<SPAN name="XXXIV"></SPAN>
<h1 align="center" style="margin-top: 2em;font-variant: small-caps">Chapter XXXIV</h1>
<h2 align="center" style="margin-top: 2em;font-variant: small-caps">Selwyn’s Story</h2>
<p>The further Administrator Dru carried his progress
of reform, the more helpful he found Selwyn. Dru’s
generous treatment of him had brought in return a
grateful loyalty.</p>
<p>One stormy night, after Selwyn had dined with Dru,
he sat contentedly smoking by a great log fire in
the library of the small cottage which Dru occupied
in the barracks.</p>
<p>“This reminds me,” he said, “of
my early boyhood, and of the fireplace in the old
tavern where I was born.”</p>
<p>General Dru had long wanted to know of Selwyn, and,
though they had arranged to discuss some important
business, Dru urged the former Senator to tell him
something of his early life.</p>
<p>Selwyn consented, but asked that the lights be turned
off so that there would be only the glow from the
fire, in order that it might seem more like the old
days at home when his father’s political cronies
gathered about the hearth for their confidential talks.</p>
<p>And this was Selwyn’s story:--</p>
<p>My father was a man of small education and kept a
tavern on the outer edge of Philadelphia. I was his
only child, my mother dying in my infancy. There was
a bar connected with the house, and it was a rendezvous
for the politicians of our ward. I became interested
in politics so early that I cannot remember the time
when I was not. My father was a temperate man, strong-willed
and able, and I have often wondered since that he
was content to end his days without trying to get
beyond the environments of a small tavern.</p>
<p>He was sensitive, and perhaps his lack of education
caused him to hesitate to enter a larger and more
conspicuous field.</p>
<p>However, he was resolved that I should not be hampered
as he was, and I was, therefore, given a good common
school education first, and afterwards sent to Girard
College, where I graduated, the youngest of my class.</p>
<p>Much to my father’s delight, I expressed a desire
to study law, for it seemed to us both that this profession
held the best opportunity open to me. My real purpose
in becoming a lawyer was to aid me in politics, for
it was clear to both my father and me that I had an
unusual aptitude therefor.</p>
<p>My study of law was rather cursory than real, and
did not lead to a profound knowledge of the subject,
but it was sufficient for me to obtain admittance
to the bar, and it was not long, young as I was, before
my father’s influence brought me a practice that
was lucrative and which required but little legal
lore.</p>
<p>At that time the ward boss was a man by the name of
Marx. While his father was a German, he was almost
wholly Irish, for his father died when he was young,
and he was reared by a masculine, masterful, though
ignorant Irish mother.</p>
<p>He was my father’s best friend, and there were
no secrets between them. They seldom paid attention
to me, and I was rarely dismissed even when they had
their most confidential talks. In this way, I early
learned how our great American cities are looted,
not so much by those actually in power, for they are
of less consequence than the more powerful men behind
them.</p>
<p>If any contract of importance was to be let, be it
either public or private, Marx and his satellites
took their toll. He, in his turn, had to account to
the man above, the city boss.</p>
<p>If a large private undertaking was contemplated, the
ward boss had to be seen and consulted as to the best
contractors, and it was understood that at least five
per cent. more than the work was worth had to be paid,
otherwise, there would be endless trouble and delay.
The inspector of buildings would make trouble; complaints
would be made of obstructing the streets and sidewalks,
and injunctions would be issued. So it was either
to pay, or not construct. Marx provided work for the
needy, loaned money to the poor, sick and disabled,
gave excursions and picnics in the summer: for all
of this others paid, but it enabled him to hold the
political control of the ward in the hollow of his
hand. The boss above him demanded that the councilmen
from his ward should be men who would do his bidding
without question.</p>
<p>The city boss, in turn, trafficked with the larger
public contracts, and with the granting and extensions
of franchises. It was a fruitful field, for there
was none above him with whom he was compelled to divide.</p>
<p>The State boss treated the city bosses with much consideration,
for he was more or less dependent upon them, his power
consisting largely of the sum of their power.</p>
<p>The State boss dealt in larger things, and became
a national figure. He was more circumspect in his
methods, for he had a wider constituency and a more
intelligent opposition.</p>
<p>The local bosses were required to send to the legislature
“loyal” party men who did not question
the leadership of the State boss.</p>
<p>The big interests preferred having only one man to
deal with, which simplified matters; consequently
they were strong aids in helping him retain his power.
Any measure they desired passed by the legislature
was first submitted to him, and he would prune it
until he felt he could put it through without doing
too great violence to public sentiment. The citizens
at large do not scrutinize measures closely; they are
too busy in their own vineyards to bother greatly
about things which only remotely or indirectly concern
them.</p>
<p>This selfish attitude and indifference of our people
has made the boss and his methods possible. The “big
interests” reciprocate in many and devious ways,
ways subtle enough to seem not dishonest even if exposed
to public view.</p>
<p>So that by early education I was taught to think that
the despoliation of the public, in certain ways, was
a legitimate industry.</p>
<p>Later, I knew better, but I had already started my
plow in the furrow, and it was hard to turn back.
I wanted money and I wanted power, and I could see
both in the career before me.</p>
<p>It was not long, of course, before I had discernment
enough to see that I was not being employed for my
legal ability. My income was practically made from
retainers, and I was seldom called upon to do more
than to use my influence so that my client should
remain undisturbed in the pursuit of his business,
be it legitimate or otherwise. Young as I was, Marx
soon offered me a seat in the Council. It was my first
proffer of office, but I declined it. I did not want
to be identified with a body for which I had such
a supreme contempt. My aim was higher. Marx, though,
was sincere in his desire to further my fortunes, for
he had no son, and his affection for my father and
me was genuine.</p>
<p>I frankly told him the direction in which my ambition
lay, and he promised me his cordial assistance. I
wanted to get beyond ward politics, and in touch with
the city boss.</p>
<p>It was my idea that, if I could maintain myself with
him, I would in time ask him to place me within the
influence of the State boss, where my field of endeavor
would be as wide as my abilities would justify.</p>
<p>I did not lose my identity with my ward, but now my
work covered all Philadelphia, and my retainers became
larger and more numerous, for I was within the local
sphere of the “big interests.”</p>
<p>At that time the boss was a man by the name of Hardy.
He was born in the western part of the State, but
came to Philadelphia when a boy, his mother having
married the second time a man named Metz, who was then
City Treasurer and who afterwards became Mayor.</p>
<p>Hardy was a singular man for a boss; small of frame,
with features almost effeminate, and with anything
but a robust constitution, he did a prodigious amount
of work.</p>
<p>He was not only taciturn to an unusual degree, but
he seldom wrote, or replied to letters. Yet he held
an iron grip upon the organization.</p>
<p>His personal appearance and quiet manners inspired
many ambitious underlings to try to dislodge him,
but their failure was signal and complete.</p>
<p>He had what was, perhaps, the most perfectly organized
machine against which any municipality had ever had
the misfortune to contend.</p>
<p>Hardy made few promises and none of them rash, but
no man could truthfully say that he ever broke one.
I feel certain that he would have made good his spoken
word even at the expense of his fortune or political
power.</p>
<p>Then, too, he played fair, and his henchmen knew it.
He had no favorites whom he unduly rewarded at the
expense of the more efficient. He had likes and dislikes
as other men, but his judgment was never warped by
that. Success meant advancement, failure meant retirement.</p>
<p>And he made his followers play fair. There were certain
rules of the game that had to be observed, and any
infraction thereof meant punishment.</p>
<p>The big, burly fellows he had under him felt pride
in his physical insignificance, and in the big brain
that had never known defeat.</p>
<p>When I became close to him, I asked him why he had
never expanded; that he must have felt sure that he
could have spread his jurisdiction throughout the
State, and that the labor in the broader position must
be less than in the one he occupied. His reply was
characteristic of the man. He said he was not where
he was from choice, that environment and opportunity
had forced him into the position he occupied, but that
once there, he owed it to his followers to hold it
against all comers. He said that he would have given
it up long ago, if it had not been for this feeling
of obligation to those who loved and trusted him. To
desert them, and to make new responsibilities, was
unthinkable from his viewpoint.</p>
<p>That which I most wondered at in Hardy was, his failure
to comprehend that the work he was engaged in was
dishonest. I led cautiously up to this one day, and
this was his explanation:</p>
<p>“The average American citizen refuses to pay
attention to civic affairs, contenting himself with
a general growl at the tax rate, and the character
and inefficiency of public officials. He seldom takes
the trouble necessary to form the Government to suit
his views.</p>
<p>“The truth is, he has no cohesive or well-digested
views, it being too much trouble to form them. Therefore,
some such organization as ours is essential. Being
essential, then it must have funds with which to proceed,
and the men devoting their lives to it must be recompensed,
so the system we use is the best that can be devised
under the circumstances.</p>
<p>“It is like the tariff and internal revenue
taxes by which the National Government is run, that
is, indirect. The citizen pays, but he does not know
when he pays, nor how much he is paying.</p>
<p>“A better system could, perhaps, be devised
in both instances, but this cannot be done until the
people take a keener interest in their public affairs.”</p>
<p>Hardy was not a rich man, though he had every
opportunity of being so. He was not avaricious, and
his tastes and habits were simple, and he had no family
to demand the extravagances that are undermining our
national life. He was a vegetarian, and he thought,
and perhaps rightly, that in a few centuries from
now the killing of animals and the eating of their
corpses would be regarded in the same way as we now
think of cannibalism.</p>
<p>He divided the money that came to him amongst
his followers, and this was one of the mainsprings
of his power.</p>
<p>All things considered, it is not certain but
that he gave Philadelphia as good government as her
indifferent citizens deserved.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />