The Successful Politician Does Not Drink
I HAVE explained how to succeed in politics. I want to add that no
matter how well you learn to play the political game, you won't make a
lastin' success of it if you're a drinkin' man. I never take a drop of
any kind of intoxicatin' liquor. I ain't no fanatic. Some of the
saloonkeepers are my best friends, and I don't mind goin' into a saloon
any day with my friends. But as a matter of business I leave whisky and
beer and the rest of that stuff alone. As a matter of business, too, I
take for my lieutenants in my district men who don't drink. I tried the
other kind for several years, but it didn't pay. They cost too much.
For instance, I had a young man who was one of the best hustlers in
town. He knew every man in the district, was popular everywhere and
could induce a half-dead man to come to the polls on election day. But,
regularly, two weeks before election, he started on a drunk, and I had
to hire two men to guard him day and night and keep him sober enough to
do his work. That cost a lot of money, and I dropped the young man
after a while.
Maybe you think I'm unpopular with the saloonkeepers because 1 don't
drink. You're wrong. The most successful saloonkeepers don't drink
themselves and they understand that my temperance is a business
proposition, just like their own. I have a saloon under my
headquarters. If a saloonkeeper gets into trouble he always knows that
Senator Plunkitt is the man to help him out. If there is a bill in the
Legislature makin' it easier for the liquor dealers, I am for it every
time. I'm one of the best friends the saloon men have—but I don't drink
their whisky. I won't go through the temperance lecture dodge and tell
you how many' bright young men I've seen fall victims to intemperance,
but I'll tell you that I could name dozens—young men who had started on
the road to statesmanship who could carry their districts every time,
and who could turn out any vote you wanted at the primaries. I honestly
believe that drink is the greatest curse of the day, except, of course.
civil service, and that it has driven more young men to ruin than
anything except civil service examinations.
Look at the great leaders of Tammany Hall! No regular drinkers among
them. Richard Croker's strongest drink was vichy. Charlie Murphy takes
a glass of wine at dinner sometimes, but he don't go beyond that A
drinkin' man wouldn't last two weeks as leader of Tammany Hall. Nor can
a man manage an assembly district long if he drinks. He's got to have a
clear head all the time. I could name ten men who, in the last few
years lost their grip in their districts because they began drinkin'.
There's now thirty-six district leaders in Tammany Hall, and I don't
believe a half-dozen of them ever drink anything except at meals.
People have got an idea that because the liquor men are with us in
campaigns. our district leaders spend most of their time leanin'
against bars. There couldn't be a wronger idea. The district leader
makes a business of politics, gets his livin' out of it, and, in order
to succeed, he's got to keep sober just like in any other business.
Just take as examples "Big Tim" and "Little Tim" Sullivan. They're
known all over the country as the Bowery leaders and, as there's
nothin' but saloons on the Bowery, people might think that they are
hard drinkers. The fact is that neither of them has ever touched a drop
of liquor in his life of even smoked a cigar. Still they don't make no
pretenses of being better than anybody else, and don't go around
deliverin' temperance lectures. Big Tim made money out of
liquor—sellin' it to other people. That's the only way to get good out
of liquor.
Look at all the Tammany heads of city departments? There's not a real
drinkin' man in the lot. Oh, yes, there are some prominent men in the
organization who drink sometimes, but they are not the men who have
power. They're ornaments, fancy speakers and all that, who make a fine
show behind the footlights, but am I in it when it comes to directin'
the city government and the Tammany organization. The men who sit in
the executive committee room at Tammany Hall and direct things are men
who celebrate on apollinaris or vichy. Let me tell you what I saw on
election night in 1897, when the Tammany ticket swept the city: Up to
10 P.M. Croker, John F. Carroll, Tim Sullivan, Charlie Murphy, and
myself sat in the committee room receivin' returns. When nearly all the
city was heard from and we saw that Van Wyck was elected by a big
majority, I invited the crowd to go across the street for a little
celebration. A lot of small politicians followed us, expectin' to see
magnums of champagne opened. The waiters in the restaurant expected it,
too, and you never saw a more disgusted lot of waiters when they got
our orders. Here's the orders: Croker, vichy and bicarbonate of soda;
Carroll, seltzer lemonade; Sullivan, apollinaris; Murphy, vichy;
Plunkitt, ditto. Before midnight we were all in bed, and next mornin'
we were up bright and early attendin' to business, while other men were
nursin' swelled heads. Is there anything the matter with temperance as
a pure business proposition?
-from the 19th Chapter
of George Washington Plunkitt's Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
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