TAMMANY’S HOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1933, Page 5

TAMMANY’S HOLD

ABOLITION CAMPAIGN.

New York, Jan. 18.

As New Yorkers ponder the chaos left behind after public opinion forced Mayor Walker into exile, the movement to rid the city of Tammany for ever is gaining momentum, states the Wellington Post’s correspondent. The city is bankrupt, and carries on from hand-to-mouth as the banks grant it financial accommodation, piecemeal, on receiving practical evidence of saving millions of dollars in public expenditure. There has been an election for Mayor, at which the Tammany nominee, Surrogate O’Brien, was chosen by the sheer weight of Tammany influence at the polls. Mr. O’Brien may be expected to do not more and no less, than the “boss of Tammany, Mr. John F. Curry, ordains. The feelings of the people may be gauged from the fact that a quarter of a million voters voluntarily disfranchised themselves by writing-in the name of Acting-Mayor McKee, although the ' Tammany Court ruled that he was not eligible for election. The initiative in the campaign for the abolition of Tammany has already been taken by Judge Seabury, counsel for the Commission which, having sat for over a year, disclosed how millions, of dollars had gone in graft and corruption, in line with the best traditions of Tammany corruption in the past. Judge Seabury proposes the abolition of Tammany boards, public services and precincts, and their replacement by. the election of a single municipal council by proportionate representation. He points out that the Board of Aidermen in New York is to-day composed of 64 Tammany men and one Republican. Judge Seabury proposes that the election be carried out by boroughs, and not “at large,” as at present, and that aidermen be elected on a non-par-tisan ballot, without party designation or party emblems. He would have the Mayor and City Controller nominated by petition, so as to eliminate politics in the party nominations. He holds that there are no party issues in a municipal election. He would abolish borough presidents and their retinues. He would select a Civil Service Commission outside the pale of politics, and would forbid officers taking part in municipal politics. Tammany will fight to the last ditch to prevent such a referendum as is proposed, knowing that the temper of the people is such that the Wigwam, which has sheltered corruption for a century, would go down before the waves of reform. If Tammany loses control of the election and primary machinery, it is a spent force. Meantime, depression stalks abroad in the city, and is a doughty ally in the cause of cleansing the civic administration. One is not optimistic enough to hope that the death of Tammany is at hand, but the crisis has certainly been reached J. -