New-York tribune., 1901-10-09
A PARTISAN NON-PARTISAN

1t is not difficult to discover in the speech of
the Croker candidate for Mayor that Mr.. Shep-
ard is not merely running for office in the city.
but is also preparing to run for office in the
State and, If possible. the nation. He is consid-
ering the possibility of being the Moses Of the
Democratic party. Therefore he makes this
municipal campaign the occasion to proclaim
himself partisan, to say: Il am Democrat
through and through" and to predict a career
OF future usefulness. honor and success to the
Democratic party when it submits to the leader
ship Of good men like himself. To the friends
who ask how he can lend his name to the ser
vice Of band of thieves and blackmaiers, and
ask the people to give them the vote of conf
dence which his platform demands, he answers
with a wave of the banner Of rehabilitated De-
mocracy:
The citizens, many of them venerated by my
self, who, In the heavy and depressing atnos-
phere Of plutocracy dominant, have
come to believe that there cannot be and ought
not to be any Democratic party with its face
deliberately and resolutely set to the future and
standing for sef-government and the equal
rights OF men, are mistaken. There ought TO
be, has been, and shall be such a Democratic
party. I we'll know that my friends who take
the other view WILL when the noisy unfairness
of the present shall be overpast and the retro
spect Of Democratic victory, be the first to
admit that it patriotic and honorable to the
last degree for you, gentlemen for your conven-
ton and for its candidates to have acted upon
their own Jubilant belief in the future useful
ness, honor and success of the Democratic party.
There not the candidate for Mayor but the
candidate for President speaks. There is ma
tional rather than a municipal note In that
phrase, heavy and depressing atmosphere Of
plutocracy," which the counsel for the Sugar
Trust did not include in his speech without a
purpose. Nor does he talk about the 'Jubilant
BELIEF in the future of the Democratic party
usefulness, honor and success which would be
most jubiant to him.
With Mr.. Shepard's ambitions there is no rea-
son to quarrel. He has a right to want to be
President, and 1t is perhaps his own affair If
he wants to use Croker and Devery as stepping
stones. 1t is his feet that will be soiled in
that path. But does Mr.. Shepard think 1t quite
fair for him to enter upon campaign for
Mayor with partisan appeal and try to use
this question Of municipal government as
pawn III the game of national politics. while
he is complaining because the anti-Tammany
alliance is not strictly non-partisan as it
ought to be to command his white souled re-
spect and support? In June 1897, when Mr..
Low with true wisdom was trying to moderate
the zeal of his followers and secure union of all
anti-Tammany forces. Mr.. Shepard sharply
criticised him for his willingness to make it easy
for Republicans to support an Independent can
didate, and held that true non-partisanship de-
manded that he take the field without any re-
gard ITO the national parties or their interests.
When finally Mr.. Low was placed In the field
without the support of the Republican organiza-
tion, Mr.. Shepard declared: Every Democrat
"who thinks that the Mayor Of New-York ought
"to be elected for New-York and nothing else,
"and every Democrat who does not insist upon
"voting in 1897 for the Chicago platform Of
1886, should have no hesitation in supporting
Seth Low" And again: There is no twaddle
"about his loyalty in the mayoralty chair to
"the Democratic party or to the Republican
"party. He is subject to the mandate of his
conscience and in the light Of its intelligence
"to serve the great city of New York, and no
zone else-no one else"
Now, in 1901 Mr.. Low is what he was in
1897 He is just as independent, just as much
subject to the mandate Of his own conscience,
just as free from twaddle about his loyalty to
the Democratic or Republican party. Yet be-
cause the Republican organization, taught by
experience, accepts the principle Of mu-
nicipal non-partisanship, Mr.. Shepard turns and
sneers at Mr.. Low as the partisan Republican
candidate That in itself is inconsistent
piece of special pleading, evidently made as an
excuse for Mr.. Shepard's own change What
shall be said when to that inconsistency Is
added the inconsistency Of pointing to Republi-
can support Of Mr.. Low as a sign Of his fall
from grace and a reason why he should be de-
feated, and then turning to fire the Democratic
heart in support Of his own candidacy by ap
peals to future party hopes? Mr. Shepard has
the effrontery to place his own candidacy upon
a partisan basis, and then, a high priest of
municipal non-partisanship, counts as a sin
against non-partisanship the fact that Repub-
lican instead Of a Democrat was placed on the
opposition ticketl