The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-04
Tammariy Hall.

The unf1inching assurance with which
Tammany Hall makes the great govern
ment of the new New York wholly out of
material found within the organization,
touches the magnificent. When filling the
offices of what is now the borough of Man
haitian the practice was always to cater a
little to the elements outside. That prac.
tice has been laid aside. The Democratic
principle of "to the victors belong the
spoils." has been narrowed down remorse-
lessly to the rule of rewarding such workers
only as can be relied on to submit to the
policy of the leader at whose hands the
Offices have been dispensed.
A boss like RICHARD CROKER of to-day
was never dreamed of by the Mugwumps in
their widest terror, and very likely never
by Mr.. CROKER himself. So absolute is he
that Tammany Hall is without faction.
Outside of Mr.. CROKER there is no power
capable of creating faction. In him is real
lied the very ideal cherished by Mr.. SETH
Low for himself not long ago, Mr.. Low
having hoped to be Mayor free of all trace
of obligation to anything but what he in
dividually regarded as the city's good.
What a staggering result of the great
Mugwump campaign, that chose the second
year of the Bryan agitation to sheer at the
principles of the Republican party, revile
its organization, malign its able and high
minded candidate, and put forth the de-
.struction of bosses as the first and only
Idea worthy the attention of honest men!
To this end thousands of reputable citizens
from whom, If loyalty and gratitude were
ever due to any political organization,
theirs were due without stint to the
Republicans, swelled the insensate clamor
for Gen. TRAoY's defeat, and, turning at
every moment to insult him and the party
he had the honor to lead, followed the
smooth d~emagogue who openly confessed
his Indifference to the attainment OF anti
'Tammany harmony. Mr.. Low was bound
to be q candidate were his friends "few or
many" Having expressed a desire to be a
unifying force. he yielded, for the sake of
getting nominated, to the Citizens Union
programme making nominations " without
conferences with anybody" although he
knew, like other people, that this descrip-
tion was false, except in regard to the
Citizens Unions refusal to confer with
the Republicans. For such humbug, self
ishness and folly fate seems to have de.
creed the grimmest possible rebukc.
Tammany Hall, now that 1t is in power,
need not be expected to give to its enemies
the satisfaction of failure in Misunderstanding
the city's affairs. The new office holders,
although selected first with regard to their
standing in the organization, will be, for
the most part, old hands. Few of them
are ~neophytes, and probably fewer
still are fools, For example, consider the
leading departments. The one of first i'm.
portance at present, that of the Corporation
Counsel, although it is controlled by a man
comparatively unknown in the profession,
WHALEN, has below him an officer of UNI
questionable competence, THEODORE Con-
MOLLY, who has been in the Corporation
Counsel's Office for years. Over in Brook
Ign, 1t has ALMET F. jerks. BERNARD J.
York. the head of the police, is a man
capable of understanding and dealing with
any responsibility that may be imposed
upon him. And II the York regime differs
from that of Mr.. ROOSEVELT, no one will
be able to say that its author lacked au.
thority for the change, so far as IL public
vote could give 1t. AT the head of the Pub.
lie Works il Mr.. MAURICE +. HoLAHAN,
whose training for his place is a matter of
record, and whose individual capability
need not be doubted. In, the great Bureau
Of Taxation Is THOMAS L. FErfNER, a mem
Der of it some years aGo.\ Who will say
that he y not clear In his tNle to enter 1t