Life — October 1, 1903 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

“White there is Life there's Hope.” vot. XtL OCT. 1, 1903. No. 1092, 19 West Tntkty-Finst St., New Yous. Woeents. Bi after three months from date ot Bevats. will be returned unless stamped and addressed No contribution accompanied by envelope. The itiustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced, Prompt notification should be sent by sub= scribers of any change of address. (PERHAPS it was as well to have the worst said about Mayor Low at the start, Any how, whether it was best or not, Mr. Jerome said it. He thought the Mayor lacked per- * sonal charm, He admitted regret- fully, but with at he was not crazy about Dr. wanted to be about his candidate for Mayor. He suggested doubt whether Dr. Low has a due proportion of red corpuscles in his blood, and protested that the situation called for a leader who could lead, and that Dr. Low had no leadership in him, Now it is perfectly trne that the Mayor is no mesmerist. Dr. Dowie, who is coming here next week from Chicago to convert our town, is a better hypnotizer in a minute than Dr. Low is in half aday. Dowie has leadership, red corpuscles, gal- vanism—all the qualities which Mr. Jerome finds wanting in Dr. Low, and the fatal gift of beauty besides. If Dowie looks like his best portraits, he is prettier than Dr. Low, though Dr. Low must be sufficiently handsome, for Mr. Jerome did not disparage his looks. Bat do we want a Dowie for Mayor? Think how he would run! Think of the whirlwind campaign he would make, and how he would talk to the voters! Would we even want a Jerome for Mayor this year? Mr. Low as he * LIFE» Jerome has all tho qualities that Dr. Low is said to lack—charm, sporting blood, red corpuscles, audacity, and a winning indiscretion that made him the hero of the campaign two years ago. But we don’t want a Dowie for Mayor, and it is far from certain that we would want a Jerome, for we don’t know what sort of a Mayor Mr. Jerome would make, W E doknow what sort of a Ma Dr. Low will make. We have had him for Mayor for two years past, and we want him for two years more, if we can elect him. Not because he fires our imaginations and disturbs our judgment by his personal fascinations, but because he has been an excellent Mayor, and the head of the best govern- ment the City of New York has had in the memory of man, It is rather a humdrum job to be Mayor. Letting off fireworks on the steps of the City Hall is only an inci- dent—a rare incident—of the business, Most of the time, being Mayor is hard and rather disagreeable work. Mayor Low is an able, upright man, and is a good worker. At this writing he has not yet been renominated, but there is every prospect that he will be, for the reason that he is believed to be the strongest anti-Tammany candidate that can be put up. Can we elect him? Mr. Jerome says wecan’t. Other observers as well qualified as he to judge say wecan. We must elect him, Intelligent self-interest coerces and constrains us to reelect him, The objections to him are fanciful. The considerations favorable to him, and to what he stands for, are in the last degree substantial and important, HE President is criticised for ac- cepting valuable favors from railroads. That is, when he travels, he has a special train, which the road he travels on furnishes without charge. We believe former Presidents have followed the same course, though it is said Mr. Cleveland used to pay a single fare for himself. The objection to letting Presidents travel free does not seem to be well founded. They incur no improper obligations to the rail- roads, for the railroads find advertise- ment and other direct profits in haul- ing them, and are eager to do it for mere business reasons. A President, for obvious reasons, cannot use the public conveyances, and he cannot afford to pay for the special accommo- dations which his position makes indispensable. He must either travel free, or y at home. Which would you have him do, gentlemen critics of the press? Shall the President stay at home for reasons of economy? No, that is not expedient. The people of the country would not like it, and ought not tolikeit. Well, then, yor barking up the wrong tree when you carp about his accepting favors from railroads. If you don't like the present system, demand that Congress make an annual appropriation for the Presi- dent's traveling expenses, That is the alternative, and the only reasonable one, to the present system. TRH PR HICAGO has been celebrating her centennial. Would you believe it? Did you suppose Chicago was a hundred years old? Sho isn’t; not nearly, The city was laid out in 1830. What she has just been celebrating is the building of Fort Dearborn at the mouth of the Chicago River in 1803. She will have another centennial in about twenty-five years. But Chicago, though young, is a very remarkable place, which prospers ex- cessively, notwithstanding that almost everybody who works there is almost always on a strike. The idea, so prevalent in the organized labor circles all over the country, that tke way to rise in life is to lift yourself up by the bootstraps, is being more thoroughly worked out in Chicago than anywhere else. There is no American city, not even New York, where the permission of unauthorized persons is a necessary preliminary to the performance of so many lawful actions, as in Chicago. Here's to her! May she grow, not only in wealth and size, but in freedom. comicbooks.com