And Eaton mentions an instance in New York City of the leaders of one political party being in the pay of the other. (Government of Municipalities, p. 116—Note.)
Here, to make the sketch complete must be said a brief word about the lobby, by which expressive term is designated the class of paid agents of public service corporations and others, who frequent the lobbies of the state legislatures and of Congress in order to promote legislation favorable to their principals and to watch and fend off “strikes,” “hold-ups” and other legislative attacks upon them. In a country where ridiculously small salaries are paid to members of legislative bodies the lobby does much to make a legislator’s career profitable. Details of those lobby transactions have been often published as newspaper sensations, and some of them will be referred to in this book later on. A short quotation from Prof. Commons will suffice here to give an idea of their character:
“It is not to be inferred that the lobby alone is responsible for corrupt legislatures and councils. It is equally true that corrupt legislatures are responsible for the lobby. Law-makers introduce bills attacking corporations for the express purpose of forcing a bribe. This is called a ‘strike,’ and has become a recognized feature of American legislation, to meet which the corporations are compelled to organize their lobby.” (Commons, Proportional Representation, p. 47.)
A word from Bryce, on the lobby:
“All legislative bodies which control important pecuniary interests are as sure to have a lobby as an army to have its camp followers. Where the body is, there will the vultures be gathered together. Great and wealthy States, like New York, and Pennsylvania, support the largest and most active lobbies.... Thus there are at Washington, says Mr. Spofford, ‘pension lobbyists, tariff lobbyists, steamship subsidy lobbyists, railway lobbyists, Indian ring lobbyists, patent lobbyists, river and harbour lobbyists, mining lobbyists, bank lobbyists, mail-contract lobbyists, war damages lobbyists, back-pay and bounty lobbyists, Isthmus canal lobbyists, public building lobbyists, State claims lobbyists, cotton-tax lobbyists, and French spoliations lobbyists. Of the office-seeking lobbyists at Washington it may be said that their name is legion. There are even artist lobbyists, bent upon wheedling Congress into buying bad paintings and worse sculptures; and too frequently with success.’”
He also says that women are said to be among the most active and successful lobbyists at Washington, and that they have been widely employed and efficient in soliciting members of the Legislature with a view to the passing of private bills and the obtaining of places. (American Commonwealth, Vol. I, p. 680; Vol. II, p. 732.)
So here let us end the chapter on the politicians, with the picture of a purchasable legislature created by a political machine and representing a purchasable manhood suffrage constituency, and of the traffic conducted by bosses and rings on one side and a lobby on the other. Granted American activity, and enterprise in public improvements to cause the stream of dollars to flow steadily, and what more is required to produce what Mr. Carnegie happily dubs “Triumphant Democracy”?
CHAPTER XI
THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO FASTEN ON THE COUNTRY AND MAKE PERMANENT THE RULE OF THE POLITICIANS
The political oligarchies rule, have ruled and will continue to rule this country through the medium of the controllable vote. This is plainly inferable from what has already been said about the strength and operations of the Machine, and is in a vague way to some extent understood or at least suspected throughout the country. The object of this chapter is to emphasize it, to bring it home to the reader, to make him realize it, and to cause him to reflect upon it, and to thoroughly appreciate the absolute impossibility of throwing off the odious bondage of the politicians unless and until the suffrage is restricted to a well-qualified class of voters.