New-York tribune., 1920-04-25

|, said he, seriously, down to this
day."
Croker succeeded Honest" John
Kelly as boss Of Tammany in 1885.
In one Of the periodic attempts to
find out where Croker got his wealth
Hugh ]. Grant testified that in 1884
Croker was poor man. Grant
said he gave Croker's daughter.
Florence, $4,000 because her
father was a poor man.
Lost Millions, Still Rich
In 1893, Croker with M. F. Dwyer.
began his racing career on tho Eng
lish turf. By 1902 it was estimated
he had dropped 81 100000 In British
racing, besides the great sums he
had lost in this country through In
vestments in stock farms, race
tracks and horses that failed. He
continued to lose in British racing
for another dozen years. What his
total losses have been can only be
estimated, but the lowest estimate Of
what he has dropped on the British
turf alone Is more than $4,000, 900,
and yet he is admittedly worth TO-
day more than $3,00O,000.
When the Ohio Lepislature vas
investigating corruption in Cincin-
natl, r. K. Hynicka, for years the
right hand man Of Boss Cox, was
asked on the witness stand, testify
ing under oath:
"Have you knowledge Of collec-
tions Of graft money made for and
paid over to Cox?"
II have such knowledge" he 70
piled. Collections were regularly
made from various sources. These
collections, which went to Mr.. Cox,
averaged about $7,000,000 a year."
Edward Shalvey, Captain Mea-
kim's Tammany collector. was =
witness before the Lexow commit
tee. The transcript Of his testi-
mony contains the following:
Q.-You collected from these sew
eral places-liquor dealers, policy
shops and houses Of i'll fame-as you
did under the previous eaptainf
A.-Yes, sir.
Q.-Did you ever meet with any
refusal to pay from the people en-
gagged in this class Of business, or
did they all pay as . matter Of
course?
A.-They all paid a. . matter Of
course.
Croker's Moral Dictum
1t was several years after this
testimony and while he was still ex-
ercising his autocratic power that
Croker enunciated another Of his
moral dictums:
Human nature is so built that
roguery cannot last. Honest men
come to their own, no matter what
odds against them"
An incident in the career Of Roger
Sullivan illustrates the power boss
welded. In 1905 Bryan was try
ing to force Sullivan out of Illinois
politics. A resolution was to be Of
fered in the state convention calling
on Sullivan to resign as Democratic
national committeeman. Two day.
before the convention Sullivan Weo
asked how many votes he could count
on. He answered.:
Twelve hundred and fortyLono
are sure, 1,400 are possible in the
event of a situation which makes It
necessary to expose my entire
strength, but unless ! am forced to
have division and q roll call by
wards and counties. the vote win b.
1885,"
The vote was 1893 for Sullivan,
, and the effort to oust him failed
ignominiously.
Croker gave another illustration.
He was eating luncheon "a . well
known and crowded restaurant when
the head Of one Of the city dspast-
ments came in and sat down q q
table on the opposite side Of the
wide room. Croker saw him and
called across the room:
"Well, how Is that Murphy boy
doing sent youf"
The department head replied that
the boy was exceptionally capablA
Croker was delighted.
Good boy!" he cried. "How mueh
is he getting?"
And on receiving the replys
"You Just raise him q thousanA
tomorrow"
Said Croker to the Mazet commit.
tee:
Il amt no statesman. / am LOOK