New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-10-28
,fR. CHAYLER,s SIGNIFICANCE.


IF Mr.. Chanler should be elected Governor,
the cause of the people, the cause of that purer
and mere perfect democracy which has been
steadily sweeping over this country IN recent
years. would receive a setback In New YORK
from which it would not soon recover. MI
Hughes is conspcuously identified with that
cause 1t is that fact which has endeared him
To the people of the West and which made his
recent speechmaking trip through that part or
the country great personal triumph. He has
taken It as the guiding principle Of his admin
Istration. and it is for doing so that he has
been attacked. sneered at, vilif1ed and subjected
to the personal abuse whose echoes Mr.. Chan
Ter now prolongs. He has lived up to his ideal
of a democratic government in which the
elected officials serve only the people, and all
those who have been accustomed to divide with
the people the services Of the elected officials
have been brushed aside the selfish political
manipulators, the persons with pull the cor
porations operating through political machines,
| and the classes seeking special favors as the
price of their support at the polls.
| Governor Hughes has brought the govern
ment of the state back to first principles He
has not paid with favors for the favor Of those
who control nominations, nor bargained with
interests" which are the source of campaign
| funds, nor compromised with groups that
threaten opposition If their bad bills are not
/ signed, nor purchased the support of legis-
| lators for good measures by signing question
| able ones in which they were interested Every
thing that he has done has been done with
an eve single to the interests Of the people as a
whole.
That is a great stride forward in pure democ-
racy, for it eliminates the advantage which the
man with the pull otherwise enjoys. Mr.. Chan
| Ter IN his candidacy is the willing instrument
Of ali the resentments which the Governor has
aroused by his magnificent stand for better gov
eminent and more genuine democracy. Every
one whose pull is gone and who sees in
| Hughes's reelection its final destruction is
using Mr. Chanler to save the old order. He IS
the candidate Of those who would preserve con-
ditions IN which the people got the shadow
while they retained the substance of power; in
which the people had the elaborate machinery
| Of primaries which determined nothing and the
bosses retained the nominating conventions
| that determined everything; In which the peO-
pie had commissions to protect them from cor
poration abuses, but a legislature obedient to
corporation influences saw to 1t that those com
missions had no power, and he is the candidate
of all those who found that situation profitable
and who resent The interruption OF their
ancient privileges If Mr.. Chanler is elected II
will mean the defeat of the direct primaries
system, which would put so much real power in
the peoples hands that they could command
the same undivided service Of their officials
that Mr. Hughes has voluntarily and as a mat
ter of conscience given them.
It is time 10 strip Mr.. Chambers candidacy of
all its pretence. By going about the state re-
peating the sneers Of those enemies that Mr..
Hughes has honorably gained by his upright,
disinterested service of the people, Mr.. Chanler
has made clear in what he is the opponent of
Mr. Hughes He reyiIes the 1ualities for which
good citizens honor Mr.. Hughes. He attacks