



Produced by David Reed





PLUNKITT OF TAMMANY HALL

By George Washington Plunkitt


A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, Delivered by
Ex-senator George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany Philosopher, from His
Rostrum--the New York County Court House Bootblack Stand

Recorded by William L. Riordon




CONTENTS

  Preface by William L. Riordon
  A Tribute by Charles F. Murphy
  Chapter 1. Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft
  Chapter 2. How To Become a Statesman
  Chapter 3. The Curse of Civil Service Reform
  Chapter 4. Reformers Only Mornin' Glories
  Chapter 5. New York City Is Pie for the Hayseeds
  Chapter 6. To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin'
  Chapter 7. On The Shame of the Cities
  Chapter 8. Ingratitude in Politics
  Chapter 9. Reciprocity in Patronage
  Chapter 10. Brooklynites Natural-Born Hayseeds
  Chapter 11. Tammany Leaders Not Bookworms
  Chapter 12. Dangers of the Dress Suit in Politics
  Chapter 13. On Municipal Ownership
  Chapter 14. Tammany the Only Lastin' Democracy
  Chapter 15. Concerning Gas in Politics
  Chapter 16. Plunkitt's Fondest Dream
  Chapter 17. Tammany's Patriotism
  Chapter 18. On the Use of Money in Politics
  Chapter 19. The Successful Politician Does Not Drink
  Chapter 20. Bosses Preserve the Nation
  Chapter 21. Concerning Excise
  Chapter 22. A Parting Word on the Future Party in America
  Chapter 23. Strenuous Life of the Tammany District Leader




Preface

THIS volume discloses the mental operations of perhaps the most
thoroughly practical politician of the day--George Washington Plunkitt,
Tammany leader of the Fifteenth Assembly District, Sachem of the Tammany
Society and Chairman of the Elections Committee of Tammany Hall, who
has held the offices of State Senator, Assemblyman', Police Magistrate,
County Supervisor and Alderman, and who boasts of his record in filling
four public offices in one year and drawing salaries from three of them
at the same time.

The discourses that follow were delivered by him from his rostrum, the
bootblack stand in the County Court-house, at various times in the
last half-dozen years. Their absolute frankness and vigorous
unconventionality of thought and expression charmed me. Plunkitt said
right out what all practical politicians think but are afraid to say.
Some of the discourses I published as interviews in the New York Evening
Post, the New York Sun, the New York World, and the Boston Transcript.
They were reproduced in newspapers throughout the country and several
of them, notably the talks on "The Curse of Civil Service Reform" and
"Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft," became subjects of discussion in
the United States Senate and in college lectures. There seemed to be
a general recognition of Plunkitt as a striking type of the practical
politician, a politician, moreover, who dared to say publicly what
others in his class whisper among themselves in the City Hall corridors
and the hotel lobbies.

I thought it a pity to let Plunkitt's revelations of himself--as frank
in their way as Rousseau's Confessions--perish in the files of the
newspapers; so I collected the talks I had published, added several new
ones, and now give to the world in this volume a system of political
philosophy which is as unique as it is refreshing.

No New Yorker needs to be informed who George Washington Plunkitt is.
For the information of others, the following sketch of his career is
given. He was born, as he proudly tells, in Central Park--that is, in
the territory now included in the park. He began life as a driver of
a cart, then became a butcher's boy, and later went into the butcher
business for himself. How he entered politics he explains in one of his
discourses. His advancement was rapid. He was in the Assembly soon after
he cast his first vote and has held office most of the time for forty
years.

In 1870, through a strange combination of circumstances, he held the
places of Assemblyman, Alderman, Police Magistrate and County Supervisor
and drew three salaries at once--a record unexampled in New York
politics.

