The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-02-07

tSoa elected By . csts1e1s' ticket il com
posed Of rsen standing tor 30 political
partisan responsibility: m Incompetent
Or rasesiiy administration could no more
claim any Of the political parties for its
parents Or sponsors than board Of bank
directors whose bad finance broke the
bank couId he charged MP 70 the acconns
OF the Democratic. popnIiss or Republican
parties
As rule acisixens' tickets" are beaten;
they only serve 20 divide the reform vote
and sndanger the success of genuine,
responsible. reform ticket When Abrsfn
8. Hewitt vas elected mayer of New York
many Hall prepared 10 defeat him: they
would not have succeeded had not the
Republicans rut third ticket in the
heid when there was no chance TO
win. The result vas that the Tam
many Democracy beat the Reform
in power ever since. al due to
the fact that the Republicans were
not content With an upright Dem
ccratic administration OF New York
city. bat must needs run . third ticket
when their votes could have surely re-
elected Hewitt and beaten Tammany.
The Republicans should have Endorsed
Hewitt and the reform Democracy. bat
they angied for cheap partisan advantage
and allowed the government of New York
city to be recaptured by the Tammany
pirates. who have since ensrenched them
selves against any probable ejectmsnt.
II q citizens party" wins, before the
next election comes about you find its
ranks filed by the boodiers of both parties
noisiiy bowling for municipal reform;
these fellows quickly join hands to turn
the reform ship into piratical craft, and
generally succeed. Citizens leagues are
well enough composed Of upright men Of
both parties who wait on the nominations
O! both parties. scrutinize them in the light
Of their past municipal administration
and cast their votes where they will do
the most good, or make organized resist
ancs TO the election Of tainted men on
either ticket, but the shortest road TO
municipal reform is TO make both the
political parties vie with each other In
putting up an absolutely clean ticket,
composed not only Of men who are not
boodlers. but who have no personal or
social affiliations with men who are IN
politics for revenue only. and then mold
the party to strict responsibility for the
quality Of their administration. This
means notice served on both political
parties that you can only win by putting
up a clean ticket, and that you will he
turned down promptly at the next cleo
ton unless the record Of your sdministra-
ton entities you to another vote of popu-
lar confidence.
The trouble with ''citisens' tickets" il
that their engineers are at the outset good
men, who have more impulse than
method: they waste deal of steam that
might be usefully employed in forcing one
or both Of the political parties to put up q
good ticket; they are too often opponents
Of that very common type Of garruious
crank who never thinks, bat only vspors :
who. like the Oregon,
"Hears no sound save his own dashinss."
Let the citizens of Seattle choose between
the Democratic and the Republican tickets
q, the next municipal election and hold
them to strict party responsibility for NAL
administration or disagreement A
''citixens' party" IL responsible to nobody
and Is soon captured by the boodlers of
both parties.