course will have the effect of attracting all adverse criticism to the general plan, and not to any special details of a remedial measure. It is much better, at the present time, that the general outlines of the English system should be discussed than that criticism should be diverted to the consideration of minor details, such as the number of new officers to be appointed to distribute the ballots at each polling-place, the number of agents to be allowed to each candidate, the limit of permissible expenditure, etc. I am convinced that the fastening of attention on these subordinate and variable features would now be a mistake, for we are not yet near enough the time when it shall be necessary to determine upon them irrevocably. The bill when prepared should be the result of the most mature thought of the most experienced men, and one which will meet all possible objection other than such as may be fundamental and general. I therefore think it wiser not to

propose a detailed measure until the debate has been completed, and yielded its full fruit of suggestion and criticism. I hold with Renan that "Time is the necessary collaborator of reason. The main point is to know how to wait."

I have added, in the form of an Appendix, a chapter on the actual results of the present English law as compared with those of a time antecedent to its enactment, which I hope will be found of interest to all students of the subject, although it is scarcely more than a compendium of newspaper articles.

I now offer the following pages to the public simply as documents pour servir, in the sincere hope that they may aid in the solu tion of the very difficult problem of democratic government in great cities.

W. M. I.

NEW YORK, March, 1887.

MACHINE POLITICS

AND

MONEY IN ELECTIONS

IN

NEW YORK CITY.

CHAPTER I.

THE MACHINE.

IT has been truly said that a citizen of New York generally knows little, if anything, more of the actual organization of political parties in this city than a Frenchman or an Englishman. The external working of party machinery is familiar, but the methods and motives which control the Machines are very little understood. The Machine may be organized nominally on the basis of Assembly Districts, as in Tammany Hall and the Republican party, or on that of Election Districts, as in the County Democracy; but there is really no difference between the two systems, the actual unit

of organization always being the Assembly District. Of these latter there are in the city of New York twenty-four, which, in turn, are at present (1887) divided into eight hundred and twelve election districts, as will be shown more in detail hereafter. The Machine is governed directly from the centre, and is a close corporation. The Assembly District organizations receive their policy, even in matters purely local, from the central authority, although this is not so uniformly the rule in the Republican as in the Democratic party!

Nominally all power ultimately falls into the hands of a caucus of the leaders of the twentyfour Assembly Districts, but it actually rests with one or perhaps half a dozen individuals in this interior cabal, who are absolute. This one or these few are men who hold prominent offices, or who have independent means and are ambitious for control. The former of these two classes supply offices for their subordinates and followers, and the latter class contribute out of their personal means for campaign purposes. In conferencewhich is a formality always strictly adhered tothese leaders can invariably compel adherence to their views by at least a majority of the caucus,

and thus through the formal government of the majority give the semblance of democratic methods to the course pursued. In these caucuses the inquiry is not what the district leaders or the people of the districts really think best, but what the few men in control have decided upon. So true is this that there are few men of practical experience in politics who have not at times heard as serious complaints from the captains of tens and of hundreds because of their inability to find out exactly what is expected of them, as because they are deprived of a voice in framing the policy of the party.

A single department is of itself enough to furnish the foundations of a Machine. It only requires that the department be one in which there are a score of fair places for superior politicians, and a laborers' pay-roll for the rank and file. A great department like that of the Public Works can, when in the hands of a politician, always be controlled for the maintenance of a powerful organization which shall for all practical purposes be the personal property of the departmental head. The better offices are distributed among those who are expected to fill the position of district leaders;