Even
Dennis Moriarty worked and voted for what he calls a 'dirty Republican,'
though he said 'he never thought he'd soil his hands wid one av their
ballots.' That is the nearest I ever came to telling them how to vote."
"And did they do as you asked?"
"The only Republican the ward has chosen since 1862 was elected in that
year. It was a great surprise to every one--even to myself--for the ward
is Democratic by about four thousand majority. But I couldn't do that
sort of thing often, for the men wouldn't stand it. In other words, I
can only do what I want myself, by doing enough else that the men wish.
That is, the more I can do to please the men, the more they yield their
opinions to mine."
"Then the bosses really can't do what they want?"
"No. Or at least not for long. That is a newspaper fallacy. A relic of
the old idea that great things are done by one-man power. If you will go
over the men who are said to control--the bosses, as they are called--in
this city, you will find that they all have worked their way into
influence slowly, and have been many years kept in power, though they
could be turned out in a single fight.
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