Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-05

| ana smell of the strongest cigars, campa ign
| ing for better government. He drove home
| the cry of graft" when other lips were
| silent
BY showering tricky criticism upon this
conscientious man and hampering his work,
Councils seeks openly to discredit the better
government he wishes to provide for Phila-
delphia, Hirelings issue long statements
which are treated with SNUG dignity by or
sans OF the machine. The Mayors ap-
pointees are sneered at in cafe gatherings.
and their well-meaning efforts in the public
veal are distorted garbed and falsified to
the people. All the way up from a Common
Councilman provided with a $1,000 county
clerkship and the lumbago, to silk-stocking
United States Senator with a steam yacht
and robust constitution. there is now in
progress deliberate and wholesome misrep-
resentation of Mayor Blankenburg, his ap-
pointees, their purposes and their works.
Lincoln Steffens some 12 years ago said
that municipal government was an unstudied
art In America, and he claimed that so far
there had been no market in this country for
experts willing to do the peoples business
we'll He forecast the defeat OF Mayor Low
by Tammany, after the head of Columbia
University had faithfully served New York
city for two years. People thought Mr..
Steffens was mistaken, but when the returns
came in, Mayor Low was buried under an
avalanche of Misrepresentation.
THE Organization" of Philadelphia has
studied we'll the events leading up to the de-
feat of Mayor Low. Tammany conducted
its shameful campaign against Mayor Low
in the Board of Aldermen, where un-
scrupulous henchmen arose and made major
events out of minor mistakes. Economy was
the them nv hnp np
the tigers skin. Note the similarity of
method and place. oh! they exchange mrch,
these men who make a business of embrac-
ing the opportunities in a control of public
offices.
New York city Is rolygot. 1t is the
metropolis, and, like Paris and London, at
tracts the over-fed crushing rich and holds
fast in its nav the weak alien poor. Yet
New York soon repented of it's defeat of the
better government of Mayor Low. It had
tasted of decency, and has since returned to
n government that represents the people, and
not the political contractor. Half of the
population OF Philadelphia is native born.
We are city of homes, with leisure, repose
and roomy backyards. We have space to
think in, and we know how to think, and we
know when we are being exploited. This is
our chief advantage over New York
Men in politics a profession are In
clever in the sense of sickness.
They improvse instantly. "Oh! Director!
He wants to be Mayor next year. The
Is thinking seriously Of taking
him up, and nominating him." said one of
these contractor lords this summer at
Atlantic City in the presence of the relative |
Of another Director than the one mentioned. |
1t was shrewd move. The barb was planted |
dexterously 10 arouse jealousy in the official |
family Of the Mayor. It may surprise the |
politician to learn that the shaft went wide |
1f it's mark as the two supposed rival |
Directors dined together the next night and |
agreed that private life was infinitely pref
arable TO the stigma of Endorsement by "The
Directors for nearly three years have had
knowledge of the vicious features
If machine rule. They know from the in
side Of City Hall all about the systematic
assessment OF officeholders the barter in
franchises, the waste of public funds, and
,ther signs of the cloven hoof in public af-
he obstruction tactics of Councils why Phil
better government" has not ad-
'anced more rapidly has been because it's
have had to devote their
initial efforts to the repair and correction of
wills that went before
But the honest men are in office in Phila-
elpha They are about as upright a body
+ men as any city could hire, They may be
obbled and embarrassed in their work by
ne fetch -and-carry underlings of the con-
ractor overlords, but the honest men are
here, on the job, and no calumny or canard
an destroy their public service