The New York election has not overthrown Tammany, but it
has given a shock to its power. The great city has re-elected Mr. McClellan, who is the nominee of the corrupt organisa- tion, but his majority has been greatly reduced, and he himself has been a worthy Mayor, clean of the scandals which disgrace the city. Mr. Jerome, moreover, whom we should call the Public Prosecutor, and who in that capacity is the dread of all ill-doers, has been returned without help from any organisation by a heavy majority. It is useless as yet to give the figures, because Mr. Hearst, the second candidate for the Mayoralty, threatens an appeal for a recount, which, as he is a millionaire and popular on account of his opposition to Trusts, for which he would substitute municipal action, may possibly be successful. Tammany is accused this time of "stuffing" and destroying ballot-boxes, a practice which irritates citizens who pass over a great deal, because it involves an attack on the freedom of election, which is the first principle of popular government. The enemies of municipal corruption are evidently growing stronger, and in Philadelphia they are said to have carried their entire "ticket." It is extraordinarily difficult to understand why, if the citizens of New York really care, as they say they do, for purity of administration, they cannot do the same thing.
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