Life — November 23, 1905 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

“ While there is Life there's Hope VOL. XLVI. NOV. 23, 1903, No. 1204 17 West Thuery-Frest Steenr, New Yous: we n M* HEARST Qa thinks that lots more votes were for him for Mayor of New York than for Colonel McClell. Every one with whom we have discussed the cast matter has the same impression. One cannot be sure, but it looks as if Tam- many had found it necessary to count * Mr. Hearst 7 Mr. Hearst th =5 out. fore feels con- strained the election. He We hope the man to contest can hardly do less. who got the most votes will be Mayor. Nevertheless, if Mr. Hearst was suc- cessfully counted out, it will be a difti- cult matter to count him in again, and the public expectation is three to one that it will not be done. While the belief prevails very wide ly that Hearst got the most votes, the public mind is not very greatly per- turbed by the probability that he will miss being Mayor, The election was too satisfactory for the prevailing de- light in it to be upset by such a detail as the counting in of the wrong Mayor Whether Hearst ¢ McClellan is Mayor of New Yerk, the bosses were licked. We believe Mr. McClellan to be much the better man for the job and there are plenty of reasons why Mr. Hearst. if he merely consulted his advantage and his con venience, should prefer that Mr. Me- Clellan should hold the office Mr. Hearst is a busy man. own own He is flying a newspaper kite with five or six tails, and has lots to do. If the courts make him Mayor he will have to try to make good all Mr. Brisbane's promises. No doubt he will try hard, but he cannot do it, But with Mr. McClellan at the -LIFE: City Hall, Mr. Hearst will have no re- sponsibility about the conduct of the city affairs, whereas he will have the prestige that is his due for splitting the Democracy in and br down Murphy and McCarren, nwo. elec- What the sentiment is widely: preva- T was a Now-will-you-behave ! tion all is more. over the country lent that it had deep roots. If it was a mere gust of emotion, our people will not live up to it, but new bosses will climb into the seats of Murphy, Me Carren, Cox and the and affairs » the old rest will presently lapse back grooves, and all the grait mills get to grinding again. What makes ene hope for better consequences than that is the length and earnestness of the cam- paign of education to which the coun- try has been subjected. Day in and day out, for months and months—since seph Folk be tion of St. Louis before J nthe reclama the workings of the raft have been carefully expounded to us, with pic- tures and diagrams. We taught how and the i various apparatuses of have been our cities erned, struction has been empha sized by living rulers illustrations of muni- running jurisdiction of their States cipal away from the or paying impris- fines and serving sentences of onment, ‘Things that we have always it have been rubbed into us until we felt them. The power of great and legislatures, and profit enormously and known al corporations to control railroads rly by stich control has been ex- hibited tous that made all the blurred outlines sharp. How the bosses and the business men together and our ; how the land have how office ¢ let other se our life into through glasses worked divided thieves stolen our lands; post seamps ha mps prey on officers: how us; how insurance have dipped our savings; financiers, so vastly rich as to be pre- sumably pecuniary temptation, have not scrupled to skin us when they above could, and how most of these opera- tions at our cost have gone on by con- nivance of persons chosen and em- ployed for our protection—all these sordid and disgusting facts have, one after the other, been rubbed into us so hard that at last we have smarted un- der the treatment. The vote last Elec tion Day was a vote against every kind of graft, against all dishonest admin- istration, national, State, civic and cor- porate; against misdi- rect, and their trusts. It has been a long time comin; but finally it came hard. We believe the feeling behind it is deep en last; deep enough, perhaps, even to do such miracles as to send statesmen to the Senate New York, regulate the corporations, reform the tariff, and raise the political and business morals f the country to directors who trustees who betray from 1 distinctly higher EROME’S has demon- strated t a particular man can ted in New York on a special asion to a particular office without the permission of any boss or the as- sistance of any political machine. That glorious incident, the rest of the e tion in New York, and the votes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere have disclosed anew that the whole is stronger now and then than any part. But for all that, political organization is still a success. necessity of our form of government, and the political. machine, however chastened, abides with us still, Still having machines, we will still have The real question before the seems to be, then, are the voters going to control the bosses, or 2 As long as the bosses, country the bosses the voters? bossed by voters are content to be afters they will be so bossed, but wherever a sufficiently large proportion of the voters appreciate and demand honest administration they will begin to get it. One thing that is very favor- able to their getting it now is the gen- eral weakening throughout the coun- try of party ties. Voters by the hun- dred thousand are foot-loose, both in national and local politics, and pre- pared to take up with whatever group seems likeliest to give them what they want. comicbooks.com