AMERICAN GRAFT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 350, 11 October 1932, Page 7

AMERICAN GRAFT

TAMMANY HALL FEATURE, OF ADMINISTRATidN OF NEW. YORfc CITY. sfearcming kor solution. New Yor.k, Thursday. Ever since the regime of Abran Burr, 132 years ago, Taramany graft has heen, 9. f egthre of ,thb-. adhiinistratioh bf the City bf NeW York. Every investigatjbri, do\vn ^0 the presejit one, has hsen fought tooth and nail hy Tammany, partly through fear, partly through defiance. *' v What is the reason? It is that no other , political organisation in the United States has had the continuity and. success pbssessed in Tammany; Hall, t Scareely a decade passes without the presence of Tammany Ih the , witness-box. Oh the other hand, it is merely typical of many other political . organisations that have held American cities in a vice, and. whose record is no better and no worse, perhops only a little less ad/ertised than the record of the dominant political organisation of New York City. The spoils system has been ah integral thbugh ciisturbing factor in American politics since the days oi Andrew Jackson, its gifted and avari cious founder, It has been placidlj regarded and tolerated by the people until such times as it has been usec as a means of robbing the public for the reward of those who are called somewhat ironieally, "public servants." Then, public opinion has allowed itself to be stirred in waves of reform against public plunderers. • The City of New York, wiiere commerce and industry have increased froin decade to decade at aii astouriding p'aee, has never ceased to exhibit the rnost omnipbtent and avarieious forms of graft, and the centre of the city's political life has always been Tammany Hali. Spoils to the Victors. There is graft in Philadelphia, St. Louis and almost all cities, large or small. A recent reviewer, who openly defended it, said: -"Show me the city with the greatest graft, and there J you will find the greatest progress. J Grass grows in the streets of cities i where graft is unknown. But, wher- j ever it exists,. the dominant political j machine beriefits." An other reviewer .say s : "The Seabnry investigation has revealed practices that are as one with those that have aroused public opinion again and again. The same boldness appears in the mouths of its leaders. The same wealth appears in their bank accounts.; The jldopard does not change its sputs. The excuses of the newer grafters are naive. The testimony of the older grafter raads like a melodrama. The testimony of the newer grafter reads like a fairy tale." What is to he done about it? Nohody seems to know.