Politics were in the hands of saloon-keepers, toughs,
drivers of street cars and other "low" people, as they put it. The
nice folk liked to sit at home, sigh, and say: "Politics are
rotten." Then they wondered why politics did not instantly become
pure. They demanded "reform" in politics, as Roosevelt said, as if
reform were something which could be handed round like slices of
cake. Their way of getting reform, if they tried any way at all,
was to write letters to the newspapers, complaining about the
"crooked politicians," and they always chose the newspapers which
those politicians never read and cared nothing about.
If any decent man did go into politics, hoping to do some good,
these same critics lamented loudly, and presently announced their
belief that he, too, had become crooked. If it were said that he
had been seen with a politician they disliked, or that he ate a
meal in company with one, they were sure he had gone wrong. They
seemed to think that a reformer could go among other officeholders
and do great work, if he would only begin by cutting all his
associates dead, and refusing to speak to them.
It was a fortunate day for America when Theodore Roosevelt joined
the Twenty-first District Republican Club, and later when he ran
for the New York State Assembly from the same district. He was
elected in November, 1881.
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