The record-union., 1897-11-14
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY Memo"

Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor)
The hero's last despairing cry,
railing for faith and liberty,
Re-echoeS round the world;
Ana, IN dark denS where failure mopeS
Among the wrecks of ruined hopes.
Fresh banners are unfurled
This Thought" is for myself. writ
ten few hours after the close of the
historic Citizens Union" campaign in
New York City. Though wearied with
outdoor speaking; heart burdened be-
cause a self-evident public need has
been waived aside by party greed: dis
traught by the backward step of a
municipality to the fiercest form of
fierce partisanship, yet only hopeful
notes will be sounded in this column.
Since the Citizens Union" move
ment was never called into existence
to perish in one campaign, it is per-
haps wise to enlist the interest of the
open minded Of all parties the coun-
try over, so that its future career may
be hopefully watched. A few words
concerning It's purpose are also needed
because partisan papers have here and
there Striverl to show that it was mere
ly heartless conspiracy to destroy the
old parties. This new organization,
less than year old. and yet honored
with the votes of 10000 men rrho
could neither be driven nor led set out
to maintain this self-evident truth
that large city--or a. small one. for
that matters business concern. Its
details of light, cleaning, paving, ven
tilating with parks etc) and general
sanitation are, in effect municipal
Housekeeping. Just as with a busi-
ness man seeking an assistant, or a
housekeeper seeking a servant the
inquiries are not as to the color of the
hair, nor as to views on theology, but
rather as to past experience: so tnat
questions in selecting Mayor are
or ought to be-exclusively confined
to those relating to the welfare of the
city The Citizens Union was
further encouraged to its non partisan
stand by the fact that the new Con-
stitution of the State of New York rec
ognized the Mayoralty absurdities
where the choice was made on ma
tional lines, and expressly provided that
cities of the first class should forever
hereafter have their domestic elections
er State Senator nor a President 10
elect. Furthermore the Citizens Tn
ion'' expressly disavowed any designs
on national parties by showing clearly
that the line of cleavage in local
contest must necessarily be different
from that in a national one, whence ii
follows that in local affairs a black Pc
publican (whatever that may beD could
safely have dealings with dyed-in-the
wool Democrat (also a dubious express
sionD when the health, welfare and ed
ucation of his family We're teetering in
the balance of an election, and beyond
all this, the statement was clearly made
so clearly that a wayfarer, though
goose, need not have erred thereIn-that
a national party did not lose its exis-
tence whenever it's legitimate field was
empty. 1t simply lay quiescent until
national questions aroused it again.
We therefore called on the open
minded of all parties to sink national
differences in the presence of a mutual
local need, and 10000 or more respond
ed, both Democrats and Republicans
Here I approach a danger point with
your readers, according to their political
leanings, for l must show how our de-
feat came about. Yet 1 do not hesi-
tate, for | know there are thousands of
Republican patriots who understand the
difference between a machine and a
party I'D an equal number of whole
souled Democrats who have no SYM
pathy with our local Democratic organ
ization, called "Tammany Hail." Sem
ator Thomas c. Platt, on the Repuo
lican side, insisted that Bryanism was
the issue. his candidate, General Ira
cy, re-affirmed this in his speech of ac-
ceptance, and upon that non-existent
issue on a purely municipal election
they stubbornly went to defeat them
selves, defeated Seth Low, and precip-
itated for their party the conflict OF
1900. On the other hand, after Tam
many Hall had passed by the Chicago
platform as not bearing upon our cam