their money and votes the “machine” that they know will let them alone.  But, indeed, the most “respectable” trusts and public-service corporations are often most culpable, and the greatest power behind the throne.  Their interest in the personnel of the Government is far keener than that of the average citizen; they can usually succeed, by cleverly specious presentations of the situation, in dividing the forces against them, and often, by “deals,” in effecting secret alliances of the “rings” in control of supposedly opposing parties.  The poor are right in supposing that these powerful “interests” are their greatest enemy; as that keen observer of our national life, Mr. Bryce, has put it, “the power of money is for popular governments the most constant source of danger.”

(4) But, after all, this combination of forces in defiance of the common weal would not be effective but for the comparative indifference of the people, which may thus be called a contributing factor.  The average voter feels no stimulus of self-interest in the matter; “what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” and the individual finds his personal influence so slight that it seems hardly worth his pains to do anything about it.  Occasionally popular passions become aroused and reform movements make a clean sweep; but the result is usually temporary, and when the general attention is turned elsewhere the bosses creep back to power.  Modern life has so many more personal interests in it than the ancient republics had, that public affairs seldom become so big and absorbing an interest.  And the more public affairs become the concern of a special group of men with dubious reputations, the more politics are shunned by the average citizen.  Home life and business, social life and amusements, aesthetic, intellectual, and religious interests, are so much more attractive to him, that he gives little heed to political conditions, lets himself be duped by newspaper talk, and votes blindly some party ticket, without realizing his gullibility and his poor citizenship.

What are the evil results of political corruption?

(1) The obvious result of these conditions is inefficiency of administration and waste of the public moneys.  The real interests of city or State are neglected.  Streets become filthy, unsanitary tenements are built, firetrap factories and theaters allowed; every effort to improve public health is sidetracked, and the will of the people is subordinated to the will of the gang.  Officials are nominated or appointed not for their competence but for their subservience to the organization; the boss himself, inexpert in administration, responsible to no one, and usually bribable, dictates public policy.  The public funds disappear as in a quicksand; extravagant prices are paid for building lots and contracts, in return for political support or a share of the loot.  Philadelphia before the reform movement of 1911 borrowed fifty-one million dollars in four years, and at the end had practically nothing to show for it, with the city dirty, buildings out of repair, and everything important neglected.  One contractor in the “ring” was paid $520,000 a year to remove the city garbage-a privilege which is actually paid for in some cities, the value of the garbage for fertilizer and the manufacture of other products making the collection of it a profitable business.