The Washington herald., 1913-06-08
Difficulties in Handling Legislation Affecting Labor
erence for the Courts Probing the Management
Of New York City and Its Results.

4 gallantry In the civil war After the
| close Of the war he organized an expedi-
ton to conquer Canada The expedition,
however. got so drunk before reaching
Albany that II was there incarcerated In
jail, whereupon Its leader abandoned IL
and went into New York politics instead.
He was man Of influence. and later
occupied in the police department the
same position as commissioner which I
\ myself at one time occupied He felt
! tnat MS rival had gained too much glory
AT my expense, and. walking over with
| eeremonious solemnity to where the said
rival was sitting close beside me. he said
! 70 MIN: Il would like you to know. Mr..
cameron Cameron. of course was not
the real name), that Mr.. Roosevelt knows
pore law in wake than you do in a
! month; and. more than that. Michael
| cameron, what do you name by quoting
LATIN on the floor Of this House when
you don't know the alpha and omayga
OF the languager'
There was in the Legislature. during
the deadlock above mentioned. a man
whom i will call Brogan. He looked
Ike a serious elderly frog. never
| heard him speak more than once II
, was before the Legislature was organ
lied. or had adopted any rules: and
each day the only business was for The
clerk to call the roll. One day Broean
suddenly rose, and the following dia-
logue occurred:
Brogan: Misther CIu-r-r-k,
The Clerk: The gentleman from New
| York
Brogan: rise to point of ordher un-
der the rules!
The Clerk: There are no ruIea
Brogan: Thin l object to them,
The Clerk: There are no rules to OBJ
ject TO.
Brogan. Oh! CnoapIused; but imm.-
diately recovering himself. Thin
move that they be amended until they
| ar-r-rei
The deadlock was tedious. and wa
hailed with joy such enIivening Incidents
as the above.
| The Prime Requisites.
During my three years service in the
| Legislature I worked on a verv sirnnla
philosophy of government 1t was that
personal character and initiative are the
prime requisites in political and social
| NE 1t was not only a good but an alb
solutely indispensable theory as far as
II went; but it was defective in that il
did not sufficiently allow for the need of
collective action. shall never forget
| the men with whom / worked hand in
hand in these legislative struggles, NOT
only my NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., but some of
| the newspaper reporters, such as Spin-
/ ney and Cunningham; and then in ad-
| dition the men in the various districts
\ who helped US. We had made I'D our
minds that We must not fight fire with
| fire, that on the contrary the way to
win out was to equal our foes in prac-
| teal efficiency and yet TO stand at the
opposite plane from them in applied
| morality.
II was not always easy to keep the
just middle. especially when Il happened
that on one side there were corrupt and
| INSCRIPTIONS demagogues, and one the
other side corrupt and INSCRIPTIONS re-
dictionaries. Our effort was TO hold the
scales even between both. We tried to
stand with the cause OF righteousness
even though its advocates were any
thing but righteous. We endeavored to
cut out the abuses OF property, even
though good men of property were mis-
led into unfolding those abuses. We
refused to be frightened into sanction
ing improper assaults upon property, al
though We knew that the champions of
property themselves did things that were
wicked and corrupt. We were as yet by
no means as thoroughly awake as We
ought to have been TO the need of con-
trolling Dig business and to the damage
done by the combination OF politics with
big business. In this matter 1 was not
behind the rest OF my friends; indeed,
was ahead of them. for no serious lead
er in political life then appreciated the
prime need of graphing with these ques-
tons. One partial reason-not an ex-
cuse or a justification, but partial rea-
son-for my siowness in grasping the i'm
portance of action in these matters was
the corrupt and unattractive nature of
so many OF the men who championed
popular reforms, their insincerity, and
the folly Of so many Of the actions
which they advocated. Even at that
date / had neither sympathy with nor
admiration for the man who was merely
a money king. and / did not regard the
money TOUCH when divorced from
other qualities, as emitting a man to
either respect or consideration AS re-
tcited above, we did on more than one
occasion fight battles, in which We
| neither took nor gave quarter. against
the most prominent and powerful fnan-
ciers OF the day. But most Of the fights
in which We were engaged were for pure
honesty and decency, and they were more
apt to be against that form OF corrup-
ton which found its expression in deIna-
gogy than against that form Of corrup-
ton which defended or advocated privie
lege. fa
Doing the Thing That Is Next.
To play the demagogue for purposes
of self-interst is a cardinal sin against
| the people in a democracy, exactly as
to play the courtier for such purposes
is a cardinal sin against the people
| under the other forms of government
man who stays long in our Ameri-
can political life, II he has IN his soul
| the generous desire to do effective serv-
| ice for great causes, inevitably grows
| to regard himself merely as one OF
many instruments, all OF which it may
be necessary to US, one at one time,
one at another, in achieving the tri-
| umph of those causes: and whenever
the usefulness Of any one has been ex-
hausted 1t Is to be thrown aside II
such a man is wise, he will gladly do
the thing that is next. when the time
and the need come together, without
asking what the future holds for him.
Let the half-good play his part well and
manfully. and then be content to draw
aside when the good appears. Nor
should he feel vain regrets that to an
other II is given to render greater serv-
ices and reap q greater reward. Let
1t be enough for him that he, too. has
served. and that by doing well he has
prepared the way for the other man
who can do better.
T~<