A TAMMANY REVERSE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 4

A TAMMANY REVERSE.

ARROGANT BOSS. | NEW YORK ELECTION. ! (from orm own co-respondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, November 11. The election of John Puroy Mitchell, Mayor of New York City, by a majority 0f'121,000 votes over. Edward E. MoCall, a former judge of tho State Supremo Court, and tho candidate of Tammany Hall, was tho most smashing political defeat that corrupt organisation has sustained in many years. In its degradation of Governor Sulzer, a former puppet of Boss Murphy, who was pulled out of the Governorship as punishment for his refusal to any longer take Tammany orders, Tammany for once over-reached itself, and evoked its own condemnation. Optimistic .New Yorkers are referring to the election as the "destruction of Tammany," but Tammany has been "destroyed" so many times in the past only to rise to power and control in a few years that, there is no ground whatever fpr the hope that the Tiger will henceforth be eliminated from New York politics. Under Boss Charles Murphy, Tammany Hall has achieved greater influence than at any time since the overthrow of the Tweed ring. With his delegates to.the National Democratic last year Murphy came within an ace of defeating Wobdrow Wilson" for the "nomination for President j but for William j. Bryan, the present Secretary ot -State,A the candidate, supported by Tammany, would undoubtedly have been nominated. In New _ork State .affairs the organisation brought about the election of Governor Dix three years ago, and of Governor Sulzer one year ago. Under Dix, Boss Murphy was permitted to dictate most oi the important political appointments; Sulzer's refusal to.tread the same path as Dix resulted in his downfall. .The late Mayor. Gaynor was elected because of Tammany backing, but he, like Sulzer, could not stomach the demands of the overbearing Murphy. With Mitchell in the Mayor's chair, and with Governor Glynn adopting a pronounced anti-Tammany attitude, thero is every reason to believe ' that in the immediate future,, at any rate, the Murphy influence will be eliminated, that political offices will not bo bought and sold, and that the most profitable public contracts will not be seized upon by Murphy's associates. In a sense tho election was a vindication for Sulzer. State and municipal elections were held on the same day, and this gave the impeached and dismissed Governor an opportunity to tide back into' office on the wave of anti-Tam-many sentiment. Notwithstanding his g roved perjury and.unfitness for office, ulzer was elected to the Legislative Assembly to represent an East Side constituency. He thus recommences' his political career on- the rung of the ladder upon which he started twenty years ago. The mayoralty campaign in its last days was fougMt out with the utmost virulence and with unbridled language. Serious charges wero barjdied back and forth, and in speeches every night the lie- was passed. John A. flennessy, a former newspaper writer, who, as an appointee of Governor Sulzer's started the investigation of Tammany which led to tie impeachment of Sulzer, gavo utterance to attacks on McCall, tlio Tammany candidate for mayor, which aro to be further investigated in criminal libel suite. He chare-d that McCall was Murphy's emissary in an attempt to'coercG Governor .Sulzer, and that McCall paid for his'judgeship of the Supreme Court was another charge. "Let Judge McCall answer/ Hennessey said in one of his speeches, "whero did he get the money which ho paid over to Murphy and Plunkett for the nomination ror Supremo Court Justice." Fighting and attempted intimidatioji wero in evidence around some of the "booths on election day, but not to the that was expected. That gunmen, guerillas, and thugs were to be employed to intimidate voters was tho well-grounded belief of the fusion party, but 700 picked policemen, familiar with the underworld characters were assigned to the voting places where the rough elements predominate, and lawlessness was reduced to a minimum.

In three Massachusetts, New Jersey, nnd Virginia, ' elections were also held on November 3rd, and in each instance a Democrat was elected Governor. Eugene Foss, who has been elected Governor of, Massachusetts as a Republican and a Democrat, ran this time as an Independent, and was defeated. The results of the State elections are highly pleasing to President Wilson, who interprets them an an endorsement, by the peoole of his administration of national affairs.