The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-23
All Eyes on New York.

All IhyOE VII % AoAA
Tho Importance Of the coming election In
The greater city Of New York is recognized
throughout the country, by Democrats par
ticularly. Since In former days New York
was the hub of Democracy in the North, the
effort Of Tammany Hall to regain control
Of 1t il watched by many Democrats else
whore with moro intense interest than they
feel for the contests beginning In the States
about to elect their Governors, such as
Iowa or Ohio. This sentiment is well
expressed by the BRYAN champion in
Missouri, the st. Louis Republic:
democrats everywhere are watching with intense
interest the preliminary diminishing to the great bat
lie which will soon DO on for political supremacy in
Greater New York. Tho party that wins this nrst
nght for control OF the huge municipality will con.
tiuue In power for many years. and is certain TO be
potent In the next national campaign. For this latter
reason Democrats are especially interested.
"In the present campaign the Democrats Of tho i'm.
msnso metropolitan district seem to be pretty well
united. while the Republicans are auarrelllng and
b,ckerius over the old party dispute as to who shall
be boss. PLAT has the machine, and the MiLHoL-
LAND crowd Is trying to wrench It from him.. Then.
another forco OF no Uncomfortable proportions is
backing SETH Low In an Independent movement. on
the false assumption that parties should not control
municipal elections"
While our contemporary Is right in the
main, Indifference to lesser matters has led
It wrong on the question of Republican
quarrels. In the city of New York the
Republican organization Is vastly bigger,
moro powerful, and less threatened by the
spirit of factional destruction than at any
time In the Republican party's life. In
Brooklyn, the County Clerk, Mr.. WORTH,
has turned on the leaders of his party
with ~treachery rarely equalled, and to the
end of insuring to himself a few borough
officers, is supporting an outside candidate
for the great Office of Mayor. In the nature
of ~partisanship, Mr.. WoRTH's power for
harm to his party n last. The force
backing MI. Low for an independent nom.
ination is fanatical, what there is of it, and
liable to vanish before election day; at
least that has been the history of such
movements. 1t is not probable that the
nourishment afforded to 1t by Mr.. Low in
his ambition to be the candidate for Mayor
can materially add to its strength.
Regarding the following conclusion Of
our contemporary, however, there can be
no rational dispute:
@S 'As4 80 49, eeAeet y s"c ohiy II
cratic force east of the Alleshanies upon which mem.
bcrs Of the party can depend with confidence for alb
solute loyalty and vigorous support Of Democratic
candidates and principles in fair weather and bad
and through good and evil repute. II tho New York
Democracy wins this night It will have q power with
which It will be almost certain to give the vote Of
New York State to the Democratic ticket In 1900"
The idea that Tammany can be depended
upon "for absolute loyalty and vigorous
support Of Democratic candidates and prin-
ciples in fair weather and bad and through
good and evil %repute," is true. The cam
paign Of 8 8 showed. beyond hope of any.
thing different for the future, that it is not
in the power of the Democratic party to
deny its former principles so fatty or to
embark in revolution so extreme and de.
structive that Tammany will not submit
and follow.
In the spring Of 1896 Tammany Hall,
proud Of its history, declared that 1.-THE
rigid maintenance of the present gold stan.
dard Is essential to the preservation of our
national credit and the redemption of our
public pledges and the keeping ~inviolate of
our country's honor" But, at the behest of
its party speaking in national convention,
Tammany was soon shrieking for free sill
- OiA06 oO q AoOlo VI ~ ~ 1, WITHOUT
the aid or consent of any other nation"
Any platform that Tammany may put forth
for the New York city campaign will be as
empty Of Significance as its nte- Chicago
devotion to honest money and sobriety was
year ago.
Whatever the fate of national honor or of
principles Of politics, Tammany is loyal to
the party bearing the Democratic name.
And, In the face of this powerful and com.
pact organization, immovable in its one
supreme purpose to sustain the national
Democracy, come what may to itself at home,
the makers of trouble on the other side, the
fauatical, the cranky, the thoughtless. the
apiteful, and the self-seeking, want to bury
the great anti-Tammany party, to suppress
Its issue, to hush Its advocates, and to force
It's followers to bow down and worship the
certificate of virtue pinned on the breast
Of ~non-partisan favorite!
The country's strongest bulwark against
the Organized or otherwise perverted De.
mocracy of 1900 will be the election in
1897 of a Republican Mayor of the greater
city of New York.