Life — August 23, 1906 — 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. XLVIII. AUG! 23, 1906. No. 1243. 17 West Tuiery-Fiast Street, New York. ~ CORRESPON- DENT who signs himself “Native Born’’ has written to Lire a note of - ,inquiry as_fol- lows: What is the matter with poli- tics in the State of New York? It isa State worthy of good gov- ernment and distinguished representation in Congress. What ailsit are such as they are, and that such of its citizens as still feel concerned about its ina shiver of apprehension for table carpetbagger will be tits senators reputation fear tata disrey its next governor? The matter with politics in New York is about the same as in most other States. Two important classes pay attention to politics: those who like to and those who have to. The politicians like to, the corporations have to. Some of the politicians are first-rate men, Some of the corporations yearn ardently for a competent, responsible, honest State government that they could deal with and get their dues, and no more, Other politicians are money-makers and other corporations prefer a venal government that will permit them to get much more than their dues. Mr. Depew went to the Senate as the representative of the corporations. Mr. Platt went there because he had attained to be the go-between between the cor- porations and the politicians. Mr. Hig- gins became governor through the in- fluence of Mr. Odell, who is a money- making politician, but he has forsworn allegiance to his former patron, The voters have been greatly stirred up this last year and are out of humor with government by the politicians and the corporations, and are anxious to vote for a first-rate man for governor. Whether they will get a chance nobody yet knows. Mr. Higgins is decent but not inspiring. “LIFE * He has a voice in the Republican organ- ization of the State. So has Mr. Odell; so has Mr, Platt. Whether the mass of the Republican voters are going to have any voice in choosing a candidate for governor does not yet appear. Mr. Hughes would be a strong and popular candidate if he could be nominated. TH Democratic organization is in an amorphous state, and the most defi- nite powerthat is left initisCharles Mur- phyof Tammany Hall. Mr. Hearst lately ran for mayorof New York as the repre- sentative of revolt from the corporations and the bosses. He got a good many votes, a large number of which came to him as the opponent of Charles Murphy. Mr. Hearst is credited with willingness to run for governor as the representative of revolt, and with or without the Demo- cratic nomination. But Mr. Hearst doe: not represent revolt to the general sati; faction. He has awful drawbacks, as a candidate, due to his effectual ly work in tarring and feathering his pe: sonal reputation, and to lack of confi- dence in his methods, his purposes and his principles. If he were a La Follette, a Cummins or a Folk, this would be his. chance; but as it is,he won’t do, If he should get the Democratic nomination it would be by aid and consent of Charles Murphy,and that would be awkward for him, but with it or without it we believe he could not be elected. Mr. Jerome would be a strong Demo- cratic candidate, but he has a job already, and it has been thought he would notrun, Mayor McClellan isin Europe, the place where candidates ripen fastest. Mayor Adam, of Buffalo, also a possible Democratic candidate, has also gone abroad. He is said to be a good man, and, of course, there are others; but there is no conspicuous Democratic leader whose character and recent exertions recommend him as the natural candidate for governor this fall. Mr. Jerome comes the nearest to offering to New York Democrats the kind of in- spiration that New York Republicans would find in Mr. Hughes. immediate matter with poli- tics in New York State is that the old order has partly broken down and no new order has yet fully developed. Here is a State with eight millions of people, enormous wealth and business interests of incalculable importance that is trying to worry along and get its affairs properly attended to, and is left for the moment without recognized authorities to tell the people who they ought to vote for. Its legislature, which has to deal annually with business con- cerns involving hundreds of millions of dollars, is a collection of two hundred men of the most varied ability, experi- ence and integrity, who receive fifteen hundred dollars a year apiece for devot- ing most of their available time to the work of legislation. Most of them are poor men with families, and very few of them can subsist on their salaries. The more one reflects on the present size of the job of governing the State of New York as it should be. governed, and the nature of the apparatus designed for that purpose, the more one is im- pressed with the need of large numbers of consecrated citizens who will devote themselves to dull and laborious duties to the prejudice of their own ease and profit. NWHILE, it is wonderful, on the whole, that the State gets on as well as it does. The newspapers are pretty vigilant, and that helps. Somehow the government of New York State, and of all States, has lost in relative attractive ness as an occupation, while the govern- ment of the Nation has gained in attrac- tiveness, State concerns, vastly import- ant in themselves, are dwarfed by com- parison with the gigantic interests of the Federal Government. Most import- ant of all, the real power that governs such a State as New York has been wielded so often and so long by men who either hold federal offices or none at all that the dignity and authority of the Stateoftices have been greatly diminished. One thing that is needed is that author- ity and office shall go together. comicbooks.com