The Boss and the Machine: A Chronicle of the Politicians and Party OrganizationOrth, Samuel Peter
History
The Boss and the Machine: A Chronicle of the Politicians and Party Organization
Orth, Samuel Peter
Political parties -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
In the larger cities the citizens' tickets and fusion movements
are types of independent activities. In some cities they are merely
temporary associations, formed for a single, thorough housecleaning. The
Philadelphia Committee of One Hundred, which was organized in 1880
to fight the Gas Ring, is an example. It issued a Declaration of
Principles, demanding the promotion of public service rather than
private greed, and the prosecution of "those who have been guilty of
election frauds, maladministration of office, or misappropriation of
public funds." Announcing that it would endorse only candidates
who signed this declaration, the committee supported the Democratic
candidates, and nominated for Receiver of Taxes a candidate of its
own, who became also the Democratic nominee when the regular Democratic
candidate withdrew. Philadelphia was overwhelmingly Republican. But the
committee's aid was powerful enough to elect the Democratic candidate
for mayor by 6000 majority and the independent candidate for Receiver
of Taxes by 20,000. This gave the Committee access to the records of
the doings of the Gas Ring. In 1884, however, the candidate which it
endorsed was defeated, and it disbanded.
Similar in experience was the famous New York Committee of Seventy,
organized in 1894 after Dr. Parkhurst's lurid disclosures of police
connivance with every degrading vice. A call was issued by thirty-three
well-known citizens for a non-partizan mass meeting, and at this meeting
a committee of seventy was appointed "with full power to confer with
other anti-Tammany organizations, and to take such actions as may be
necessary to further the objects of this meeting as set forth in the
call therefor, and the address adopted by this meeting." The committee
adopted a platform, appointed an executive and a finance committee, and
nominated a full ticket, distributing the candidates among both parties.
All other anti-Tammany organizations endorsed this ticket, and it
was elected by large majorities. The committee dissolved after having
secured certain charter amendments for the city and seeing its roster of
officers inaugurated.
The Municipal Voters' League of Chicago is an important example of the
permanent type of citizens' organization. The league is composed of
voters in every ward, who, acting through committees and alert officers,
scrutinize every candidate for city office from the Mayor down. It does
not aim to nominate a ticket of its own, but to exercise such vigilance,
enforced by so effective an organization and such wide-reaching
publicity, that the various parties will, of their own volition,
nominate men whom the league can endorse. By thus putting on
the hydraulic pressure of organized public opinion, it has had a
considerable influence on the parties and a very stimulating effect on
the citizenry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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