Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-10-10
N[N V)RK'S CAMPAIGN
Citizens Of the Great Metropolis
In Midst Of Remarkable Pc.
litical Contest.
A Campaign Of Better Element
Against Crokerism and Mu-
nicipal Corruption.
Somefh;ne About tho r .nd;dates

/
Something About the Candidate:
for Mayor and the Issues
Involved.
New York. Oct. 1o-The citizens o
New York are face to face with wha
is destined to be one of the most re
markables municipal campaigns in tn,
history Of this country. 1t is a cam
pafgn Of civil cleanliness against civil,
filth, of good public morals against ev,
ery form Of immortality, of honest,
against the corruption OF Richard Gro
ker and the political Organization thai
he dominates.
And this corruption stands out in the
light of day, glorities itself boldly ant
Enthusiastically and takes for its stand
ard bearer man who has denounced
1t with bitterness and earnestness from
e hundred platforms.
The situation is unique. To be under
stood it must be studied carefully in all
its aspects. Croker, who has built up
the most vena1 system of city govern
ment in existence today, triumphing In
his unholy prominence, was brought at
the beginning Of this week face to face
with a novel and alarming condition.
For the first time in his caresr as rul-
or Of No,t- n
in her boundaries he saw arrayed
against him a solid, unbroken front of
Opposition.
Abandoning dissension and forgetting
petty differences in the one overwhelm-
ing desire to rid the city of Tammany
misrulc one organization after another
floeked to the banner of the Citizens
union, on which stood the name of Seth
Low. The republican city committee,
the Greater New York democracy, the
German-American Municipal league OF
Manhattan, the Austro- Hungarian An
ti-Tammany association. the German
American league, the independent dem
ocracy, the German-Amerlcan Reform
union and dozen other smaller bodies
came In with sweep. That men who
under ordinary circumstances are bitter
political antagonists should have taken
this unanimous action is proof enough
OF the Overwhelming necessity for the
movement.
Croker stood still and watched. Down
even into the very depths OF his re-
sourcefuinesu he found no effective
weapon with which to answer this at
tack. Among his henchnien OF all
grades OF social standing. but all on the
lowest rung of public decency. he was
able to choose not one under whose
cloak he could give battle.
And 80, with the very genius of au-
daclty. he deliberately selected for his
puppet, in some miraculous manner up
to the present time not explained either
by himself or his reckless victim. the
man among all others who his for years
been known in this city and turnout the
state as one of the most relentless foes
that Tammany ever had. a man whose
name has been synonymous with every
thing that stands fo1. good, clean gov
eminent. the bosom friend and ward of
Abraham S. Hewitt. former mayor of
New York and Cookers persistent fay
er-Edward NJ. Shepard
it isnot enough to say that people
were surprised. When Taminany.s can
Gidate for the mayoralty wa,s named ev-
cry politician In the city was amazed.
For twcnty-four hours preceding the
convention two-thirds Of them refused
to credit the report at all. Even the
rank and file of Tammany was astound-
ed. Nevertheless. when the hour for
the convention came. tho 1t was appar-
ent that Bird S. Coler, the city's comp
troller and the only offfce-holder who
energies from his term with clean
hands. was the real choice OF the major
ity OF the assemblage. the delegates un-
der the whip Of the silent gtay-bearded
czar on the platform adopted Shep-
ards name unanimously.
Hewitt wrote to Shepard. begging him
by all their years of intimacy and by all
his real conceptions of civic morality to
refuse. Hundreds OF his friends Inn
plored him not to join hands with the
man whose life and character he had
scored SO long and SO vigorously. Step-
ard was silent. Many Of his admirers
warned him that Croker had not for
gotten his bitter words, and wac pre-
pairing to kill his whole promising flu
ture. Shepard was silent.
But the marvel remains, and 1t Is the
question that tens Of thousands of dem
ocrats and republicans alike are asking
today. How can he attempt. how will he
dare attempt, to explain away his ut
terances against TammanI and the
things Tammany stands fora And what
will Croker Go when he is brought face
to face in the heat of the campaign
with the denunciations of his own can
didate against the very regime for
which he is asking the SURFACES of the
people?
The more ahrewd politicians In this
city are finding an answer as to Cro-
ker's position. Drunk with power and
firmly entrenched on q throne from
which he will be able to command the
greatest election corruption fund ever
secured, he believes that Ii Is enough
to go before the voters with candidate
for. mayor who has been known far and
wide as an honest man. His "machin-
cry" of hoodlums, pool toughs. dive
keepers and office holders will take care
of the rest.
1t is situation like this that is con-
fronting New York: On one side of the