New-York tribune., 1909-10-08
TIE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE.


Justice Gaynor should listen with attention
to what Mr. Hearsts newspaper. The Amer-
can" has TO say about fighting bad government
from the inside"-Of Tammany. Mr.. Hearst
is an expert on such situations as that in which
The Judge has got himself. Mr.. Hearst speaks
with the full knowledge Of painful experience
lie was an independent, reformer, radlcal
like Justice Gaynor and like him, too, he took
!. nomination from Tammany Hail. His fol
lowing fell off from 225.o00 TO $4,000 the next
time the strength OF his organization was
counted He never regained the confidence OF
those who once had faith in him. After de-
scrihing the protectors of vice and the self-con-
fessed agent of abandoned women In their deal
inss with the police, whom Tammany has named
as Gaynors associates. Mr.. Hearst's newspaper
asks: How is II possible for Justice Gaynor
cor for any other man 10 fight on the inside
'of this mass Of corruption, and come out with
''stainless hands 10 redeem a plundered city,"
How indeed? And how viii the justice con
vince the public of his sincerity when he stoops
Ia such Infamous association any more than
Hearst could when he took a nomination from
the same source? The man whose gorge rose
al thought of decent public officers dining with
Croker himself the political partner of a per-
son who took a fee from the keeper of n dis
orderly house and gave her a card in his own
any of her girls" got into trouble! Oh. there
are some indecencies that cannot he CLOSED
over by mouthing Il say unto you! Justice
Gaynor cannot remain on the ticket with
Roesch and Sullivan and Hagan and retain the
respect Of decent people He cannot do so and
preserve his own self-respect. For the judge
still has some sef-respect left. There were
signs of il in his letter In which he spoke Of
taking the Democratic city nomination., and
in the inspired news articles that came forth
from time to time describing his irritation at
the persistence of the public in regarding it rs
the Tammany nomination. The judge could not
then bring himself 10 admit TO himself that he
had fallen so far as TO become the Tammany
candidate. VIII any euphemism now cure the
shame of association with ROesch. Sullivan and
Hagan?
And the judges egottstic dithyrambs pro-
claiming that 1.-The hour has struck and that
'in the slow ripenlng of time we have reached
''an end of the old and the beginning Of new
era in the government Of New York City
how silly they sound now. ROesch, Sullivan
and Hagan usher in this splendid dawn of civic
bettermentl Gaynor, the man for whom time
has been patiently waiting sits al the head Of
the Board of Estimate table with his three
little votes. and about him on all sides are the
ten votes of Murphy. That is the new era.
What is this Messiah of municipal government,
as he evidently conceives himself 10 he. going
10 accomplish in such company: What is the
use Of the lessons that for these many
years even with the persstency Of Cato calling
for the destruction of Carthage have taught
if the teacher himself has learned no better
than for the sake Of regularity 10 herd with the
low, vicious and degraded elements in munic-
pal politics?