Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-10-15
THE SOLIDARITY OF EVIL MEN AND THE
CORRUPTION OF MUNICIPAL POLITICS

In a sense a municipa, election is of
more Importance to the citizen than
is national election; for city gov
eminent touches all of us every day
and at a thousand points. BY SO
much as it is near to us it has power
over us for good or evil.
Nevertheless very many gooL men
neglect their duty in the matter Of
city elections and municipal govern
ment. Ia nothing have the ATeri-
can people achieved as little success
as in the government Of their cities.
Dr.. Andrew ID. White in his great
address, The Message OF the Nike
teenth Century to the Twentieth" de-
livered at Yale College some years
ago. touched the point of the failure
of city government in America, when
he said 1.-THE real reason is that the
great majority CT active men i'm our
cities will not spare the time for
thorough and consecutive political
thinking There. are indeed, from
time to time, spasnodic efforts in our
great cities, hut as rule the mer-
camille spirit predominates over the
political spirit. The affairs of the
city are virtually handed over to a
few men who make politics. so called.
a business. The very germ of the
difficulty was touched once in my
presence by a leading man of bust
ness I'm our great metropolis, who
said: We have thought this thing
over and we find that il pays better
TO neglect our city affairs than to
attend to them; that we can make
more money in the time required for
the full discharge of our political du-
ties than the politicians can steal
from us on account of our not dis
charging them. Here is the simple
naive expression in municipal matters
of the mercantile spirit entirely domi-
nant over the political spirit"
A man who could hold such views as
the sentiment quoted by Doctor White
from this leading man of business"
must surely have been blinded by
greed so that he could not see any
thing beyond the limits of profit and
loss. But such a man ought to ask
himself, What is the moral effect of
clevating lad men to high place in
the city's government? What influ-
ence must the elevation of such men
have upon the minds of boys and
young men in the city,
There can be no surer way of en-
couraging all the young men of a city
TO lead immoral lives than to elect to
the office of mayor a man VIGOROUSLY
addicted to immortality. Under the
shadow of decentralization of such
a mayor vice flourishes and virtue
withers away. If any have a mawk
ish sympathy for such a creature, it
were better to pension him and lock
him up at home than to put him into
Nhe mayors chair. where poisonous
influences will issue from him
throughout the whole community more
deadly than the effihalations of the
upas tree.
1t lowers the moral tone of a city
to elevate to its chief office a man
who outrages all the ethical stand
ards of civilized society, let his
business qualifications be what they
may. 1t is poor business to put
him in such place. for it damages
the city both at home and abroad
damages it financially even, not to
speak of higher considerations than
dollars and cents. The honouring of
him discourages virtue and inspires
vice TO brazen effrontery.
Nevertheless such a man in offer
ing for Office in the government of a
city has a certain infamous advan-
tage over decent men who may OPP
pose him; for he can rely upon the
solidarity of the forces of evil and
the want of solidarity in the forces
of good. The liquor interests, for