THE DEFEAT OF TAMMANY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11117, 8 November 1901, Page 4

THE DEFEAT OF TAMMANY.

The pendulum has swung back again, and Tammany, the greatest political party machine in the world, has been defeated in Sew York, it* headquarters. Not since the indignation troosed by the report of the famous Lexow Commission cleansed New York for & time from the eril influence of this vast organisation has it received so severe a blow as has just been delivered by the election of Mr Seta Low, the reform candidate, to the Mayoralty of Greater N<w York. The revolt against Tammany

[ was one of the most striking incidents h: the modern history of America. It arose , from the fiery onslaughts made by a minisj ter of religion, the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, i upon a system under which justice was openly bought and sold, which permitted villainy and corruption to sit ■unchallenged upon the Bench, and under which the police became, not the guardians •of law and order, but the protectors and the' blackmailers of every form of vice, the tyrannical bullies of the poor and honest. Dr. Parkhurst's revelations compelled the Senate of New York City to appoint a committee of investigation, and this committee, composed of New York Senators, and under the chairmanship of~Senator Lexow, sitting from day to day from March, 1894, to the end of the year, produced a, huge. mass *of evidence, which showed that the municipal government of New York was rotten to the core. As we have said, the immediate result of the Commission was to sweep away Tammany, and to cause the complete reorganisation of the police department. But the system was not killed. It had lost for the time its dominating power, but it still lived and worked underground, and as time went on people became indifferent to the necessity of waging incessant warfare upon it. The result was that four years ago, Mr Van Wych, the candidate put forward by Richard Croker, ll» notorious "Boss" of Tammany, was elected the first Mayor of Greater New York, that huge municipality having just bsen granted a charter. He defeated by 85,000 votes .Mr Seth Low, president of Columbian University, twice Mayor of Brooklyn, and then, as now, a reformer. Tammany triumphed again, and though it is probable that blackmail, ana corruption ihave never bulked so largely in municipal methods as in the old days before the Lexow Commission, the leopard cannot change its spots, nor can Tammany become even passably honest. It is charged against Croker on this occasion that he imported 30,000 illegal voters to support his candidate. This is quite in the Tammany style. Scores of witnesses testified before the Lexow Commission to the party's shameless interference with elections. Double and treble voting -was of the commonest occurrence. When a man complained in one of the booths that another man was actually voting under the complainant's own name, and demanded that the constable present nhouM arrest the offender he was set upon and nearly killed by Tammany "heelers" or toughs, while the policeman sat by and enjoyed the fun. ' Incidents such as this were of everyday occurrence. .

Apart from the fact that his victory represents the triumph of clean Government over rank corruption, the election of Mr. Seth Low as Mayor of Greater New York is a matter of more than ordinary interest. Hβ was the first of the CW-Mayor*, as Mr ; W- T. Stead calls them—the wtelders.of a despotism over city affairs unknown elsewhere. The charter of Brooklyn, tits first city to adopt the principle, came into effect in 1882. It gave the appointment of all the executive beads of departments into the hands of the Mayor, untrammelled by any reatrictions, fttid without confirmation by the Council. Only in one respect tras his power limited,— he could appoint, but he could not remove his appointees, from office. The charter of another city in the United States allows the Mayor to do. even this, but under the charter of Greater New York the. Mayor, who is elected for four years, can only remove his officials during the first sis months of his term. The Mayor is not eligible for immediate re-election, which explains why Mr. Van Wyek was not again a- candidate, and he receivee a salary of 15,000 dollars. The administration of the city is .divided into eighteen executive departments—finance, law, polite, water supply, highways, street-clean-ing, sewers, public buildings, lighting and supplies, bridges, parks, building, public charities, correction, fire, docks and ferriee, , taxes and assessments, education, and health. The members of seventeen of these eighteen boards, who have full power in- their respective departments, are all appointed by the Mayor.; The people who elect the latter have no'voice in their appointment The on* exception is tho City Comptroller,' the bead of the' Finance Department, who it elected by the people at the same time as the Mayor. The five school boards are also appointed by the Mayor. Under this system the Council, or Municipal Assembly, is, as Mr Stead says, practically -reduced to' the level of a debating society, except that it has toe power of voting the money. Even this power is, however, shorn of any reality by tihe fact that after it has considered the estimates, which it may not increase by one penny, the budget is sent forward to the Mayor, who may veto any amendment* it han made in tie direction of reduction of expenditure. The veto itself can only be over-ridd«n if five-sixths of the Municipal Assembly vote against the Mayor, which, as may be imugieed, happens but seldom. The system, as will have been seen, places extraordinary power in the hands of one man, who is absolute master of the situation. "If you " a good man." remarks Mr Stead, "his " immense power enables him to be potent " for good, but if you get a bad one, heaven "help the city!" Fortunately for New York, it now seems to have got a good man. itr. Seth Low is described as a man of education, leisure, experience, and the highest character, he is the sworn foe of Tammany and all that that implies, and altogether appears to be one to whom the great city, with its millions of inhabitants, may look to with for wise and cleso-handed Government.' '. "■■■/. •■ ' '..-. '. ■'•'.■■ ■'... ."/ ■: ■': ■■