THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR 603 sometimes a tendency to look upon the primary purpose of organized labor as the production of strikes. Like so many popular beliefs this one is not well founded; what sanction for it exists is to be found merely in the historical fact that the rise of organized labor was accompanied by a series of spectacular strikes. The Panic of 1873, with its resulting hard times, was followed by an epidemic of strikes, larger and more serious than anything the country had ever seen. In 1877 the employees on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad struck, by way of protest against the fourth decrease in wages in seven years. The disturbance spread from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, and it spread from the Baltimore and Ohio to practically all the roads in the north between New England and the Mississippi River. Over one hundred thousand men were involved, the militia was called out to subdue the mobs, and before the troubles were over federal troops had to be used to restore order. In 1880 there was another epidemic of strikes; those of 1886 have already been mentioned. Between 1881 and 1900 forty-one per cent of the strikes were for higher pay, twenty-six per cent for shorter hours. More often than not the strikes failed, and in various cases the strikers lost their jobs. And yet, as so often happens, though the men involved were discredited, in the long run their combined efforts produced results. American labor, at least the organized part of it, has had little reason to complain since 1895. The integration of railroads, industry and labor created an entirely new situation in the United States. Here were great organizations, all possessed of extraordinary resources, all unrecognized in the constitutions, state and federal, all seriously affecting society as a whole. In their schemes of making money, and in their various contests, they disregarded the rights of each other, and of the general public, and they openly ignored, if they did not defy, the law. The political system in the United States was the product of an agricultural and mercantile society, while the new problems were industrial. The economic revolution therefore had brought into being a social structure unrelated to the political organism; and yet the new structure touched men's lives more closely, and at many more points, than did the political system. From the time when the facts of this revolution became visible the aim has been to evolve a satisfactory sort of connection between the two entities, political and economic. For a time it appeared that this might be brought about through the subjection of the political to the industrial organization. "Big Business" reached out to control both state and federal governments. While this method satisfied the business interests, it failed to satisfy those lower down in the industrial scale, and it definitely antagonized those who were outside the industrial organism, such as the farmers. All who were not directly enmeshed in the new economic structure turned to the old familiar agency of the government to protect them from the encroachments of the industrial group. If there is any trend observable in the domestic side of recent American history, it may perhaps be found in this effort to link up, if not to amalgamate, the two organisms. Up to the present time there has been little evidence of success. Industrialism has been inclined to go its own way, regardless of the government, and the government has not infrequently been embarrassed to the point of failure in dealing with industrialism. Regulation of capital has made some progress; regulation of labor is still a theory rather than a fact. CHAPTER LIII POLITICAL PRACTICES, 1870-1884 With such fundamental changes going on in American life, it is not surprising that political methods and theories should have been profoundly affected. In principle the American government, local, state, and national, remained what it had been before, but the manner of running it, and the opportunities for "graft" in it, showed some amazing innovations. Just as the railroads, industrial concerns, and labor, were being reorganized, so the politicians were working out more effective arrangements. All the big transportation and industrial combinations wanted favors from the government, and to get these they turned to the leaders of the party machine. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the new system was the opportunity for intimate coöperation between business and politics. During this period old cities were growing, and new ones were coming into existence. All, old and new, were putting in new sewerage systems, new paving, new water and lighting systems, new street car transportation systems. The city governments had charge of letting contracts, buying supplies and real estate, and handling city funds generally. Corporations and contractors were always eager to secure city business, and they were not slow to learn that the proper line of approach was through the city "boss." Once an agreement was struck, the contractors got the work, and the politicians their share of certain collateral commissions. The local politicians were always careful to keep national party issues prominent in city elections, so that in their enthusiasm for things Republican or Democratic the voters would forget the last crooked deal between the "boss" and the new street car corporation. The voters generally were either indifferent or ignorant. In the business world the opportunities for making money were so enthralling that countless people neglected their responsibilities in the government, leaving those matters to men who were interested. The recently-arrived immigrants would normally have had little concern in American politics, but these newcomers were rounded up by the politicians, sometimes naturalized at the rate of one a minute just before election day, and trained to vote with the machine. In the days before the Australian ballot, the ballots were furnished by the political parties, so the managers could tell whether or not a voter did his duty. TAMMANY HALL The most famous city machine in American politics is Tammany Hall, in New York City, an organization especially renowned for its political indecencies during the late sixties and early seventies, and again during the eighties. It dates back to 1789, or earlier, and one of its illustrious chiefs in early days was Aaron Burr. But probably even Burr would have blushed at some of the proceedings of one of his successors, William M. Tweed. This ulcer first appeared on the body politic in 1851; a new city council was chosen that year, popularly known as the "Forty Thieves"; Tweed was a member. In 1863, he became chairman of the general committee of Tammany Hall, or in the word which he contributed to American political terminology, the "boss" of the organization. Not long afterward he made his way into the state Senate. The election of 1868 in New York, both state and national, was generally supposed to be corrupt. The naturalization frauds were more flagrant than usual, and according to some reports the New York City vote was eight per cent in excess of the total voting population. Tammany was successful in electing one of its leaders, Hoffman, as governor. In 1869, the Democrats, under Tammany leadership, got control of the legislature. Tweed thereupon secured the passage of a measure giving New York City a new charter, the chief feature of which was an arrangement whereby Tweed himself was given absolute control of the city's finances. Then the "Tweed Ring" was organized. This consisted of Hall, a lawyer, then serving as mayor, Tweed himself, the street commissioner, “Slippery Dick" Connolly, the city comptroller, "Pete" Sweeny, treasurer of both New York City and County, and Cardozo, a Portuguese Jew, one of the judges. In full command of the city, with ample representation in the state courts, and the state legislature, and with one of their tools in the executive chair, the Ring entered upon one of the most amazing courses of plunder ever recorded in American politics. The crowning example of their work was the new county court house, designed in 1868, with an estimated cost of two hundred fifty TAMMANY HALL 607 thousand dollars. Under the government of the Ring it was made to cost nearly fifteen million dollars. One bill, paid before the building was finished, for repairing fixtures, amounted to $1,149,874.50. Forty chairs and three tables cost $179,729, thermometers $7500. One carpenter got $360,747. A plasterer received $2,870,464 for nine months' work. Carpets cost $300,000, and most of those purchased went to furnish the new Metropolitan Hotel, just opened by Tweed's son. Tweed himself got a liberal share of the money; on a number of contracts he regularly took over twenty per cent of the total amount. Some of the proceeds he used to buy up votes in the legislature; it cost him $600,000 to put through the new city charter, and according to his statement, he paid $40,000 apiece for five senators. The Carpet-baggers in the South were amateurs in comparison with Tweed. Between 1869 and 1871 the bonded debt of New York City rose from $36,293,000 to $97,287,000, and the floating debt went up by $20,000,000 at the same time. By 1870 the Ring was securely established, and the members were becoming ambitious. Cardozo began to hope for an appointment to the Federal Supreme Court, while Hoffman talked confidently of becoming President of the United States. The outrages were tolerated, partly because, for a time, the extent of the robbery was not realized, partly because the press was pretty well subsidized, partly because the Democratic organization winked at the scandal—Tammany could almost always "deliver" New York-and partly because the great majority of the voters were ignorant, and paid no taxes. Finally the swindles became so notorious that some of the newspapers began to refer to them. The Sun suggested the erection of a statue to "the principal Robber Baron" to commemorate "his services to the commonwealth." Tweed declined the honor, and in March 1871, the Sun came out with the following headlines: "A GREAT MAN'S MODESTY" "The Hon. Wm. M. Tweed declines the Sun's Statue. The overthrow of the Ring resulted from a quarrel down in the ranks of the organization. One of the ward "heelers," O'Brien by name, felt that his services had not been duly rewarded with a proper |