New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-08
WhyN York City Turned
Thumbs Down on Mitchell
By William Nj. Houghton

Mayor Mitchell is a badly licked can
didate.
In these few words NAV be summed
up the result Of Tuesdays election
which has torn through the town like
storm, leaving not Fusion political
fence standing.
The great Tammany plurality was
not vote for Hylan, except IN the
formal, p,rfunctory sense. IL was a
vote against Mitchell. Every one &C
knowledges this. possibly even Hyian
himself. The election turned on
Mitchel's personality, those who ap-
proved il and what it stands for vot-
ing the Fusion ticket; those who OBJ
jected to it voting for any one OF three
ether candidates, but principally, as
the event proves. for John F. Hylan.
Viewed from this angle, The Mayor
atty vote stands l49, 1907 for and 93,l3S
against Mitchell, or thumbs down" in
no indecisive fashion for as picturesque
and gallant young gladiator as the
public life Of this town has produced
since Jerome quit cold. The favorite
of four years ago had become a vic
tim of public spleen. There is some
thing almost malevOlent in this glazing
example of the fckleness OF popular
affection.
Difficult to Explain
II is difficult for those who voted for
! the Mayor 10 explain the degree and
extent of his lately acquired unpopu-
larlty. They cannot resolve 1t into
terms Of patriotism. The anti-war pro-
test WAS no doubt considerable factor
as the large Hiuquit vote shows, and
Mitchell, for the purposes Of the local
campaign, personiiied the war. But the
great majority of those who blackbs lied
HIM are patriotic Americans, who re-
fused to take seriously the imputations
against Hyian's Americanism.
There are some, of course, patriots
themselves, who voted against the
Mayor for what they considered his I'M
warranted arrogatlon 10 himself Of all
the patriotic virtues. But IL seems
probable that while the patriotic issue
did not make many votes for Mitchell,
il did not lose him a decisive number
In other words, that II was not a boom
erang. He was showed under for other
reasons.
these reasons, however, are equally
hard to find in the Mayors official rec
ord. No administration has been free.
from scandals of any consequence.
None other has provided a Police De-
partment so objectionable and bust
nesslike, or town so orderly and de-
cent in all the contacts 10 which the
average citizen is subjected. None has
given an impression of more enlighten-
ment or genuine public spirit When
Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Evans
! Hughes caiIed Mitchell the best Mayor
New York has ever had they meant ex-
actIy what they said.
4 Pertinent Question
Why should a patriotic city (the
character of the Liberty Loan subscrip-
ton here 8bides as an LnansweTsble
reputation OF any charge TO the con-
trGry), repudiate so emphaticslly 80
emphatic patriot? Why should city
which still remembers the night Of
Tammany misrule reject so overwhelm-
ing!y so excellent a Mayorg
Because the good citizens of this
town swallowed what Hearst said about
him, that he was frivoluos tango
dancer, that he was a social climber
and snob, that he was a friend of the
plunderbund, a little brother of the
rich, an arrogant ally of Rockefeller.
They took seriously, for example, that
editorial which appeared in The Jour
ral' one afternoon, which pictured the
Mayor as returning home from an
eng with Vanderbilt, with the
exclamation TO his wife: My dear, he
called me Jack tonight"
Hearst bad help, of course-from
! Mitchell himself. The Mayor. whether
from certain arrogance Of youth,
which IS temporary, or for more per-
manent tenperamental reasons, utterly
I lacks fnesse as a politician. He APP
pears to have made more personal enc
mics even than the irascible and i'm
perious Gaynor. and to have done IL
tor the most part unwittingly. In ad-
dition, he has ignored and fouted, on
! occasion, the interests of organized
groups.
Police Against Mitchell
The twelve thousand policemen in
the city were against him almost TO a
man because in the very beginning of
his administration he had inspired the
introduction OF legislation in Albany
to deprive them, when dismissed. of
their right of review in the courts.
The Mayor, il will be remembered,
sought thus to comply with the condi.
ton on which Major General Goethals
I insisted before he would consent 20
Z become Police Commissioner. The
Mayors bill was defeated, but the po-
lice haven't forgotten.
The twenty-eight thousand element.
airy teachers in the public schools op-
posed him for his effort to introduce
the Gary system and make them work