nkitt Association.

What did the district leader say then when I called at headquarters? I
didn't have to call at headquarters. He came after me and said: "George,
what do you want? If you don't see what you want, ask for it. Wouldn't
you like to have a job or two in the departments for your friends?"
I said: "I'll think it over; I haven't yet decided what the George
Washington Plunkitt Association will do in the next campaign." You ought
to have seen how I was courted and petted then by the leaders of the
rival organizations I had marketable goods and there was bids for them
from all sides, and I was a risin' man in politics. As time went on,
and my association grew, I thought I would like to go to the Assembly.
1 just had to hint at what I wanted, and three different organizations
offered me the nomination. Afterwards, I went to the Board of Aldermen,
then to the State Senate, then became leader of the district, and so on
up and up till I became a statesman.

That is the way and the only way to' make a lastin' success in politics.
If you are goin' to cast your first vote next November and want to go
into politics, do as I did. Get a followin', if it's only one man,
and then go to the district leader and say: "I want to join the
organization. I've got one man who'll follow me through thick and thin."
The leader won't laugh at your one-man followin'. He'll shake your hand
warmly, offer to propose you for membership in his club, take you down
to the corner for a drink and ask you to call again. But go to him
and say: "I took first prize at college in Aristotle; I can recite all
Shakespeare forwards and backwards; there ain't nothin' in science that
ain't as familiar to me as blockades on the elevated roads and I'm the
real thing in the way of silver-tongued orators." What will he answer?
He'll probably say: "I guess you are not to blame for your misfortunes,
but we have no use for you here."

Chapter 3. The Curse of Civil Service Reform

This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse
of the nation. There can't be no real patriotism while it lasts. How
are you goin' to interest our young men in their country if you have no
offices to give them when they work for their party? Just look at things
in this city today. There are ten thousand good offices, but we can't
get at more than a few hundred of them. How are we goin' to provide
for the thousands of men who worked for the Tammany ticket? I