The sun., 1897-11-07
Why 1t Happened.

The philosophizingo on the New York elec-
tion in which newspapers throughout the
Union are now engaged is often ingenious.
If not profound. The truth Is, however,
that the causes of the Republican defeat
are so apparent that it does not need phi
losopher to discern them. Only a little
common sense is requisite for the purpose.
The Republican ticket in New York, city
and State, was defeated because there was
deliberately concerted and organized con-
spiracy among faction of the Republican
party to defeat it. That was not difficult
thing to do; 1t Is never difficult for such O
conspiracy within party to be successful,
more especially in State where the politi-
cal balance is always so uncertain as it is
in New York.
A small reduction Of the percentage of o
party vote in this State is enough to give
overwhelming victory to its opponents. If
any considerable part of either the Republi-
cans or the Democrats revolt against their
ticket and set themselves to defeat it, they
have an easy job to accomplish. The hard
work is to elect ticket, not to defeat 1t by
q conspiracy within the party.
This conspiracy stubbornly resisted and
finally prevented the unificatioh of the op-
position to Tammany. Gen. TRACY, as was
we'll known, was ready to retire in favor of
any other candidate. whose choice would
not leave the Republican party trampled
upon in this city and paralyzed through
out the State, like ex-Mayor SCHROEDER
Of Brooklyn, for instance, but the Low
agents refused absolutely to cooperate
in producing the requisite unity, and the
Republican plotters persisted in clinging
to him, though they were cognizant of
these facts, and though they had no
color of principle for their course. They
pretended to distinguish between the Re-
publican municipal and State ticket, but
the returns of the election indicated that
actually they deserted Judge WALLACE, the
Republican candidate, and thus made pos
sible the election of Judge PARKER, the
Bryanite candidate for Chief Judge of the
Court of Appeals. The outside State re-
mained loyal. rolling up handsome ma.
jority for Judge WALLACE. but 1t was over
come by the conspi racy in the city.
That is the plain and simple explanation
OF the result of the election. The city Of
New York and the State of New York were
sacrificed through the betrayal of the Re-
publican party by an unprincipled cabal
of Republican newspapers and assassins.
Otherwise it would have been successful.
The election of Low was always an i'm
possibility, and 1t was never regarded as
possible by any politician OF discernment
even among the Republican renegades who
catered to his vain ambitions. II LIS
probable that even as candidate
OF the united opposition to Tammany
he would have been defeated as badly as he
was defeated as dividing force, even II not
worse. The nomination of Gen. TRACY
kept together on the st. Louis platform the
Republicans of strict party principle. Low
could not have been nominated except by
efracing strictly Republican principles,
and thus offending and alternating such
party spirit. Running on municipal
issues strictly, he was bound to be de.
feated by great plurality, for he rep
resented the very tone and policy Of city
Government most obnoxious to the
people. lie was supported by the very in.
! f'nences most inUolerahlc by the public
/ sent ,mcut. The pTctnucr Ot aon.partisaH,
ship on which he based his canvass was the
very device at which they were determined
to strike, and the Republican party had
suffered 80 much odium from it as adver-
tised in the Strong administration that
Low would have lost a great body of
the Republican vote. The refusal of the
Republican Convention to nominate him
Is charged solely to Mr.. PLAT and to MIR.
QUIGG, but actually 1t was due to the un.
conquerable aversion of the organized Re.
publicans to the theory represented by Low
and the gang by which he was surrounded.
Tammany was put in power by great
plurality because it represented the popu.
lar revolt against the tone and spirit of the
Strong administration, whose natural po.