10
THE NATIONAL SUNDAY MAGAZINE
CONFESSIONS OF A
WASHINGT
"WM CROOI GAME Jjfer
LOBBYIST
WAS associated with
White, tho ablest lob
byist of his time, for
several years, profiting
by his advice and expe
rience, until ho was
killed by being thrown
from a horse and I suc
ceeded to his business.
White, I may remark
incidentally, left a for
tune, his son and daugh
ters are both prominent
in Washington, where
tlioy have a largo house
and entertain hand
somely. If any one remembers where tho money
carao from that pays for their entertainments no
one is impolite enough to talk about it.
In novels of Washington life you often read
about women lobbyists. It may bo that women
havo now invaded tho field just as they havo every
other Hint used to bo thought wns the.exclusivb prov
ince of man, but certainly in my day no women
made a regular profession of lobbying. In all my
experience, and it has been a long and varied one,
I lm,vo known only one woman who took a hand in
tho legislative game, and but for luck sho would
havo cost mo a large fee. And thero is another thing
that convinces mo how little the men who write
novels really know. I havo often been amused by
reading of men or women lobbying becauso of senti
ment or of the romance involved in a bill, but hero
again only onco havo I known romance to cut any
figure with a lobbyist, and curiously enough it was
in this ono case whero I found myself opposed by
a woman lobbyist. Tho fact is, lobbying as it wns
carried on in my day was straight business from
start to finish, you paid for what you got, and a
woman was always nt a disadvantage. I havo paid
thousands of dollars to men who worked for me, or
whoso votes I needed, but never except in this ono
caso did I ever offer to split a feo with a woman.
THE first job I took on my own account after
White's death was to secure tho passage of a
bill to allow a company to build a bridgo across otio
of our great rivers. Mony years boforo a bridgo
had been built, and it bad become ono of tho most
profitable monopolies in tho United Stales, as it
was the solo highway between East and West and
every passenger, every railroad car, every pound of
merchandise, every letter, even, had to pay its
tributo to tho owners of tho bridgo, a closo corpo
ration whoso dividends wero enormous. Finally tho
railroads, backed by boards of trade, chambers of
commerce and tho newspapers, determined thero
must bo another bridge to break tho monopoly.
I Baid in a previous nrtiele that however much
tho reader might despise a lobbyist it would bo
impossible for them to exist wero there not mem
bers of Congress with whom tho lobbyist could do
business, .and this bridge bill is a caso in point.
Our proposition was honest and straightforward.
All wo wanted was permission to build tho bridgo
with our own money. We did not ask a dollar from
Congress or help of any kind. Wo wero to do tho
peoplo o service at our own expenso and risk, and
if we mado money surely no ono could object.
Why, then, tho reader may naturally ask, was
thero any necessity for a lobbyist t Simply be
cause, as White so epigrammatically expressed it,
you had to fight firo with fire. In those days that
was tho way things were done. There is a great im
provement now and the standard of morality is
higher, which is one reason lobbyists no longer make
tho money that White and I did; but in my time
thero was scarcely a bill of any importance that
escaped tho taint of the check book.
THE men who owned tho bridge were not going
to givo up their profitable monopoly without a
fight. Our peoplo had organized a company, sold
their stock for cash and wero ready to start con
struction work whenever Congress allowed them to
go ahead. When they camo to me I knew I was up
against tho stiffest proposition' I had over tackled
and that it would have taxed, even White's ingenuity
to win.
I frankly told my clients for it was always my
principlo to bo honest with tho men who employed
mo that I thought we had a losing fight, but they
insisted I must mako tho attempt. They paid mo a
retaining feo of $35,000 nnd agreed on a further
sum of .$05,000 when tho ball was signed by the
President, and they wero to nllow me $50,000 for
"expenses." Wo both understood how that money
would bo used.
It has already been explained how a lobbyist of
ability works. I followed White's methods, which
could not bo improved upon. We had the bill for
tho bridgo introduced in the House, which is easy,
as any man can put in any kind of n bill; and then
through my ferrets nnd agents and using my own
privnto sources of information, I entered upon tho
preliminary work, which wns to ascertain how the
committee stood.
If I had been green to the business I should havo
felt as certain of being $100,000 richer by tho end
of tho session as I was sure that I was living.
Every report wns favorable. Not a single member
on tho committee objected to tho bill. At first I
thought I was being fooled and that the ferrets
wero faking, but when 1 checked them up the result
was tho same. I expected my first big fight would
come in getting a favorable report from the com
mittee, and yet the committee was with mo from the
start. I was surprised and didn't know what to
make of it.
As thero was no opposition in tho committee the
bill ought to have been reported to the House almost
immediately, hut somo weeks went by with the bill
still held up nnd then I knew that the cards had
been stacked against mo nnd I must find out who
had turned tho trick. What puzzled mo was my
failuro to put my finger on tho lobbyist represent
ing tho other side. I wns certain they had a
lobbyist and I wanted to locate him, for by that
time I was onto the methods of every man in
Washington, and when you know who you are fight
ing half tho battle is won. But whoever was di
recting the campaign and handling tho money kept
in the background. I tried in every way possible
to sqund the members of the committee, but without
success. They all said they saw no reason why the
bill should not be reported, but meanwhile it had
been referred to a subcommittee nnd thero was
always somo excuso to explain why no action had
been taken. With my experienco I knew that tho
committeo had been "seen" by our rivals and I
must get busy in a hurry.
I spent tho next few days investigating every
member of tho committeo and finally decided there
was ono man with whom I could do business. I
took a chance, for it is a dangerous thing to offer
money to a member of Congress nnd risk exposure,
but the situation was desperate. I didn't waste
words or beat about tho bush. I told him plainly
that I knew the game, and asked how much he
wanted to do a certain thing I proposed. Ho said
$5,000. That evening I handed him tho money in
crisp banknotes.
A FEW days later tho committeo held a meeting
and my man said it was a shame the bridgo bill
had not been acted upon and it must bo reported to
tho House nt once. That was rather a facer to tho
committee, but the chairman said he had no objec
tion and tho bill was sent to tho House with an
unfavorable report, my man being tho only member
to vote for it. Tho committeo thought they had us
sewed up, ns when a bill is objected to Jby a com
mittee it seldom passes tho House.
At the Capitol I had frequently noticed an ex
tremely pretty young woman talking to members.
Sho was nlways very quiet and reserved in her
mnnner and her clothes showed her dressmaker to
be an nrtist. She was so attractivo that I asked one
day who she was and learned that sho was trying
to get a Civil War claim, which was too small to
mako it worth while for a lobbyist to be engaged.
"When I heard this I paid no further attention, but
the woman was so appealing in her youth and
delicate beauty that more than onco I was tempted
to do her a good turn by offering my services and
receiving my reward in her thanks. I knew how
impossible it was for any daim to go through
Congress on its merits at that time.
But I was too worried about ray own affairs to
bo ablo to play the squiro to beauty in distress. 1
not only wanted tho $05,000 that was contingent on
my success, but I must win; for n lobbyist's great
asset is his success, and every day that passcdshowed
me I was playing a losing game. Tho bill was
blocked. The mysterious influence that I couldn't
place was always thero and working overtime. When
ever an nttempt was mado to bring up the bill some
one would bo sure to object or in other ways delay
action. It was the most baflling and perplexing
problem I had encountered.
Weeks of tho session went by in this way when,
ono morning sitting in ray ofllco trying to scheme
out a new move, my clerk brought in a visiting card
reading Mrs. Watson, and said that Mrs. Watson
wanted to see me. The name meant nothing to me,
but I had her shown in, nnd thero stood the beauti
ful young woman whom I had sq often noticed nt
tho Capitol.
"You're surprised to seo me," sho said with a
laugh. "We'vo been on opposite sides of tho fence,
but now it's time to get together and show a gang of
swindlers what curs they are," and her beautiful
eyes Hashed.
In substance this is what sho told me. Her father
had been tho engineer of tho bridge, it had been a
difficult and haznrdous undertaking, for it was in
tho early days of bridge building; the responsibility
had broken him down and he had died shortly after
the work was finished, a victim of his own skill. To
Mrs. Watson, who had seen almost every rivet driven
and every girder swung into place, who had com
forted her father during his long days of anxiety
nnd finally shared with him his brief hour of tri
umph, tho bridge was his monument nnd tho endur
ing tributo to his genius. Sho was as jealous of her
father's fame as a mother is when a rival would seek
to discredit her son, and she feared if another bridge
wero built it would rob her father of somo of his
reputation, and instead of being the ono man who
I