The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him Part 21

"That will receive my approval if it is properly drawn. But you'll probably find the Health Board fighting you. It's a nest of politicians."

"If they won't yield, I shall have to antagonize them, but I have had some talks with the men there, in connection with the 'swill-milk'

investigations, and I think I can frame a bill that will do what I want, yet which they will not oppose. I shall try to make them help me in the drafting, for they can make it much better through their practical experience."

"If you do that, the opposition ought not to be troublesome. What else do you want?"

"I've been thinking of a general Tenement-house bill, but I don't think I shall try for that this winter. It's a big subject, which needs very careful study, in which a lot of harm may be done by ignorance. There's no doubt that anything which hurts the landlord, hurts the tenant, and if you make the former spend money, the tenant pays for it in the long run. Yet health must be protected. I shall try to find out what can be done."

"I wish you would get into the legislature yourself, Mr. Stirling."

"I shall not try for office. I want to go on with my profession. But I shall hope to work in politics in the future."

Peter took another day off, and spent a few minutes of it with the other most promising candidate. He did not see very much of him, for they were interrupted by another caller, and Peter had to leave before he could have a chance to continue the interview.

"I had a call to-day from that fellow Stirling, who's a delegate from the sixth ward," the candidate told a "visiting statesman" later. "I'm afraid he'll give us trouble. He asks too many questions. Fortunately Dewilliger came to see me, and though I shouldn't have seen him ordinarily, I found his call very opportune as a means of putting an end to Stirling's cross-examination."

"He's the one doubtful man on the city's delegation," said the statesman. "It happened through a mistake. It will be very unfortunate if we can't cast a solid city vote."

Peter talked more in the next few days. He gave the "b'ys" his impressions of the two candidates, in a way which made them trust his conclusions. He saw his two fellow delegates, and argued long and earnestly with them. He went to every saloon-keeper in the district, and discussed the change in the liquor law which was likely to be a prominent issue in the campaign, telling them what he had been able to draw from both candidates about the subject.

"Catlin seems to promise you the most," he told them, "and I don't want to say he isn't trying to help you. But if you get the law pa.s.sed which he promises to sign, you won't be much better off. In the first place, it will cost you a lot of money, as you know, to pa.s.s it; and then it will tempt people to go into the business, so that it will cut your profits that way. Then, you may stir up a big public sentiment against you in the next election, and so lay yourselves open to unfriendly legislation. It is success, or trying to get too much, which has beaten every party, sooner or later, in this country. Look at slavery. If the Southerners had left things as they were under the Missouri Compromise, they never would have stirred up the popular outbreak that destroyed slavery. Now, Porter is said to be unfriendly to you, because he wants a bill to limit the number of licenses, and to increase the fee to new saloons. Don't you see that is all in your favor, though apparently against you? In the first place, you are established, and the law will be drawn so as to give the old dealer precedence over a new one in granting fresh licenses. This limit will really give the established saloon more trade in the future, by reducing compet.i.tion. While the increase in fee to new saloons will do the same."

"By ----, yer right," said Blunkers.

"That's too good a name to use that way," said Peter, but more as if he were stating a fact than reproving.

Blunkers laughed good-naturedly. "Yer'll be gittin' usen to close up yet, Mister Stirling. Yer too good for us."

Peter looked at him. "Blunkers," he said warmly, "no man is too good not to tell the truth to any one whom he thinks it will help."

"Shake," said Blunkers. Then he turned to the men at the tables. "Step up, boys," he called. "I sets it up dis time to drink der health of der feller dat don't drink."

The boys drank

CHAPTER XXI.

A POLITICAL DINNER.

Peter had only a month for work after reaching his own conclusions, before the meeting of the convention, but in that month he worked hard.

As the result, a rumor, carrying dismay to the party leaders, became current.

"What's this I hear?" said Gallagher's former interviewer to that gentleman. "They say Schlurger says he intends to vote for Porter, and Kennedy's getting cold?"

"If you'll go through the sixth you'll hear more than that."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a torchlight last night, of nearly every voter in the ward, and nothing but Stirling prevented them from making the three delegates pledge themselves to vote for Porter. He said they must go unbound."

The interviewer's next remark is best represented by several "blank its," no allusion however being intended to bed-coverings. Then he cited the lower regions to know what it all meant.

"It means that that chap Stirling has got to be fixed, and fixed big. I thought I knew how to wire pull, and manage men, but he's taken hold and just runs it as he wants. It's he makes all the trouble."

The interviewer left the court, and five minutes later was in Stirling's office.

"My name's Green," he said. "I'm a delegate to the convention, and one of the committee who has the arranging of the special train and accommodations at Saratoga."

"I'm glad you came in," said Peter. "I bought my ticket yesterday, and the man at headquarters said he'd see that I was a.s.signed a room at the United States."

"There'll be no trouble about the arrangements. What I want to see you for, is to ask if you won't dine with me this evening? There's to be several of the delegates and some big men there, to talk over the situation."

"I should like to," said Peter.

The man pulled out a card, and handed it to Peter. "Six o'clock sharp,"

he said. Then he went to headquarters, and told the result of his two interviews. "Now who had better be there?" he asked. After consultation, a dinner of six was arranged.

The meal proved to be an interesting one to Peter. First, he found that all the guests were well-known party men, whose names and opinions were matters of daily notice in the papers. What was more, they talked convention affairs, and Peter learned in the two hours' general conversation more of true "interests" and "influences" and "pulls" and "advantages" than all his reading and talking had hitherto gained him.

He learned that in New York the great division of interest was between the city and country members, and that this divided interest played a part in nearly every measure. "Now," said one of the best known men at the table, "the men who represent the city, must look out for the city.

Porter's a fine man, but he has no great backing, and no matter how well he intends by us, he can't do more than agree to such bills as we can get pa.s.sed. But Catlin has the Monroe members of the legislature under his thumb, and his brother-in-law runs Onandaga. He promises they shall vote for all we want. With that aid, we can carry what New York City needs, in spite of the country members."

"Would the country members refuse to vote for really good and needed city legislation?" asked Peter.

"Every time, unless we agree to d.i.c.ker with them on some country job.

The country members hold the interest of the biggest city in this country in their hands, and threaten or throttle those interests every time anything is wanted."

"And when it comes to taxation," added another, "the country members are always giving the cities the big end to carry."

"I had a talk with Catlin," said Peter. "It seemed to me that he wasn't the right kind of man."

"Catlin's a timid man, who never likes to commit himself. That's because he always wants to do what his backers tell him. Of course when a man does that, he hasn't decided views of his own, and naturally doesn't wish to express what he may want to take back an hour later."

"I don't like straw men," said Peter.

"A man who takes other people's opinions is not a bad governor, Mr.

Stirling. It all depends on whose opinion he takes. If we could find a man who was able to do what the majority wants every time, we could re-elect him for the next fifty years. You must remember that in this country we elect a man to do what we want--not to do what he wants himself."

"Yes," said Peter. "But who is to say what the majority wants?"

"Aren't we--the party leaders--who are meeting daily the ward leaders, and the big men in the different districts, better able to know what the people want than the man who sits in the governor's room, with a doorkeeper to prevent the people from seeing him?"

"You may not choose to do what the people want."

"Of course. I've helped push things that I knew were unpopular. But this is very unusual, because it's risky. Remember, we can only do things when our party is in power, so it is our interest to do what will please the people, if we are to command majorities and remain in office.

Individually we have got to do what the majority of our party wants done, or we are thrown out, and new men take our places. And it's just the same way with the parties."