University, and the candidate of the Citizens’ Union. Mr. Low--or Seth Low
as he is usually called--was the first Reform Mayor of the City of
Brooklyn, where he was re-elected and served a second term. Although he
belongs to the Republican party, he stood as the candidate of those who
object to the subordination of municipal to national issues. The one great
curse which has plagued New York in the past has been that its citizens
never had a chance of voting upon a straight civic issue, but were always
pulled hither and thither by the conflicting interest of the Republican or
Democratic parties, compared with whose real or imaginary interests the
welfare of the city was regarded as dust in the balance. Mr. Low was one
of the leading members of the Commission which framed the Charter of
Greater New York. He is a man of education, of leisure, of experience, and
of the highest character. The Citizens’ Union was formed last winter in
the old City of New York, with the object of electing what is called a
non-partisan mayor. The Citizens’ Union, although nominally non-partisan,
was really recruited in a great measure by the Republicans. Hence it was
regarded by the leaders of the Republican machine as virtually a revolt
against the Republican Caucus, and the Chairman of the County Republican
Committee publicly declared that the Republican party would much rather
see a Tammany man installed as the first Mayor of Greater New York than a
mayor who was not the nominee of the Republican organisation. And the
Republican Party men have had their wish.
[Illustration: THE HIGHEST BUILDING IN NEW YORK. American Surety Company.]
It was this declaration that led Mr. Seth Low to join the Citizens’ Union,
which he had not previously done. About the middle of the year, the ticket
which had long been current as to the advisability of nominating Seth Low
for the Mayoralty began to crystallise into action. The Citizens’ Union
had increased its membership from 6,000 to 25,000, and it had secured
nearly 100,000 signatures to a memorial requesting Mr. Low to be put in
nomination as a candidate for the Mayoralty. Earlier in the year he had
contemplated standing only as a unifying force among the friends of good
government, but when the memorial was presented, and the Citizens’ Union
insisted upon taking independent action without conferring with the other
organisations, he accepted the nomination, and in the beginning of
September issued his address.
His appeal to the constituency was based, according to his own statements,
upon the following principles. First, he stood for the idea of having a
free man in the Mayor’s chair, a man who would be responsible to the
people who put him there, and not to any party machine. The Reform Mayor
of New York, he said, in a passage which stung General Tracy into unwonted
fury, must be in the City Hall of New York, and not on a racecourse in
England, or in the Senate Chamber of Washington. The suggestion, of
course, being that if the Tammany candidate were elected, its master would
be Richard Croker, who was supposed to spend his time on English race
tracks, while if General Tracy were elected, he would take his orders from
Senator Platt, the Republican Boss. Secondly, Mr. Low stood for the idea
of Home Rule--Home Rule for New York. A community of three million and a
quarter of people ought to be entitled to shape their own destinies in
matters that are purely local. Further, he stood as the advocate of good
city civic administration, which he defined as a civic government so well
administered that no interest in the great metropolis shall be so small as
to be beneath its care, and no interest so great that it shall timidly
shrink from attempting to deal with it. In Mr. Seth Low’s address,
accepting the nomination, he frankly avowed that he was a Republican, and
expected to remain one; but he would pledge himself that, in making
appointments, he would fill every place with an eye single to the public
good. “The patronage of the city shall not be used, so far as it is in the
mayor’s power to prevent it, for purposes of either strengthening or
weakening one party or another, or any fraction of another party.” On the
subject of public franchises, by which the streets of New York have been
practically handed over to irresponsible corporations, he made the
significant suggestion that the city should be able to deal with every
application for a change of the power by which the street railways were
worked, as being equivalent to a demand for a new franchise. There is more
in this than is discernible at first sight by an English reader. The
tramways of New York are largely operated at present by cables and horses.
These are being superseded as rapidly as possible by electricity. If no
street railway were to be allowed to adopt electricity as a mode of
traction, unless it surrendered what we should call its local Act of
Parliament, empowering it to use the streets, and had to make terms _de
novo_ for that privilege, the relation between the public and the
companies would be immediately transformed. At present the companies have
got all they want, and pay the city next to nothing. It may not be
possible to adopt Mr. Seth Low’s suggestion, but the idea is well worth
consideration.
In his reference to the Labour Laws of the City, he maintained that they
should be administered in the letter and in the spirit. The vexed question
of the saloon was dealt with in a lengthy paragraph, in which he balanced
himself as best he could between the two schools of restriction and of
freedom. The Raines Liquor Law, which was imposed upon the City of New
York by the State Legislature, has created an immense amount of irritation
by its attempt to secure Sunday closing, and to enforce stricter
discipline on the saloons. Mr. Low condemned the Raines law for not taking
into account the public sentiment of so cosmopolitan a city as New York.
This being interpreted, means that the German citizens object to be
deprived of their Sunday beer, and that, to adopt the local vernacular,
you cannot swing a great world-city on principles of the hayseed
legislators up at Albany. What Mr. Low would do in relation to the
licensing does not precisely appear, beyond desiring to adopt some system
of local option:--
In my opinion, an excise law, so far as it affects the daily life and
the habits of the people, should reflect the public opinion of the
city. On such points, in case of radical differences of opinion, I
should take the appeal to the people themselves.
The keynote, therefore, of his address lay in the sentence that he desired
to secure for “this Imperial City” the opportunity to start upon its new
career under an administration pledged to make the interests of the city
its supreme care. Mr. Low had the great advantage of not being a mere
theorist, but one who had had four years’ experience in the application of
the principles upon which he would propose to act as Mayor of Greater New
York. The city government, he maintained, should be organised on business
principles. Quite recently he contributed a chapter to Mr. Bryce’s
“American Commonwealth” on City Government in the United States, in which
he embodied the result of his experience and observation as Mayor of
Brooklyn. His dominant idea is that the government of a city should be
conducted upon very much the same principles as the management of any
corporation, railroad, or joint stock company. The Mayor should be general
manager, and the head of every department should hold office at his
supreme discretion. Another principle upon which he insists is that
wherever executive work is to be done, it must be put in the hands of one
man, but that wherever it is not an affair for action, but for discretion,
in the multitude of councillors there is wisdom. Where the work is
discretionary have a board, where it is executive have one man.
The second candidate to enter the field was one as well known in this
country as he is in his native land. Henry George, whose sudden death on
the eve of the poll gave so tragic a note to the contest, was nominated by
the Bryanite section of the Democratic party. He commanded, and deserved
to command, a great deal of public support, and still more of popular
sympathy. Henry George stood as candidate for Mayor some years since, and
was defeated by Tammany Hall joining hands with the Republicans, in order
to elect Mr. Hewitt. Mr. Croker talked over that ancient history with me
on the steamer, and then expressed a confident conviction that the Labour
Unions would never again support Henry George. They were all in line, he
said, with Tammany. Henry George, whose book, “Progress and Poverty,” was
practically discovered in Great Britain after it had fallen very flat in
the United States, was an honest man, full of all generous enthusiasms,
and his candidature deserved and obtained general sympathy, because it was
the most emphatic, picturesque, and sensational method of expressing
dissatisfaction with things as they are. Mr. George was a strong Free
Trader, but he was not an advocate of Free Silver.
His followers, however, tolerated all differences of opinion in return for
the value of his support. They even left him to nominate his own ticket.
He was selected as candidate for a party calling itself the United
Democracy, which adopted the Liberty Bell as its emblem. The speaker who
moved the nomination of Mr. George in the Convention, spoke of him as “the
great, the immortal Henry George, the man who had shown the working people
the way out of their difficulties. When George is mayor, the problems
which vexed the municipality will cease. Corruption and bribery will keep
away from the City Hall if George is there. They fear him as the
inhabitants of the lower regions do the angels of heaven.” When he
accepted the nomination, he declared that he stood not as a Silver
Democrat or a Gold Democrat, but as one who believed in the cardinal
principles of Jeffersonian Democracy. The defeat of Bryan, he declared,
was “the defeat of everything for which our fathers had stood, and it
looked to him as though the United States were fast verging into a
virtual aristocracy and despotism.” He stood, therefore, upon the doctrine
of the equality of men, and in the conviction that in the democracy that
believed that all men were created equal lay the power that would vivify
not merely New York, but the world.
The platform of the United Democracy, after denouncing unscrupulous
corporations and corrupt combinations, whose influence is felt alike in
local and national courts, proceeds to define the aims and aspirations of
its supporters in a manifesto, of which the following is a summary:--
It reaffirms the Chicago platform, demands home rule in municipal
affairs, denounces the Excise laws, demands not only municipal
ownership of franchises but their operation by the municipal
government, three cent (or less) car fares on surface and “L” roads,
dollar gas, the abolition of contract work for the city, enforcement
of the eight-hour law on city work, the representation of labour in
the Administration, increase of school accommodation and the
introduction into the schools of industrial training: the designation
of public places for free exercise of the right of free speech, the
opening of court houses and schools for the free use of the people in
the evening: it denounces the abuse of injunctions by the courts, and
demands the abolition of property qualifications for grand and petit
jurors.
The clause in the plank of the Tammany platform which refers to the Raines
Liquor Law ran as follows:--
We condemn the so-called “Raines” Liquor Law as iniquitous and
intolerant. It was passed at the instigation of the Republican State
machine against the protest of the majority of the people of New York,
irrespective of party. It has injured owners of real estate. It has
closed avenues of legitimate employment. It has deprived thousands of
our citizens of rational enjoyment. It has given rise to a system of
spying and official intermeddling abhorrent to a free people. It
extorts exorbitant revenues from this city to aggrandise other
portions of the State. It sought to deprive the citizen of a trial by
jury, and, in the collection of penalties, compels the licensee, at
the caprice of the State Commissioner of Excise, to defend himself in
remote localities. It protects and masks the dive-keeper, while it
harasses and impoverishes the reputable dealer. It promotes
intemperance, furnishes a legalised refuge for vice, imperils the
innocence of children, and destroys the sanctity of home. We therefore
demand its prompt repeal and the enactment of an Excise law,
conservative of the public morals and liberal in its provisions, that
shall place its administration and revenue, so far as shall apply to
this city, within the control of this municipality, thus insuring
strict enforcement of law by the consent of the governed.
Tammany is almost as pronounced as Henry George was as to the municipal
ownership. The following is the paragraph referring to this subject in
their manifesto:--
All proper municipal functions should be exercised by the municipality
itself, and not delegated to others. We favour municipal ownership and
municipal control of all municipal franchises. We oppose the granting
of any public franchise in perpetuity. We oppose the granting or
extending of any such franchise, or the bestowal of any new privilege
upon a corporation holding such franchise, without adequate
compensation.
We, therefore, approve, as a step in the right direction, the
provisions of the new Charter, which require adequate compensation to
the city for all franchises hereafter to be granted, and which limit
the terms of all such franchises, with reversion to the city on their
expiration. We denounce the Republican party for its wasteful and
reckless grant of valuable public franchises to private individuals by
special legislation, with no provision for compensation to the
municipality, whereby this city has already lost some of the most
valuable franchises on its most important streets.
[Illustration: THE LATE HENRY GEORGE.]
The most significant plank in the platform is that demanding municipal
ownership of monopolies of service as essential to the purification of
politics and the protection of the citizen against taxation:--
We declare that the functions of street railway transportation, the
lighting of the streets and homes of the people, whether by gas or
electricity, the carriage of the people by ferries about the waterways
of Greater New York, the facilitation of the interchange of speech by
telephones or telegraphs, are all purely municipal functions, things
which can better be done by organised society than by individuals; we
insist that the present system of delegating these functions to
corporations has resulted in a heavy sacrifice of public wealth and
convenience, the practice of extortion upon citizens compelled to
enlist the services of these corporations, and the creation of
powerful moneyed interests which, enjoying rich public grants,
systematically employ every art of corruption in politics to control
the city government for their own profit.
Mr. George declared he was a poor man as the candidate of poor men. Mr.
George simply stood where he did in 1886. Hence, he simply had to fall
back upon his old thunder, and to reproduce the fierce denunciations which
he hurled against the existing state of things by which the control of the
modern American city was given over to the worst classes of the community.
Here, for instance, is a passage in which he lashed the corrupt influences
that dominate American politics:--
The influences which have degraded the rich and debased the poor, and,
under the forms of Democracy, given over the metropolis of our country
to the rule of a class more unscrupulous and more arrogant than that
of the hereditary aristocracy from which it is our boast that we of
the new world have emancipated ourselves?
The type of modern growth is the great city. Here are to be found the
greatest wealth and the deepest poverty. And it is here that popular
government has most clearly broken down. In all the great American
cities there is to-day as clearly defined a ruling class as in the
most aristocratic countries of the world. Its members carry wards in
their pockets, make up slates for nominating conventions, distribute
offices as they bargain together, and--though they toil not, neither
do they spin--wear the best of raiment and spend money lavishly. They
are men of power, whose favour the ambitious must court, and whose
vengeance he must avoid.
Who are these men? The wise, the good, the learned--men who have
earned the confidence of their fellow citizens by the purity of their
lives, the splendour of their talents, their nobility in public
trusts, their deep study of the problems of government? No; they are
gamblers, saloon keepers, pugilists, or worse, who have made a trade
of controlling votes, and of buying and selling offices and official
acts.
It is through these men that rich corporations and powerful pecuniary
interests can pack the Senate and the Bench with their creatures. It
is these men who make school directors, supervisors, assessors,
members of the Legislature, Congressmen.
Mr. George was a magnetic man--a man of intense enthusiasm and tireless
energy. He spoke night after night, and as the contest waxed hotter and
hotter his discourses rose in temperature, until, before the contest came
to a close, he pledged himself to send Richard Croker to the Penitentiary
as a thief; and he left his hearers in very little doubt that if he could
have had his way, the Republican boss would occupy the adjacent cell. To
Mr. Seth Low, Mr. George was a great speculative writer and a dreamer. To
General Tracy, he was a man who went in for Free License and Free
Everything excepting Free Silver. To Tammany he was a most dangerous foe.
The following extract from a speech delivered by Charles Frederick Adams
is a fair illustration of the kind of ferment that is working under the
surface of American politics:--
Everywhere that man is oppressed by man the people are straining their
ears to hear of Henry George’s election. He is a man of men, one who
dues not confine his attention to the great individuals and the more
fortunate classes, but one who lends his head and heart to the cause
of man. He is the Moses to whom we all look to be led out of the
wilderness. He is the lodestar of suffering humanity.
This is no single tax movement. It is a movement to benefit
down-trodden man, a movement to throw off the chains of serfdom in
order that we may once again breathe God’s pure air with freedom.
Henry George has the respect of every intelligent man and woman in
this country. His name is the keynote to truth and freedom. And yet
there are men who claim to be his friend who went to him and asked him
not to accept a nomination for first Mayor of the Greater New York.
They appeal to his modesty, telling him that he is only wanted by a
handful of mere agitators. They know they lied when they tried to turn
him aside, and yet they call themselves his friend, but their
friendship is like a celebrated kiss in a celebrated garden.
It is not a question of silver, the tariff, or anything of that kind;
it is the more vital question of trying to rescue a great city from a
lot of organised robbers. As a guarantee of our sincerity we ask Henry
George to be our candidate and raise us from the contemptible tyranny
of little men. If we were held in thraldom by a Cæsar or a Napoleon we
might stand it, but, my God! a Croker, a Croker, gentlemen; a Croker
or a Platt!
The time has come when the common man, that great crucified of
eternity, shall say like the crucified divinity: “Choose ye now which
ye will serve; he that is not with me is against me,” and with these
words I ask you to take off your coats and work for the election of
Henry George.
The Tammany candidate, who was elected by a majority of 85,000 votes, was
Mr. Justice Van Wyck. Henry George stood 5 ft. 6 ins. in his shoes. Mr.
Van Wyck stands 5 ft. 7 ins. Mr. Van Wyck is not yet fifty years of age.
In 1880 he distinguished himself by publicly denouncing Boss Kelly in
Tammany Hall for betraying John Hancock, the Democratic nominee for the
Presidency. He was howled down, but he bided his time, and when Mr. Croker
and Mr. Sheehan, the past and present Bosses of Tammany, put their heads
together to find a man who is best calculated to carry the election, they
decided that there was none so good as Mr. Van Wyck. He is a clear
speaker, but he refused at this election to follow his opponents on to the
platform.
Tammany’s victories are not won by oratory. Tammany’s platform had many
planks, but three were prominent:--(1) The denunciation of Reform
administration, for raising the rates, and increasing the expenditure of
the city. (2) An attack upon the Streets Department, with Mr. Colles at
its head. The ground for this attack was the irritation that was produced
in Fifth Avenue and elsewhere by the Works Department permitting the
drainage and other works to be carried on so slowly as to practically
render the traffic in the thoroughfares impossible for twelve months at a
time. (3) An attack on the Raines Law as in every way an intolerant
measure, which protected the evil, and persecuted the reputable. In this
respect Mr. Van Wyck was at one with Henry George. The two candidates also
agreed in demanding Dollar Gas, a phrase which needs a moment’s
explanation. The gas companies which supply New York charge 5s. per
thousand feet. It was proved before a Committee of the Legislature that
gas can be sold at a profit at 4s. per thousand feet, but the influence of
the wealthy corporations was too great to permit such a heavy cut in their
charges. The price of gas, therefore, has to come down 2½d. a year for
five years, a postponement of the interests of the consumer to the greed
of the gas companies which is bitterly resented in New York.
Like Mr. Low and Mr. Henry George, Mr. Van Wyck was in favour of building
fresh schools for the children, who are at present without school
accommodation, and also in favour of more rapid transit and more bridges.
On municipal ownership he spoke with an uncertain sound, merely remarking
that the corporations now in the control of their streets have gone to
such lengths as to require legislation and municipal oversight. By way of
appealing to the labour party, he declared that the eight hour law on the
Statute Book on the State was a righteous one, and must be maintained, and
he denounced government by injunction as a violation of the rights of man,
striking at time-honoured principles which are the foundation of the laws.
Everything, he declared, was possible for an administration which would
have as its guiding thought the future rather than the present, prosperity
rather than patronage, progress rather than politics. To be the first
Mayor of Greater New York seemed to him to be an opportunity of a
generation. If he were elected, he declared that before the end of four
years there would be such progress as this hitherto divided city had never
before enjoyed. Mr. Van Wyck is the Chief Justice of the City Court. His
father was a lawyer of Dutch extraction. It remains to be seen whether his
confident prognostication will be fulfilled.
General Tracy, the nominee of the Republican Convention, was too good a
man to be sacrificed in such a fight. He has served the nation as
Secretary for the Navy, and if common rumour be not a common liar, he did
a good deal of the work of Secretary of State in the last years of Mr.
Blaine. England owes him a special meed of gratitude, because it was he
who, when he was in supreme control of the American Navy, insisted upon
breaking through all rules and precedents in order to allow Captain Mahan
to continue at a post on land, where he had leisure to finish his great
work on “Sea Power in History.” General Tracy is also too old a man to be
intrusted with the onerous task of governing this great heterogeneous
conglomerate of cities which is known as Greater New York. He is nearly
sixty-eight years of age, and, although he is hale and hearty, he will be
over three score and ten by the time the first Mayor of the Greater New
York has to retire from office. His nomination was due to the fixed
determination of his partner’s father, Mr. Senator Platt, the Republican
machine man, to assert himself at this election. In his eyes the Citizens’
Union is an arrogant upstart, a mutinous offshoot, which has the audacity
to deny to the regular Republican machine its legitimate voice in the
control of affairs in New York. Mr. Platt and Mr. Croker agree in
believing that it is impossible to govern New York without a regular party
machine. The Citizens’ Union, of course, would in time become a party
machine, but as it starts on non-partisan lines, the process of evolving a
Boss from the Citizens’ Union would be slower than would be the case of
other organisations based upon regular party lines. In order to secure a
platform for General Tracy, the Republican Party men had to repudiate the
programme for which they had repeatedly committed themselves in times
past. The separation of municipal from national issues had been repeatedly
affirmed in the strongest terms by previous Republican conventions; but on
this occasion, in order to justify General Tracy’s candidature, the
Republican platform was throughout an attempt to introduce the national
issues into the city contest. The one great issue before the people, it
declared, was the Chicago platform, an admission of which Mr. Bryan after
the victory has naturally made the most.
Bryanism was confounded with Tammany Hall, and it was asserted in the
strongest possible terms that “the code of good government, meaning
thereby honest and intelligent administration, can never be divorced from
the Republican party.” “We are the people, and wisdom will die with us,”
and not wisdom only, but honesty, ability, righteousness and all manner of
virtue will only perish from the land unless the regular Republican
candidate is put into office and kept there. That is always the burden of
their song. General Tracy appealed to the citizens as the candidate of
sound money, which has absolutely nothing to do with any municipal
issue--the candidate of social order and the endorser of the patriotic and
successful administration of William McKinley. Forgetful of the fact that
they had declared they would prefer to see a Tammany mayor elected than
the candidate of the Citizens’ Union, the Republicans denounced Tammany in
no measured terms. “The crimes of the Tammany democracy should never be
forgotten or forgiven.” The platform then commends the Raines law on the
ground that by removing power from the excise or local license board, and
conceding the right to sell intoxicating liquors to any citizen who paid
the tax and obeyed the law, it had taken the saloon out of politics, and
had liberated the saloon-keeper from the politician. It had also been
financially advantageous. But having endorsed the Raines Law up to this
point, they hedged in the final paragraph, in which, after referring to
the cosmopolitan character of the city, they said that “provisions of the
law relating to the times and conditions at and under which liquor may be
sold, and the provisions of the law enforced, are wisely to be left to the
will of the people of the city rather than to the judgment of their duly
constituted authorities.”
Finally, the platform pledged the party to a strict enforcement of the
labour laws, which were defined as follows:--“The Factory Inspection Law,
the Mechanics Lien Law, the Law Regulating the Employment of Minors in
Mercantile Establishments, the Anti-Sweating Law, the Law Guaranteeing
Union Wages on all Public Works, and the Law Preventing the Subletting of
Contracts.” General Tracy in accepting the nomination declared that it was
not enough for the Mayor to be negatively honest. “He must be
affirmatively and aggressively honest.” But he also harped upon the
spectre of Bryanism, which would not down, and invoked for the exorcising
of that spectre “the Republican Party, which in the Providence of God, for
more than forty years, has been the great bulwark of national honour and
prosperity.” Any attempt to disintegrate, weaken or destroy that
organisation seemed to him a grievous mistake, fraught with calamity and
disaster.
On September 27th the _Journal_ sent out an army of reporters, with
instructions to interview all the citizens whom they met in the course of
the day in certain well-defined districts, in order to ascertain their
preference as between General Tracy and Seth Low. The voters were
approached indiscriminately, and represented all sorts and conditions of
men, from hod-carriers to bankers. The result was that 9,102 citizens were
interviewed, 4,835 of whom preferred Seth Low, and 4,267 voted for Tracy.
This poll suggested the holding of a much more comprehensive census of
opinion. An attempt was made to interrogate a whole vast constituency.
Three hundred reporters were sent out with the following ticket:--
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| _NEW YORK JOURNAL._ |
| |
| VAN WYCK. TRACY. |
| GEORGE. LOW. |
| |
|As between B. F. Tracy, the Republican candidate; Seth Low,|
|the Citizens’ Union candidate; R. A. Van Wyck, the regular |
|Democratic candidate; and Henry George, the Independent |
|Democratic candidate, whom do you prefer for Mayor of the |
|Greater New York? |
| |
| NAME OF CANDIDATE.................................... |
| YOUR SIGNATURE..................................... |
| YOUR ADDRESS..................................... |
| BOROUGH OF..................................... |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
_Sign this Ballot and send it to the Journal._
The town was marked out into districts, and the canvassers proceeded
systematically from house to house. Never before had there been so
extended a canvass introduced of what they call a straw ballot in any
constituency. It was, of course, not a ballot in the sense of secret
voting at all, for all the citizens signed their papers, which were then
taken to the central office and carefully examined. The census began on
the 4th of October and was continued for a week. It was closed with the
following result:--
Each elector was required to sign his name and address upon a voting
card supplied by the canvasser. When the poll was closed the _Journal_
had obtained signed declarations from no fewer than 277,871. The
voting was divided as follows:--
Total _Journal_ Poll.
Van Wyck 89,056
George 85,050
Low 59,764
Tracy 44,001
-------
Total 277,871
These figures show that Mr. Van Wyck had 32 per cent. of the
constituency, Henry George 30½, Low 21½ and Tracy nearly 16. If on the
2nd of November the whole 550,000 electors had gone to the poll, and
those who have not been reached by the canvassers had voted in the
same proportion as those who have, the result would have worked out as
follows:--
Position in
Greater New York. Actual Vote.
Van Wyck 176,269 | 235,181
George 168,345 | 20,727
Low 118,288 | 149,873
Tracy 87,098 | 101,823
------- | -------
Total 550,000 | 507,604
All calculations, however, were vitiated by the death of Henry George. His
son, whose name was substituted for his father’s at the eleventh hour,
naturally could not command the same amount of support.
[Illustration: From _Puck_. GREATER NEW YORK: AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF THE
FUTURE.]
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST MAYOR OF GREATER NEW YORK.
Edgar A. Whitney, examined by Chairman Lexow: I was in the
gaming-house when the door opened, and Mr. Glennon, the police
wardman, gave the word and said, “Is Mr. Pease in?” I said, “No, sir;
I am taking care of the game while he is at his supper.” He said,
“Come to one side:” he said, “That captain wants this game closed up
until after election time; that if the Tammany Hall ticket is
elected,” he says, “we will protect you for anything from a poker game
to a whore-house.”--Report of Lexow Commission, vol. ii., p. 1603.
The above extract from the evidence taken before the Lexow Committee at
the end of 1894, immediately after the election which overturned Tammany
rule in New York City, condenses into one coarse but expressive sentence
the moral issue usually raised by elections in New York. Whether the
latest victory of Tammany will have the same result remains to be seen.
The election of Mr. Van Wyck, the Tammany candidate, as the first Mayor of
Greater New York, which has taken place as these pages were passing
through the press, is a curious and suggestive comment upon “Satan’s
Invisible World Displayed.”
“Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone!” has been the reflection
of many a reformer on hearing of the immense majority by which the second
city in the world elected to place itself under the governance of the
elect of Tammany Hall. But the worst of such an attitude is that Ephraim
does not leave other people alone, for in his worship of the false gods he
brings down disasters upon other heads than his own. The welfare and good
government of the first city in America can never be a matter of
indifference to the rest of the world.
Tammany Hall seated its candidate by a majority of votes sufficiently
decisive. But although Mr. Van Wyck was 85,000 votes ahead of his nearest
competitor, he did not poll a majority of the citizens. If the principle
of a second ballot which is established on the Continent of Europe had
been the law in New York, the issue would have had to be fought out again
in a single-handed fight between Mr. Van Wyck and Mr. Seth Low. In default
of such a provision, all that can be said is that at the first election of
Greater New York Tammany polled 235,000 and the three anti-Tammany
candidates 272,000 votes, making a majority against Tammany of 37,000.
If Tammany be as black as it is painted, the worst thing about the
election is not the return of Mr. Van Wyck, but the divisions of his
opponents. That Tammany should be beloved of her own progeny is nothing.
What is serious is that those children of light who see the evil of
Tammany rule should treat it as a matter of trivial importance compared
with the passion and prejudice of personalities and parties. If good men
do not combine when bad men conspire, the inference is very obvious.
Either the conspiracy of the bad men is not very bad, or the good men
hardly deserve their name.
The familiar saying of Burke that he refused to draw an indictment against
a whole nation may be applied to cities as well as to nations. What is
clear enough is that Tammany in the past has discredited democracy. It has
done so twice in the most conspicuous and unmistakable fashion.
Under Tweed it became a synonym for Thieving. Under Croker’s government
the Lexow Report proved it became an organised system of Blackmail.
What is it to be under Mr. Van Wyck?
That is the question which it is for Tammany to decide.
Mr. Croker professed admirable sentiments as to his resolution to make New
York the ideal city of the world. Nothing could have been worthy of the
man to whom the citizens have entrusted their destiny. We should, however,
have had more right to face the future with confidence had Mr. Croker’s
contemplation of the past--and such a past--not been quite so complacent.
Nevertheless it is a good rule that which Cardinal Manning laid down for
dealing with those who protest that they have been cruelly misjudged by
their contemporaries.
“When a man tells me that he is an honest man,” said the great Cardinal,
“I never enter into a controversy with him as to the past. The past is
past. And although I may have in my hand conclusive proofs of his guilt, I
never refer to the subject. I always say, ‘My friend, you say that you are
an honest man. I am delighted to hear it. We will not discuss the past. We
might be unable to agree on that subject. But the future is before us. Act
as an honest man from henceforth, and I shall treat you as an honest
man.’”
The Cardinal’s rule may be invoked in favour of extending the same act of
oblivion to Tammany and its Chief.
The account of past misrule placed on record in the Report of the Lexow
Committee cannot be effaced from the page of history.
It is a useful and timely service to Tammany itself to popularise the
findings of that Committee, if only to remind the men, who are now
summoned to make New York the ideal city of the world, of the hole from
which they were digged. A vivid remembrance of the horrible pit and the
miry clay has ever been regarded as salutary for the pilgrim to the
Celestial City.
Nothing is more likely to help Mr. Croker and his men to try to obey the
Apostolic maxim to forget the things that are behind in order to press
forward to those which are before, than the knowledge that every one can
give chapter and verse in support of their belief that New York under
Tammany rule in the past really deserved the title of “Satan’s Invisible
World.”
On that point there is no longer any room for difference of opinion. To
question it is to justify disbelief in the honesty of the sceptic or the
sincerity of his professions as a Reformer. But we may well be content to
let the dead past bury its dead if, rising upon the wreck and ruin of
these evil days, Tammany should now attain to nobler things.
There is at least one great historical precedent justifying a hope that
this may be so.
When Madcap Hal succeeded to the English throne, there was the same
jubilant exultation among Falstaff, Bardolph and all the roystering crew
when Pistol rushed in helter-skelter, crying:--
And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
And golden times, and happy news of price.
But the story of their disappointment is one of the most familiar and
dramatic scenes in the history of the English-speaking race. The question
now is whether Mr. Croker will dare to address his old companions of
misrule in the words of Henry the Fifth:--
Presume not that I am the thing I was:
For Heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn’d away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
If so we may hope that it may be in New York even as it was in olden time
in England, and that it may be said of the era that opened when Tammany
elected the first Mayor of Greater New York by 85,000 majority:--
Yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,
And whipp’d the offending Adam out of him.
* * * * *
Never came reformation in a flood,
With such a heady current scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this King.
THE END.
APPENDIX.
MAYOR VAN WYCK’S PROGRAMME.
Mayor Van Wyck’s Letter of Acceptance in reply to the Democratic City
Convention, which invited him to stand as candidate for the Mayoralty, was
published a fortnight before the polling day. In the _New York Journal_ of
October 24th, Mr. Van Wyck, in the course of an interview with Alfred
Henry Lewis, a representative of the paper, said:--“There need be no doubt
or mistiness concerning my attitude on all questions now craving reply. I
wish most heartily that every citizen of New York would read my letter of
acceptance. It was not carelessly prepared; it was in no sort the
suggestion or work of other men; it presents my exact position on every
subject it suggests, and I meant every phrase of it, and I mean it now.”
The text of the Letter of Acceptance is as follows:--
Hon. Almet F. Jenks, chairman; John C. Sheehan, Bernard J. York, Dr.
John L. Feeney, James McCartney and John H. Sutphen, committee.
Gentlemen: In response to your official notification of the action of
the Democratic City Convention in selecting me as its candidate for
the office of Mayor of Greater New York, I now formally accept the
nomination.
The duty before the first Mayor of the City of New York, as it is to
be the beginning of the coming year, is of a magnitude too vast to be
undertaken without misgivings by any man of mind enough to comprehend
the problems it involves. While it is to be the second city in the
world in population, it is to be, at the very outset, the first--by
far the first--in point of the strictly municipal powers to be
exercised by its local government.
To approach the task in any other spirit than that of American
liberty, coupled with a realising sense of the cosmopolitan character
of the population to be served, would, in my judgment, be to err
fundamentally.
The temper of mind which benefits the villager or the inhabitant of
towns in which there is but one type of citizenship to deal with is
little fitted for the work before us.
At all events, should the people repose their confidence in me, I will
endeavour to act with that largeness of view which considers the
rights of every man, regardless of race, creed or colour.
A successful administration of the affairs of this municipality must
depend, in great measure, upon the honesty and the efficiency of the
officials appointed by the Mayor. In this regard I shall, if elected,
exercise the greatest care to provide, in all the departments, for
such intelligent and honest supervision and direction as will secure
to the public not only a wise and efficient service, but as well the
return to them of a dollar’s worth for every dollar expended.
To make of the several boroughs a homogeneous city requires that, in
the control of the administration of affairs, there should be a
government responsible and responsive to the people. It should be
honest, efficient and liberal. It should be guided by sound political
principles, securing a more perfect discharge of public duty than is
possible under such conditions as have imposed upon us the factious,
discordant and demoralising administration from the misdeeds and
negligences of which all elements of our citizenship have suffered.
What is here said of the present city of New York applies, I am
persuaded, in considerable measure, to Brooklyn. There, also, the
taxpayer has had reason for serious complaint. Within the past four
years taxes have been heavily increased, the cost of most of the
departments has been largely augmented, and the debt has not only been
carried up to the Constitutional limit, but has been positively
swollen to the extent of over ten millions of dollars.
To permit a continuance of the disregard thus shown for the ability of
property to contribute to the support of the government would
obviously be to give to confiscation a practical sanction. The
metropolis is not to be made prosperous by any policy which involves
the ruin of the investors in its real estate.
The results here exhibited furnish one of the most costly object
lessons ever taught a community as to the wasteful character of a
Government permitted to whirl incoherently with the whims of its
several officials, as contrasted with the economy enforced by the
organised vigilance and definite policy of responsible Government
controlling all the expenditures of its subordinate departments.
Coupled with the extravagance and waste against which our citizens
have protested, there has been an utter disregard of the rights and
convenience of the people; the most scandalous example of which is to
be found in the present shocking condition of our streets and
thoroughfares.
There can be no justification for such a complete surrender of our
road-beds to corporations and contractors. Undoubtedly the prosecution
of necessary and useful improvements requires an occasional
disturbance of some part of the pavements of our streets, and
sometimes a partial interference with the movements of traffic. It
needs, however, but ordinary care and supervision in the consideration
of demands made in this direction to so arrange that no single
locality may be unduly disturbed, and that all the discomforts and
inconveniences of the situation shall not fall upon the citizen to the
profit and advantage of the contractor.
While a proper opportunity must always be given for the prosecution of
public work, and while no unnecessary delays should be permitted in
its completion, this does not mean that entire streets and avenues are
to be delivered over to the exclusive use of public and private
contractors; that for miles the stores and shops in the most prominent
of our thoroughfares are to be practically shut out from business;
that our citizens are to be denied any but the most difficult access
to their homes; that in some cases traffic between the various points
of our city be made impossible, and in all cases difficult and
dangerous, and that the health of the entire community should be
imperilled and injuriously affected by open trenches, wherever the
people may turn.
Such a condition of the streets as we are now compelled to endure may
result from gross inefficiency. It can be attributed to only one other
cause, and that is, gross corruption. It should be treated as a
criminal disregard of the public comfort and safety, and any
administration responsible therefor must stand discredited before the
community.
The flagrant violations of the principles of Home Rule by the
Republican majorities in recent Legislatures have challenged the
attention and excited the indignation of our citizens. The usurpation
of the rights of our municipality and its people has become such an
intolerable wrong that it cannot be too strongly rebuked. A
cosmopolitan constituency, exceeding the population of the United
States at the time of the adoption of the federal Constitution, should
not be required to protest against such interference with its purely
domestic concerns as attempts to dictate even its harmless customs,
habits and pursuits.
And yet, again and again we have been subject to legislation conceived
either in ignorance of, or contempt for, the wishes and sentiments of
our people, and enacted as a revenge upon our politics or an assault
upon our revenues.
In the Raines Liquor Law we have an example of a class of legislation
utterly without public sanction. It was imposed upon our citizens
against their vigorous and united protest. It has failed to secure a
single one of the advantages urged in justification of its enactment.
It has only succeeded, by dispensing with local supervision and
control, in removing the salutary restraints which heretofore
protected the reputable dealer from the open rivalry of the
divekeeper. It employs the spy, and necessitates methods which can
never be approved by men who believe in the Democratic theory of
government. I favour its prompt repeal.
I join in the demand of your platform for “the enactment of an excise
law conservative of the public morals and liberal in its provisions,
that shall place its administration and revenues, so far as shall
apply to this city, within the control of this municipality.”
With you, I believe that one of the chief duties of the incoming
administration will be to provide adequate school accommodation. I
recognise the obstacles in the way. It is difficult to keep pace with
the changes which affect the residence or business character of
localities. It is not with the intention of reproaching any one for
the condition of affairs in this direction in the past, but simply to
emphasise a determination for the future, that I express my full
indorsement of your demand that every child desirous of education in
our schools shall be afforded full opportunity, whatever labour or
expense may thereby be involved.
In common with all citizens, I recognise that, to make effectual the
advantages which all expect to flow from the consolidation of the
various boroughs, there must at once be devised and put in execution a
system of rapid transit which will afford quick and comfortable travel
between the homes and places of business of our people in the boroughs
of Manhattan and of the Bronx; bridges facilitating communication
between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens with Manhattan Island, and
the expansion of the ferry system, at reduced fares, between the
borough of Richmond and the rest of the city.
In your platform there is, I am pleased to see, a comprehensive
appreciation shown of the directions in which the general well being,
not less than the material interests, of the people ought to be
promoted by the administration. It is there felicitously
said:--“Subject to the limitations of reasonable, but not parsimonious
expenditure, the municipality should provide all needed facilities for
the open-air recreation of the people. Good roads, bicycle paths,
improved pavements, open-air playgrounds, small parks and pier gardens
are improvements in this direction.” I deem it proper to make special
mention in this relation of the pressing necessity for proper bicycle
paths, and to add that, if elected, I shall make it my duty to have
them constructed.
The demand made in the platform for dollar gas, used both as fuel and
light, also commends itself to my judgment.
The proper limits of a letter of acceptance will not permit an
adequate presentation of the importance to the commercial supremacy of
the city of having its water front improved to the uttermost. The
endeavour of other cities to wrest from us the position to which we
are entitled by reason of the natural advantages which we enjoy, and
the enterprise of our merchants, should awaken a vigilance which will
furnish us with dock accommodations sufficient for our largest
commercial needs.
I heartily approve and indorse every pledge of the platform of
principles adopted at the Convention. The great essential for
municipal progress is home rule in the management of local concerns.
Almost as a necessary consequence will we then enjoy that measure of
personal liberty which imposes and permits only such restraint of the
citizen as is necessary for the peace and protection of all.
All lawful combinations which deny to any or all of our citizens a
free field of competition must be suppressed. The municipality itself
should both own and control its franchises, and where now such
franchises are operated under grants to corporations, a fair charge,
and that only, for the service rendered or convenience furnished
should be permitted.
In the prosecution of public improvements a liberal, but not
extravagant, policy, as already remarked, should be adopted. The needs
and claims of the various boroughs should be carefully considered and
fairly determined.
The eight hour law should be enforced, and, where practicable,
resident labour should be directly employed. In all cases the
prevailing rate of wages should be paid. As I understand the
declaration of your platform upon this point, it means that every
contractor doing work for the city should be required to pay as high a
rate of wages as the city itself is required to pay for similar work.
To this I give my unqualified assent.
Let me add, in conclusion, that, should the people intrust me with the
grave responsibility of the Mayoralty, I shall make the promotion of
their welfare, to the exclusion of all antagonistic ends, the object
to be striven for with every power of my mind and body.--Yours
respectfully,
ROBERT A. VAN WYCK.
INDEX.
Abortionists, The Police and, 147-149
Adams, Charles Francis, referred to, and quoted, 168, 205
Adams, J. C., quoted, 26
Albany Legislature, 171
“Alexander Woman,” 149
All Sorts and Conditions of Men, 135-143
American Commonwealth, see United States
Andrews, President, of Brown University, quoted, 38, 40
Angelo, Frank, 103
_Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science_ quoted,
166, 168
Applegate, Wm., Evidence of, 108-115
Appo, Evidence of, 115-116
“Arabian Nights Entertainments” referred to, 18
Area of Greater New York, 20
_Atlantic Monthly_ quoted, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177
Augustus, Emperor, referred to, 166
Autocracy in Russia, see under Russia
Autocratic Government in Greater New York, see under New York
Ballot Reform Act of 1890, 152
Baltimore, Maryland, Population of, 19
Bartholdi’s Monument “Liberty,” 9-10
Belial on the Judgment Seat, 145-149
Birmingham Municipality referred to, 166
Blood, Mrs., 132
Blumenthal, 146
Boroughs of Greater New York, 20
Boston, Mass., Population of, 19
Bowery Plug Uglies, 35
Bradford, Gamaliel, quoted, 168
Bradley, Daniel, referred to, 54, 117, 147
Brooklyn:
The Charter of 1882 and Government by Tsar-Mayor, 166-167
Population and Area, 19-20
City merged in New York, 20, 26
Borough of Brooklyn, 20
_Brooklyn Daily Eagle_ referred to, 173
Brown Borough, 20
Bryanism, 201, 207
Bryce, James, quoted, 166
Bunco-Steerers, see Green Goods Swindle
Bureaucracy of Greater New York, 176-177
Byrnes, Superintendent, 83
Cæsar, Julius, referred to, 165
Cantor, Jacob A., referred to, 54
Carnegie, Andrew, referred to, 159
Cass, Miss, referred to, 139
_Century Magazine_ quoted, 58
Charlton, Detective, 113-114
Chicago, Illinois:
Population of, 19, 22
Chicago and New York, 18, 21, 22, 24, 190
Fire of 1871, 40
Children, Protection of, 92-93
Cincinnati, Ohio:
Population of, 19
Brooklyn System of Government, 168
Cisneros, Evangelina, and Cuba, 184
Citizens’ Union of New York, 192, 197, 207
Seth Low’s Candidature, 197-201
City Vigilance Society of New York, 52
Civic Centre of the City, 192
Civil Service Examinations: How They were conducted, 70-72
Cleveland, Ohio:
Population of, 19
Brooklyn System of Government, 168
Cochran, Bourke, referred to, 43
Coleman, 81
Colles, Mr., referred to, 205
Collins, John, Evidence of, 88, 147
Collis, C. H. P., Evidence of, 156-157
Columbian Order or Tammany Society, see Tammany, New York
Confidence Trick--Green Goods Swindle, 107-118
Connolly, Richard B., and the Tweed Ring, 37-40
Constantinople and New York compared, 9-10
_Contemporary Review_ quoted, 179-180
Contents Table, 7
Costello, Augustine E., Evidence of, 95-102
County Council of London referred to, 171
Craig’s Book on the Fire Department, 98
Creedon, Capt., Evidence of, 73-77
Crime:
Society for Prevention of Crime in New York, 49, 62
Police Corruption, see under Police
“The Great Criminals of New York,” 98
Croker, Richard, referred to, 33, 43-44, 67, 68, 98, 99, 121, 137, 139,
172, 173, 184, 187, 199, 201, 204, 205, 207, 212, 213
Cuba: Rescue of Evangelina Cisneros, 184
Daly, 84
Day’s Saloon, 113
Deas, Canute A., 156
Democratic Government: Despairing Democracy in New York, 159-163
Democratic Party:
Judge Van Wyck’s Candidature and Election, 197, 202-206, 211-216
Henry George, Independent Democratic Candidate, 201-205
Despairing Democracy in New York, 159-163
Devery, Capt., 153, 156
De Witt, C., quoted, 26, 169, 172
Disorderly Houses, The Police and, 81-85, 95, 117, 125-133
Dollar Gas, 206
Duffy, Judge, 100, 102
Edwards, E. J., quoted, 35, 36, 37
Elections in New York, see under New York
Ellis, Israel, Evidence of, 153-154
Emigrants to New York, see Immigration
Empire Club organised by Rynders, 35-36
Endacott, P. C., referred to, 139
Engel, Martin, 88
Essex Market Gang, 88, 93
Farmers-General of Houses of Ill-Fame, 125-133
Finance:
Wealth of the Great Ten American Cities, 19
Wall Street and the Currency Question, 22
Financial Ascendency of New York, 22-24
Financial Strength of Tammany, 46-47
Bryanism, 201, 207
Fire at Chicago, 1871, 40
Fire Department, New York, 98
Flower, Governor Roswell P., and the Committee of Investigation, 52-53
Foreigners in New York, see Immigration
France: The Second Empire and the Government of Greater New York,
162-163, 176
Fream, Miss Rebecca, Evidence of, 146
Friend, Lawyer, 147-149
Frink, Policeman, 147
Galingo, 133
Gambling: The Police and the Pool-Rooms and Policy-Shops, 63-64, 82-84,
119-123
Gannon, Detective, 82, 83
Gas: Dollar Gas, 206
George, Henry, Independent Democratic Candidate, and His Programme,
201-205
Germans in New York, 22
Gilroy, Tammany Comptroller, 172
Glennon, Wardman, 211
Godkin, E. L., quoted, 18-19, 42, 58, 129, 169, 171
Godwin, Parke, of _New York Evening Post_, Rynders and, 35-36
Goff, John W., (Counsel), 54, 59, 61-62, 64, 69-70, 75, 76, 79, 93, 95,
104, 110, 117, 118, 136, 138, 148, 149, 152, 153
Grace, Ex-Mayor, quoted, 176
Granger, Gideon, Evidence of, 65, 73
Grant, Charley, 80
Green, F. V., quoted, 174
Green, Deputy-Comptroller, 40
Green Goods Swindle, 107-118
Gwinnen and the Shoeblack, 88
Haines, Walter, 111
Hale, Nathan, Statue of, in New York, 14-15
Hall, Mayor, 38
Hamstrung Cæsarism as a Remedy, 159
Hancock, John, referred to, 205
Hanley, Detective, 112, 114, 115
_Harper’s Magazine_ quoted, 30, 31
Harrington, Thomas F., Evidence of, 157
Harriot, Lucy C., Evidence of, 117
Harrison, Carter, referred to, 187
Hastings’s (Georgiana) Disorderly Houses, 84-85
Hawkins, Saloon-Keeper, 113
Hearst, W. R., of the _New York Journal_, 180-187
Hermann, Matilda, Evidence of, 126-129
Hewitt, Mayor, referred to, 201
Hoch, Policeman, 130-131
Hochstein, Saloon-Keeper, 90, 92, 146
Hogan, Judge, 140-142
Hopkins’s (Matthew) “Satan’s Invisible World Displayed,” 27
Hudson River at Midnight, 11-14
Hummel, Mr., 102
Hussey, Detective, 90-92
Ill-Fame, Houses of, see Disorderly Houses
Illustrations (see also Portraits):
The City Hall, New York, 2
Liberty Enlightening the World, 8
A Misty Morning in New York, 12
Statue of Nathan Hale, 15
New York Post Office, Broadway, 16
Printing-House Square, 23
The Front Door of the New World, 25
Union Square, 29
First Tammany Hall, erected 1811, 32
Tammany Hall, opened 1860, 33
Tammany Hall of To-day, 187
The Children’s Playground, Central Park, 47
New York and Brooklyn Bridge, 66
Brooklyn Bridge, 86
Fourteenth Street, 97
American Tract Society Depôt, 106
Delmonico’s, 118
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 124
Gansevoort Market, 134
Oyster Row, 141
Fifth Avenue, 144
Wall Street and Trinity Church, 150
Hotel Majestic, 155
A View in Broadway, 161
Riverside Drive and Grant’s Tomb, 185
The Overhead Railway, 195
The American Surety Company, 198
Cartoon: Greater New York: An Optimistic Prophecy, 210
St. Petersburg, 60
Immigrants and Foreigners in New York:
Population of New York, 18-20
The Police and the Immigrants, 35, 58, 87-93
Inquisition for New York, 189-195
Ireland and the United States, 10-11
Irish Citizens in New York, 22
Ivins, Wm. M., quoted, 73
Jefferson Theory of Local Government, 169, 191, 201
Journalism:
Government by Newspaper, 179-180
The Chief Business of the Journalist, 189
Investigation by Newspaper, 193-195
European Correspondents in New York, 21
Newspaper Area of the United States, 24-26
_The New York Journal_, 180-187, 208-209
Kelly, John, 41, 205
Keltie, Ettie, Case of, 140-142
Koch, Judge, 145-149
Labour Laws of New York, 200, 208
Labour Unions, 201
Law: Belial on the Judgment Seat, 145-149
Lefkovitz, Isaac, 90
Lexow (Clarence) Committee of Investigation, see under Police
Lewis, Alfred Henry, referred to, 214
“Liberty enlightening the World,” 9-15
Licensing Question, see under Liquor Traffic
Lincoln, Abraham, on Government, 160
Liquor Traffic in New York:
Number of Saloons, 46
Saloons open on Sundays, 62-63, 83
The Liquor Dealers’ Associations, 82, 119
The Excise Board and New Licences for Closed Houses, 138
The Raines Liquor Law, 202, 205, 207, 215
Literary Primacy of New York, 24-26
Long Island Townships, Area of, 20
Low, Seth,
First Tsar-Mayor of Brooklyn, 166-167, 172
Quoted, 167, 176, 200, 201
Candidate of the Citizens’ Union, 197-201
Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 43, 186, 190
Lucas, 104-105
McAvoy, Inspector, 83, 84
McClave, Commissioner John, 65, 73, 189
_McClure’s Magazine_ quoted, 35, 36, 37
McKinley, Wm., referred to, 207
McLaughlin, Capt., and Mr. Costello, 99-103
McNally, King, and His Police, 107-118
Mahan, Capt., referred to, 206
Mahoney, Julia, Evidence of, 57-58
Manhattan Borough, 20
Manning, Cardinal, quoted, 212
Maps of Greater New York, 21, 177
Marius referred to, 165
Martens, Sergeant, 85
Martin, Commissioner, 64, 68-70, 83, 84, 85
Martin, Mr., and the Promotion of Captain Creedon, 75-76
Martini, Shoeblack, 88
May 12th, Tammany’s Saint Day, 30
Maynard’s Gambling-House, 84
Meakin, Captain, 112, 113, 114, 116
Meyer, Inspector Louis, 90, 153
Monopolies, 48
Mooney, Wm., introduced Tammany Society into New York, 30
Moran, Michael, Evidence of, 137
Moss, Frank, referred to, 55, 61, 72, 88, 100, 101, 123, 147
Municipal Government in New York, Brooklyn, etc., see New York,
Brooklyn, etc.
_Munsey’s Magazine_ quoted, 173
Munzinger’s Mineral Waters, 81
Murray, Capt., 99, 101
Napoleon III. and the Second Empire, 162-163, 165, 176
Nathan, Ralph, Evidence of, 156
_Nation_ (of New York) quoted, 38
_New England Magazine_ quoted, 26
New York City and Greater New York:
The Statue of Liberty, 9-10
The Gateway of the New World, 9-15
The Statue of Nathan Hale, 14-15
The Second City in the World, 17-26
The Window of America, and the Door of the New World, 21-24
Tenderloin or 29th Precinct, 80-81, 99
Political Power, 22
Literary Primacy, 24-26
Journalism in New York, 21, 24-26, 179-187
The Story of Tammany, 27-31
The Substitute for Tammany, 33-34
Tammany a Great Political and Democratic Organisation, 32-35
Tammany’s Record for Dishonesty, 35
Rynders’s Empire Club and Its Methods, 35-36
Fernando Wood’s Mayoralty, 37
The Tweed Ring, 37-41
Samuel J. Tilden and the Committee of Seventy, 40
“Honest” John Kelly, 41
Tammany Rule down to 1894, 43-55
Dr. Parkhurst’s Campaign, 34, 48-52, 55, 84, 128
The Lexow Committee of Investigation of Police Corruption, etc.,
53-157 (see under Police)
Tammany, the Police, and the Municipal Elections, 151-157
The Fire Department, 98
Amalgamation of Brooklyn with New York, 20, 26
Maps of Greater New York, 21, 177
Population, Foreigners, 18-22
Area, 20
Five Boroughs, 20
Despairing Democracy, 159-163
The Charter of Greater New York and the Second Empire, 162-163
Government by Tsar-Mayor, 165-169
Provisions of the Charter, 171-177
Powers of the Mayor, 173-174, 176
Financial Control and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, 173-175
Eighteen Executive Departments, 173-174, 176-177
Impotence of the Municipal Assembly, 174-176
Distrust of the People, 173
Why not try the Inquisition? 189-195
The Common Council and Division into Wards, 191-192
Investigation by Newspaper, 193-195
The Election of 1897; the Plebiscite for a Cæsar, 197-209
Seth Low’s Candidature, 197-201
Henry George’s Candidature, 201-205
The Tammany Platform; Candidature and Election of Judge Van Wyck,
202-206, 211-216
General Tracy’s Candidature, 206-209
_New York Evening-Post_ quoted and referred to, 35, 41
_New York Herald_ referred to, 96, 182
_New York Journal_ and Its Editor, 180-187, 214
Quoted, 184-186
The _Journal_ and the Election, 208-209
New York State Legislature, 171
_New York Tribune_ referred to, 26
_New York World_ referred to, 14, 180-183
Newspapers, see Journalism
Newstafel, Anna, Evidence of, 119-120
Nichols, Frank, 154-156
_North American Review_ quoted, 18-19, 58, 129, 152
O’Connor, Edmund, referred to, 53, 61, 69-70, 80, 102, 129, 142
Pandemonium of Typewriting-Machines--Central New York, 17
Pantata Police, 119-123
Parker, 82
Parkhurst, Dr. C. H., and His Campaign against Tammany, 34, 48-52, 55,
84, 128
Patriotic League of New York, 192
Pennsylvania (see also Philadelphia): Tammany, Patron Saint, of
Pennsylvania Troops, 30
Pequod Club, 80-81
Periodicals of New York, 24
Perot, Madame, 132
_Petit Journal_ referred to, 180
Philadelphia:
Population of, 19
Brooklyn System of Government, 168
Platt, Thos. A., 199, 205, 207
Plebiscite for a Cæsar, 197-209
Police of New York:
Down with the Police! 49-55
The Bandits of New York, 57-60
Powers and Impotence of the Police, 61-65
Promotion by Pull and Promotion by Purchase, 67-77, 80-81
The Case of Capt. Creedon, 73-77
Capt. Schmittberger, 79-86
The Police and the Foreign Population, 87-93
The Slaughter-Houses of the Police, 95-105
“Our Police Protectors,” 96
King McNally and His Police, 107-118
The Pantata Police and the Policy-Shops and Pool-Rooms, 119-123
The Police and Houses of Ill-Fame, 81-85, 95, 117, 125-133
The Police and the Poor, 135-143
The Police and the Women in the Streets, 138-143
The Police and Abortionists, 147-149
The Police as Agents of Tammany in the Municipal Elections, 151-157
Police Pension Fund, 96-98
Police of St. Petersburg, 61-62
Policy-Shops, see under Gambling
Polk, President, referred to, 36
Pool-Rooms, see Gambling
Population of the United States and the Great American Cities, 19-20
Portraits:
Byrnes, Superintendent, 65
Costello, Augustine E., 94
Creedon, Captain, 77
Croker, Richard, 45
Flower, Gov. R. P., 53
George, Henry, 203
Godkin, E. L., 42
Goff, John W., 54
Hearst, W. R., 178
Hermann, Madam, 133
Lexow, Clarence, 56
Low, Seth, 164
Moss, Frank, 123
Parkhurst, Dr. C. H., 50
Platt, Thomas C., 188
Pulitzer, Mr., 181
Schmittberger, Capt. Max F., 78
Shaw, Dr. Albert, 170
Sheehan, John C., 63
Tilden, S. J., 40
Tracy, General, 196
Tweed, William M., 39
Urchittel, Mrs., 91
Van Wyck, Robert A., 158, 163
Whitehead, Dr., 149
Williams, Inspector, 105
Wood, Fernando, 36
Pound, Cuthbert W., referred to, 54, 129
Preface, 5
Prince, Frank, 95
Proctor and Gambling Houses, 84
Prostitutes, The Police and, 138-143
Pulitzer, Albert, of _New York Journal_, 180
Pulitzer, Mr., of _New York World_, 180-183
Queen’s Borough, 20
Quincy, Mass.: The Charter and Government by Tsar-Mayor, 168
Raines Liquor Law, 200, 202, 205, 207, 215
Reppenhagen, John W., and Capt. Creedon, 74-76
Republican Party:
Candidature of Gen. Tracy, 206-209
Seth Low, Candidate of the Citizens’ Union, 197-201
Richmond Borough, Staten Id., 20
Robertson, George W., referred to, 53
Roesch, Ex.-Sen., 69-70, 129-131
Rome, Ancient, and Greater New York, 165-166
Roosevelt, Theodore, quoted, 58
Rosalsky, Mr., 154
Russia:
Russian Autocracy, 160, 163
Tsar-Mayors of Brooklyn, Greater New York, etc., see Brooklyn,
New York, etc.
The St. Petersburg Police, 61-62
Rynders and the Empire Club, 35-36
St. Louis, Missouri, Population of, 19
St. Petersburg Police, 61-62
Saloons of New York, see Liquor Traffic
San Francisco, Population of, 19
_San Francisco Examiner_ referred to, 180
“Satan’s Invisible World Displayed,” by Matthew Hopkins, 27
Saxton, Chas. T., referred to, 54
Schillinberger, Policeman, 103
Schlie, John, Evidence of, 72
Schmittberger, Capt. Max F., 79-86
Schryer, Sergeant, 69-70
_Scribner’s Magazine_ quoted, 174
Second Empire, 162-163, 176
Shakespeare quoted, 213
Shalvey, Edward, 136
Shaw, Dr. Albert, quoted, 33-34, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177
Sheehan, John C., 63-64, 80, 84, 85, 205
Shephard, E. M., quoted, 169
Shipping: Ascendency of New York, 22-24
Slaughter-Houses of the Police, 95-105
Smith, Silver Dollar, 135
Standant, Thos. J., 102-103
Stanley, Mr., and Mr. Costello, 99, 100, 102
State Legislature of New York, 171
Staten Id. Borough, 20
Stranger within the Gates, 87-93
Street Railways, 200
Strong, Mayor, 172, 176
Subin, Jacob, referred to, 154
Sutherland, Wm. A., referred to, 54, 64
Sylla’s Dictatorship referred to, 165
Tammany, St.:
Origin and Early History of Tammany, 27-31
Tammany in New York, see under New York
Tenderloin or 29th Precinct, 80-81, 99
Thurow, Augusta, Evidence of, 129-131
Tilden, Samuel J., and the Committee of Seventy, 40
Tocqueville, A. C. H. C. de, quoted, 19
Tracy, Gen. Benjamin F., Republican Candidate, 172, 199, 206-209
Tsar-Mayors of Brooklyn, Greater New York, etc., see under Brooklyn,
New York, etc.
Tweed, Wm. M., and the Tweed Ring, 37-41, 157, 212
“Unctuous Rectitude,” 43
United States (see also Brooklyn, New York, etc., etc.):
British Devotion to the American Commonwealth, 10
Ireland and America, 10-11, 22
Population, 18-19
New York and the Presidential Campaign, 22
Imperial Ambitions, 166
Urchittel, Mrs., Evidence of, 89-93
Vail, Detective, 81-82
Van Wyck, Judge Robert A.:
Tammany Candidate, 197, 202-206
Election of, 211-216
Voorhis, Commissioner, and the Promotion of Capt. Creedon, 74-76
Walsh, Mike, and Tammany, 35-36
Warren and Costello Treaty, 96
Walters, Flora, Evidence of, 145
Weigand, Sergeant, 74-75
Werner, Karl, Case of, 136
West’s (Mrs. Sadie) Disorderly House, 84
Westchester County, 20
Whitehead, Dr. Newman, Evidence of, 147-149
Whitney, Edgar A., Evidence of, 211
Whitty, Ex-Convict, 157
Williams, Inspector, 82, 83, 85, 99, 101
Witches’ Sabbat, 27
Women in the Streets, The Police and, 138-143
Wood, Fernando, Mayor of New York, 37
Worst Treason of All, 151-157
Zimmerman, Detective, 103, 128-129
LONDON: PRINTED BY WM. CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND
CHARING CROSS.