Plunkitt of Tammany Hall | Page 7

wasn't it? But that is the
only way to become a real lastin' statesman. I soon branched out. Two
young men in the flat next to mine were school friends-I went to them,
just as I went to Tommy, and they agreed to stand by me. Then I had a
followin' of three voters and I began to get a bit chesty. Whenever I
dropped into district head-quarters, everybody shook hands with me,
and the leader one day honored me by lightin' a match for my cigar.
And so it went on like a snowball rollin' down a hill I worked the
flat-house that I lived in from the basement to the top floor, and I got
about a dozen young men to follow me. Then I tackled the next house
and so on down the block and around the corner. Before long I had
sixty men back of me, and formed the George Washington Plunkitt
Association.
What did the district leader say then when I called at headquarters? I
didn't have to call at headquarters. He came after me and said: "George,
what do you want? If you don't see what you want, ask for it. Wouldn't
you like to have a job or two in the departments for your friends?" I
said: "I'll think it over; I haven't yet decided what the George
Washington Plunkitt Association will do in the next campaign." You
ought to have seen how I was courted and petted then by the leaders of
the rival organizations I had marketable goods and there was bids for
them from all sides, and I was a risin' man in politics. As time went on,
and my association grew, I thought I would like to go to the Assembly.
1 just had to hint at what I wanted, and three different organizations
offered me the nomination. Afterwards, I went to the Board of
Aldermen, then to the State Senate, then became leader of the district,
and so on up and up till I became a statesman.
That is the way and the only way to' make a lastin' success in politics.
If you are goin' to cast your first vote next November and want to go
into politics, do as I did. Get a followin', if it's only one man, and then
go to the district leader and say: "I want to join the organization. I've
got one man who'll follow me through thick and thin." The leader won't
laugh at your one-man followin'. He'll shake your hand warmly, offer
to propose you for membership in his club, take you down to the corner
for a drink and ask you to call again. But go to him and say: "I took
first prize at college in Aristotle; I can recite all Shakespeare forwards

and backwards; there ain't nothin' in science that ain't as familiar to me
as blockades on the elevated roads and I'm the real thing in the way of
silver-tongued orators." What will he answer? He'll probably say: "I
guess you are not to blame for your misfortunes, but we have no use for
you here."
Chapter 3
. The Curse of Civil Service Reform
This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse of
the nation. There can't be no real patriotism while it lasts. How are you
goin' to interest our young men in their country if you have no offices
to give them when they work for their party? Just look at things in this
city today. There are ten thousand good offices, but we can't get at
more than a few hundred of them. How are we goin' to provide for the
thousands of men who worked for the Tammany ticket? It can't be done.
These men were full of patriotism a short time ago. They expected to
be servin' their city, but when we tell them that we can't place them, do
you think their patriotism is goin' to last? Not much. They say: What's
the use of workin' for your country anyhow? There's nothin' in the
game." And what can they do? I don't know, but I'll tell you what I do
know. I know more than one young man in past years who worked for
the ticket and was just overflowin' with patriotism, but when he was
knocked out by the civil service humbug he got to hate his country and
became an Anarchist.
This ain't no exaggeration. I have good reason for sayin' that most of
the Anarchists in this city today are men who ran up against civil
service examinations. Isn't it enough to make a man sour on his country
when he wants to serve it and won't be allowed unless he answers a lot
of fool questions about the