New-York tribune., 1905-11-04
A ROLE THAT DOESN'T FIT.

AS we p0lnLeu out Tie OtuCl uoy, A""s Va 49,
ClelIans piteous appeals for Republican and In
denendent support are q clear confession OF be-
yidermept and panic. His attempts to CUT
loose from the rest Of the Tammany ticket ane
nose es a candidate with partisan record
and non-partisan tendencies can be explalneu
only as the last play Of a desperate poANcian-
To make this play the Mayor must eat MS own
words and repudiate the doctrines which ne mas
long preached and practsed. He has poasteo
for years that in municipal affairs as Weli rs ia
state and national affairs he has Deen r1eiu
partisan He has persstentiy attacked the the
orv that partisan prejudices should be laid aside
in municipal campaigns and contended that any
municipaI administration must be grounded on
nart,san responsibility. Mr.. Ivins on Thursday
nig,t antlv denounced Mr.. McClellan's bid for
non-partisan support as IAN impertinence," CON-
ing as it did from man who on the stump TWO
wears ago made this radical assertion
Under our political system the national, state
and municipal governments are so closely inter
dependent upon each other, SO closely, fhIer
woven tho elections are held so frequen,ys tua.
wou can no more divorce partisanship from she
government of the municipality than you can
eliminate It in the government OF state or na1'oh'
This In itself is a logical enough theory, and
Mr. Mcclellan has hitherto consistently adVo-
Gated it. Presiding over the Tammany city con-
yention Of 1901 he defended the administrator
of van WTCR anu ueuduLiy CASAe'iAAACN- ~
have no apologies to offer" Van Wyck was
e,actad in 1897 bv Tammany and gave the city
the kind of government that best suited Tam
many Mr. Mcclellan was elected in 1903 Dy
Tammany and has likewise given the city an
administration cut to fit the Tammany pattern.
Van Wyck took orders from Croker; McCiellah
has taken orders from Murphy. IL mas peen
his defence of maladministrat1on fhat ne WAS
ndotnp tho best he could'-discharging his oo-
legations 20 the public SO far as they CID not col
fict with his obligations to Murphy. 1hls ~
the platform On which he has hlthefto oeeh
s+ondino for reelection Now In desperation he
tries IN shift his ground-to gull Repuphcahs
end independents into believing that his hrst
oIaoisnce is not to Tammany, but to the cause
Of honest and non-partisan city government
What claim has George B. Mcclellan TO sup
nort from Republicans on non-partisan GROUNDS |!
He had no apologies to make for van "ych-
last wear he was a headlong partisan enough
to saw of President Roosevelt:
If YOU agree with me that the po'tGy o. .n.
perubIioan party is seriously bad IN many
-. tbat the adnn nstratlon has peen ahJust
pJ ineffcient you cannot help concluding 1has
on the first view of the man President Hooseye'
is devoid of the necessary aPsy ssydsntaI or otos.
p"I die asnect no honest citizen can vote tor
him.
IF is easy enough to understand why Demo-
Gratis like Grover Cleveland, Alton b. farher' ~:
Cady Herrick and John G. Carlisle interested
in maintaining the integrity OF the IahihiaiiS
machine here because that machine can De de-
nendad on for votes in state and national con-
tests are willing to throw their aid to Mr. NC
Clellan. They are content to tolerate local lam
nonr rnaladministration If they thereby con-
sorve Tammany's efficiency for larger partisan
n,rnoses. But on what ground could hepuD-
-, 18th q candidate for Mayor head and
Sbonlders above Mr.. Mcclellan in independence
and capacity, excuse themselves for being dupeu
INV The democratic nominees transparent STRAIT
egy? The voters who support SIR, Mcoieliah 1,l'
either wish to indorse and perpetrate the lam
many system of honest graft or they WISH 10
hold Tammany together, in spite of its graft
Ing" practices, an instrumentality 1oI WE,
ming future party victories But no Repupilcan
a,, rmna+hize with either of these aims NO
sonhstrv can conceal the fact that Mayor Nc.
Clellan,s reelection would mean the triumph OF
..rraft" in all its forms and of the narrowest
and most bigoted theory Of partisanshlp IN iocai
notifies