The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-10-22

The council caucuses of both the princi-
pal parties to the municipal contest have
| completed their work and. as has been
anticipated by The News, they have dom
onstrated that the so-called Good Govern
ment movement that has been n lively
factor in local politics for the past two
years has entirely dropped out of sight as
an active political manifestation.
The spasm OF municipal mugwumpory
Is over for the present at least. 1t mas
tired Itself out. AS an element in local
politics it has been only delusion. 1t
has accomplished absolutely nothing. ex-
cept the placing and maintaining in Office
of Mayor l.. ID. McGuinness. which accom-
plishment while satisfying TO Mr.. Mo-
Guinness personally, has been OF no par
uculer advantage To the city. Under
Good Govofnmcnt tho public debt has
been increased and the taxes raised.
Nothing that was promised the voters In
return for the support asked for ana
secured for tie exponents Of civic hys-
terics has been accomplished. The
two years of experiment with the So
called Good Governcmnt movement have
demonstrated tho inhrorent weakness OF
such u superficial political plan. and the
confidence misplaced in it by the voters
who were led astray by its gllttering pre-
tensions is withdrawn after brief. but
sufficient trial, and today in every ward
the municipal contest divides on party
lines once again in thoroughly whole
some, honest fashion, free from flap
doodle and the clsptrap that has dis
tinguished the two latest municipal cam
paigns.
The voters are to engage once more in
straight open, fair light between parties
each party standing on its record and
presenting the men OF its choice to the
suifragists on such record, claiming
nothing more than personal fitness to
represent the party principles i'm the con-
duct of municipal affairs Those prin-
ciples are we'll recognized. The voters
will choose between them. There will be
no confusing and vociferous mon parti.
sanship" to complioate the issues. That
is dead in the city of Providence for a
time at least
And IA good thing. too. II any body can
call To mind one essential benefit that
the municipality has derived from the
on-partisanship as factor
in its politics, the voters would be glad
to have IL spread on the records. Ono
thing it did accomplish and that is q
temporary success for the Democratic
machine. and, surely, in neither national.
state nor local politics did a Democratic
success ever prove Of benefit to the whole
people. And that is all that there has
been to show for this fussy. fev,rish
movement with it's ridiculous onslaught
on the credit of the municipality. its
impracticable schemes lbs unfair at
tempts to repudiate contracts, and, gener-
ally, its disturbing and mischievous
policy calculated only to halt the city in
its progress and development and make
"A jest of civic intelligence
The position The News took ON this
question two years ago Is justified today
by the voluntary withdrawal ON the
part of thinking citizens of all support
and sympathy for half-shot. political
enterprise
Goo.Gooism has Gied natural death.
Only particularly absurd dummy of its
former self Ia preserved by fatuitous
and feeble minority in the Municipal
League. But nobody will ne fooled by
that almost pathetic spasm.
One thing is to be credited to Goo
Gooism and that is an awaken ing of the
voters to realizing sense of their power
in their respective partisan affiliations.
For some years past the rank and file in
both parties have been restless under the
suspicion that they were not their own
masters, that by some mysterious force
"bosses" and machines" and rings"
were powerful to rule them against their
own free will and Wish. Goo.Gooism in.
the only means Of escape from such rule.
But put to practice. this scheme, while it
surely Disconnected the bosses ana the
machines. proved far from satisfactory to
the voters Thoy found that they had
escaped from one set of bosses only 20 be-
sivc set, men who claimed peculiar civic
intelligence ana assumed political virtues
above their fellows that were more often
sivo and impertinent than the dictation OF
all the party bosses put together. Thus
the truth was discovered, that the voter Is
mighty. that he need not be slave to any
party whip. but that he can easily compel
the party boss to do an honest party SER
vice, that the voters are superior to any
party mhchine. however we'll established
and that they themselves. and not the So
called machines, arc in reality the bosses
In American party government where
every mans ballot counts as much as
every other mans, n power that requires
nothing more TO exert 10 than q sufficient
Interest in public affairs to prompt the
performance of the simple duties by tho
individual citizen.