Arizona daily citizen., 1901-10-10
MUNICIPAL MACHINES.

two great cities OF New ! ork and
Philadelphia will be turned topsy
turvey by the polit clans. Politics
will dominate everything. Rich
and poor. grave and gay will par
ticipate in tho excitement. The
fight is for the control Of the gov
ernments of the cities 1t is a
mere contest for office with very
little principle at stake.
One of the most striking charac-
teristics of the political machine
which governs an American city
is its partisan character. That
which rules New York calls itself
Democratic, that which rules
Philadelphia calls itself Republi-
can. But in point of fact there is
III difference botweon them except
in d,grec Neithor the Tammany
machine in New York nor tho
Ashbridgo machine in Philadel :
phia care any more about the
questions upon which the two
great parties devide than they care
about the pan-Slavic policy of the
Russian Government. What they
are after is not to promote prin-
cipIes but to obtain plunder They
want the salaries which are drawn
by municipal officials and they
want control of the police force in
order to levy blackmail and to sell
protection to criminals
When national or State
election occurs they are only in
torested in it as far as the result
may affect their own interests and
schemes. The non-partisan char
acter of these organizations is fur
ther manifested by the fact that
when the occasion demands it the
organization of the opposite party
can nearly always be trusted to
come to the rescue of the domi-
nant machine. Whether the Re-
publican organization in New
York city will honestly support
Seth Low for Mayor depends not
upon his merits nor upon the
merits of the municipal contest,
but upon matters wholly extrin-
sic. AS President Roosevelt is
in favor of Mr.. Lows election it
may best suit Mr.. Platt's plans to
support him also, or at least to
seem to support him. In Phil
adelphia as soon as the Republican
machine was threatened by a COM
bination of good citizens of all
parties the first impulse of the lit
tie Democratic machine in that
city WAS to rush to it's support.
Ex-G overnor Pattison has coura-
geously come to the front in sup
port of good government, and it
is believed the Democratic mach
inc has been smashed or at least
frustrated in its purpose.
1t is strange that Tammany has
in public notoriety reached a bad
eminence far exalted above that
of its prototype the Republican
organization in Philadelphia, The
reason perhaps is that in New York
the newspaper opposition to Tam
many is perennial and aggressive,
while in Philadelphia the opposi-
tion to the Ashbridge crowd is
sporadic. Philadelphia is said to
be the worst and most corruptly
governed city outside of Turkey,
and in one respect is far more in
famous than anything New York
has seen in many years. This is
in the conduct of elections. The
New York elections are uniformly
fair, and when Tammany is beaten
1t resires from office. In Phil
adelphia on the other hand, ac-
cording to Ex.Postmaster General
Wanamaker, there has not been a
fair election in generation. There
are repeaters and ballot box stuff
fers and every known appliance of
fraud, used with such energy that
the elections are by-word, and
good citizens do not as a rule
trouble themselves TO 20 to the
polls. Tammany governs, it must
be conceded by the consent of the
governed procured in various ways.
usually by wholesale purchase
The Philadelphia machine gov
erns by force and fraud, and the
great Republican majorities in the