1024

THE WORLD: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4. 1914.

[political cartoon: Murphy in native garb, with spear through tiger
caption: BRINGING HOME THE BACON]

WRECKED BY MURPHYISM.

Last year Murphyism broke the back of the
Democratic party in New York City.

This year Murphyism has broken the back of the
Democratic party of New York State.

The people of New York will no longer tolerate
Tammany Hall government at Albany. They have
said it in the great vote polled for Mr. Whitman.
They have said it still more emphatically in the
vote polled for William Sulzer. Discredited and
disgraced, a bankrupt in reputation as well as in
character, Sulzer has again proved himself the
political Nemises of the boss who impeached him
and removed him from the Governorship, not be-
cause he had pocketed campaign contributions
but because he had refused longer to take orders
from Charies F. Murphy

A sorry implement of political justice, perhaps,
but William Sulzer has nevertheless done his
work and done it effectively. When tens of thou-
sands of voters seize upon such an instrument of
political retribation, in what utter detestation
must they hold Murphyism?

Gov. Glynn is the victim of conditions which
he did not create, but which, unfortunately, he
had taken no strong measures to remedy. He is
not a member of Tammany Hall. He has never
been identified with Tammany politics; but on
the other hand, he has never identified himself
conspicuously with the militant Democracy that
is irrevocably opposed to Murphyism. The Gov-
ernor's political defeat is the inevitable result of
trying to be friendly enough to Tammany to gain
its support and independent enough of Tammany
to win the support of the anti-Murphy Democracy.

The thing the Governor tried to do cannot be
done. The ticket that he ran on was loaded down
with Murphy candidates, from Bensel and Sohmer
to Haffen and Ahearn. It reeked of Tammany
contracts and Tammany corruption. The Gov-
ernor was not responsible for this, but he had
failed to exercise the kind of leadership that
would have made it impossible.

His own Administration has been honest. He
deserves high credit for a programme of progres-
sive legislation that has made history in New
York. He has been a better Governor on the ad-
ministrative side than Mr. Whitman is ever likely
to be. Where he has failed is in the moral leader-
ship that would have convinced the voters of this
State that his election would not mean the re-
election of Murphy. Having failed there, he failed
completely so far as the hasty judgment of the
majority goes.

The Murphy issue is emphasized by a compari-
son of the Glynn vote with the Gerard vote. The
Democratic candidate for United States Senator
could not beat back the landslide; but while Gov.
Glynn was branded with Murphyism, Judge Gerard
was branded with Wilsonism, and the comparative
returns are an eloquent expression of popular
judgment on these two irreconcilable types of
Democracy. Even Mr. Roosevelt, with all his
skill and with all his vindictive hatred of the
Republican organization of New York which
blocked his third-term ambitions, could not check
the popular determination to drive Murphyism out
of Albany, no matter who suffered or who benefited.

The Democrats of New York have been beaten
recause they tolerated Charles F. Murphy as the
boss of their party organization. They learned
nothing from the disastrous defeat that they sus-
tained in the city last fall. Will they learn noth-
ing from the disastrous defeat that they sustained
in the State this fall?