The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-05
WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1905.
MUNICIPAL PARTIsANsHIP.

The Boston Herald declares that the great debaucher of municipal integrity is party politics" and it speaks truly. as a general proposition. A man may be a Republican and be thoroughly honest. or he may be a Democrat and be equally honest. Then he may be either a Republican or a Democrat and be thoroughly dishonest, personally and officially. It is not because an off, ciaI belongs to one or the other of the two great political partIes that he Is crooked. "... <.. ~:
 The debauchery comes from the fact that in many of the large cities of the North there is nearly or always a po- litical machine which controls munich pal politics. It may be Democratic or Republican. but 1t dominates its party. As The Herald puts it the insistance on partisanship in the government of cities prevents the honest men from getting together to oppose the dishon- est, while the dishonest men are suffl- ciently non partisan to cooperate for their own profit all the time." s
 There Is the strength and the danger of municipal partisanship. The men who are naturally dishonest, and who want to control the offices for their own advantage and profit--for footing, ir fact-are usually able to combine Sufficiently to force the nomination and election of their own tools, or of men whom they can control. While the off two parties the dishonest ones either elect a man of their own or else place one of the candidates under such obli- gations to them that he finds himself unable to resist their demands.
 The Herald has this to say about in Great Britain: "="*.. + .-
 Again the contrast between Amer ican and British city governcment is forced upon our attention. In govern ing cities there is no question or thought of politics. It Is business, and it is honest business because the best citizens are willing to engage in it and practically homogeneous people are willing and proud to obtain their un- selfish service. There Is no graft in such government, but there is efficiency and honor. We suppose that more money Is wasted or stolen in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia. and per haps in St. Louis and Cincinnati In a year, than in all the cities of the United Kingdom. The people there will not stand being plundered by their municipal authorities. The American people are not their interiors natur- ally. but in this particular they have fallen far below the standard of right eousness and patriotismt They are con- tent that their rulers shall enrich themselves at the public cost while practicing misgovernmeut"
 It is not creditable to us that such a comparison should be made, and that 1t is undoubtedly true in the main. Just what the people of one of the large cities of Great Britain would do if conditions there should become as they are in Philadelphia we cannot say, but 1t would be safe to predict that they would not stand 1t. Such whole sale corruption as is common In more than one large city of the United States would cause revolution. In all probability. and if the thieves and thugs escaped with their lives it would be a wonder. In the matter of honest municipal government we can learn much from England, and one of the lessons would be to elect officials for their character and fitness and not for their party services.