Connecticut western news., 1910-08-18
THE VICTIM OF POLITICS

The attempt to assassinate Mayor Gaynor of New York, made by James J. Gallagher discharged dock watch | man, laboring under the belief that the city executive was responsible for his losing his job @ few weeks ago, IS one of those unfortunate acts that not in- frequently result in the great game of politics as played in this country.
 It ig misfortune that there are so many irresponsible derelicts of the Gallagher type afoat in our cities; men who have for years been hanging onto the skirts of political parties, one or Ahe other, and when there comes & change in administration. or the pruning knife of retrenchment is used and they find themSelve out of their political berth, they have not the inclination nor the incentive to seek and find employ ment in other walks of life, but hang around official quarters, as did this man Gallagher, and seek to get reinstated, ,and arc interruptions as to the methods ased to help further their ends.
 Now it is pleading and solicitation, anon letter writing to men in political power, in which they seek to argue their case, unmindful of the fact that such letters rarely get beyond the private secretary whose duty it is to stand as a buffer between the political dignitary and the persistent job hunter, who not infrequently developes into dangerous crank, as he allows his mind to prey upon his inferred grleviences, and too often this type develope homicidal mania that finally breaks out, as it did in the case of Gallagher in his effort to end the life of New York's reform mayor.
 The world cannot afford to loose such men as Mayor Gaynor. There are too few of them in political life to-day. Our
 municipalities would be better could their number increase. To say that he was without faults would infer that i he was not human. All men have their peculiarities, but beneath all else Mayor Gaynor has the true ring of honest, sterling manhood. Tho duties he was called to face when he became the executive head of great city were many and difficult. Graft had honey combed the city. The police department was rotten to it's core. Bribe money was received for police protection run ming up into the hundreds of thousands. Saloons were protected on the payment of tribute and that tribute went to en- rich the police department and some that were higher up. When Mayor Gaynor took hold of the management of municipal affairs he cut to the line without fear or favor, letting chips fall wheresoever they would. In his term of office he has fairly revolutionized the graft system and well nigh, if not totally abolished it.
 His work has just begun. The vista of the future has in store for him greater promise. National prominence. already begun, bids fair to increase, and if he lives will increase, and the man who, having the courage of his honest convictions, dared to carry out those convictions, is the man the nation needs | to-day in higher walks of life, irrespect- i've of party utilization. The nation would be better if there were more men of the Gaynor stamp, and the best sle- ments of our national and our municipal life. will anxipusly watch the develop ment of the condition of the stricken man in St Mary's