Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-23

Disseminated Washingtonians. who inag-
Inc that even our occasional municipal:
grievances would vanish at the advance OF
such form of government as is common
In all other American cities, should study
with care the methods by which great COM
munities are ruled, and especially those
centers that are near enough to afford easy
opportunities of examination. Hardly
week passes away but on some one or more
of its days there is upturned evidence of
abominable fraud and corruption, such as
no honest man can hear of without being
stirred to indignation that is the hotter
because IL Is Intellectual. There Is rotten
ness In the government of almost every
city In which the popular WILL is supposed
to be ever-potent. but at this time the most
majodorous and disgusting specimen is New
York. Frequently reformed. but only for
brief periods: often cleansed after a super
fetal fashion. the city which should be
source of pride to the Empire state and to
the nation, whose eastern gateway 1t is, has
relapsed into conditions that are nothing
less than shameful New York newspapers
are intensely local. To them there is no
place like New York. and they hasten to
defend 1t whenever any one dares attack.
But even the newspapers-or the more re-
spectacle ones-have concluded that whole
SAFE reformation Is necessary New
Is dominated by Tammany and Tammany
Is democratic. The New York Herald is
also democratic. but that did not prevent
the Heralds publishing yesterday great
quantity of truth under the caption
Wholesale Frauds at the Polls" Politi-
cal iniquity in Gotham has often been ex-
posed, and IL may be that this most recent
uncovering of democratic villainy by a
democratic newspaper will fail to receive
the attention 1t deserves or to produce the
effects 1t should produce. but the student
of municipal methods must surely see how
much Of mockery there is in the misnamed
popular management of municipal: public
business. The registra ton as voters of men
who under the law have no right to suf-
frage. the purchase of votes by the thou
sand. the hiring of "repeaters." the opera
ton of the boycott. the fraudulent count
ing Of ballots and numberless forms of GRIM
inaiity are regarded as proper means to a
controlling and profitable end. The New
York Times. thoroughly democratic In its
doctrines, talks as plainly as does the Her
aid. and today publishes estimates of the
wealth owned by the Brooklyn "bosses''-
the men who control what seems to be a
majority OF the votes in Kings county.
Commencing as ish vendor. clerk, cooper,
bartender and journeyman carpenter, re-
spectively. the five sovereigns of Brooklyn
-four of them subordinate to the ex-ish
vendor-have acquired great fortunes
through their political dealings. and that
means that the money has in some way or
other come out of the public purse. But
these are not the only ones who have gath
cred riches. Successful political organiza-
ton seems to be possible only when there
are financial inducements held out to many,
and the smaller fry have to be cared for.
And they have been. From the great
bosses and the multitude of petty despots
this beautiful city Is free. and. as a natural
consequence. there is no more desirable
resting-place on the continent than the
rational capital. Government by the ma
ton may have and does have weak places
In its machinery. but 1t is incomparably
better than the average municipal rule.