The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-11-04
Municipal Elections.

Of the many municipal elections being de-
cided today at least three have attracted atten-
ton from the county at large-New York, Phila-
delphia and Cincinnati.
That the whole nation should watch with
eager expectancy the fight in some one town is
Indicative of the position now occupied in the
United States by the city. Some years ago few
cared how municipal elections might turn out
because they had little or no effect on state
and national politics. Our population then was
almost entirely rural. Farmers welded the
whip and held the balance of power. Today the
nation is more than half citified. With the shift
ing of a majority to the towns the center of gray
itation in politics has necessarily changed.
1t is also significant that a large number of
municipal struggles are being fought out over
non-political issues. The feeling grows that ma
tional parties have no right to control local af-
fairs. Where the issues concern the North or
the South, or large territories, or the country in
its entirety, party politics are inevitable but there
is no possible reason for party politics deciding
whether a town should have an efficient mayor,
or the streets be paved, or garbage promptly cart
ed away.
This is plainly the issue in Cincinnati's warm
contest where Mayor Hunt is today doing battle
for reelection. This remarkable young execu-
1--WE has ill cuNldUlc IOI clI1IlCISy
and has marked an epoch in the Queen City's
rather unfortunate municipal history. The lines
are clearly drawn between the Cox machine with
it's long record of graft and incompetency and
Mayor Hunt with his admirable record for eff
ficiency, economy and ability.
Similarly, Blankenburg stands squarely on
his record of past success in his appeal to Phila-
delphia voters. There, as in Cincinnati, the fight
is not between Republican and Democrat or Pro-
gressive, but between those who banker for the
city's pork barrel, and those who have installed
an efficiency system in the city hall
New York's situation is somewhat of a mix
ture. The Sulzer affair has injected an alien is
sue into the campaign and served to snarl the
lines. Mr.. Hearst, as usual, has taken a hand in
the matter and appeals for his Independence par
ty. The Citizens Committee, in it's alliances
with all parties has further complicated the stu
alton.
Still, in spite of the complexities, it is every
where understood that the real fight is between
Tammany Hall and all the rest, what there are
of the rest. Mr.. Murphy has revealed his old
time astuteness in selecting Edward Mccall as
his candidate. Tammany Hall contains no man
more capable or more generally liked and re-
spected than the Judge. Many will be constrain-
ed to vote for him in preference to the younger
Mitchell, Che heads the Fusion ticket) who other
wise would repudiate Tammany in toto. None of
the parties in the Gotham contest is able to pre-
dict the outcome with any degree of confidence,
but the betting seems to give Mitchell the prefer
ence, even granting him a lead of 10000 votes.
The local contest reveals something of all these
conditions. Here too, the people are ousting a
Tammany Hall, a Tammany Hall which,, though
small, has long ruled with Murphy's own meth
DDS, and has controlled this community as COM
pletely as Murphy has controlled New York. On
the diverse, the contest is also over the issue of
efficiency as in Cincinnati. Here too an aid Cox
like machine has run the city's affairs with queer
antique methods too confused to stand the
searchlight of investigation and analysis. And
here too a young man, full of life and vigor, de-
stined to be Richmond's Mayor Hunt, has STEP
ped forth to smash the machine forever. That
he is going to do it nobody has the least doubt.
The Mexican Crisis.