be a man who, in addition to committing wickedness in his own interest, also does look after the interests of others, even if not from good motives.  There are some communities so fortunate that there are very few men who have private interests to be served, and in these the power of the boss is at a minimum.  There are many country communities of this type.  But in communities where there is poverty and ignorance, the conditions are ripe for the growth of a boss.  Moreover, wherever big business interests are liable either to be improperly favored or improperly discriminated against and blackmailed by public officials—­and the result is just as vicious in one case as in the other—­the boss is almost certain to develop.  The best way of getting at this type of boss is by keeping the public conscience aroused and alert, so that it will tolerate neither improper attack upon, nor improper favoritism towards, these corporations, and will quickly punish any public servant guilty of either.

There is often much good in the type of boss, especially common in big cities, who fulfills towards the people of his district in rough and ready fashion the position of friend and protector.  He uses his influence to get jobs for young men who need them.  He goes into court for a wild young fellow who has gotten into trouble.  He helps out with cash or credit the widow who is in straits, or the breadwinner who is crippled or for some other cause temporarily out of work.  He organizes clambakes and chowder parties and picnics, and is consulted by the local labor leaders when a cut in wages is threatened.  For some of his constituents he does proper favors, and for others wholly improper favors; but he preserves human relations with all.  He may be a very bad and very corrupt man, a man whose action in blackmailing and protecting vice is of far-reaching damage to his constituents.  But these constituents are for the most part men and women who struggle hard against poverty and with whom the problem of living is very real and very close.  They would prefer clean and honest government, if this clean and honest government is accompanied by human sympathy, human understanding.  But an appeal made to them for virtue in the abstract, an appeal made by good men who do not really understand their needs, will often pass quite unheeded, if on the other side stands the boss, the friend and benefactor, who may have been guilty of much wrong-doing in things that they are hardly aware concern them, but who appeals to them, not only for the sake of favors to come, but in the name of gratitude and loyalty, and above all of understanding and fellow-feeling.  They have a feeling of clan-loyalty to him; his and their relations may be substantially those which are right and proper among primitive people still in the clan stage of moral development.  The successful fight against this type of vicious boss, and the type of vicious politics which produces it, can be made only by men who have a genuine fellow-feeling for and understanding of the people for and with whom they are to work, and who in practical fashion seek their social and industrial benefit.