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consists of a technical part, which includes a knowledge
of the machinery of the party organization, with all its
wheels within wheels, -- the primaries, the committees,
the various sets of conventions, -- and of the legal
procedure in force for making up the register and
taking the vote. While learning the ostensible working
of the party and of the election machinery, the future
politician fathoms their inner working, the manoeuvres,
the dodges, and the frauds by means of which a mi-
nority, perhaps an insignificant minority, is transformed
into a majority, and a semblance of popular sanction is
given to the schemes of a gang of political sharpers.
But all these highly useful acquirements constitute, so
to speak, only the mechanical side of the politician's
art, which by itself will not carry its man very far.

The principal subject-matter of his "studies" is a
sort of empirical psychology. He studies the men about
him and their weak points, and by trading on the latter
he tries to get as large a following as possible. He
begins with his immediate neighbours, who live on the
same landing; he extends his advances to the inmates of
the whole house, and before long to the house next door
or the next two houses. When he has got acquainted
with a dozen, or even half a dozen, electors, who are
ready, often out of mere friendship, to join him at the
elections, he is the possessor of a small political capital,
which he will forthwith turn over, and which will be-
come, perhaps, the foundation of his success. It is
like the future millionaire's first fifty-dollar note. "Own-
ing" half a dozen or a dozen votes, he is received with
open arms by the local organization of the party. His
career of "ward politician" has begun.

Getting a
following.

-226-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Democracy and the Party System in the United States. Contributors: M. Ostrogorski - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1910. Page Number: 226.
    
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