New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-04
REFORMS OF MANY KINDS
SPEECH ON THAT SUBJECT BY ST
CLAIR MKELwAY AT SARATOGA
LAS MUNICIPALITIES STATES AND A NATION VIZ
HAVE REACHED THE LIMIT OF EArhp'EN'i
AND STAND on THE VERGE


AND STAND on THE VERGE
OF DISASTER"
The following is the speech Of st. Clair Nickel
way. the Editor OF The Brooklyn Eagle" BEFORE
the American Social Science Association, al sara
toga. yesterday. A report of the meeting VIII
be found elsewhere in this issue
| MI Chairman and Friends Reform has come 10
stay There are so many kinds of II that they perp!eN
the mind. They range over a wide area They ailec'
every department Of life. They relate to economic
as we'll as moral problems They comprehend nome
and household interests quite as much as National
or international matters. The multitude ana var'-
ETY. Of them arc attested by numberless addresses
and essays In fact reforms. or what claim 10 ID"
reforms crowd without number fer hearing %
the front. This is age OF reform. ana TINS II
nation OF reformcrs. 1t IL impossible 10 keep
abreast with all the reforms or supposed reform-
which appeal to mankind. It Is well to be patient
with all Of them and cynical toward none Inc
true will be readily told from the half-true or 'ne
false Time and dominating common sense can ne
trusted for that But in all OF them there is hope
Upon one OF these reforms are 20 confer Al
this time In final tenn municipal reform is al
home. 1t is reform OF ourselves and by ourselves
| and for ourselves (Applause) Now, is a municipal
party solely for municipal purposes. Organized ana
conducted municipal lines alone and piehged III
| the event of success to administration on 'hoSe
| lines alone possible permanency In our Amer
| lean cities? Such administration Is iact IN no
| American city at the present time All municipal
| reform administration has been occasional Inc
duration OF only one that | recall has lasted
through two terms That and those elsew mere
with but half its life have been followed by te
turn 10 local administration upon political INES
And that result has commended ITSELF 10 a vast
! preponderance Of the voting multitude The result
has been deplored by rloraliss. regretted ana con
/
preachers and sternly rebuked by independent
| newspapers Nevertheless the result has occurred
| and 1t is the rule. while municipal reform OF non
political lines has been the exception Let us look
little deeper Has there eyer been purely "u
nic,nal marty formed in any American city for the
purpose OF contendhg before the people for the pos
session OF the government of that city on pure'y
munIcpal lines and for purely municipal purposes?
The inquiry oblges us be personal in statements
and in allusors We all apt 10 think that thAt
| honored New-Yorker and more honored brookSh-
lite Seth Low, twice chosen Mayor oil brooAlS F"
without regard to political nominations ana Wat
! ne administered his Mayoralty on non-poii'ical
| limos We are superhcially prone 10 think of the
nrescnt original and excellent Mayor or New-i ork
| CITY In somewhat the same way ApplauseD what
are the facts? And what are the facts with reier-
ence to the election and the administration OF
Mavor schieren OF Brooklyn? They can be set
forth. I think, in a manner neither 10 c""'''"s'
denial nor arouse bad feeling.
SOME REFORM INSTANCES
| Preceding the elections of Messrs. Low Schiereh
and Strong was a Lon period of the administration
~ ,be,r Municipalities By a political party which
admittedly was in a strong majority in the cities
The strength of its majority made 1t confident In
battle and reckless in power. II naturally Decalne
careless also in the selection Of its candidates lor
local places. Among the consequences were 'eco'7
executive administrations corrupt local legislation
contracts for public works which enriched those
who obtained them and which gave bad results as
ali that the people go, out of them. swollen tax
hills ul-disguised py artificial valuations OF prop
ertv ard the creation Of ruling and semi-royal
class OF habtual place-holders or pace-hlonserS
replete with money which they neither earned nor
inherited The people were not only pIunderec out
| offended They might have stood the robbery Inc
nor canita proportion OF that not large. but
| their pride was wounded well as their pockets
} They felt degraded by the protrusion and SELF
perpetuatioa OF coarse and obectionao'e creatures
in public view They nigh. not be represented . py
| their best They revolted at being represented oy
their worst. Revulson played large par III Nc
revolution they wrought Ihey S"li'ty ~ I'm III
! porlzed the methods OF redress They touhd one
pparty an offender They made the other party a
nail They could not however, rely on ths ia't ~.
aadvcrsarv 1t had to be reinforced by recruited
righteousness That righteousness had 10 De re-
cruited from the party in power secession rom
in IN maj marty was converted into force for re-
form in conjunction with the political orga Iol
Ordfn ril
~ naaiitioor mar had 10 be jeaously safeguarded
from the abuses to which coalitions arr al""s :
! liable In this however. strictly speaking. was no
nxample of a municipal party on municipal lines
and for municipal purposes.
TRACEABIE TO INDEPENDENCE.
The outcome showed this In Brooklyn the mt
alive OF the nomination both Of Mr. Low and OF MI
Scheren was traceable TO Independently "hich'
however could only suggest their names with 'hose
- others ~ the PARTY ordinarily in the minority.
4f.l
nendert allies heartily supported them. ooth Were
! elected Mr.. Low twice. and both made eAcel.en.
nassed and those ten years measured new period
Of municipal administration on purely party iines.
Tesrlv ten wears Of poor or bad government was
rscessarv 10 create the condition for Mr.. 10"
election Quite ten years Of partisan goxernmen;
r,wad and they were necessary to the conditions
which called for Mr.. Schieren. At the cloSe OF me
ressscrted itself and rules to-day. Immediately FOL
, lowing Mr.. Low experiment was made on u, ,ne Z
pp~ranizatjon which the independents had supported
when he was a candidate and which their support
! ,oved the proposition that. as all independents
| Democrats had supported and elected an inde-
| sbould support an independent Democrat once;
| Tie proposition was rejected the party named named
| bv the adversary, whom. by reform ala. IL had
Tb EXCELLENT results Of the administrations OF tire
TWO men named cannot be questioned Applause ;
| They gave broad and bright instance, IN several
y.sriacts of government as II ought 10 be 80 is
MAYOR Strong several respects giving such an IN
.ayce now His nominal ton and election were Sc
! cured by the same means which governed m the
! choice Of the Mayors Of Brooklyn, VINO nave
~ mad for illustrator One cannot however.
regard their elections as other than political events
in municipal field or as mun I'M, gn1 %, my py
rpicirai rartv on municipal lines. They were the
product OF politics in municipal manifestation the
rranfrnrv Is generally assumed. because II Is often
! de~lared The assumption is. therefore. natural
but the declaration which 1t is based is loose and
,yiie ~ the mark Nothing is more provable. and II
/ can he said that nothing Is more significant than
/ no fact that Mr. Low twice the nominee OF 4
| nol,,icai PARTY and that Mr.. Schieren and Mr..
! Strong were both formally nominated by their
.itcal narties II is 10 the credit OF all OF them
/ mai thev would have declined a party nomination.
III had not been backed up by independent support
Ia Endorsement But those Independent allies
Themselves acted on organized political lines ard
the men named really the recipients OF series
~ nolitical nominations rather than exemplars ~