Theodore Roosevelt and His Times | Page 6

joined "the governing class" in Morton Hall,
"a large barn-like room over a saloon," with furniture "of the canonical
kind; dingy benches, spittoons, a dais at one end with a table and chair,
and a stout pitcher for iced water, and on the walls pictures of General
Grant, and of Levi P. Morton," Joe Murray was engaged in a conflict
with "the boss" and wanted a candidate of his own for the Assembly.
He picked out Roosevelt, because he thought that with him he would be
most likely to win. Win they did; the nomination was snatched away
from the boss's man, and election followed. The defeated boss
good-humoredly turned in to help elect the young silk-stocking who
had been the instrument of his discomfiture.

CHAPTER II.
IN THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY
Roosevelt was twice reelected to the Assembly, the second time in
1883, a year when a Republican success was an outstanding exception
to the general course of events in the State. His career at Albany was
marked by a series of fights for decency and honesty. Each new contest
showed him a fearless antagonist, a hard hitter, and a man of practical
common sense and growing political wisdom. Those were the days of
the famous "black horse cavalry" in the New York Legislature--a group
of men whose votes could always be counted on by the special interests
and those corporations whose managers proceeded on the theory that

the way to get the legislation they wanted, or to block the legislation
they did not want, was to buy the necessary votes. Perhaps one-third of
the members of the Legislature, according to Roosevelt's estimate, were
purchasable. Others were timid. Others again were either stupid or
honestly so convinced of the importance of "business" to the general
welfare that they were blind to corporate faults. But Theodore
Roosevelt was neither purchasable, nor timid, nor unable to distinguish
between the legitimate requirements of business and its unjustifiable
demands. He developed as a natural leader of the honest opposition to
the "black horse cavalry."
The situation was complicated by what were known as "strike bills."
These were bills which, if passed, might or might not have been in the
public interest, but would certainly have been highly embarrassing to
the private interests involved. The purpose of their introduction was, of
course, to compel the corporations to pay bribes to ensure their defeat.
Roosevelt had one interesting and illuminating experience with the
"black horse cavalry." He was Chairman of the Committee on Cities.
The representatives of one of the great railways brought to him a bill to
permit the extension of its terminal facilities in one of the big cities of
the State, and asked him to take charge of it. Roosevelt looked into the
proposed bill and found that it was a measure that ought to be passed
quite as much in the public interest as is the interest of the railroad. He
agreed to stand sponsor for the bill, provided he were assured that no
money would be used to push it. The assurance was given. When the
bill came before his committee for consideration, Roosevelt found that
he could not get it reported out either favorably or unfavorably. So he
decided to force matters. In accordance with his life-long practice, he
went into the decisive committee meeting perfectly sure what he was
going to do, and otherwise fully prepared.
There was a broken chair in the room, and when he took his seat a leg
of that chair was unobtrusively ready to his hand. He moved that the
bill be reported favorably.
The gang, without debate, voted "No." He moved that it be reported
unfavorably. Again the gang voted "No." Then he put the bill in his
pocket and announced that he proposed to report it anyhow. There was
almost a riot. He was warned that his conduct would be exposed on the
floor of the Assembly. He replied that in that case he would explain

publicly in the Assembly the reasons which made him believe that the
rest of the committee were trying, from motives of blackmail, to
prevent any report of the bill. The bill was reported without further
protest, and the threatened riot did not come off, partly, said Roosevelt,
"because of the opportune production of the chair-leg." But the young
fighter found that he was no farther along: the bill slumbered soundly
on the calendar, and nothing that he could do availed to secure
consideration of it. At last the representative of the railroad suggested
that some older and more experienced leader might be able to get the
bill passed where he had failed. Roosevelt could do nothing but assent.
The bill was put in charge of an "old Parliamentary hand," and after a
decent lapse of time,