Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/259



to do with it. Go to the District-attorney.

Well, then, that means that you know what politics is in this town. My advice to you is, let the whole thing alone.”

This from a judge! And other officials took the same view or a similar view: “You can’t do anything”; or “The County Board appointed you; I believe in sticking by your friends”; or “It will ruin you, Judge”; or “It will spoil your work for the children.”

The Judge went on investigating, and the evidence he discovered and the things his “friends” told him to stop him, showed him that this County graft was well known, and that it was but a small part of a system of graft. For example, business men were in on the deals; each commissioner had merchants for graft- partners. And besides, the County Board was a board of tax revision; it had remitted the taxes of public service corporations, and it could “hurt” or “help” property-holders generally. But the Judge got help. Some of the early commissioners “snitched” to the Judge; they didn’t snitch like the boys, “on the square”-—they “squealed” to save themselves, and the others squealed on the squealers to get even. Oh, he got the facts! He appointed a committee to investigate, and the committee reported the facts — to the Judge.