Page:The American Magazine volume LXIV.djvu/370

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
354
THE MAKING OF A FIGHTER

second term, Smith was reSlected^ and the Boss ofiFered voluntarily to help Heney to the appointment he sought.

"I don't want you to help," said Heney.

    • All I ask is that you keep your hands oflF."

Smith promised faithfully not to interfere unless it was to help and yet, in Washing- ton, Heney found the boss working quietly for the other man who got the job. The other man was a railroad attorney; he had the backing of the Santa Fe road. Heney didn't understand it, but having had no promise from the Santa Fe, he didn't blame the road; all his wrath fell upon that "liar Smith." Personal though his feud was with Smith, it was so passionate that it carried Heney and his crowd out of their county into con- trol of the territory of Arizona. To get even with Smith, Heney had to fight the ter- ritorial organization and he aimed where he had won at home — at the executive commit- tee. That was made up, as the county committee was, of saloon keepers, gam- blers and attorneys for mining and railroad companies. Heney put up a "good busi- ness man" against Smith's chairman, who was a gambler, but Smith's gambler won by the two deciding votes of another " good business man." That should have opened Heney 's eyes, but it didn't; it only puzzled and enraged him. Making a Governor He carried the fight to Washington. Mark Smith and the interests back of him had a candidate for governor of the territory. Heney had to find one. He didn't have to look long; Heney 's candidate found Heney. L. C. Hughes was the man, the editor of a Tucson newspaper who had sup[x>rtedl the young Democrats. And they had helped to elect him a delegate to the convention that nominated Cleveland. When Hughes came back and suggested his own candi- dacy, Heney told him it was "impQ3sible." "And it was," says Heney now. "Hughes was a mistake, and I knew it all the time." But Hughes had a "claim." Arizona votes first among the territories which are called after all the states. Hughes had agreed with Don Dickinson to rise at the signal and, without authority, cast ten votes of his divided delegation solidly for Cleveland. He did it. The balloting was close, the ex- citement suppressed and intense; the few delegates he delivered without their consent did not decide, but they were made to seem to settle it. For the storm of protest that rose at Hughes was so overwhelmed by pre- arranged cheering that the impression given was of congratulation and victory. States changed their votes to get on the band- wagon and, well, the trick "worked." When Heney joined the other young Democrats at Washington he found that Hughes had from Don Dickinson a promise of the governorship, and that if he didn't take it, Mark Smith and his territorial com- mittee would be allowed to fill all the offices. "It was to beat Smith that we took Hughes," Heney says; " but we boimd him in advance to make no appointments with- out the approval of a majority of four of us: Meade, C. M. Bruce, L. H. Manning and myself." The history of American politics is full of governors and mayors who, to get the "honor," have surrendered all the powers of their office. No outsider can understand how a man can justify the exchange of his self-respect for an empty title, but many men make the trade. It is eSisier to under- stand why the purchasers trade the title for the power; usually they want to graft. But the "Big Four" that tied up "Governor" Hughes's hands and feet, and carried him helpless home, they thought they were going to use their dummy's power to give Anzona good government. They sat Hughes down in his chair in the Capitol, and then pro- ceeded, in good faith, mind you, to make his appointments for him. They appointed, first of all, themselves. They selected " leading citizens " for the unsalaried boards, and for treasurer a leading banker, Flem- ing. Heney took for himself the Attorney- Generalship. He seems really not to have wanted it, but, he says, "I was afraid Hughes would go to grafting, and so were the rest of us, and they said it was up to me to mount guard." Heney, on guard, began an investigation of the grafting of the retiring administra- tion. He assigned his brother Ben, an expert accountant, to examine the books of the treasurer and auditor, and Ben found graft; all petty in items, but the sum total was great enough to prove that the territory could be run on a cash basis, if the stealing could be stopped. And the stealing was stopped for a while. Heney was happy,