c machines
in some of the big cities, as in New York and Boston, and the country
Democratic machine of New York under David B. Hill, were probably
even more efficient, representing an even more complete mastery by
the bosses, and an even greater degree of drilled obedience among the
henchmen. It would be an entire mistake to suppose that Mr. Platt's
lieutenants were either all bad men or all influenced by unworthy
motives. He was constantly doing favors for men. He had won the
gratitude of many good men. In the country districts especially, there
were many places where his machine included the majority of the best
citizens, the leading and substantial citizens, among the inhabitants.
Some of his strongest and most efficient lieutenants were disinterested
men of high character.

There had always been a good deal of opposition to Mr. Platt and the
machine, but the leadership of this opposition was apt to be found only
among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the "silk stockings," and much
of it excited almost as much derision among the plain people as the
machine itself excited anger or dislike. Very many of Mr. Platt's
opponents really disliked him and his methods, for aesthetic rather than
for moral reasons, and the bulk of the people half-consciously felt this
and refused to submit to their leadership. The men who opposed him in
this manner were good citizens according to their lights, prominent in
the social clubs and in philanthropic circles, men of means and often
men of business standing. They disliked coarse and vulgar politicians,
and they sincerely reprobated all the shortcomings that were recognized
by, and were offensive to, people of their own caste. They had not the
slightest understanding of the needs, interests, ways of thought, and
convictions of the average small man; and the small man felt this,
although he could not express it, and sensed that they were really not
concerned with his welfare, and that they did not offer him anything
materially better from his point of view than the machine.

When reformers of this type attempted to oppose Mr. Platt, they usually
put up either some rather inefficient, well-meaning person, who
bathed every day, and didn't steal, but whose only good point was
"respectability," and who knew nothing of the great fundamental
questions looming before us; or else they put up some big business man
or corporation lawyer who was wedded to the gross wrong and injustice
of our econ