The Washington herald., 1913-05-25
First Meets Joe Murray When He Breaks Into Politics, and
This Friendship Has Survived the Thny.three Years
Since 1t Was Formed "reminiscences Of the
Early Fights Against Tammany.

The most profitable type of bill to the
accomplished blackmailer, however. was
Dill aimed at a real corporate abuse
which the corporation, either from wick
edness or folly. was unwilling to rem
edy. OF the measures introduced in the
interest Of corporations there were also
some that were proper and some that
were improper. The corrupt legislators,
the black horse cavalry" as they were
Termed would demand payment to vote
as the corporations wished, no matter
whether the bill was proper or improper.
Sometimes, II the BILL was a proper one.
the corporation would have the virtue or
the strength of mind to refuse to paw
for its passage. and sometimes it would
not
very slight consideration of the
above state of affairs will show how DIFF
ncult II was at times TO keep the issue
clear. for honest and dishonest men were
continually found side by side voting
now against and now for a corporation
measure. the one set from proper and
the other set from grossly improper mo-
tives. or course, part of the fault Law
In the attitude OF outsiders. It was
very early borne In upon me that al
most equal harm was done by indis-
criminate defense of, and indiscriminate
attack on, corporations It was hard TO
say whether the man who prided him
self upon always antagonizing the cor
porations, or the man who, on the plea
that he was good conservative. always
stood up for them, was the more mis-
chievous agent of corruption and de-
moralization.
The Labb,i,fs.
In one fight in the House over a bill
as to which there was a bitter contest
between two New York City street rail
way organizations I saw LOBBYISTS come
down on the floor itself and draw venal
men out into the Hobbies with almost no
pretense OF concealing what they We're
doing. In another case in which the
elevated railway corporations of New
YORK CITY, against the protest of the
Mayor and the other local authorities.
rushed through bill RENTING over half
ther taxes, some OF the members who
voted for the measure probably thought
II was right; but every corrupt man in
the House voted with them; and the
man must indeed have been stupid who
tnougnt that these votes were given dis.
interestedly.
The effective fight against the bill for
the revision of the elevated railway
taNes-perhaps the most openly crooked
measure which during my time was
pushed at Albany-vas waged by Mike
Costello and myself. We used to spend
a good deal of time in industrious re-
search into the various bills introduced
so as to find out what their authors real
ly had in mind: this research, by the
way, being highly unappreciated and
much resented by the authors. In the
course of his researches Mike had been
puzzled by an unimportant bill, SEEM
ingly related to a constitutional amend
ment- introduced by a local saloon-keep-
er, whose interests, as far as we knew,
were wholly remote from the constitu-
ton, or from any form Of abstract legal
betterment. However, the measure
seemed harmless; We did not interfere:
and II passed the House. Mike, how
ever. followed Its career in the Senate.
and at the last moment. almost by acct
dent, discovered that il had been
amended" by the simple process of
striking out everything after the enact
ing clause and unobtrusively substitute
ing the proposal to remit the elevated
railway taxes The authors Of the
change wished to avoid unseemly pub
licity: their hope was TO slip the meas
ure through the Legislature and have II
instantly signed by the Governor be-
fore any public attention was excited.
In the Senate their plan worked to per-
lection. There was in the Senate no
fighting leadership of the forces Of de-
cency; and for such leadership Of the nom
fighting type the representatives of cor
ruption cared absolutely nothing. BY
bold and adroit management the substi-
tuition in the Senate was effected with
out opposition or comment. The bin
lin reality. of course, an absolutely new
and undebated bilD then came back to
the House nominally as a merely amend
ed measure. which. under the rules,
was not open to debate unless the
amendment was first by vote rejected
This was the great bill OF the session for
the lobby: and the lobby was keenly
alive to the need of quick work. wise
action.
No public attention whatever had so
far been excited. Every measure was
taken to secure immediate and silent
action. powerful leader, whom the
of the bill trusted, fear
less and INSCRIPTIONS man, of much
force and great knowledge OF parlia-
mentary law, was put in the chair.
Costello and / were watched. and when
for a moment we were out of the
House the bill was brought over from
the Senate and the clerk began to read
IL, all the black horse cavalry. in ex-
pectant mood, being in their seats But
Mike Costello, who was in the clerks
room. happened to catch a few words
of what was being read. In he rushed.
a
gan a single-handed filibuster. The
Speaker pro tenn called him to order.
Mike continued to speak and protest:
the Speaker hammered him down: Mike
continued his protests: the sergeant
alarms was sent to arrest and remove
him: and then l bounced in. and con-
tinued the protest, and refused to sit
down or be silent. Amid wild confu-
sion the amendment was declared
adopted, and the bill was ordered en-
crossed and sent to the Governor. But
we had carried our point The next
the whole press rang with
what had happened; every detail of the
bill and every detail of the way IL had
been slipped through the Legislature.
were made public. All the slow and
men in she House, who had
been afraid Of taking sides. now came
in support OF US. Another de-
bate was held on the proposal to re-
scind the vote; the city authorities
walked up to- protest; the Governor re-
fused to sign the bill Two or three
years later, after much litigation. the
taxes were paid: in the newspapers II
was stated that the amount was about
100000. 1t was Mike Costello to whom
primarily was due the fact that this
sum was saved the public, and that
the forces of corruption received a
singing rebuff. He did not expect
or reward for his services.
and he got none. The public, II 1t knew
of what he had done, promptly forgot
Il. The machine did not forget IL. and
turned him down at the next election.
One of the standby strikes was a
bin for reducing the elevated railway
fare. which at that time was 10 cents.