TAMMANY BEATEN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 307, 31 December 1909, Page 3

TAMMANY BEATEN.

OVERTHROW OF NEW YORK'S

CORRUPT RULERS

SAN FRANCISCO TURNS BACK

Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22. When the New Year bells ring at the close of 1,909 New York will be delivered from the political bosses who have ruled her and robbed her Wr a generation. At the municipal elections on November 2nd the power of Tammany, the Democratic party organisation, was overthrown. Boss Murphy, "Bim Tim" Sullivan, and a horde of others who had fattened on the gains of dishonest politics, were deprived of the control of New York's huge treasury—the very mainstay of their power. They lost the privileges of bestowing on their subservient tools offices worth., in the aggregate £3,800,000 a year; they lost the power of giving immunity from punishment to thieves and p > veyors of vice—immunity for which a big price had b&en gladly paid. LANDED A "TARTAR." True, Tammany won the mayoralty for its candidate, Judge Gaynor. But it lost every other elective office of importance. Worst of all, it lost control of the Board of Estimates, the body which has. charge of the city funds. And even Gaynor's election is a doubtful victory for the corrupt bosses. They only nominated him because they realised they would lose the support of their own party if they did not put up a man with a clean record; they knew he was not

one who would obey their dictates; infact, he has consistently declared that he will reeognse no party bonds; but the bosses had to take hint. Lecause they knew that if they did not have someone of his calibre at tbo top~ of their ticket, they had not k hope of getting the rest of•■the ticket elected. They used his popularity a* a rope to drag their servants into the positions of power, buiithe rope broke, and the bosses, found they had only succeeded in pulling a tartar into the camp. HEARST HELPED REFORMERS. W- R Hearst, America's greatest yellow journalist,* ia; given a great part of the credit for Tammany's defeat. He was a candidate for the mayoralty, but, instead of nominating, men for the subordinats offices from his own party, h© placed the. Republican candidates on his ticket. The big majority .of the voters supported on© ticket for another, so that those who voted for Hearst's ticket and those who voted for the Republican ticket -were supporting the* same men for the lower offices; and the combination was strong enough to beat Tammany. PARTIES BLOCK REFORM. But it is a. remarkable fact that Tammany would still be supreme in spite of all her sins, but for the fusion of . the^ other two "tickets.'* The party spirit is so strong in American politics'that it takes a. tidal wave of reform to induce th» voters to act independently. Thi» has been proved one© more "by thedefeat of the reform movement in almost every city outside New York., In San Francisco Francis 3. Heney, the fearless prosecutor of the corruptionists of the Schmitz regime, defeated for the office of District Attorney (public prosecutor) by Charles M. Ficliert, who, was avowedly nominated to stop the, prosecution of Pattrick Calhoun, the briber in the biggest "graft" deal worked by Ruef and Schmitz. At the same time practically all of the Union Labour nominees for the other offices wer» elected; and it was Union Labour that had put the Ruef gang into' power. This party's nominee for the m'aydralty, Patrick y McCarthy, was elected by a large majority ; notwithstanding his' declaration that he intended'to make\ San Francisco '*th» - Paris,of the^ Pacific**--*-in otter .words, to give "ofceh town'? to thie drinkingl:'! saloons and dens of vice. - , f

v Similarly Philadelphia gave the cold shoulder to the reformers. The agitators for clean government had come close to victory two y^eaxs ago, and they hoped to gain their goal at this election; but instead, their vote showed a big diminution. Likewise in Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Albany. In eachj>;«*iy the dominant political party was able to win in-.'spite; of scandals, in spite of the known prevalence of corruption. £ And^ after all, how could it D.c, otherwise with, an election law that compels a" man to get the nomination of a party in ordet to get his name on the ballot? The, yoter naturally says, "0, yes, the other party are throwing, mud and crying reform, but it's only because they want to go in and get the benefit of the graft for themselves. 3' . Hfe knows from sad experience that, however virtuous may bo the professions of.J !'the .other party," it almost invariably turns in time to. the same dishonest ways as the old party., So he;"just yotesthe "ticket" that h© has-beenj used to.

SAN FEANCISCQ'B PLiaHfc In Sail Fratteiseo this feeling wad largely the cause of the downfall of Heney. The Good Government League, which had been- formed m * the first instance ptirely ; for the .purpose of ousting the Schmitz-Kuef . ''grafters" from office had beoorae almost a regular political organisation, and at \onoe it was suspected of dishonest motives. This idea was carefully fostered by the ; papers owned or "sittsidised by the: Rafters." These papers, too, villified. ifejiey un- ■ scrupulously, and naturally s6me of their abuse took effect. . 3&& ny of those who had helped to overthrowthe reign of corruption began to doubt. The common. .voter'B ma&im is, "When in doubt, Vote the ticket.'* They did so, and Heney waa beaten. He had the nomination of the Democratic Party (which he had gained without seeking), but his opponentl was on the two strongest tickets— -the>' Republican and; tfiiionjLabour.. Ope after. another of the cities of the United States is ibomingto the conclusion that corruption is inevit--able under party rule. * Boston is the latest to instai-an election system that is very nearly non-pArtisan. Reports tell of the success of the "commission, system s'—that is, , government by non-partisajn committees loi; the various departments-Tin IW Moiries and' every other city where it has been tried. Even in New York the Charter Commission has. recommended a change in favour of a system almost identical with that in vogue in New Zealand cities..