Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-04
DlSSENSloN OVER JOBS
NOT THE WAY TO HELP MOORE
But Friction over Patronage Is One Of
the Incidents of the dmnlstration's
Adjustment to Its Proper
Functions

election of Mayor Moore and a Council
in sympathy with his purposes should go
off into room by themselves and Sc
riously consider whether they wish to
wreck the new administration on the rock
of spoils.
They can wreck it if they think that a
few offices filled at their dictation are of
greater Importance than harmonious CO.
operation in the work of giving the city a
better government than it has had in the
past.
The only vital question in the distribu-
tion of patronage is whether the men ap-
pointed to office are in sympathy with the
administration. So far as the success of
the experiment now under way is con-
cerned, it does not matter much to the
public generally whether the appointees
are suggested by Thomas Cunningham,
of the Republican Alliance, or George
Coles, of the Town Meeting party, or
whether Sheriff Lamberton or Council
man Roper picks the new appointees from
the Twenty-second ward or whether Rob-
ert Carson or John f. Sloan is the leader
of the Forty-sixth ward.
1t may matter a great deal to the
political fortunes of the men named. But
it was not to increase the political power
of any group of men for their own ad-
vantage that the old machine was turned
out of the City Hall.
The old regime was rejected for the
reason that it's ideals and its philosophy
were wrong. The city had been man.
aged on the theory thai the primary pur-
pose of government is to provide Offices
for deserving politicians who should
serve the men who ran the political ma
chine as an adjunct to their private busi
ness enterprises. If it is not a crime
against the law it is an offense against
democracy and the finer instincts of
every honorable man and woman.
The hope was entertained that with a
new deal there would come new ideals
and a new philosophy, and that attention
would be concentrated on the ends for
which government exists and that there
would be a whole-hearted and sincere CO.
operation toward accomplishing those
ends.
Much has been done that justities the
expectations of those who voted for the
new Mayor and his associates. There is
GNluSllSS VI d new spun IL az WOIh III lllS
City Hail. 1t is for this very reason that
the signs of friction are disturbing and
disconcerting.
1t is impossible for new Mayor to
satisfy every one in the distribution of
patronage, and it is particularly difficult
in this city, where customs and processes
of thought have been intrenched for
years and to some extent color the think
ing even of those who would abandon
them.
The law of inertia governs thought as
it governs material things, and when
thought has been going in a given direc-
ton for q generation it will continue in
that direction until it is DETECTED by
powerful external force. We shall know
definitely in a year or two whether the
external force eXerted at the November
election was strong enough to head the
political thinking of this city in a new
direction and toward loftier goal. But
the force of inertia is still operating to
pull it back into the old grooves.
We believe that the Mayor will fight
this tendency with all the power at his
command. Upon his success in fighting
it depends the success of his administra-
ton. No one knows this better than he.
And we assume that the squabbling over
patronage that is now going on among
the leaders of the Republican Alliance
and the Town Meeting party and other
independent groups is intensely displeas-
ing to him.
There was bound to be friction in ad-
iusting the machinery of the new admin
istration. And the old organization was
bound to do its utmost to fill the bearings
with sand. Some of the new leaders were
out of sympathy with the old organiza-
ton not because they objected to its
methods, but because they had not been
able to get from it what they wanted.
Their reform ideals were diluted with
self-seeking. If they cannot get what
they want they will turn on the men in
power now just as they turned on the
men in power in the past They have to
be reckoned with by the Mayor and pla-
Gated or disregarded as seems best under
the circumstances in each case.
There is a prospect, however, for a
harmonious outcome. The disagreement
over the distribution of the patronage of
the Council may be removed by an
amicable adjustment within a few days.
An open break was avoided yesterday
afternoon when the appointments were
postponed. The desirability of preserving
harmony among the eleven administra-
ton councilmen is so evident that no one
was willing to run the risk of an open
break, especially as one or more of the
eleven councilmen was talking of rebel
lion in the morning.
The exercise of little enlightened
common sense ought to smooth out the
difficulties. For example, it is preposter-
Gus to expect the chairman of the finance
committee to permit outsiders to name
the clerk to his committee. And indeed,
the Council itself should control all its
own patronage. The councilmen have
been elected to perform certain functions
and among them is the function of organ
izing and employing such assistants as