John A. McCall,
President of the New York Life, said: "I don't care about the
Republican side of it or the Democratic side of it. It doesn't
count at all with me. What is best for the New York Life moves
and actuates me."
In another investigation Mr. H. O. Havemeyer of the Sugar Trust
said: "We have large interests in this State; we need police
protection and fire protection; we need everything that the city
furnishes and gives, and we have to support these things. Every
individual and corporation and firm--trust or whatever you call
it--does these things and we do them." No distinction is made,
then, between the government that ought to furnish this
"protection" and the machine that sells it!
No episode in recent political history shows better the relations
of the legislature to the political machine and the great power
of invisible government than the impeachment and removal of
Governor William Sulzer in 1913. Sulzer had been four times
elected to the legislature. He served as Speaker in 1893. He was
sent to Congress by an East Side district in New York City in
1895 and served continuously until his nomination for Governor of
New York in 1912. All these years he was known as a Tammany man.
During his campaign for Governor he made many promises for
reform, and after his election he issued a bombastic declaration
of independence. His words were discounted in the light of his
previous record. Immediately after his inauguration, however, he
began a house-cleaning.
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