Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-19
THIS TIME WE ESCAPE
THE AMATEUR MAYOR
Congressman Moore Has the Mind and
Training Necessary to Get the Best
Out Of the New Charter

Training Necessary to Get the Best
Out Of the New Charter
| MO ONE who doesn't want to go as far
y wrong as Uncle Dave Lane went in
his recent appraisals of public sentiment
will suppose that the municipal admins
tration is as yet assured of deliverance
from the sort of influence which the Ware
| organization typifed.
| In the eyes of those who understood
the possibilities of the revised city char
ter the fight for majority in the new
! Council seemed even more important than
! the fight for the mayoralty nomination.
! Candidates who jubilantly wore the label
of the Ware organization won nomina-
! tions for ten of the twenty-one seats.
Independent sentiment in the city is rep
resented by the other clcven-by a ma
jority of one.
Will that slim majority stand?
Will it continue under the enormous
pressure that is sure to be eXerted be-
tween now and the elections, and even
after the Council is organized, for con-
troll of body that in the end must formu-
late municipal policies, spend municipal
money and make or break a Mayor?
Many of the candidates for Council
who ran in opposition to the Wares are
not the sort of men whom you would
| expect to die for principle. Nor are
| they even the sort who might be eN-
| pected to oppose the rule of intrigue and
stupidity that used to make many ses-
sons of the old Councils something Of
scandal.
1t is for this reason that voters still
have it in their power to decide whether
the city shall actually have an oppor-
tunity for enlightened self-government
after the election. And it is because the
nature and complexion of the new Coun-
Gil cannot now be determined with in
falibiity that Congressman Moore's
election will be fortunate circumstance.
Mr.. Moore is honest. He has courage.
He is qualified to report to the people
about what goes on in Council during the
first years of an extraordinary expert
ment with a new form of city govern
ment that has innumerable possibilities
for good and almost as many possibili-
ties for corruption and failure.
There are voters with an independent
| turn of mind who refused to support
Mr.. Moore because they couldn't see all
their ideals realized in a man who hap
pens to be a practiced politician. Were
| they little better versed in the processes
of city administration these same men
| would perceive the futility of such a
| prejudice A man who was not expert in
politics and familiar with every detail of
| the game as it is practced could serve
! only purposes of ornament in the Mayors
| office during the next four years.
1t is with politicians that the Mayor
has always to deal. 1t is with politicians
that he will have to do battle if he is to
have any success and if he is to do any
| good.
1t is by the political method that cities
are governed. When we find another
| method it may be wise to elect men to
| important offices who do not know the
| ms and outs of the system and are unable
! to understand the methods and means by
/ which bosses and their satellites survive.
| A Mayor without knowledge of poll
| tics would be of no more use to the city
than any other amateur in job that re-
ouired trained eye and an expert hand.
| Mr.. Blankenburg was one of the ablest
and sincerest men who ever held Office in
Philadelphia. But he wasn't a good ad-
ministrative politician and the reforms
| that he began lasted no longer than his
term of Office.
Political leaders are necessary. But
there is no reason why political leader
ship should degenerate into villainy and
establish itself on a basis of organized
lawlessness. That sort of thing was
familiar to Philadelphia until the tide
began to turn H the primaries.
No particular class of voters may be
credited with Mr.. Moore's narrow vic
tory, 1t is idle to say that an upheaval
of righteous sentiment overthrew the
Wares.
1t was something almost as good as
Righteousness. 1t was the determined
desire of the ordinary voter in Ware
wards and elsewhere for the great Ameri-
can privilege of a new deal.
The people who like to be classified in
dependently as "good" agitated them
selves a bit, to be sure, in the fight
against Judge Patterson. But they
didn't agitate very greatly.
1t was within the Ware machine that
the really important things happened.
The Organization had presumed bit
too far. 1t had disregarded few too
many of the decencies. Streets were a
bit too dirty, leaders were bit too tyran-
nical, the bosses themselves a little too
reckless. Ward bosses like Harry Mackey
and Bill McCoach couldn't deliver when
their chief beckoned. There was no
morale in the ranks.
In the Thirtieth ward McCoach mus
tered a majority of 1000 for the Ware
candidate in the previous election. He
could find only 600 majority for Pat
terson. The Thirty-sixth used to give
Ware candidates 1900 at least over oppo,
nents. On this occasion it delivered ap.
.