So the people in New York turned to Hughes, who is peculiarly the hero of slack currents and cross tides. His very insularity of temperament commends him to a people disgusted with too great subserviency to party names and organization leaders; and his strong sense of order and traditional justice holds steady the ship of state while the pilots are setting a new course. In such a time of confusion and readjustment as the present, Hughes has been an admirable leader.

But the people soon find out that one hero, no matter how strong and wise he may be, is not enough. It is the penalty of a people's government that the people must govern. They themselves must think out principles, divide in real parties and progress, as ever, with toil and struggle.

As I apprehend it, this is the stage of development at which the people of New York are now arriving. They feel that they must reorganize the parties and work out the new "particular principle" upon which they can divide. Once started, they will make a clean sweep of it. "Tim" Woodruff, William Barnes and all their like among the Republicans, and "Fingy" Conners among the Democrats, must go the way of all second-rate men. Politics is again becoming the greatest game of the times: greater than business; it again offers a firstclass problem for first-class brains. And this is a great omen!

Democratic Insurgency in New York

At Auburn, in the State of New York, lives Thomas M. Osborne. He was born rich-he came of the Osborne family which made millions in the manufacture of farm machinery. His sister is the wife of James J. Storrow, who recently ran for Mayor of Boston. Osborne and Storrow are men of much the same type. Both were educated at Harvard. Both combine in large measure the capacity for large affairs with a taste for the finer things of life. They are representatives, indeed, of a new type in American life-a type somewhat resembling the English man of affairs, who goes into politics from the highest motives; and yet a type with notable and interesting differences, which some novelist, eager for a new theme, will some day seize upon. To this type belong such men as Gifford Pinchot, James R. Garfield, William Kent, Walter L. Fisher, Charles R. Crane, Rudolph Spreckles, Everett Colby, Winston Churchill, Robert Bass, and many othersrich men, educated men, who see in public

Like thousands of the ablest Democrats of the country (and Republicans, too) Osborne has drifted for many years in the slack tides of political activity. He has done what he could in his own city. He has been Mayor of Auburn, he has been deeply interested as a trustee in that significant experiment in democracy, the George Junior Republic, and he was and is a sincere admirer of Governor Hughes. Hughes means real things to him, as he does to thousands of the thoughtful Democrats throughout the state. When the Public Service Commission was organized, Osborne, though a Democrat, was appointed by Governor Hughes as one of its members at a salary of $15,000 a year.

From that lucrative office of great honor and service in the state Osborne has recently resigned. He resigned solely that he might devote his whole energy to the work of organizing and strengthening the Democratic party.

"This is a conception of politics," comments the New York World, "that by the ordinary party hack will be taken as a sign of eccentricity. If more Democrats of Mr. Osborne's standing and character had adopted it the Democratic party in New York would not have sunk to its present low estate."

Osborne thought the time had come for real party divisions on real principles in New York State.

"I believe that what the Democratic party needs is to take an affirmative stand on something. I want a party that I can live for. I want something I can vote for. I want a chance to vote for men whom I can support heartily. There is a widespread disgust with the Republican organization, and a widespread distrust of the Democratic organization. There is an independent spirit abroad in the land. If we act with any sense at all we shall be able to elect a Democratic ticket this fall, and if we do that it means that we shall elect a Democratic president in 1912."

Upon this basis Osborne and the group of men whom he has drawn into the work with him entered the politics of New York.

"Fingy" Conners, State Boss

The party had, indeed, sunk to low estate. It was dominated by two elements, both bad— the New York City group led by Tammany Hall and the up-state group directed by a crude, raw, forceful character in the person of the state chairman, William J. Conners. "Fingy" Conners began thirty years ago as a "walloper" on the docks of Buffalo, at a time

when, as Will Irwin says, they were "as Hibernian as a potato." In those days he was a thick-set, strong young fellow, "with an accent that shook his cheeks and a coarse, goodhumored face." By virtue of real qualities of rough leadership he rose through the stage of saloon keeper and small political boss to be the master dockman of Buffalo, employing thousands of men. He was a Republican then, but like the true soldier of fortune that he is, it mattered little what banner he fought under so long as the fighting was good. He bought other saloons, he bought a newspaper, he bought a fine house in the suburbs and had his name spelled out in white stones on the lawn, he bought another newspaper, he became the greatest employer of labor on the lakes, and finally he became the dominant leader of the New York State Democracy. And all the way up he has fought his political battles just as he

ing Harvey Garber, head of the party in Ohio; Roger Sullivan, that rampant Irishman who controls in Illinois; "Tom" Taggart of Indiana, and "Gum-Shoe Bill" Stone of Missouri. Most of the men of this type are rich, and not one of them has the most distant approach to a political principle. They are organization men pure and simple, engaging in politics to

fought the battles of the docks and the saloons, seizing the nearest bung-starter and hitting the first head that showed itself. A fight always straight ahead, gory, irresistible!

Conners is the extreme expression of a type of boss very familiar in recent years in American politics. The Democratic party has been, and still is, especially blessed (or plagued) with it. Tweed and Croker were the prototypes, and in large measure to-day the Democratic organization in the North is dominated by just such characters. One instantly calls to mind Murphy of Tammany Hall, who is superior to Conners in possessing the genius of silence; Colonel Guffy of Pittsburgh, who is wealthy enough in his own right to constitute the Democratic party of Pennsylvania; the calculat

fill offices, and to make money out of them.

In New York, under the convention system, Murphy and Conners have for years controlled the affairs of the Democratic party in the most autocratic and violent manner. In 1906 they allowed Hearst to seize upon the Buffalo convention, and nominated Hearst for Governor.

The Struggle
to Defeat
Conners

It was here that Osborne first appeared prominently in New York politics. Disgusted with the control of the

party by Conners and Murphy, he called a conference of leading Democrats of the state to protest. District Attorney Jerome, Edward M. Shepard of Brooklyn, J. N. Carlisle of Watertown, and other men of equal prominence were present. In these words, which have in them the ring of a fighting patriotism, Osborne characterized the situation:

"We have seen caucuses snapped, as in Broome, Chautauqua, Cortland, and other counties; proxies forged, as in Orleans and Essex Counties; conventions purchased, as in Wayne County; delegates openly bribed for riot and disorder, as in

Jefferson County; an attempt to deceive a whole community by a muzzled press, as in Erie County; newspapers blackmailed as in Monroe and Onondaga Counties-and who can estimate the amount of lying, blackmail, bribery and corrupt promises necessary to make such a kind of a campaign even partially successful?

"We have already suffered enough from the efforts of business interests to purchase control of our party for business purposes; shall we submit now to the efforts of a multimillionaire to purchase the control of our party for personal purposes?" Well, Hearst was defeated, largely by this vigorous opposition within the Democratic party itself. But practical politics as represented by Conners was still far from yielding to the idea of politics for principles as represented by Osborne, Shepard, Jerome, Rice and Bissell. The 1908 convention in Carnegie Hall was conducted with an even more desperate autocracy of violence. Conners worked hand in hand with Tammany Hall. Whole delegations were thrown out and the Murphy-Conners program was driven through with remorseless force. No right of free speech or free action was acknowledged. The really able and thoughtful men of the party were wholly eliminated; and as was quite to be expected, the Democrats lost the fall elections, Hughes being returned to office by 70,000 plurality over Chanler.

The next step in the struggle was taken in June of last year (1909). Osborne called together another conference at Albany. It was decided to hold a great meeting of independent Democrats from every part of the state. The response was instant and hearty, showing the widespread disgust with the prevailing party control. On September ninth and tenth about 600 delegates came together at Saratoga. Unlike the Insurgent conference of 1892, preceding the election of Cleveland, of which the entire expenses were paid by Whitney, these delegates came on their own motion and paid their own way. No members of the old Democratic organization were present. Men from both wings of the party were in attendance, but the Gold Democrats far outnumbered the Bryanites. Speeches were made by Judge Alton B. Parker, Thomas M. Osborne, Edward M. Shepard,

Judge Herrick, Augustus Van Wyck, Mayor Sague of Poughkeepsie and others. "We meet here with a common purpose," said Osborne, "to do all we can toward making the New York Democracy once more powerful, respected, and successful; powerful if its basic principles be duly formulated into policies, respected and successful if organized under men respected and worthy of respect." "I declare my conviction," said Edward M. Shepard, "that it is not too much partisanship, but too little, from which our politics are now suffering."

Democratic League Formed

The conference resulted in the formation of a Democratic League with Osborne as Chairman; and that League is now organizing in every part of the state. A general campaign of education upon Democratic principles is being conducted. And just recently (February 24th) the influence of the new element, backed by Tammany (Murphy having fallen out with Conners), has forced Conners to promise to retire.

But the new leaders have much to contend with. Theirs is the problem of any group of men who seek to reorganize either of the old parties; for they must work more or less closely with the old discredited machines which have fastened upon the party names. While Tammany has no political principles whatever, it yet stands for Democracy in New York City. And however high the motives of Osborne and his group, they cannot escape the popular suspicion of any movement in which Tammany plays a part.

On the other hand, its leaders are cheered onward by the equal degree of distrust with which the people regard the Republican organization. Indeed, in spite of Hughes' election, in spite of Roosevelt's popularity, there has been a steady drift toward Democratic control for several years. In the elections of 1909 the Democrats gained fourteen mayors of cities, now having twenty-nine mayors out of a total of forty-eight. They also gained five members. in the lower house of the legislature. Encouraged by the Saratoga conference and the evident uprising for better things, Democrats in all parts of the state have been getting together as they have not done before in years. In Warren County, up near Lake George, for example, which has gone Republican almost from time immemorial, the Democrats aroused the voters and with comparatively little effort elected a Democratic Assemblyman, Mr. De Long, and swept the entire county ticket, with a single

exception. From a Republican plurality in the election of 1908 of 1,781 votes Warren County elected a Democrat in 1909 by a plurality of 762 votes. Orleans County (Batavia) elected a Democratic member of the Assembly for the first time in many years.

Educational Campaign of the Democrats

I saw evidences everywhere of this revival. At Buffalo, for example, I found a lively Young Men's Democratic Club, the president of which is Francis F. Baker, a lawyer and a Harvard man. They have been significantly endeavoring to educate their members, not in mere organization matters, but in principles and issues. They have had addresses on "Why I Am a Democrat," by prominent Democrats. They have discussed the policies of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland. They have taken up such subjects as the tariff and the policy of centralization in government as against states' rights.

Another influence in New York and throughout the country has been the increasing circulation of a number of Democratic journals such as Bryan's Commoner, and more recently the National Monthly of Buffalo, which has a circulation of 110,000.

No such journals are maintained by the Republicans, nor have the Republicans made any attempt in New York or elsewhere, so far as I know, toward a sober educational campaign upon principles and issues. They have satisfied themselves with trying everywhere to strengthen their organization. For example, the administration at Washington, which is daily growing more alarmed at party conditions in New York, Ohio, Indiana and other doubtful states, has been patching up the old Republican machine in New York. A new man, Mr. Griscom, has come in to head the New York County Committee, but, so far as the idealism of the party is concerned, it is led by Hughesand he is an Independent.

The Democrats have several strong men to put up next fall as candidates for state offices and for Congress. Gaynor, Osborne, Shepard, and Judge Herrick are all talked of for Governor. On the other hand, with Hughes eliminated (having positively declined to run again), the Republicans have no candidate who touches in the least the imagination of the people. Nothing short of the most extraordinary conditions will prevent a Democratic victory next fall. It is conceivable that if Roosevelt and Hughes, forgetting their old personal differences, should both take the stump in support of