The Washington herald., 1913-06-08

have ACCOMPLISHED as Speaker. As so
often, I found that the titular position
was of no consequence; what counted
was the combination Of the opportu-
nifty with the ability to accomplish re-
suits. The achievement was the all
important thing; the position. whether
/ tftularly high or low. was OF conse-
quence only in so far as It widened
| the chance for achievement After the
! session closed four of us who looked at
| politics from the same standpoint ana
were known as Independent or Anti
Machine Republicans were sent by the
State convention as delegates-at-large
to the Republican National Convention
of 1884, where 1 advocated. as visor-
ously as / knew how, the nomination
of Senator George F. Edmunds. Mr..
Edmunds was defeated and Mr.. Blaine
nominated. Mr.. Blaine was clearly the
choice of the rank and file of the party:
| his nomination was won in fair ana
| aboveboard fashion, because the rank
and file of the party stood back OF
him: and I supported him to the best
of my ability in the ensuing campaign.
! The Speakership contest enlightened me
as regards more things than the attitude
OF the bosses. I had already had some
exasperating experiences with the silk
| stocking reformer type, as Abraham
Lincoln called II, the gentlemen who were
very nice, very refined. who shook their
heads over political corruption, and dis
cussed 1t in drawing-rooms and parlors.
| but who were wholly unable to grapple
J with real men in real life These parlor
reformers made up for inefiiciency in ac-
| tIon by zeal in criticising: and they de-
| lighted in crtticisiag tie men who really
| were doing the things which they said
| ought to be done, but which they lacked
the sinewy power to do. They often Up
Il
possible, but highly undesirable, and
thereby played into the hands OF the very
politicians to whom they professed TO be
most hostile. Moreover, II they believed
that their own interests, individually or as
| a class. were jeoparded. they were apt
to show no higher standards than did
the men they usually denounced.
! One OF their shibboleths was that the
| office should seek the man and not the
man the Office. This is entirely true OF
| certain Offices at certain times. ItIis en-
| tirely untrue when the circumstances are
| different II would have been unneces-
| sary and undesirable for Washington to
have sought the Presidency. But II
Abraham Lincoln had not sought the
Presidency he never would have been
nominated. The objection in such a case
as this lies not to seeking the Office. but
| to seeking II in any but an honorable and
proper manner. The effect of the shib-
boleth in question is usually merely to
! put a premium on hypocrisy, and there
| fore to favor the creature who is willing
to rise by hypocrisy. When i ran for
| Speaker, the whole body of machine poll
| ticians was against me, and my only
chance lay in arousing the people in the
different districts To do this / had to
visit the districts, put the case fairly
before the men whom I saw, and make
| them understand that l was reaffx max
ing a fight and would stay in the fight
to the end. Yet there were reformers
who shook their heads and deplored my
activity" in the canvass. OF course,
the one thing which corrupt machine poll
ticians most desire is to have decent men
frown on the activity, that is, on the
! efficiency. of the honest man who gen.
timely wishes TO reform politics.
II efficiency is left solely to bad men,
and II virtue is confined solely to inef-
ficient men. the result cannot be happy.
When I entered politics there were, as
there always had been-and as there al
ways will be-any number of bad men
in politics who were thoroughly efficient,
and any number OF GOOD men who would
like to have done lofty things in politics
but who were thoroughly inefficient. II l
wished to accomplish anything for the
country. my business was TO combine
decency and efficiency; to be a thorough
ly practical man of high ideals who
did his best to reduce those ideals to
actual practice. This was my ideal. and
to the best OF my ability l strove to
live up to il.
The Lighter Side of Politics.
To a young man, life in the New York
Legislature was always interesting and
often entertaining. There was always a
struggle of some kind on hand. Some
times II was on naked question OF
right and wrong. Sometimes IL was on
a question OF real constructive states
rnanship. Moreover, there were all kinds
Of humorous incidents. the humor being
usually of the unconscious kind. In one
session Of the Legislature the New York
City Democratic representatives were
split into two camps, and there were
two rivals for leadership. One of these
was a thoroughly good-hearted, happy
go-lucky person who was afterward for
several years in Congress. He had been
a local Magistrate and was called Judge
Generally he and 1 were friendly, but
occasionally / did something that irritat-
ed him. He was always willing to vote
for any other members bill himself,
and he regarded it as narrow-minded for
any one TO oppose one of his bills espe-
cially II the opposition was upon the
ground that II was unconstitutionai-for
his views of the Constitution were so
excessively liberal as to make even me
feel as II belonged to the straitest sect
of strict constructionists- On one oc-
casion he had a bill to appropriate money
with obvious Improperly, for the RELIEF
Of some miscreant whom he styled zone
of the honest yeomanry of the State"
When I explained to him that It was
clearly unconstitutional, he answered,
Me friend, the Constitution don't touch
little things like that" and then added.
with an ingratiating smile, Anyhow,
I'd never allow the Constitution to come
between friends" At the time 1 was
looking over the proofs of Mr.. Bryce's
American Commonwealth" and told
him the incident. He put 1t into the first
edition of the Commonwealth" whether
1t is in the last edition or not 1 cannot
say.
On another occasion the same gentle
man came to an issue with me in de-
bate, and wound up his speech by ex-
planning that / occupied what lawyers
would call a quasi position on the bill"
His rival was a man of totally different
type, a man of great natural dignity,
also born In Ireland. He had served with
n A-~%