When the politician went to the voters, he adroitly concealed his
designs under the name of one of the national parties. Voters
were asked to vote for a Republican or a Democrat, not for a
policy of municipal administration or other local policies. The
system of committees, caucuses, conventions, built up in every
city, was linked to the national organization. A citizen of New
York, for instance, was not asked to vote for the Broadway
Franchise, which raised such a scandal in the eighties, but to
vote for aldermen running on a national tariff ticket!
The electorate was somnolent and permitted the politician to have
his way. The multitudes of the city came principally from two
sources, from Europe and from the rural districts of our own
country. Those who came to the city from the country were
prompted by industrial motives; they sought wider opportunities;
they soon became immersed in their tasks and paid little
attention to public questions. The foreign immigrants who
congested our cities were alien to American institutions. They
formed a heterogeneous population to whom a common ideal of
government was unknown and democracy a word without meaning.
These foreigners were easily influenced and easily led. Under the
old naturalization laws, they were herded into the courts just
before election and admitted to citizenship. In New York they
were naturalized under the guidance of wardheelers, not
infrequently at the rate of one a minute! And, before the days of
registration laws, ballots were distributed to them and they were
led to the polls, as charity children are given excursion tickets
and are led to their annual summer's day picnic.
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