The Saint Paul globe., 1901-06-14
INNnCuous REFORM

Alter a long perlOQ OF great ACTIVITY
the reformers in the big metropolis who
have once more couched lance against
the dragon of Tammany supremacy, have
given to the public and themselves a
much-needed rest They have decided
that to tell the world in June what they
intend to do in September is bad politics.
and so they have ceased for the time the
work of prodding up the delinquent citi-
zen who seems willing year after year to
let his affairs go to the eternal bow
vows when he can bring about the most
taking little pains to vote for the right
man for certain offices when he does
vote.
To any man who has any knowledge
ents there Is a good deal of amusement
furnished these days through the move
ments of New York politics and politi-
clans 1t Is not at all bad thing, for
instance, to see the Evening Post-that
solid pillar of municipal reform, whose
motives no man has ever questioned
making common cause with the supple
and wholly unsentimental band of broth
ers known as ''the Stecklers' in their
warfare on Tammany. The Stecklers
are gentlemen who have been trying to
pry open the entrance to seats on the
judicial bench for zone or more OF its
members, who are in politics purely for
revenue, and who were never known to
be beyond the possibility of q successful
| sell-out, If the price was satisfactory
In politics as in all other relations Of
use possible of the tools at hand. This
the refermers are doing no doubt in New
York. But this principle would never be
thought to justify, for instance, the ac-
tion of band of enfeebled travellers who
| with fair means of defense at their hands
would give themselves over bound hand
| and foot to the first gang OF marauders
which came their way.
The Evening Post and those Of it's
school who are making such splendid
reputation for New York city do not
learn much by their experience. The
| roster of names Of those who are CO.
operating with the real reformers, and
the general attitude assumed by the Re-
publican machine politicians toward the
| the absurdtty of the methods pursued
| by the opposition toward Tammany.
| Whatever else may be said for the or
| ganization 1t has the mass of the plain
people of the big city with it, those who
| seek a reasonable enforcement of the re-
quirernents of the law bearing upon in
| dividuaI conduct, who themselves lead
blameless lives judged by fair standa-~s,
| and who discharge their public and pri-
vate duties according to a just concep-
tion of the rights Of others. They are
| not the saloonkeepers or the saloon fire.
quenters or the disorderly or ignorant or
criminal classes upon which Tammany
relies in the last event, however loud the
reformers may proclaim to the contrary.
The working people, those who go to
| the polls without fail and make their
friends do likewise, while the cult who
affect reform are playing golf or chas-
| ing the anise-seed bag over the wilds of
Long Island, will be found in New York
sustaining the Tammany candidates in
the proportion of about 999 out of every
1000.
1t is not surprising that they should.
The average reformer would never touch
skirts with this element at any time
without sense of having lowered him
self In his own and others estimation
The gulf which divides him from his
poorer and less pretentious neighoor is
| so wide and so deep as to be both at
| once unfathomable and impossible.
The short distance from Second avenue
| to Fifth in the big town, Travelled over
with a clear eye and receptive mind,
will give to any man of human sympathy
| the clearest understanding in the world
why the reformers do not succeed in New
York politics, and why they should not.