Most
of the reform movements in this city have been attempted in a way that
is simply laughable. What should we say if a hundred busy men were to
get together to-morrow, and decide that they would open a great bank, to
fight the clearing-house banks of New York? Yet this, in effect, is what
the reformers have done over and over again in politics. They say to the
men who have been kept in power for years by the people, 'You are
scoundrels. The people who elected you are ignorant We know how to do
it better. Now we'll turn you out.' In short, they tell the majority
they are fools, but ask their votes. The average reformer endorses
thoroughly the theory 'that every man is as good as another, and a
little better.' And he himself always is the better man. The people
won't stand that. The 'holier than thou' will defeat a man quicker in
this country than will any rascality he may have done."
"But don't you think the reformer is right in principle?"
"In nine cases out of ten. But politics does not consist in being right.
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