The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-10-22
JERSEY ClTY'S DISGRACE.


The Democratic County Committee
have disgraced the party il Nation, State
and City. The crime they were so apt to
denounce in others has been brought
home to themselves. and they should be
compelled to step down and out. There
Is no avoiding the responsibility. On
them lies the stigma. and an aroused real
Democratic community will drive them
into that obseurity IRON which they
should never have emerged. They ami
their kind are the Anarchists we have to
fear. The men hanged in Chicago, if
guilty, committed no more heinousc crime
than the scoundrels who stuff h ballot
boxes, n those who are inc partak-
ers OF the results of the crime.
The county committee of a po-
htical party is the unit o. political
management. They are sub-divided into
district managers. These district man
ayers appoint and select men who are to
conduct the elections. Had these COM
mitteemen done their duty, they would
have selected men who would not permit
the ballot boxes TO be tempered with,
much less the ~poi1-books, nor have
counted the "Jokers' wrapped ia large
ballots. The. frauds are too bold to escape
public notice, and the county committee
men must shoulder the blame; and the
honest Democrats of Jersey City should
as soon as the Senate Committee makes
It's report, at once proceed to reorganlze
the party.
Our citizens cannot afford to permit
these political pirates to man, much less
command the ship. II they 10, our city'e
credit will again go to the dogs; its pro
gress will be stopped, and it will be
pointed to as the place which contains the
worst collection or political ~scoundrels in
the United States.
Ali history testides that Party, while
the necessary condition, Is the supreme
party is from freedom-uselul. within
healthy limits, as it is for the promotion
of public discussion, calculation OF
truth, and restraint upon the abuses OF
power-yet, like tire. its excess is fatal.
Like fire, too, its tendency is to excess.
EyeryAinhueHce calculated to restrain
that tendency, to preserve parties a
party spirit moderate, and, above all,
pure and unseltishly patriotic, ought to
be earnestly cultivated; everything tend
ing to increase, intensity and demoralize
them to be, as far rs possible, reformed
u OF them. In point OF TACT, on the
contrary, everything with us works
as perniciously as possible in reference
to this object, Not only has our federal
government been so administered,
heretofore, as to associate the pc
cuniary interest of classes with the
ascendaney of parties, but also the
enormous excess 10 which has grown the
vicious influence OF political patronage
has come TO identity the triumph OF parry
with the personal pecuniary interests
and ambitions of too great and widely
spread a number OF individuals. The
too-spiendid prizs of the Presidency act
ing on the imaginatiOnS of our great men,
and acting similarly on those Of the
countless swarms of lesser men, the too
magnificent scheme of that great lottery
OF patronage whose wheel is in perpetual
motion, with its grand national drawing
every four years, and its minor State
ones annually, have gone far, strong as
is the element of patriotism ia the Amer
lean character and tradition, and general
as is the diffusion of intelligence, to a de-
gree almost snbyersiye OF the purposes
of government, and to lead many to
think that, though originally the pnrest,
we are fast becoming the most corrupt
people on the face of che earth. +,
All offices, great and small, are each an
object to a~spirants, whose real number is
never known, more or less open and more
or less eager; the triumph of party, and
promise In 1t by activity aud cal being
the path to success. Our tariff sys-
tenn creates swarms of persons to whose
necessities party politics are the ready re-
source. Others. not similarly neces-
sitous, yet engaged for excitement or en-
juJment at the green table of the national
game, are little less eager, as even rich
gamblers like to live by the slakes. To
others a game, under a system which
made the attainment of office in itself a
proof Of prominence and influence ia a
country affording no other personal dis
~tinctions, the great stimulus of vanity
comes into play, and the more effectually
that the vanity is we'll paid with
simultaneous profits. When to the
nation and State we add all the
varieties OF municipal patronage which.
in the working OF our complex system,
have been sucked into the wake of the
former. aud then consider the enormous
number of aspirants more or less open,
and when we further take into account
their interested relatives and close
friends, we cannot estimate at less than
a million the number of persons who
may be said, apart from patriotic
interests in the best solution OF the
questions of the day to have a direct
personal interest. whetted to all the
keenness of peculiarly craving, in
the triumph of Party. Upon this pile
up still further the exciting influence act
ing on an excitable people, OF contest in
any and every species of struggle or game