The citizen., 1911-09-29
VIEW OF MR.. GORMAN s CAN.
DIDACY.

toiidl liOHl illC pen Oh Ut. fdDldn FRANK
lin one Of the editors of that paper and
formerly prominent independent of Bal
tlnOrc city.
To those who are still welded TO the
idea that publication of politics is an iri-
descent dream, the latest development in
, Maryland politics may be commended as
means of illumination. The contest for
the Democratic nomination for Governor
was most exciting one. drawing out in
the primary vote nearly as large as the
total vote cast for the Democratic candi
date at the last general election. The re-
suit was as close as possible, the number
of delegates TO the State Convention
pledged 10 Arthur p German exceeding
by only one the number of those who
! stood for his rival, Blair Lee. Mr.. Cor
man has been generally regarded as the
candidate ofthe organization, or ring, :"
and his speech of acceptance was sur
prise. How fully he will live up to it If
elected remains, of course, to be seen; but
1t may be said at once that his declara-
tons and promises are of kind distinctly
different from those mechanical assevera-
tions of good purpose that are the current
coin of machine politicians for campaign
purposes. Upon important boards he
pledges himself. regardless of political
pressure. to retain men who have demon
.strated their independence and superior
fitness; he promises TO appoint no man
to any board or any Office whose pledges
to me and whose standing in the COM
munity are not a guarantee that politics
will not enter into the performance of his
duties; his appointees to the Police
Board of Baltimore city are to be men
whose views are known and whose
names will be guarantee of the strictest
non-poltical administration" Pledges
like these will be mighty hard to get away
from, for a man who, like Mr. German,
has political future to look out for.
But what appears to have made an even
more marked impression on old-timers in
Maryland politics than the general decla-
rations in Mr.. Gorman's speech is the
stand he has taken in regard to the allie
cations of fraud in his behalf in the pri-
mary election in Baltimore. He has urged
the States Attorney of that city to do all
IN his power to ascertain the truth, and
declared that if his nomination was taint-
ed with fraud he did not want it and
would not have it. With his margin so
extremely small, this desire for a scrutiny
of the vote offers strong evidence of good
faith. And the fact is that Mr.. Gorman's
attitude as whole impresses one as that
of man who has come to perceive that
the old ways and the old standards in
party management have no place in The
future of American politics He declares
that while at first he looked askance at
the direct primary system, he has become
convinced of its superiority to the old
method. He wishes to have it more
thoroughly safes guarded against fraud
He favors the adoption of Statewide di-
rect primaries for the choice of delegates
to the Presidential convention. The sys.
tenn perfected as it can be, he says. will
insure Wholesome competition within the
party" and ''etfectually break up any
possibility of ring rule" As for himself,
he does not propose TO sacrifice his poll
tical future" by trying to build up any
organization or so-called machine. The
day of that sort Of politics is past"
Now, it is not necessary to believe that
we have suddenly entered upon a poiti-
cal millennium, or even to suppose that
Mr.. German himself is a model of public
virtue, in order to find all this is the high
est degree significant. The simple truth
is that, in the past two or three decades
there has been, in almost every part of
the country, steady advance in the stand
ards of political morality The very con
tinuity of the progress has largely made
us blind to its extent Slowly but surely
the people have come to regard as in
tolerable many things which a generation
ago were matters of course. and have
come to demand as essential MANY things
which had been regarded as impossible
In the days when the father of the present
Mr.. German hourished such talk as the
son is now uttering could not by any pos
sibillty have passed the lips of any practi-
cal politician in Maryland. Primaries
were farce; the government of the party
by an inner ring who worked politics for
all it was worth was accepted as part Of
the order of nature by all except little
band of fool reformers. The nation
wide agitation for direct primaries is but
part of profound movement of political
feeling which is bound to make its way
year after year, decade after decade To
admit that party organization in America
must OF necessity be based tipofi methods
that are secret. and crooked, and corrupt,
would be TO admit that we are not worthy
to be a nation of freemen From all parts
of the country come abundant proofs that
its fruits are full of encouragement. Even
in those States in which the greatest
strongholds of machine rule are to be
found, any retrospect that carries one
back two or three decades will show that
there has been real and substantial pro-
gress.
1t is amentable that the foremost State
of the Union should present the spectacle
of the persistent survival of such strong
hold. Tammany in the Democratic party,
the ''old guard" in the Republican party,
are still built on the old lines, and their
hold on public affairs rests on the old
foundations Neither the Democratic nor
the Republican machine can hout public
opinion as they used to do i'll the good old
times; the what are you going to do
about it3" attitude is as much out of date
as the Tweed and Sweeney and Connolly
methods OF looting the public treasury.
But, in comparison with the standards
now prevailing in the best Of our States,
New York is sadly in the rear. That IT
will not remain so Indefinitely we feel
thoroughly assured. Machine rule in one
State can no more survive the steady
onward march OF genuine popular govern
ment in the country at large than slavery
could survive the steady enlargement Of
the area of freedom. 1t is a question of
time, butil is for the people of New York
TO decide how much time Those who
imagine that by sitting the movement for
direct primaries, by placing obstacles in
the way of independent voting, they can