Life, 1913-11-13 · page 18 of 40
Life — November 13, 1913 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This editorial page critiques **Tammany Hall**, New York's corrupt Democratic political machine, and praises recent reform efforts. The small cartoon depicts someone being beaten or removed—likely representing Tammany's defeat. The text celebrates Mayor **Mitchel** and the Board of Estimate for improving city governance compared to the old Tammany system, which enriched politicians at public expense. The author argues that demonstrating competent, honest government—delivering comfort, health, and better services to ordinary voters—is the most effective way to permanently discredit Tammany's approach. The piece references recent improvements: Colonel **Waring's** street-cleaning reforms and **McAneny's** infrastructure upgrades (wider streets, better pavements). It acknowledges New York's remaining problems (inadequate parks, poor planning, aging buildings) while expressing optimism about ongoing subway construction. For modern readers: this reflects the Progressive Era's anti-corruption crusade, when reformers battled urban political machines through demonstrating better municipal management.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NOVEMBER 13, 1913 “* While there is Life there’s Hope"* Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York English Offices, Cannon House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. J. A. Mitcuent, Pres't. a Bias beat Tammany is not enough, though that seems a great good. It is not even enough to con- trive that Tam- many shall stay beaten, though that seems necessary to the well-being of New York and its steady advance in civili- zation. The mind that truly aspires will go farther and hope to make intelli- gent and honest government so at- tractive and so comfortable for the people of this city that all the good that is in Tammany may in time be enlisted to maintain it. It is absurd that the old and rotten Tammany system of power for the profit of the powerful, government for the benefit of the governors, should continue to have the backing of a great mass of voters whose interests are the same as the interests of their fellows, and who average about as high in vir- tue and ability as any other group of voters that we see about. The great factor in the overthrow of Tammany is the demonstration that the job that Tammany has practiced so long to keep can be far more profitably done for the people of New York by other operators. That demonstration has been proceeding very well. New York under Mayor Gaynor and the members of the present Board of Estimate has ben far better governed than it used to be. Under Mayor Mitchel and the A. Mutter, Sec’y and Treas. coming Board of Estimate all may hope for such further improvement as will impress itself upon the notice of the inhabitants of the town. More and more as the mass of the voters are brought to appreciate that good government in New York means more comfort, more happiness, better health and more of everything for one’s money, it will be practicable to main- tain honest, intelligent and fairly un- selfish administration of the city’s affairs. EW YORK is far from being what it ought to be and may be. It is by no means either so beautiful or so comfortable or so orderly as it should be. But it has splendid fea- tures and its newer construction in- cludes a great deal that pleases and in- structs the eye. It has great defects of plan, insufficient open spaces, a de- ficiency of avenues running north and south; it is angular and hard. Be- cause for a hundred years its best growth has been up the middle of the island, almost all its best buildings have been torn down im order that others might be reared upon their sites. Consequently nearly all the buildings in New York that are good are new, and there is no mellowness of age to rest the eye. What parks it has—there are not enough of them— are not as well kept as they should be. Its streets are very much cleaner than before Colonel Waring took his broom to them; its pavements are very much better since McAneny came, and its important streets and sidewalks are wider by a welcome increase. GREAT deal has been done for New York, and enormous works of vast importance are under way that will make it more comfortable. But an immense deal remains to be done before the city can claim to be Our Happy Home. Happily its climate is excellent, its health is good, its water is good and will soon be grossly abundant, and when the new subways are finished there will be a consider- able alleviation of suffering in the use of its facilities of transportation. It has enormous means and a great abundance of people and seems to have a mighty curious and interesting des- tiny ahead of it. That is what makes worth while all the fuss about elections. There is so much of everything, ex- cept space, that with really competent and honest people continuously in charge, New York must become a truly wonderful setting for the activities of human beings. Its situation between its rivers, and the long, narrow shape of it, give it characteristics and problems that no other city has in the same degree, and seem to have determined that it shall be predominantly a mechanism. A mechanism is seldom charming. It may be handsome, but its great virtue must be that it works well. New York is less charming than it was thirty— fifty—a hundred years ago. Its pretty old squares have lost their quality; the trees are all gone out of its streets. It has rushed by pretty much every lovely old embellishment it had except Washington Square and Central Park, and left them dingy and forlorn. But it is very handsome in places, and it is a vastly more efficient machine than it ever was before. We suppose it can keep more people moving at a higher rate of speed more hours a day than any other city, even London. comicbooks.com