New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-23
TIE uUgIoTPAL APPOINTMENTS.

The incoming Mayors appointments lneVltaOV
cause sorrow to individuals who feel that they
are peculiarly qualified and entitled to serve q
Tammany government, but, on the whole ihey
are exceedingly pleasing to the organization
They show that public affairs are going 10 De
managed in strict accordance with the prlh-
ciples which Tammany has sometimes suoor-
dinated in Z campaign, but has boldly eAemph-
fed as often as il has had the chance NOT
few sanguine citizens who profess disapproVal
of the Crokei-Murphy system permitted them
selves to think few weeks ago that Mr.. NC
Clellan was going TO violate all the precedents,
make himself the sole, undisputed head of his
own administration and give the city a new
kind of Tammany government. They found in
his aptecedents social environment personal
habits and emphatic declarations OF devotion
TO the public welfare q warrant for believing
that be was incapable Of restoring the old men
and methods and that an era of genuine re-
form within and through the Democratic or
ganization was about TO begin. 1t is even pos
sible that some weary and wistful members or
Tammany Hall entertained a similar expeeta-
ton and were correspondingly discouraged.
But all such agreeable beliefs and gloomy ap-
prehensions are at an end. The community is
officially informed that there is 10 be no de-
partlre from the long established order. The
ing the coming two years primarily for the
benefit of that company of dilgent citizens who
in working for Tammany are working for their
own pockets all the time. The appointments
are not impudently scandalous. Mr.. Mcclellan,
as he was painfully reminded in the late cam
paign once stopped to the necessity of pro-
nouncing a feryent eulogy on the Van Wyck
administration, but we have never thought he
was the sort of man who would deliberately
choose 10 reproduce its enormities. Moreover,
that might be ruinous on the eve Of State and
national campaign The individuals whom he
has named for important offices are in general
energetic men Of considerable ability who have
sagaciously served their own interests in serv-
ing the organization, and who will not be re-
strained by inconvenient scruples from employ
ing their larger opportunities TO the same end
hereafter. But they will be expected to pro-
mote their personal advantage and discharge
their obligations 10 Tammany so discreetly as
TO prevent or at least conceal rank abuses. Ex-
perienced subordinates will continue to do most
OF the work, and the public business will prob
ably go on for a while without any conspicu-
Gus loss OF efficiency.
Unless, however, 1t is unsafe, for the first
time in the history of New-York, to estimate
the future by the past, there will be a pro-
gressiYe deterioration in the conduct of mu-
ulClpdi WIN lue uTcI OI JduudIy lH6
motives and objects OF the governing body will
be radically changed. Mayor Low and his col
leagues have made some mistakes. Their judg-
ment has not been infallible, and their designs
have not been invariably executed with the
highest skill. But the controlling purpose of
the administration has been to serve the city
first last and all the time. In no instance has
its policy been dictated by calcuat tons of party
or personal interest 1t has had no enemies TO
punish or favorites to reward. For two years
the sole consideration has been how best TO
meet the just and reasonable demands of the
community a whole. The Tribune takes no
satisfaction in the thought that fundamental
~ different conception of official responsibility
viii prevail again for two years to come. We
want this city to be always we'll governed, and
the prospect Of political advantages to accrue
from Tammany's unfaithfuness is far less at
tractive TO lis than a prospect of continued
honor and efficiency would be. But there is no
rational hope Of good government under an ad-
ministration which was pledged in advance by
all the circumstances of it's creation to restore
the Croker system, and which has already
given authentic proofs of subservience to the
present ruler of Tammany Hall.