Government; Or Human Evolution: Ace Justice (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Government; Or Human Evolution: Ace Justice

During the winter of 1891 - 1892 a few New York citizens met for the purpose of. Considering how, if at all, Tammany Hall - which was then in undisputed pos session oi the city - could be overthrown. Previous combinations to that end had failed, owing in great part to lack of permanence. The majority, who desired good government for the general benefits good government confers upon the many, were governed by an insignifi cant minority in the interests of that minority, because, in the first place, the majority were so scattered that they did not have an Opportunity for collective action, and because, in the second place, the majority were so busy that they did not have the time necessary to cope with the practical politician who made politics the business of his life. The practical politician attends to politics every day of every year; whereas the amateur attends to politics, if at all, only a few weeks before election. It was conceived that no permanent organisation in favour of. Good government could be maintained unless the organisation had a per manent abiding-place, and as no single roof could cover an organisation large enough sensibly to affect politics the original plan was to begin by organising a single central social club to this end, and to organise thereafter a series of affiliated clubs which would work in co operation with the one first organised.

The first club, called the City Club, ' was successfully constituted in 1892, and was composed of the wealthiest and most public spirited men in the city but this club once organised, its governing body declined to undertake the responsibility of organising affiliated clubs. Those bent on carrying out the original plan, however, proceeded by individual initiative to organise other clubs for a similar purpose, and in a few months not a district in the city was without one. They styled themselves Good Government Clubs, ' and were distin guished by letters of the alphabet.

The combination of clubs so organised undoubtedly contributed to the overthrow of Tammany Hall in 1894, but the lack of centralisation, owing to the refusal of the governing body of the City Club to carry out the original programme, soon made itself felt. Every club undertook to manage the political affairs of the district in which it was situated, without regard to the others and it frs quently happened that Bills drawn up under the auspices of one set of these clubs were bitterly opposed by others, so that when the day for discussmg these Bills before the Legislature arrived, Good Government Clubs A, B, C, D, and E would be found joined in eager support of measures that Good Government Clubs P, Q, B, S, and T were equally bent on defeating.

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