Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-03
MAKE GOOD, MR.. SMITH

Wv Mayor of New York, was denounced by
all the reformers as a creature of the ma
chine. They said he could not have been
nominated without making a bargain with
Tammany, and insisted that he would betray
the people to reward the bosses.
Mr. Gaynor did not make that kind of
Mayor. He was his own master He had
ideals and he strove with all his might to
govern in accordance with those ideals and
not in the way the machine wanted him to
| govern. Men who had lived in the same city
with him for twenty years did not know him,
but when they had an opportunity to see him
| in action in the City Hall they apologized
for their ante-election attacks.
They discovered that a man nominated and
elected by the machine could be good
! Mayor.
! Gaynor however, was never a machine
man. even If he was elected by Tammany.
! Thomas L. Gilroy, who was Mayor few
years before him, had always been Tam
many man.
He began ofTicehodng as the clerk in
police court. He proved that he had poiti-
cal instincts and more than ordinary ability
and appointed or elected to several
Offices Of increasing Importance till he finally
became Mayor The Evening Post, the paper
which Joseph II. Choate once said made
virtue repulsive, declared that the city
nufnllateu Dy the election or n mere ram
many heller
Gilroy was the product of the Tammany
system which is based on the survival of
the fttest. He was a Tammany heeler if
you please. but he was n man of long train
ing in handling public business. Gilroy had
the qualifications which George Wharton
Pepper last summer confessed that he did not
possess when he declined to become candi-
date for the mayoralty nomination here.
Mr. Pepper then said that the Mayor should
be man with preliminary training in office
holding, or in the study of municipal ques-
tions in their practical relations. Although
the rcformers did not take back what they
said of Gilroy he made one of the most
capable Mayors New York ever had
The success of the machine Mayors of Bos-
ton has been the despair of the opposition.
Fitzgerald. who was Mayor twice. did SO we'll
in his second term that the Back Bay anna
teur politicians confessed they did not know
how to oppose him when he was doing so
many good things for the city
Chicago has had a similar experience !
Carter II. Harrison, n machine man, knew
what the city wanted and needed, and in his |
numerous Administrations he proved that
expert knowledge is as useful in governing
a city as in running any other business
Reform Mayors often have failed because |
more than good intentions to succeed in pub
lie office. They have trampled on the sus-
capabilities of the public. They have not
been trained in the arts of diplomacy and
have not known how to get with people.
Seth Low, as able and high minded man as
there is in New York, one of the poorest
Mayors that city ever elected.
The Blankenburg Administration here, in
many respects one of the most brilliant
the city has had, would have been much
more successful If there had been more prac-
tical politicians in high places in 1t, not to
play politics, but to handle men.
The machine Administration which comes
into office today will succeed in places where
the Blanlenburg Administration failed. 1t
has an opportunity also to succeed where its
predecessor succeeded. Thomas b. Smith de-
sires to be a good Mayor. Without any
doubt he intends to serve the city to the
best of his ability He has announced that
he will not play politics, that his appoint
ments have been made not TO reward one
faction or another but because the men
selected are capable of doing the work
pected of them.
Mr.. Smith, however, was not nominated
to be the kind of Mayor he has said that he
will be. He was picked by the machine be-
cause 1t thought that it could use him. Con-
ditlOnS We're Sucn last summer that the ma
chine thought it could elect yellow dog. A
much worse man than Mr.. Smith might have
been nominated.
He has an opportunity to prove that he is
big enough to compel the Organization to
cooperate with him in giving to the city the
kind of government that it should have. The
leaders will undoubtedly cooperate with him
in executing the great program of public
improvements for which plans have long
been making. He has the power to prevent
grave scandal in the awarding of contracts
and to see to it that the city gets value re-
ceived for what is spent. 1t remains to be
seen whether he has the intellectual force
and the moral courage to exercise that power
to the full. The EVENING LEDGER hopes that
he has. 1t will be the first to commend him
when he does we'll and not the last to con-
denim him when he does i'll.
If Mr.. Smith is the kind of man he thinks
he is, he will be the kind OF Mayor he hopes
to be.