they are the working force of the party, and still works in such a manner as to permit them to do nothing that will disturb the peace of mind of his overlord, the assembly district leader. He will call a meeting of the voters of his district and ask them to select delegates to conventions; he will impress upon these delegates the necessity for harmony in the ranks if his election district is to be "recognized" in the distribution of the "loaves and fishes"; he will appeal to their party loyalty, and impress them most strongly with the virtues of his leader by inviting them to partake of "a little refreshment," in his honor, and on the night of the convention will gather the delegates together and march with them to the convention hall, making sure that all bitter feelings are subdued and quenched along the line of the march.

The election captain is looked to by his boss to get out every voter of the party in his district at the regular elections and on registration days. If there is a fight between factions at the primaries, he is charged with delivering to his overlord every possible vote. His power in the assembly district meetings is measured by his ability to deliver the party vote for the candidates of the party, and any split ticket in the district is marked against him. Nothing must interfere with getting every party man to commit himself before a primary fight. How each man will vote at the primary contest must be known to him and reported to the leader of the assembly district before primary day, and every possible means of gaining support must be used. A list of all the newcomers into the district must be made by him, and the names of all party men who leave the district must be sent to the assembly district leader. Every young man who leans towards the party, and is twenty years of age, must be known by him, and all efforts must be made to secure his enrolment with the party on his twenty-first birthday.

The captain knows the business of all party men in his district, and his pockets are almost filled with the business cards of his electors. He exerts all his efforts to find the "vulnerable spots" of the voters and to work on those spots. A young lawyer, for instance, is given a case, which the captain knows of, but on examination it is found that the statute of limitations has barred it years ago. But the young lawyer feels complimented by the leader's apparent interest. He never dreams that anything but interest in him prompted the leader. The captain's time is given almost exclusively to making the acquaintance of the party men in his district. He has a corner office where he stations himself at a certain hour and there holds forth to all his acquaintances, especially the younger men.

All that the captain does, however, has for its purpose the strengthening of the assembly district leader. If he displays the slightest aspi

ration to assume the district leadership himself, all the force possible is employed against him. He must impress upon every voter the virtues of his master, and all objections to that master's leadership must be answered by a declaration of loyalty. When the assembly district leader has stated his choice of candidates for either appointive or elective offices, the captain must use all his influence to quiet any opposition and must deliver delegates to support the leader's candidates. The captain must bend to the leader's will or throw over the captaincy, or, under the method of election now used, defeat the leader and himself place a ticket in the field in opposition to the leader's ticket at the primaries. This last method is possible, because although a leader may gain sufficient votes throughout the district to elect himself leader, still each election district votes for its own officers and may elect officers who are not in sympathy with the district leader. In one assembly district in Brooklyn, out of twenty election districts, nineteen went for the candidate for assembly district leader in a recent primary, and one against him, and this one elected a bitter opponent of the leader and one who aspires to the assembly leadership. This is a good illustration of the popular power that may be exerted in the Republican party in Kings county and accounts to a great extent for the weakness of the "machine" on many occasions.

To the young man entering the political field, the election district captain is the most accessible party man. He is open to all visitors and does not hesitate to give the young men an opportunity to go as delegates to the various conventions. At the district cabinet meetings he may mention the young man to the district leader and recommend that he would make a good candidate for some minor office. He may also aid in having the young man delegated to the county convention, and, if he is strong enough, may have the district leader name him as a delegate for the state convention. It is at the primaries that the young man can begin his active political work, and there, in nine cases out of every ten, he must begin his work.

The Sources of Party Strength

It is evident that parties cannot exist without organization and that organizations of permanent workers cannot exist without funds, and that the funds must be derived from some place either from loyal party supporters or from private persons and organizations expecting to derive monetary advantages from the victory of the organization to which they contribute. It becomes necessary, therefore, to examine the sources from which a party organization must expect to derive its sustaining funds.

1. There are, in the first place, the public offices which are to be looked forward to as the legitimate reward of party services. The adoption of the principles of civil service reform has reduced to some extent the relative number of offices to be filled by partisan workers, but nevertheless there remains an enormous number of federal, state, and local offices to be distributed. It is estimated that the political appointments within the gift of the President have an annual value of more than $12,000,000. The multiplication of the functions of state government tends to place an ever larger appointing power in the hands of the governor and the state senate or some other central authority. Every state legislature has within its gift appointments to legislative offices and positions to employ for partisan purposes, usually free from civil service control. For example, there are sergeantsat-arms and assistant sergeants-at-arms, principal doorkeepers, first and second assistant doorkeepers, journal clerks, executiveclerks, index clerks, revision clerks, librarians, messengers, postmasters, janitors, stenographers, and messengers to the various committees and assistants first and second, too numerous to mention the legislature of New York costs the state for its mere running expenses alone more than $800,000 a year. Then there are the city offices, high and low, steadily multiplying in number and, in spite of the civil service restrictions, to a large extent within the gift of the political party that wins at the polls. Finally there are the election officers, a vast army of inspectors, ballot clerks, and poll clerks for the primary and regular elections, who derive anywhere from $10 to $50 a year for their services. New York City spends annually more than $400,000 in paying the officials who preside at primaries and elections.

2. In the next place there are the levies on the candidates. Generally speaking, no one can hope to be elected to office to-day without being nominated by one of the political parties. The party organization wages the campaign which carries the candidate into office, and what is more natural and just than the demand that the candidate shall help to pay the legitimate expenses of the campaign? It is a regular practice, therefore, for party organizations, state and local, to levy tribute from candidates for nominations as well as from nominees to office - generally in proportion to the value of the office they seek. Mr. Wheeler Peckham testified before the Mazet Commission in 1899 as fol

lows: "It is generally assumed that a candidate for a judicial position [in New York City] pays somewhere or other, either for nomination or election, or assessment in some way, quite a large sum. Judges have spoken to me about assessment and deprecated the existence of it very strongly. I suppose the amount paid would range between $10,000 and $25,000.1 I assume that referees are to a great degree appointed with reference to the judge's recognition of the political party or political organization that nominated or elected him, and to which he owed his nomination. Judges of the courts here recognize their obligation to the political organization which elected them, and they have a desire, and it is carried to a greater or less extent in the distribution of the patronage that belongs to them, to recognize that fact." 2 There are in addition levies on officeholders, after election, even in spite of the laws forbidding this practice. Office holders do not always wait to be pressed by the party in this matter. It is not expedient to wait.

3. The construction of parks, school buildings, highways, and other public works is a fruitful source of revenue to the party organization which controls the letting of contracts. High bids may be accepted on the condition that the surplus shall go to the party war chest or to party leaders. The capitol building and grounds at Albany cost the state nearly $25,000,000, and the plunder of the public treasury in the construction of the capitol at Harrisburg is a matter of recent history.

4. Undoubtedly the most fruitful source of revenue for party organizations within recent years has been contributions from corporations (now frequently forbidden by law). Railway, insurance, banking, gas, electric, street railway, telegraph, express, telephone, and other public service corporations must receive many privileges from cities and states. They must secure franchises in the first place, and some must have permits to tear up streets and highways, and extend their operations in various forms. To secure special favors, for which they ought to pay large sums to the public, corporations too often find it cheaper and easier to contribute handsomely to party organizations and to have the organization "control" the proper officials. Very

1 The salary of some judges is $17,500 a year and the term fourteen years. 2 Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Public Offices and Departments of the City of New York, Vol. I, pp. 358–360.

often, also, party leaders compel corporations to pay heavily for securing permits to which they are legitimately entitled, and in such instances corporations usually find it easier to pay than to go to law or argue.

Mr. H. H. Vreeland, prominent in financial circles in New York City, testified during a grand jury investigation in 1908 that he had contributed five years before on behalf of a certain corporation $20,000 to Mr. Odell, chairman of the Republican state committee and $16,500 to Mr. Murphy, leader of the Tammany Democracy in New York City. The way in which the Metropolitan Street Railway Company had to deal with New York politicians he further described in the following testimony:

QUESTION: In these corporate ventures that you have been connected with of a large character, have you found that the favors to politicians, contributions to political parties, election expenses, have been of value or were commonly esteemed to be of value to the corporation? ANSWER: I have found that they were esteemed to be of value. QUESTION: Is it necessary for the Metropolitan Street Railway to open the streets of New York a great deal? ANSWER: Yes, Sir.

QUESTION: Whenever they want to open a street they have to get the permit countersigned by the Borough President and the Commissioner of Gas, Electricity, and Water Supply? ANSWER: Yes, Sir.

QUESTION: Each of them has got to sign a permit before it is opened? ANSWER: Yes, Sir, and whenever the property is adjacent to a park it has to be signed by the park official.

QUESTION: An antagonistic water, gas, or electricity official could impede somewhat the work of the railroad company in the city here? ANSWER: Very materially.

QUESTION: Did you ever have any experience with being impeded in that way? ANSWER: Yes, Sir; I have a number of instances. QUESTION: And afterwards were those impediments withdrawn? ANSWER: They were.

QUESTION: Withdrawn without legal process? ANSWER: Yes, Sir. QUESTION: Was the method of securing those withdrawals such that led you to believe that it had been by cultivating in some way the favor of these officials? ANSWER: There was no action of any kind that would give me any impression on it, because a permit would be in the [proper city] office and under the best endeavor we could not get it, and all of a sudden it was signed and sent up to our office.

QUESTION: You have no doubt in your own mind as to why the

1 New York Times, April 23, 1908.