Judge — August 15, 1925 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ss a Georgia legislator, “I don’t want any smart Alec trying to teach my child that man descended from a tadpole or a monkey.” Then why not send him to a school where they teach evolution? a tH If one must believe literally that man was created in the image of God, the question arises, which man, the white man, or the black man, the red man, or the yellow man? And whichever it is, you can hardly blame the others for being evolutionists. Hizzoner HE most interesting political contest in this country to-day centers about Hizzoner John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York City. This is not only because New York is the largest city in the country, but because Mr. Hylan, in all likelihood, has been its worst ‘mayor, and that is saying something. Also because he is a symbol of the times. In speaking of him as probably the worst mayor that New York has suffered under in its 300 years of history we are not attacking his morals. On the contrary, we are ready to believe with his friends that the Mayor's home life is exemplary and his official life reasonably honest. If he has favored his friends and relatives some- what in the parceling out of city business, and if he has confused personal loyalty with public welfare in the handing out of city jobs, why let him who would be less human cast the first stone. We feel sure New York has had more sinful mayors and less honest mayors; but never before, we believe, has it had one who combined such a lack of intelligence with such a lack of dignity and competency. se eH Y= Hizzoner has performed political prodigies. Not only did he defeat the late Mayor Mitchel by a majority unheard of up to that time (in his original bid for the job of mayor), but four years later he won a re- election by an even greater majority. To appreciate this second performance one should remember that since the consolidation of the Greater City in 1898 no mayor, with one doubtful exception, had been able even to achieve a re-election, let alone romp away with it. The exception was McClellan, who was really defeated by Hearst but Counted in with a margin of 200 votes. On top of this Hylan now aspires to a third term, and but for the determined opposition of the estimable Al Smith would undoubtedly again be Tammany’s candi- date, Ww has New York clung so to this bird of the brilliant topknot and the loud squawk? We know it is the fashion in the hinterland to sneer at New York and espe- cially at New Yorkers. But the average of intelligence in this city can hardly be so much below that of the rest of the country, considering its neat way of persuading the rest of the country to pay it financial tribute. And taking its mayors as a whole they have averaged in intelligence, dignity and competency rather well above the run of mayors in most of the smaller cities—as they should. The real explanation of Hylan’s appeal seems to lie not in any disproportionate percentage of morons among his constituents, but in his personal adaptability to mass selling. st ta L= us remember that Hylan’s god and backer is William Randolph Hearst, the Father of Yellow Journalism, the King of the Comic Strip. Hearst knows how to appeal to the mind of the majority better than any other man of his generation. He wastes no time reasoning with it; he simply drums on it with one elementary idea at a time, after the manner of Coué or the advertising fraternity, until what he has to say sinks into the sub- conscious and there produces results. In his desire to dominate in local as well as national politics Hearst years ago invented and gave currency to all the slogans and epithets that have comprised Hylan’s whole bag of tricks. And in Hylan he finally found their ideal mouthpiece— ideal in this respect that, having no ideas of his own, Hylan never deviates from those with which he has been charged, nor does he ever lose his enthusiasm for them. He repeats to-day with the same fire and lack of humor, all that he has ever said about the “in’trests,” the “trac- tion gang,” the “corrupt newspapers,” the “five-cent fare,” the “people’s friend,” etc.—and nothing more. An intelligent man would have to vary this program or gag. But Hylan during eight mortal years has stuck to his stuff with the faithfulness of the Gold Dust Twins or the Campbell Kid. Of course, he has reaped his reward, as Hearst in his Mephistophelian wisdom foresaw. For the method is sure fire anywhere—ask any successful vendor of a cheap product. se Ae Bz now the interesting question arises, must the hypno- tized people of New York re-elect Hizzoner for as long as Mr. Hearst cares to insist upon it, or can Al Smith break the spell for them? Again we find ourselves rooting for the good Al. What New York would do without him God only knows! W. M.H. comicbooks.com