Politics

Indignation, Virtuous and Otherwise.

Because it is "notoriously extravagant, mercenary and corrupt," Tammany is to be arraigned in Carnegie Hall to-morrow night. The sins of the wigwam are manifold. It has made ducks and drakes of all the political commandments and supplied more material than any mass meeting can exhaust. There was little likelihood that it would make a record of any other kind. It returned to power three years ago, after a long fast - the tiger was ravenous. It has conducted itself accordingly. Fortunately for the city it was treated to a disagreeable surprise. As all roads lead to Rome, so do almost all municipal transactions lead to the office of the Controller. As an obstructionist he has been a phenomenal success. His assent is vital. His dissent disastrous. And he has been a dissenter practically all along the line. The surprise was the more disagreeable because it was presumed at the outset that he would take into the Controller's office an exceedingly accommodating character. Not for a moment was it supposed that he would turn out to be an obstacle. Virtually, he has done nothing else. It will never be known how many "good things" thanks to his interposition, have gone wrong. Collusion in his office would have cleared the stage for a carnival. However, the wigwam has made the most of its restricted opportunities. Incidentally it has fattened on what even a famished tiger would reject as carrion - it has trafficked in worse than blood money. So, the mass meeting orators will be at no loss to discover subjects for discussion.

Much depends on motive. Sheehan is understood to have issued the call for the meeting. In all probability the document is indebted to him for its existence. Assuming this to have been the case and assuming it to have been written in good faith, Sheehan would destroy the wigwam because "Its misdeeds and venality bring reproach at once upon the character of our city and upon the very name of Democracy." Not long ago, Mr. Sheehan was one of the Tammany's district leaders. He was then a distributor of Tammany patronage. It is fair to presume that had he not been ousted by a rival the call for the meeting would have been compelled to get along without him. This illumines the matter of motive. It is a direct and pertinent contribution to the cause. It suggests that the indignation prompting the call be seasoned with at least a grain of salt lest it pall upon the palate. Other names in the long list appended to the call might be included in the same category of virtue at a discount - On a political bargain counter. Right here it is worthy of remark that there is indignation elsewhere.   Mr. Brookfield, for instance, is out against the Republican machine. He also proposes to call a meeting. He believes the Republican County Committee to be other then representative and will affiliate with it under no conceivable circumstances. Some of its members he declares would rather see a Tammany man elected Mayor then a Republican or an Independent, hence his hostility. Gibb explains everything to his own satisfaction declaring that Brookfield has a grievance, which is submitted for what it is worth.

It is not too soon to suggest that the man with a grievance, no matter to which side he may have happened to belong, labors under certain disadvantages at mass meetings. It is not too soon to suggest that as an agitator he is handicapped. One of the services he can render is to say as little as possible and that little in an undertone. There is no assurance that Tammany Hall will be beaten next November. It is splendidly organized and will have the support of an almost equally well disciplined machine on the Brooklyn side of the river. And it is not too much to ask that the opposition to it be altogether free from suspicion. There is no necessity for using a spade to get at the root of the Tammany evil. For three years the city has had a composite mayor. In the photograph of Van Wyck as an official can easily be detected the lieutenants of a score of men. So prominent are their features that even his own facial characteristics are in at least partial obscurity. Another way of putting the case is to say that the city has had no Mayor at all: that every head of department has been as much of a law unto himself as though the Mayor's chair had had no occupant. The city has been treated to government under machine rather than under individual auspices and it is against a continuance of this infliction that every precaution must be taken. In other words, Tammany must be compelled to select something better than an automaton for its standard bearer. Compulsion must come in no questionable shape. It must be made clear to the wigwam that it has the choice between defeat and a nominee who will share camera honors with nobody. This is vital. It is so vital that there is room for blunderers nowhere but in the background. It is so vital that those who have a grievance to nurse should coddle it behind closed doors. There are times when silence is anything but oppressive.