Evening star., 1898-09-28

Advice of Citizens' Union Candidate
to Former Constituent.

~
From the New York Sun of Today.
In reply to a letter from r. Fulton Cut
ting president of the Citizens Union, pub
lished September % last, Seth Low has
written to Mr.. Cutting as follows:
The thesis which you ask me TO sustain,
briefly stated, is that an Independent state
ticket at the present time is unreason-
able. Improbable and likely to be danger
Gus in it's effects upon the election of Col.
Roosevelt as governor, of a sound money
senator to the United States Senate and of
sound money representatives to Congress.
You add that the nomination of Col. Roose-
welt by the Independent committee is of
very great Importance to the local cam
paign of the union You will allow me to
remark, in passing, that 1 do not how
the action of any body of people with ref
erence to state matters can be of interest
in this sense to an organization like the
Citizens Union, whose cornerstone is that
state and national politics have nothing to
do with city affairs. But to return to my
propositions.
Il think an Independent state ticket at
the present time is unreasonable because
can perceive no cause of general i'm
portance to be advanced by it, while there
is the very definite danger that it will put
to hazard public interests of very great
consequence.
because j can conceive of good result
to come from it. Already 1t has put the
City Club and the Citizens Union on the
defensive. To many it seems an absolute
Union should allow it's emblem to be used
in state campaign. But, waving this,
have you considered that, under the pri-
mary law passed last spring. the moment
the Citizens Union obtains a state emblem
1t becomes a political party, and thereby
acquires a status under the law which will
make it impossible for any one who values
his relation either to the republican or the
democratic party to affiliate with the
union without losing his connection with
the national party to which he belongs?
This Independent state movement, there
fore, if it were to succeed in securing as its
emblem, it's vote for governor the en-
blem of the Citizens Union, would destroy
| the Citizens Union, or, at the least, would
| make it impossible for the Citizens Union
thereafter to use the same emblem. Neith-
er do / think any public benefit is to be
| locked for In the nature of protest against
| bcssism by defeating state officers and here
and there a candidate for the legislature
| favorable to Mr.. Platt, only to elect instead
| candidates equally subservient to Mr.
| Croker. The political boss is the product
| of a system, and the system remains un-
| shaken even when one boss is defeated for
| the benefit of another. The power of the
boss does not spring from his control of
! the legislature, but his control of the legis-
| lature comes from his power to control
to strike in order to destroy the system.
| IF the independents will join the po-
| litical parties with which they are most in
| sympathy, and, under the new ballot law
| strive to control the party nominations
| they Will, in my Judgment, be in a position
| to deal much heavier blows against the
| boss system than they possibly can do by
embarking upon political movements that
| never can hope for anything but negative
| success When political chicanery con-
| trolled the primary this was not so: but
| under the new primary law there is no
| reason why the primary election should
| not register the wishes of the majority as
| accurately as the general election in No
| vember. think it, moreover a singularIy
| unfortunate moment for the independents
| to attack Mr.. Platt when he is proposing
| that the republican party shall nominate
| for governor the very man who was the
| choice of the independents for the same
| Office. Col Roosevelt does not change his
| character by accepting the republican nom
| nation nor by declining the independent
| nomination. He was sure to be republi-
| can in office, if elected upon both nomina-
| tlonS; and he is equally sure to be honest
| Independent and courageous as governor
| If elected upon the republican nomination
| only. ~
81 think the Independent movement is
dangerous to the sound money cause be-
| cause, assuming that the independents
nominate only sound money men, as you
| propose, 1t will tend to divide the sound
money vcte; No man who looks in the
| face the political conditions of today has
! right to expect anything but financial
| uncertainty and possible disaster as the re-
| suit of democratic success at this election
| In controlling the legislature or the next
! House of Representatives. The national
Cago has never been changed, and unless