Evening star., 1901-10-22
ELECTION FEVER ON
New York Almost Like a Bedlam at
Present.
ALL CLASSES SEEM AFFECTED
1t is the Harvest of the "HeeIer"
and "Grafter."
L N CT D EN- rs IN POIN

special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, October is, 1901.
mas long been favorite theme of
thoughtful foreigners visiting the United
| States-even of those not necessarily pretiis-
| posed to the carping or hypercritical spirit
IN writing or speaking of things American
that municipal elections in the great cities
Oh tnis country are nearly always conducted
along the lines of sort of composite of
| Donnybrook Fair and a feast of Fiji head
hunters, II such weird celebration could
ne intelligent and equally thoughtful Amer
icahs are usually compelled to admit that
the foreigners expressions on the method
OF conducting American municipal elections
are rarely If ever overdrawn If, indeed
they completely cover the subject
The municipal game of politics as II is
carried on in New York during the periods
| of election fever such as now possesses the
community could not well be written of in
| spirit too disparaging or exaggerative. To
looker-on at the game who has spent a
| good many years, or, perhaps, the major
portion of his life, in Washington, the man.
ner wherewith seemingly the whole COM
munity lapses into open exhibitions of ugli-
ness and perfectly foolish and uncaIled-fo
! Ill temper when an election is on that, after
all. is never essentially vital to the inter-
eStS OF the cltys people as q mass, and
the method with which ordinarily cool and
| level-headed men lash themselves into
| ridiculous furies and frenzies of political
aeVo!lon very much after the manner of
| dancing dervishes working themselves into
| ecstacles OF religious devotion-these and a
good many other things about the game are
| as difficult for longtime resident of
Washington to understand as they are for
the wandering foreigners referred to,
/
The municipal campaign, seemingly by
| ana with the consent of both parties is
made the excuse for the Inauguration of
period of the grossest license, in speech and
conduct, on the part of thousands and tens
| OF thousands OF posseSSorS of the franchise,
and the town becomes something very like
a huge open-air Bedlam from the day of
| the naming of the first ticket until the cart
ing away of the pooling booths on the day
| following the election. The magisterial func-
| ton of Furnishing drunkenness is virtually
suspended, and in some of the magisterial
| districts becomes the deadest of dead let
| ters. while the campaign is on. The howl
| ing, registering, trouble-seeking, drunk and
| ddsorderly has only to state, when clutched
| by the cop, that he is whooping 'er up for
| the ticket to evoke an indulgent smile and
the mild advice to take it a little less nos-
| lily. Election brawls become so frequent
| even on thoroughfares ordinarily quiet and
| decent that they attract the attention only
| from the sight and sound of them.
The excise law is all but stricken from the
| code during the progress of the municipal
| campaign, and it is only fair to state in
this connection that one party is Just as
willing that this should be the case as the
other The reform element fear the effect
! of continuing their reform efforts, which
would mean the alternating of saloon and
gambling interests that might otherwise be
disposed to listen to overtures under GER
tain conditions; so that the most fragrant
violations Of law are winked at even by
| organizations and individuals who wage un-
ceaSing warfare upon law-breakers at all
other times except during the municipal
! election periods. Proprietors of the most
infamous resorts are thereby enabled to
throw their front door keys away for the
couple of months Immediately antedating
the municipal election, and all of the cheer
full workers in the world of graft emerge
from their seclusion and ply their games
braZenly and with well-justified certainty
that they will not be interfered with until
after the election is over with.
City's Business Neglected.
The actual running Of the business of the
city is all but dispensed with during the
municipal campaign, or rather, the place is
just about allowed to run itself as best 1t
may. Top men and interiors the great
body of them go off electioneering There
| is deserted look now about the depart
ments of the city and county government
spending most of their time In their re-
spective bailiwicks hustling for votes, and
1t would perhaps be entirely safe to say
that four-fifths of the political job-holders
| in and around New York have been absent
from their duties for three weeks past and
Will continue to spend the very smallest
possible modicum Of their time earning
their salaries from now until after the elec-
tfon. In the event of the defeat of Tam
many these same place-hunters will not, of
course, feel much like exhibiting any great
amount of interest In positions pretty cer-
tain to be taken away from them on or
around January 1; so that in such an en-
tirely probable contingency as the wiping
out of Tammany at the coming election the
city and county will have lost, by the time
the other party takes control at the first OF
the year, at least three months of the serv-
Ices of, say, four-fifths of the entire num-
Der Of men paid for doing the city and
county's work. 1t would be an interesting.
| II laborious job, to figure out Just how
much this loss to the taxpayers would
amount to in dollars. The Washingtonian
studying the election system over here has
about as much trouble in accounting for
the looseness which permits, without pro-
test, the bulk Of the city's servants to shut
their desks and do no work to speak of for
their wages during a municipal campaign.
as ne would have in accounting for similar
conduct on the part, say, Of the employees
of the Commissioner Office in Washington
during the progress of a presidential cam
paign. And, according to all common sense
employees would have every bit as much
right to do that very thing as the city and
county employees over here have to do their
extraordinary desertion act.
Neglect of Work is General.
Not alone do the political appointees who
are supposed to work with their heads but
the understrappers who get laboring Jobs
from their party calmly forsake their work
during the municipal campaign. put on their
Sunday clothes and go off electioneering.
which in their case means the agreeable
business Of swigging unstinted quantities
of mixed ale at the expense of the COM
| mittees, the locating of hordes of hoboes
to be used as "foaters," the corrallng OF
the most ignorant of the foreign vote, and
SO on. The result of the equanimity which
permits this sort Of thing is seen at this
moment in the condition of the New York
| streets. Never in the history of the city
have the streets of New York been so u.-
terly reeking with filth as they are today.
The reason for this is perfectly we'll known
Only about one-half the street cleaning
force are on duty. The white Wings"
brigade, with the full permission of the
| head Of the street cleaning department, are
taking turn and turn about with each other
In electioneering, with the perfectly nat
ural result that the streets have heen allow