The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-15
.DENN|SON TALKS ON GOAL HOD POLITICS Takes Up Prevalent Form of
 Party Politics FIG H I 5 "Amounts to an Effort to Divide People of Our Cities on Lines of
 Dollars and Cents and Not
 of Character
FIG H T $

philade1phia. December 14.-Ihe DIE feature of the two day convention oi the National Civil Service Reform league. which opened it's thlrtV-nrst
 annual meeting in the auditorium of tbe City club here today, was the snaecb of Assistant Attorney General Winfred T pennison on "Coal Hed Po- tics" Mr. Dennison reviewed eXten- sivelv the prevalent form of party pol
 ttics as represented by the distrlou- tion of favors or "bones,' as he termed
 it bv those who were at the head ot inc organizations, basing his plea for civil service reform upon the millions of dollars that are wasted by inefficient lahor administrations in unnecessary offices created solely for the purposes of patronage.
 In Illustrating his crusade against "Coal Hod Politics" or the domination of the machine through pseudo char itv with a vote attached to each Ia vor, Mir. Dennison reviewed the great political fights of the east in recent years, drawing conclusions from the integrity of the men who fought Tor principles without favor, that. accord ing to him, pointed toward political rectitude and the dissemination or ideas. as q better means of swinging ballots than the virtual purchase of votes through the dispensation of char ity.
 In making his comparison MT. Den nison said:
 T resent the fact that the organiza- tions of both political parties in our big eastern cities are founded upon the theory that the mass of people have no principles and can be swayed only by those concealed forms of bribery which are involved in the distribution of bones and coal.
 "rhis amounts to an effort to di- vide the people of our cities on lines of dollars and not of character. That is to my mind a shocking ignorance of the facts of human character.
 "The same political ideas were prev alent in Chicago until Mir. Fisher and Mr Crane and their group of young men, such as you and I, made up their Municipal Voters league announcing their belief that the people of Chicago would got stand for crooks if they knew they were crooks. The league went with this proposition into the actual wards, rich and poor, and pro- ceeded to show up the crooks and they found that Bath House John, with all his bones could not hold the poor voters against them. For 15 years, by this method, the league has controlled the Chicago council, changing 1t from the usual stripe of coal hod body (with membership, as has been said, very few of whom could have been suspect ed of being honest) to a body of pub lie spirited, honorable men. on which it is considered a high distinction to serve.
 Tn New York city much the same thing has been demonstrated again and again-by Jerome, by Low, by Hughes, and by the present fusion board of es- inmates.
 Tn some ways the most interesting demonstration of the fundamental er- TOT of political organizations in their estimate of human character, particu- larly in reference to the poor, has been
 furnished by Hearst. We may think
 what we like of the soundness of his ideas, but has he not proved at least the fact that ideas are more effective vote getters than coal, even with those voters whom the party organizations are disposed to think too benighted to entertain ideas. In 1905 Hearst entered
 the New York municipal campaign against Mcclellan and Wins, who had
 behind them not only substantially all
 the conservative voters, but also both
 the organization machines, with all the Plunkitts and their charity labors since the revolution. Against this phal- anX=the utmost power l suppose that coal bod politicians have ever mar 1 shalled together-Hearst without an | organization, without patronage, with
 substantially nothing but ideas and newspapers to publish them in got al . most double the vote of Wins and came within 1000 votes of Mcclellan. In ] Plunkitts own district Hearst got out
 of total of 7SO0 woes only 500 less | than Plunkitt's candidate, and he got 1100 more than the republican district I leaders candidate.
 Tn 1909 he entered another three cor
 nered fight for the mayoralty, where the
 lines were drawn different. His own rad | ical support he had to divide with Gay | nor who was backed also by the whole | Tammany organization; and Barnard con- | centrated the conservatives and was ! backed by the republican organization | Even at that, Hearst got over 150O00 votes, which mas more than p per cent of the grand total
 l T say you can think what you like ! as to the soundness of Hearsts ideas. All
 that we concerned with here is Plum | kittism, and as to Plunkittism I say that | Hearst has proved concusively that the ! poor voters of New York can not be held by hods of coal against ideas" l In speaking of men, holders and candi- dates for office, MT Dennison asks the question, What man of any big vote getting power has appeared in the last decade, or the past two decades. who has
 come up by the Coa Hod route?' | He then goes on to review the careers of Hughes, Cleveland Bryan, and speaks | of eX-President Roosevelt in the following | terms:
 Consider also Roosevelt. As the his- l toran Rhodes recently said. no President
 lIp to his time. made so great an advance
 as lie for civil service reform. True | Roosevelt, unlike Hughes, having grown | up in the transition period, believed in q
 middle course. He frankly yielded to the l organization to some extent in the mat | ter of patronage. considering that in the 1 then existing state of public opinion it | was necessary evil which he could not
 eradicate at once. Hughes. on the con | tlary, put the blow right straight through 1 without any compromise, and that very | fact was, l believe, one of the most in | fluential sources of his vote getting pow CT. Personally. l think Hughes demon 1 strated beyond the shadow of a doubt
 that at the time when he was governor,
 and Roosevelt was coincdently President, l even Roosevelts comparatively slight l concession was neither necessary nor