New-York tribune., 1876-09-28
ALL FOR REFORM

The earnest patriots who have taken the
contract to reform the Government and purify
politics having placed their Presidential and
State tickets fairly in the field, have now como
down by easy stages TO the selection of their
local tickets, county, municipal, &C., and we
shall shortly see them hard at the work of re-
form upon these positions. Wherever there is
an Office that yields a dollar of revenue or
furnishes position of influence from which
money can be drawn, these persons Will be
found working zealously for Reform. The
country has rarely witnessed such efforts
as these persons are making for Reform
Night after night they are sitting up IN
gin mills and gambling-hOuses and cor
ner groceries, discussing between drinks
the important question how to adjust the
differences between the Tammany and Anti
Tammany wings of the Reform Democracy,
so that deserving persons may get the offices
and the work of Reform be prosecuted vigor-
ously There comes sometimes to these de-
bates gliInmer of suspicion that the dispu-
tants are not utterly unselish in their devo-
ton to Reform; and yet why should there bet
Cannot such patriots and refOrmers as these
hold solemn counsel together upon The seri-
GUS problems of craftsmanship without the
wing of distrust and doubt darkening their
deliberations7 No; whoever supposes that any
of these gentlemen are acting from selfish mo-
tiyes; whoever suspects them of unworthy
purposes or selfish designs, should examine the
list that contains their names, or listen to
their conversation between drinks, or stand
by and note how they fill the waste-ways Of
ordinary talk with the highest order OF intelli-
gence, or should even consider their enlight-
ened countenances and their pleasing manners
rs witnessed in their daily walks in hfe.
These men selfish these men insincere in their
professions of devotion to Reform Perish the
suspicion 1t viii be charged very lkely-it is
so easy in a political campaign to impugn the
motives of the purest and best-that some OF
the most devoted of these refOrmers are actu-
alIy interested in the division OF the spOils OF
Office, that some Of them are getting them
selves and some their friends INTO fat and easy
places in short, that in their high regard for
the greatest good of the greatest number, the
greatest number is Number One by very large
majority. But such things ought not to be
said or suspected Of them. II Is unkind.
The great moral spectacle presented by the
Reform Democracy, however, we fear is not
appreciated by the general public as it should
be. Consider for moment how it must seem
TO foreigner landing upon our shores and
confronted with this great movement of the
Democratic party in behalf of political reform.
Imagine him in his zeal for knowledge of our
| institutions hunting the Reform movement TO
| it's headquarters, or more properly to its lair,
and investigating its origin, its sources, its
methods, and machinery, and the quality of
the eminent patriots who are running it, How
he would kindle with admiration and wonder
as be observed the zeal exhibited in such unex-
pected quarters and such unexampled ways
for the cause of administrative reform. Fancy
tle condition Of mind into which he would be
thrown at being told that these were the men
10 whom the country was looking for the in
auguration Of great reform, and these the
methods by which they were prosecuting it,
It would doubtless interest him 10 know that
the Reform Democracy is strongest in the dis
tricts where vice and crime do most abound !;
that the Reform Democracy is led by gamblers,