New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-23
4 POLITE INVITATION.

The Tammany answer to the invitation Oh lle
Citizens Union TO cooperate lor NON pa 'ie"n
| government will be awaited WIN solhc h'eAe'
As "feeIer'' 70 get at the quality of Iammany
polIteness the invitation ought to De great sue
| cess. 1t puts Mr.. Murphy ana the mayor " tiie
| task of playing CASTOR to MT. Cut1Hs al
! nbonse We have considerable curiosity TO see
| how, amisblv and tactfully Tammany can init
p,a+a that true non-partisanship consists IN tall-
! inc IN line for the election of an administration
| nIedged 10 acknowledging party responsibility
| The invitation may also be useful as balancing
| MOLE II is only May, and Mr.. Cutting does not
| desire TO get off the fence until September. lie
knows perfectly well that the only chance Tor
q non-partisan Mayor is in an anu-Iammany
combination. But to give up balancing now
would he TO surrender the tactical advantage of
seeming TO be able to pick and choose. Conse-
ouentIy the regular Democratic organization
of New-York County, as Mr.. Cutting expresses
II is 70 be treated just like the Republican Or
ganization. notwithstanding the repeated as
surances in previous campaigns Of Democrats
in the Citizens Union that Tammany was not
the Democratic party, but a band of robbers
masquerading in Democratic livery.
1t is all well enough TO send an invitation to
Tammany, and the results may add TO the
gayety of dull time; but if there Is anybody
in the Citizens Union who is old enough to re-
expectations of practical cooperation with Tam
many on a platform of non-partlsan municipal
rule Two years ago Mayor Low was non
partisan candidate for reelection. What was
the chief burden of the Tammany campaign
argument? The duty of all Democrats to elect
q Democratic Mayor with q view to the next
years Presidential election The city must be
made pawn IN the game Of national politics
Comparatively little criticism was made upon
1,,I- Il
gogic cry about thousands of children deprived
of all school advantages and the promise to
provide full day sttings for all, which Mayor
Mcclellan has not kept. Tammanys main re-
lance was an appeal to party spirit. Two years
before that Tammany turned in desperation TO
an exponent of reform who had been for years
an advocate of non-partsanship in municipal
elections. One Of the features Of that cam
paign was Mr.. Shepard's recantation of the nom
partisan doctrine and his declaration as his eX
cuse for accepting a Tammany nomination that
he had become convinced of the virtues Of party
responsibility and the wisdom of joining to
build here strong organization Of conservative
Democracy. At the election four years before
Mayor Van Wyck was chosen the representa-
tive of boastful and defiant partisanship, and
his administration, for which Mayor Mcclellan
four years ago publicly announced there
nothing to apologize, was nothing less than
Uuculent in its avowals Of strict party rule.
This is the organization which is being In
vited to give adherence TO the non-partisan doc
trine. How engaging would Tammany be COM
ing into non-partisan conference with the plan
for Mayor McClelan's denomination as a sine
qua non of fusion and an offer to profess non
partisanship In return for a Citizens Union in
dorsement! Then Mayor Mcclellan and the
silver tongued Grady Mr.. Shepard and the anti
| machine Shevlin, Congressman Tim Sullivan.
back home Disguised with national legislation
and ready for strictly municipal politics, Mr..
Cutting and e1-Mayor Van Wyck could all go
on the platform together, pleading with the
people to forget party ties and vote for indie
pendent non-partsanship. We don't expect to
see such campaign, but it would quite beat
any circus that has visited the city for some
years, and we do not in the least mean to cast
any odium on the marvellous educational, ath-
ledc geological and hippodromic exhibitions
with which we have recently been favored