I find just what I expected to find, or I find the familiar
symptoms of what I expected to find. The intelligent answers to
the several questions I put to Mr. Nordman after our first few
letters are exactly what I expected them to be. One city is all
cities; and all exhibit the same effects, proceeding from the
same causes. Look about you, anywhere, and if you see graft, and
bribery, and corruption, you'll find a bi-partisan machine
controlling nominations and elections to municipal offices, and
representing the few who consider themselves privileged to
exploit the people by means of franchises in public utilities,
etc. It's as easy as it is for a physician to tell what ails a
sallow and emaciated Southern "cracker" who shivers with chills
one day, and burns up with fever the next.
And so, in Pittsburg, I found the usual Republican machine with
its big boss, the usual Democratic machine and its little boss,
and the two, as usual, working together, the Democratic boss and
his tools rewarded by a few small offices on "bi-partisan"
boards, and the like; then the street railway system and other
public utility corporations which these bosses represent, and for
which they procure franchises.
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