The Washington times., 1901-11-06
Circulation Statement.
The Redemption of New York.

The result Of the election in New
York yesterday is a signal triumph for
the cause of clean and honest municipal
government and American political
=decency 1t is a startling commentary,
too, upon the inherent ability of the
respectable elements of society in our
great cities to preserve their several
communities from the control of the
vicious classes, organized and led by
corrupt politicians. whose highest con-
lception of public duty is to work for
their own pocI1etbooks all the time.
What New York has been able to Go in
the way of redemption from the un
speakable rule of Tammany, and what
the success Of the reform movement
yesterday shows that it could do every
time, were sufficient interest in cleo
tions taken by the people who have
most to gain or TO lose by good or evil
government, Philadelphia, Chicago, and
san Francisco can do quite as effectu-
ally and surely.
The salvation of the great American
metropolis from the hideous rule of
combination which has administered
the affairs of the city in the interests
of vice, that vice might thereby be
blackmailed, to the enrichment of
coarse, ignorant and criminally in
clined bosses, was a matter of vital
concern to the country. Tammany has
seemed to be so strongly entrenched in
power that friends of good government
everywhere have feared that it could
not be defeated and excluded from con-
troll of the municipal administration.
Now decent people in other great cen
tres of population may take heart and
emulate the example of the good citi-
zens of Gotham. II has been a glorious
example of the ability of the people to
forget political differences. and to work
together like brothers for the noble OBJ
ject in view. The victory teaches the
lesson that if the reputable citizens of
our cities hope to redeem them from
the grasp of vicious organizations,
whose sole purpose is loot, they must
put considerations of national and
state politics aside. Where political
lines have been drawn in tie past, 1t
has been the universal experience that
one or another gang of rascals has
come into power and the opportunities
that go with it. The question of munic-
ipal rule, with its incidents Of control
over public utilities, taxation, and the
contraction of public debts, comes home
too closely, and in cases dangerously, to
the respectable citizens TO justify them
in rfsking consequences in order to
please leaders of the national party
with which they may be affiliated.
In its essence, a city is a business
corporation designed TO serve the pur-
poses and subserve the general good of
the merchants, manufacturers. and
other business classes identified with
its growth and progress, and liable to
be affected fayorably or otherwise by
the character Of its government In
such a community It is foolish, in con-
nection with strictly local affairs, to
introduce national or other issues not
germane to the question Of municipal
interests. II the people of all Ameri-
can cities would do as the people of
New York did yesterday, our metrOpoH
would rapidly become models of pure
and economical government. instead OF
the laughing stock of the world, as
they have been for years. 1t was a
great day for New York. and, for that
matter. for the whole United States.
American decency is shown TO be yet
a powerful and, on occasion, an irresis
tibIe factor in our national life. Thank
God for that,