank. driving down town in
his. Tank was a big. aniable sort
Of a man with huge, inscrUtable
face and small blue eyes that looked
cut of place set so brightly in that
leathery countenance. Little ripples
gathered round the eyes Of Tank. the
Boss, and he smiled as he spoke to Mr..
Dunno. the Reformer. Mr.. Dunno re-
;pondad with dignity, his own sallow
cheeks flattening as his jaw frightened
Tank seemed to be laugh
ing at him.
Thus far the reform movement
acked something. The city had been
obbed. No doubt OF that. But by
whom? This the investigations had
allied to show. This much Mr.. Dunno
lad felt might be left to. the officials.
lie had let in the light. He had torn
Iside the veil. He had flung open TIE
loset door. The skeleton grinned,
tut as it grinned. also seemed to wink
! hollow eye. Mr.. Dunno had been
mazed. The criminals had lost them
elves in the crowd. The city officials
ad busted themselves. They had held
p holy hands. They had expressed
omit and diSm9V and dptorrpiU alton