New-York tribune., 1873-06-17
pARTISANSHIP AND REFORM.

The Custom house party has suddenly dis
covered that there is danger ahead. The
Democratic factions in New-York threaten to
unite and carry the city. Apollo Hall has
made overtures of reconciliation to Tammany,
for the purpose of joint attack upon the
Republican forces. The Republicans, disgusted
| by the mismanagement of the CustOm-house
leaders during the Legislative session, are
menacing revolt; and now that Tweed is pros
trate, Connolly in exile, and Mr.. James OBrien
waiting at the doors of the Commttee-roOm
for the amount of his little bill, it is quite
within the limits of probability that the pres
ent relative positions of parties may be COM
pletely reversed before tho Fall campaign.
Misery makes much stranger bedfellows than
Tammany and Apollo; and if the close of the
Summer should find the Democracy united,
and the Administration forces split into frag-
ments, the CustOm-hOuse faction will have
only itself to thank for the loss of its local
power and prestige. We hare no desire to
speculate upon the prospects Of tho new Tam
many, but we beg Republicans to pause mo-
ment and inquire what has brought their af
fairs into their present unsatisfactory state.
When the Tammany Ring was broken down
ascendency. Not by putting the Republican
organization in power; that for the time was
impossible; but by banishing partisanship
from the municipal government altogether,
and inducing honest men of all shades of
politics to unite in the selection of honest,
practical non-political refOrmers, to manage
the affairs of the city in o straightforward,
business-like way. If that had been done we
should have seen no moro of the corruption
of the ballot and the robbery of the treasury
by which the Democracy of New York City so
long succeeded in controlling the State
against the wishes of majority of the legal
voters. The Custom-HOuse faction, how
ever, was too shOrt-sghted to perceive this.
It imagined that because Tammany had
fallen under the load of its own iniquities,
it was the easiest thing in the word to
set up the CustOm-house on its ruins.
A new Ring should rule in the place of the
old. A new Boss should dOmineer in the
place of Tweed. The money that used to be
stolen, the votes that used to be miscOunted,
the repeaters and bullies that used to be pro-
tected for the benefit Of the Democracy should
be used hencefOrth to advance the cause of
Gen. Grant and Mr.. Tom Murphy, and the
dissemination, incidentally, of sound Republi-
can principles. Hence, when the real refOrmers
in the Legislature attempted to abolish Rings
of all sorts, and to give the city q genuine
nOn-p partisan government, they encountered
the severest opposition not from the Demo-
Gratis, but from a selfish Republican clique
1t was this clique which for three months
fought every reform provision of the Charter
and fastened upon us at last a bungled and
nondescript instrument, retaining some of the
most nischievous features of the old
act, and stripped of some of the most
important safeguards suggested by the
experience of the past. They forgot that they
were handling two-edged sword. They
might have had municipal administration
utterly without political significance; officials
amenable to the honest taxpayers; elections
separated from State and national contests;
departments organized with regard to nothing
except integrity and efficiency and fair
representation of the minority in every elect
i've board and commission. Instead of that
they chose to make a law for partisan advant-
age and look at the result. They have placed
some Of the most important departments of
the City Government under political manage
ment and they find to their dismay that they
have lost the control of them. Who will ven
ture to predict how the Police Board will act
at the next electionf Who will vouch for the
party fidelity of the Commissioner of Public
Works What, in short, have the Custom
house leaders gained by legslating forl
partisan profit, and so instigating the
Mayor to counteract their plans by
partisan selections from the other side For
the present they have a government which
they dislike and distrust. For the future they
have set an example which their adyersaries
will be swift TO follow.
1t seems never to have occurred TO the
astute gentlemen who undertook to direct
Reform for their private emolument that the
clumsy machinery which they devised for
keeping the municipal power in their own
hands could be used by one side quite as well
AZ by the other. If the Democratic party only
lived long enough it might easily have the
Mayor in two years, and q majority in every
executive commission in little while longer.
The new charter is like an improvement in
field artillery which was once tested by
highly scientific commission. The gun was
mountain howitzer lashed to the back OF n