CHAPTER XXXIV THE POLITICAL PARTY 199. Extent of party organization 1 party includes and diverse elements. There is no constitutional basis or provision for American political The political parties, nevertheless each of the great parties has built up a powerful organization which coördinates its members in every part of the coun- numerous try. In practically every township, village, election district and city ward, there are local committees and party agents, whose work it is to promote the interests of the party. Above these local workers are county and state committees, and finally, at the top of the organization, the national committee. Altogether the organization of a political party is made up of numerous and diverse groups, as Lord Bryce points out in the following passage: In America the Inner Circle, that is to say, the persons who make All Federal office-holders except the judges, who are irremovable, and the "classified civil service." Thirdly.- A large part of the members of the state legislatures. How large a part, it is impossible to determine, for it varies greatly from state to state. I should guess that in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, Maryland, and Louisiana, half (or more) the members were professional politicians; in Connecticut, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, perhaps less than half; in Georgia, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, not more than one-third; in Massachusetts, Vermont, and some other states, perhaps even less. But the line between a professional and non-professional politician is too indefinite to make any satisfactory estimate possible. 1 From James Bryce, The American Commonwealth. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914. Vol. 1, pp. 62-64. The list of professional politicians includes, (1) Congressmen, (2) many Federal officeholders, (3) a large part of state legislators, (4) most state officeholders, (5) many local officeholders, and (6) numerous officeseekers. The above are professional politicians. This group not clearly divisible from the non-profes sional group. Fourthly. Nearly all state office-holders, excluding all judges in a very few states, and many of the judges in the rest. Fifthly. Nearly all holders of paid offices in the greater and in many of the smaller cities, and many holders of paid offices in the counties. There are, however, great differences in this respect between different states, the New England States and the newer states of the Northwest, as well as some southern states, choosing many of their county officials from men who are not regularly employed on politics, although members of the dominant party. Sixthly.- A large number of people who hold no office but want to get one, or perhaps even who desire work under a municipality. This category includes, of course, many of the "workers" of the party which does not command the majority for the time being, in state and municipal affairs, and which has not, through the President, the patronage of Federal posts. It also includes many expectants belonging to the party for the time being dominant, who are earning their future places by serving the party in the meantime. All the above may fairly be called professional or Inner Circle politicians, but of their number I can form no estimate, save that it must be counted by hundreds of thousands, inasmuch as it practically includes nearly all state and local and most Federal officeholders as well as most expectants of public office. . . . I have observed that there are also plenty of men engaged in some trade or profession who interest themselves in politics and work for their party without any definite hope of office or other pecuniary gain. They correspond to what we have called the Outer Circle politicians of Europe. It is hard to draw a line between the two classes, because they shade off into one another, there being many [persons] who, while pursuing their regular calling, bear a hand in politics, and look to be some time or other rewarded for doing so. When this expectation becomes a considerable part of the motive for exertion, such an one may fairly be called a professional, at least for the time being, for although he has other means of livelihood, he is apt to be impregnated with the habits and sentiments of the professional class. The proportion between Outer Circle and Inner Circle men is in the United States a sort of ozonometer by which the purity and health politicians United iness of the political atmosphere may be tested. Looking at the The proporNorth only, for it is hard to obtain trustworthy data as to the South, tion between professional and excluding Congressmen, the proportion of men who exert them- and nonselves in politics without pecuniary motive is largest in New England, professional in the country parts of New York, in northern Ohio, and the north- in the western States, while the professional politicians most abound in States. the great cities-New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco. This is because these cities have the largest masses of ignorant voters, and also because their municipal governments, handling vast revenues, offer the largest facilities for illicit gains. . 200. How the party influences voters 1 aim of the party is to win nomina The aims and purposes of the political party are various, but The most the most immediate objective of the party organization is to win immediate nominations and elections. To this end a large use is made of methods designed to influence voters in favor of principles and candidates put forth by the party. Some of these methods are legitimate, some are clearly illegitimate. Writing in 1906, Professor Hart described as follows the methods by means of which the party might influence voters: tions and elections. Voters by means (1) The most ordinary influence on voters is simple persuasion. In some parts of the country, especially in the South, there is joint discussion of public issues, listened to by both sides. In the northern states, political meetings are usually attended only by members of persuasion, the party that holds them, who have not come to have their opinions changed, but to have them confirmed. (2) The newspaper is of course of great influence over voters. (2) the Newspapers frequently take new ground, and sometimes in a hot newspaper, campaign change over from one side to the other; but, again, most Americans read only the newspapers of their own party, and hear very little of the argument of the other side. Hence the importance of special campaign literature; for instance, in 1896, the Republican National Committee deluged the state of Iowa with specially pre 1 From Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1906; pp. 104-106. (3) intimidation, (4) violence at the polls, and (5) bribery, practiced either covertly, or (6) openly. pared political tracts, mailed to individual voters whom they sup posed to be making up their minds on the question of the gold standard. (3) Another method of influencing voters is by intimidation sometimes nothing more than the disapproval of a man who votes unlike his neighbors, sometimes fierce and cruel personal abuse, sometimes threat of dismissal from employment. The Australian ballot has been favored by labor organizations because it enables the workman to escape from this form of oppression, since it is almost impossible to find out how a man has voted unless he himself discloses it. (4) Farther down still is the brutal violence at the polls, of which there have been many examples in American history. The usual form is for friends of one party to drive away the watchers of the other party, or to threaten voters when they offer their ballots. With the introduction of metropolitan police, since 1860, this violence has become less common in large cities; and the Australian ballot laws, which in many cases forbid the assemblage of persons about the polls, take away the pretext of violence. (5) Another too frequent method is the corruption of voters. Bribery is as old as votes, - very frequent in the Greek and Roman republics; for half a century, from 1725 to 1775, the recognized method of getting a government majority in the House of Commons; frequently practiced in the colonies; and to this day one of the most widespread and demoralizing influences. The most subtle form of bribery is to pay a man on election day for peddling tickets, for getting out voters, or for reporting the vote. Another method is to hire men to stay away from the polls, one of the most dangerous of all forms of bribery because it cannot be detected by any ballot device. (6) Perhaps the baldest form is to pay money outright for votes: candidates for offices are often assessed thousands of dollars for campaign funds; and cases have been known where they have gone from polling-place to polling-place, actually giving out rolls of bills to be distributed among the voters. . . . This is a shameful spectacle; and although in most communities only a small proportion of the voters will sell their birthright, yet that small proportion may be just enough to turn the scale. It is needless to say that the bribed voter is no voter, that he to prove. is simply a pawn in the hands of a man or the organization that pays Bribery difficult him. In most states there are strict laws against either giving or receiving bribes; but bribery is an offence extremely difficult to prove, because neither party desires that the transaction be made public. There have been cases in which, on the day of election, the party heelers on both sides have agreed to divide their campaign funds, and let the floaters cast their votes uninfluenced. Such conduct is of course held dishonorable by those sensitive people who furnished the money. 201. Evils of the spoils system 1 During the first forty years of our national life it was tacitly understood that subordinate executive officials should continue in office during good behavior, regardless of changes in the administration. After Jackson's first term, however, it became the custom for the incoming party to use offices to reward party supporters. Except where restricted by the merit system, each party has since that period secured control of government only to turn out numerous office-holders appointed by their opponents, and to install members of their own party. The evils of the spoils system at its height are described in the following extract from an address by Carl Schurz before the National Civil Service Reform League in 1894: Looking at the financial side of the matter alone bad enough; it is indeed almost incomprehensible how the spoils system would be permitted through scores of years to vitiate our business methods, . . . breeding extravagant and plundering practices in all departments, costing our people in the course of time untold hundreds of millions of money, and making our government one of the most wasteful in the world. All this, I say, is bad enough. it is certainly Rise of the spoils system. Evils of the spoils system on the financial side. But the spoils system has inflicted upon the American people Other evils: injuries far greater than these. The spoils system, that practice which turns public offices, high and low, from public trusts into objects of prey and booty for the 1 From the National Civil Service Reform League, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, 1894. Address by Carl Schurz. |