that franchises and contracts were bought and sold like merchandise; that the buyers were men of eminence in the city's business affairs; and that the sellers were the people's representatives in the Assembly.The Grand Jury reported: "Our investigation, covering more or less fully a period of ten years shows that, with few exceptions, no ordinance has been passed wherein valuable privileges or franchises are granted until those interested have paid the legislators the money demanded for action in the particular case....So long has this practice existed that such members have come to regard the receipt of money for action on pending measures as a legitimate perquisite of a legislator."These legislators, it appeared from the testimony, had formed a water-tight ring or "combine" in 1899, for the purpose of systematizing this traffic.A regular scale of prices was adopted: so much for an excavation, so much per foot for a railway switch, so much for a street pavement, so much for a grain elevator.Edward R.Butler was the master under whose commands for many years this trafficking was reduced to systematic perfection.He had come to St.Louis when a young man, had opened a blacksmith shop, had built up a good trade in horseshoeing, and also a pliant political following in his ward.
His attempt to defeat the home rule charter in 1876 had given him wider prominence, and he soon became the boss of the Democratic machine.His energy, shrewdness, liberality, and capacity for friendship gave him sway over both Republican and Democratic votes in certain portions of the city.A prominent St.Louis attorney says that for over twenty years "he named candidates on both tickets, fixed, collected, and disbursed campaign assessments, determined the results in elections, and in fine, practically controlled the public affairs of St.Louis." He was the agent usually sought by franchise-seekers, and he said that had the Suburban Company dealt with him instead of with the members of the Assembly, they might have avoided exposure.He was indicted four times in the upheaval, twice for attempting to bribe the Board of Health in the garbage deal--he was a stockholder in the company seeking the contract--and twice for bribery in the lighting contract.
Cincinnati inherited from the Civil War the domestic excitements and political antagonisms of a border city.Its large German population gave it a conservative political demeanor, slow to accept changes, loyal to the Republican party as it was to the Union.This reduced partizan opposition to a docile minority, willing to dicker for public spoils with the intrenched majority.
George B.Cox was for thirty years the boss of this city.Events had prepared the way for him.Following closely upon the war, Tom Campbell, a crafty criminal lawyer, was the local leader of the Republicans, and John R.McLean, owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, a very rich man, of the Democrats.These two men were cronies: they bartered the votes of their followers.For some years crime ran its repulsive course: brawlers, thieves, cutthroats escaped conviction through the defensive influence of the lawyer-boss.In 1880, Cox, who had served an apprenticeship in his brother-in-law's gambling house, was elected to the city council.Thence he was promoted to the decennial board of equalization which appraised all real estate every ten years.
There followed a great decrease in the valuation of some of the choicest holdings in the city.In 1884 there were riots in Cincinnati.After the acquittal of two brutes who had murdered a man for a trifling sum of money, exasperated citizens burned the criminal court house.The barter in justice stopped, but the barter in offices and in votes continued.The Blaine campaign then in progress was in great danger.Cox, already a master of the political game, promised the Republican leaders that if they would give him a campaign fund he would turn in a Republican majority from Cincinnati.He did; and for many years thereafter the returns from Hamilton County, in which Cincinnati is situated, brought cheer to Republican State headquarters on election night.
Cox was an unostentatious, silent man, giving one the impression of sullenness, and almost entirely lacking in those qualities of comradeship which one usually seeks in the "Boss" type.From a barren little room over the "Mecca" saloon, with the help of a telephone, he managed his machine.He never obtruded himself upon the public.He always remained in the background.Nor did he ever take vast sums.Moderation was the rule of his loot.
By 1905 a movement set in to rid the city of machine rule.Cox saw this movement growing in strength.So he imported boatloads of floaters from Kentucky.These floaters registered "from dives, and doggeries, from coal bins and water closet; no space was too small to harbor a man." For once he threw prudence to the winds.
Exposure followed; over 2800 illegal voters were found.The newspapers, so long docile, now provided the necessary publicity.
A little paper, the Citizen's Bulletin, which had started as a handbill of reform, when all the dailies seemed closed to the facts, now grew into a sturdy weekly.And, to add the capstone to Cox's undoing, William H.Taft, the most distinguished son of Cincinnati, then Secretary of War in President Roosevelt's cabinet, in a campaign speech in Akron, Ohio, advised the Republicans to repudiate him.This confounded the "regulars," and Cox was partially beaten.The reformers elected their candidate for mayor, but the boss retained his hold on the county and the city council.And, in spite of all that was done, Cox remained an influence in politics until his death, May 20, 1916.
San Francisco has had a varied and impressive political experience.The first legislature of California incorporated the mining town into the city of San Francisco, April 15, 1850.Its government from the outset was corrupt and inefficient.
