The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-10-15
Partisanship in
Municipal Politics.

JUST a little more than year and
Election Day will again be upon
us with its bright hopes and bit
ter appointments, its victories
and defeats. For weeks and months
previous to the momentous day our
large cities will be the objective point
of the political speaker who will paint
in all the colors of the rainbow the
glorious achievements of his party in
the past and the great future of the
nation under its wise and just admins
tration. In short, the object of the
speaker whether of one party or anoth-
er is to convince his hearers that in his
party only lies the prosperity of the
country, and that the success of the op-
posing party at the polls would mean
ruin and starvation.
fo listen to the represent ative of any
political party one would believe that
the natural resources of the country
are as nothing unless his particular
party is at the helm. Now in national
politics this may possibly be true in
very small degree, but in municipal
politics it is nothing more than nom
sense. Yet there are thousands and
thousands of voters in our large cities
who cast their votes for mayor, or
councilman, or alderman, or chamber
lain, or supervisor, or sheriff, for no
better reason than because he belongs
to the republican party or the demo-
cratic party. 1T is but short time
since a certain monthly publication
printed convincing articles containing
facts and figures showing that bood-
ling, trickery and corruption generally
was the rule rather than the exception
in our large cities. The subject of mu-
icipal misrule has been we'll threshed
out and various reasons have been Civ
en- for such state of affairs, but no
matter what the contributory causes
may be it is upon the citizens of the
city, the voters, that the blame must rest.
If every voter of the city would weigh
we'll the character, principles, and gen.
eral fitness of the candidates for each
particular Office without regard to par
ty, and vote for the man who is honest
and efficient, or at least for the one
who seems most likely to prove satis-
factory, there would believe be less
corruption in our municipal govern
ment.
When speaker on the platform tells
you that he stands firmly for Jefferson
ian democracy or that the principles of
the illustrious Lincoln are identical
with his own, or that in protection lies
the safety of the nation, or that expan-
sion means financial and commercial
ruin; or presents the thousand and one
other arguments familiar to us all, he
has, in so far as national politics are
concerned, some claim upon our atten-
ton; but fail to see where most of
the time-worn and threadbare argu-
ments usually presented can have any
bearing in city election. But year
after year the mayor or the councilman
or the other city officials are voted in.
to Office for no better reason than that
they are republican or democrat by
intelligent voters whose boast is that
they never 60 back on the party.
What is this party or that party?
/ 1t is simply proportion of the citi.
zens who believe in a certain platform
or principle, but in the large majority
of cases the platform has nothing to dc
with the city government, or if at all