Life — October 17, 1912 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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OCTOBER 17, 1912 “While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-frst Street, New York English Offices, Cannon House, Breams’ Bidgs., London, E, C- J. A, Mirenent. Pres't, A. Mitten, Sec'y and Treas, OMEHOW with Sulzer there is a strong association of effervescence. Since the Demo- crats nominated him at Syracuse for Governor, we read that the Jews in few York like him so well that he will run as well as a Jew, that he is of Dutch, German and Scotch-Irish de- scent, and acceptable to voters of those derivations, that he was a poor boy, went to the public schools, was five years in the Assembly and one year its speaker, has been eighteen years in Congress, supported Bryan in all his campaigns, introduced many bills, some of them excellent, and is now chairman of the House Commit- tee on Foreign Affairs. They say in Washington that he is efficient and sen- sible in that important post. So Mr. Sulzer has experience in public life. A man who is fit to be chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs ought to be compe- tent to be Governor of New York. But in many minds there lurk doubts .f Mr. Sulzer really is fit for either place. There is that vague impression that he goes about boiling over, an impres- sion due partly to the soda fountain suggestiveness of his name, but con- siderably based on qualities of aspira- tion and deportment that have ac- quired for him among his friends the title of “champion of popular rights.” The trouble seems to be that Sulzer is something of an ass, but that is not a fatal defect, and, of course, not at all the same as being a fool. His nomina- tion was apparently produced by an unbossed convention. He is, in a way, a Tammany Congressman, and may be more acceptable to Murphy than any candidate ought to be. Still, he voted against the Cannon rules in 1909—one of the few Tammany Congressmen who did. He will be acceptable to a lot of voters, but to others, who yearned for a different sort of man, and want at Albany something that looks to them more like Hughes and less like a mov- ing picture show, the nomination was a disappointment. These others. have still several weeks in. which to think things ove: and weigh the pros and cons of the bubblesome Sulzer, the joyous Hedges, and Oscar Straus with the immense drawback of his Third Term association. ONE of these candidates is untit to vote for. Any one of them would doubtless earn amply the ten thousand dollars a year which is all our Legislatures permit us to pay our Governor. We ought not to expect prodigies in the Governor's chair. When we get a Hughes, it is a piece of good luck. It is a piece of good luck when we get a first-class candi- date for any important office. Often- times men of high capacity are will- ing to serve, but quite unable to get the nomination, The railroads and important corporations usually get qualified men to manage their busi- ness, because the salaries are high, the employment stable and the selection is made by experts. But, considering the way, and hy whom, our public officers are chosen, and how difficult their work is, and how small their pay (not counting advertisement), it is a won- der that we do so well. For we do get lots of pretty good public officers, and even the corporations, with all their advantages, make mistakes and get some poor ones. Sulzer really seemed to be the man the delegates at yracuse wanted. It is generally re- marked that if there had been direct primaries he would have got the nomi- nation. Underneath his bubbles there is a good deal of a man with a long and more or less creditable public record. We guess he will get his share of the votes of the disappointed men who have stopped to think, and with the mass of the electorate, he seems to be popular and likely to. strengthen the ticket. The most interesting episode at yracuse was Mr. Thomas Mott Osborne's assault on Murphy and the political system of which he is the figurehead. Mr. Osborne took up the bludgeon where Mr. Bryan laid it down at Baltimore, and handled it with great vigor and with a discriminating elo- quence. It may, or may not, have been worth while. It must have done Mr. Osborne good, and that is somethin; and it did good to other persons. But whether it did harm to the system that Murphy stands for is debatable. Tammany is not used to subsist on kind words, but still, these bold lam- bastings of it to its tecth in Demo- cratic conventions can't be doing it much good. Its more decent members must be tired of so much sitting silent in the stocks. HAT kind of a President Goy- ernor Wilson will make we shall probably find out in due time, but as a candidate, at least, he is first rate. His mind is clear, his talk is excellent, his record is clean and he defines the great issues admirably. We offer our sympathy to those gentlemen whose concern it is at this time to dis- parage his candidacy. They have a hard row to hoe, and if they hoe it pretty wobbly, it is not altogether their comicbooks.co