New-York tribune., 1918-07-28
John Purroy Mitchell
From The New Republic
NHE circumstances surrounding ,a,


that followed him through life. The uubv.
knew him as fearless executive Of se,u
pulous integrity, brilliant administers,
but especially as man Of precoeio..
achievement. Until his defeat in the la,
municipal campaign his career had bean
succession Of public triumphs
But those who knew him we'll knew ale.
that he never held public office by his ON,
free initiative. Few men had his dista.,.
for the political limelight, his sens;tv.
aversion to all forms of personal publicitv
Every office he held be held in respons.
to the opportunities of friends who eb.l.
lenged his proud sense of duty This NAV
account for his answering dash in follow.
ing the strait and narrow path Of e,.
ecutive integrity once he had accepted 70.
sponsibility, as it may also account fo-
his deliberate failure to capitalize h,
achievements into personal popularity. IA
was willing to serve unfalteringly and with
all that was iii him when he was presssd
into service; but he was austerely uuwlt-
ing to blow his own trumpet, to advertise
his own claims to public preferment. his
allegiance was to duty, not to personal
ambition.
For this reason he never sought office in
the manner customary with men who enter
political life; the office always sought him.
Temperamentally he would have preferred
less conspicuous career. What career. be
himself had never quite clearly determined
had never had leisure to determine. Be
had hardly left college when he was
pressed into public service, and thereafter
the public demands upon him were unre-
mitting. It was not until war threatened
that his whole ardent nature responded to
a call in which desire and duty united.
Plattsburg was his first depression from
the exactions of public Office The Ger
man menace to his country fully aroused
his latent chivalrous instincts. His final
acceptance of the mayoralty nomination
last summer was for him a superlative
sacrifice of desire to duty. What he most
wanted was to enlist in the army and rise
to leadership in the military service That
he should have been denied this common
privilege after he had willed the sacrifice
and received his release, that death should
his way through to the fighting front, was
the elimination of the fateful undercur.
rent that shadowed his life.
Some of his friends, some Of the men
who were nearest to him and shared his
most intimate counsels, will question the
validity of this Interpretation. It is DOS.
sble that he himself would have cues.
10 nat
ton. He made quick and cean-cut de-
cisions and stood by them resolutely. Some
of the men who were his aids in govern
ment used to speak of him as the flashing
sword for which they were the scabbard
they planned, but it was he who after TAX
ing counsel put their common plans
through. But the quality of his decisions
was that of noblesse oblige rather than
that Of the democratic leader primarily
concerned with estimating the vague will
of the masses and moulding his judgments
to his estimate Of the popular will He did
things not because he believed them pop
ular even in the best sense of that word
but because he personally believed them
right. And having made his decision, he /
was rarely willing to interpret his subse-
quent action to the groping mind of the I
people. He insisted that integrity in judg.
ment and conduct must stand as its own I
and final justification.
1t was this temperamental unwillingnessI
to plead his case with the people, to ac
company his eXecutive acts with a running |
comment of popular Interpretation, that
gradually alienated the perplexed masses
from him and involved many of his most
valuable civic experiments in cloud Of
popular misapprehension. His abstract
sense of the right was instructive. It is
reasonably certain that the essential right.
ness of his plans for the reform of thsI
schools and for the modernization of the
departments of public charities and po-l
lice will ultimately be recognized. But his
reluctance to take the masses into his in.
innate counsels, to dramatize his execu-
tive decisions in his own person, made i. /
possible for INSCRIPTIONS persons to be.
tray the people into believing that bis |
plans were inspired by sterile desire to l
save money, to protect the rich Taxpayer |
at the expense of popular institutions.
Some of his critics have said that he 1
sought to make efficiency a substitute fo B
democracy. 1t was not SO that he reasoned
tie was not social philosopher II wG 4
ms sure instinct for the right thing that i
made him perceive that no form of govern
ment could endure if it permitted the in 1
struments of government to grow rusty 1
and rotten with incompetence and corrup
ton. His ardent sense of duty, of noblesss !
oblige, made him concentrate his mind and !.
energies upon the forging of an instru' i
ment through which his community could
junction effectively. His outstanding |
achievement was that he charged public |
service with the inspiration of his fine
ideal OF clean. disinterested and com
petent workmanship as the first obligation
OF the public servant. The record of MS
life is an enduring monument to The great
est lesson democracy has to learn if it
to make its dominion in the world secuEs