Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-05
HOPES OF THE CITY HIGH
AS MAYOR MOORE STEPS IN
He viii Succeed II He Can Induce All
His Associates to Merit the
Same Trust


of every one
The men who eXerted themselves to
prevent his nomination and, when that
failed. did their best to secure the election
of Council which would be hostile to
hin, are saying that thev wish him well.
They could not say anything else. How
sincere they arc will he determined when
they begin to act.
There is an impression abroad that
they will lie in wait for him and that if
they can catch him off his guard they
will drive a knife under his fifth rib
and give it vicious twist.
Mr.. Moore, however, knows all their
tricks. He has not once been caught
mapping since he entered the campaign
for the nomination, for he has outplayed
the opposition at every move.
He enters Office supported by major
ity of the new Council organized by his
friends and held to its duty by the con-
sciousness that the whole city is watch
ing its members and by the knowledge
that Mr.. Moore is also watching them.
with his weather eye on the heavens and
on South Philadelphia, looking for the
first sign of the swoopng down of any
predatory hawk upon his little brood.
Other Mayors have entered office with
the same protestations of desire to
serve the people that Mr.. Moore is max
ing. But, with few exceptions, his prede-
cessors have been speaking in Pick
wickian sense. Their pronouncements
have resembled the outgivings of Pres-
dent Castro of Venezuela, who uttered
grand and lofty sentiments with his
mouth while with his hands he was rob-
bing every one within his reach.
The public is paying Mr.. Moore the
high compliment of accepting at their
face value his protestations of deter
mination to serve the city to the best Of
his ability. There is widespread faith
in the honesty of his purposes. His past
record fortunately justifies that conf
dence. He has gone to and fro among
the politicians of this city and among
the statesmen in Washington and during
all the years has kept his hands clean
and his reputation free from the breath
of suspicion.
He has not been unaware of what has
been going on in Philadelphia. And
when the time was ripe and the people
were ready he entered the campaign as
chine held together by common hunger
for easy money filched from the pockets
OF the taxpayers.
He fought that machine and won a
victory which has made him national
figure.
Now he is to be put to the test, not
the test of the honesty of his purposes.
but of his ability to change the habits of
tdc of1iceholders and to force men who
have been accustomed to the old system
to adopt new one, based on different
standards of public service.
The men whom he has appointed to
take charge of the different city depart
ments are in sympathy with his pur-
poses. Otherwise they would not have
been selected But hundreds of men
trained in the old methods will remain at
their desks. Some of his supporters are
with him because they We're dissatisfied
with ther treatment by the old machine
rather than because they did not like it's
methods. Selfshness is back of their
action. and they will remain selfish to
the end. Their backing will handicap the
Mayor because they are likely to turn
on him as they turned on others when
they could not get what they wanted for
themselves.
Mr. Moore must be trusted to deal
with these men when the occasion arises.
His knowledge of political history will
show him the way. He knows the value
of publicity, for he has already used it
in dealing with the organization of the
Council. 1t is just as efficacious in deal
ing with big men, as Roosevelt demon
strated when he was governor of New
York. When that distinguished man was
threatened by Tom Platt, the state boss,
he told Platt that if he made the reprisals
which he threatened, he, Roosevelt, would
tell the public of the threat and chal-
lenge the boss to do his worst. Platt
caved at once, for he dared not bring
upon his own head the flood of indigna-
tion which he knew would follow.
| Mr.. Moore will make mistakes, for he
/ is only a human being. Some of the
! blunders will be through errors of iudg-
! ment, others will come from accepting
| the wrong advice; but so long as he can
| hold the present popular confidence in
| his honest desire to do the right thing,
! all these mistakes can be pardoned after
! thew have been condemned.
The art of government, as Jefferson
once said. consists in the art of being
honest. Of course, he used honesty in
its broad sense with all its implications.
| The French Revolution arose because
there was dishonesty in government. The
czar was overthrown in Russia more
recently for the same reason. And the
| BoIshevist regime, now tottering, will
tumble to its fall because its leaders have
~
but the good of group. And right here
at home there has been political over
tarn because the old regime in Philadel-,
| phia was Bolshevistic at bottom, and
acted on the theory that government is