THE NEW YORK MAYORALTY ELECTION
November 8, 1917
The triumph of Tammany in New York City and the large Socialist vote have in some quarters been hailed as showing that New York City is for peaceat any price and that it is against the Administration. Neither statement is warranted by the facts.
The Socialist vote was about one-fifth of the total vote. It included most of those who wished the war stopped at once, this number being made up of professional pacifists, of red flag Anarchists, and of poor, ignorant people who pathetically believed that a Socialist mayor would somehow bring peace at once. But it also included its professional Socialists and poor, ignorant people who did not think of the war, but who pathetically believed that a Socialist mayor would somehow give them five-cent milk. The voters in New York City who wish immediate peace without any regard to national honor, or to what future horrors such a peace would bring, are certainly less than a fifth of the whole.
The vote was not anti-Administration. A far larger proportion of the supporters of the Administration voted forMr.Hylan than forMr.Mitchel, and officially the Administration was neutral between the two. A goodly number of pro-Germans supportedMr.Hylan, but he was also supported by a large number of entirely loyal men, and he himself, unlike the Socialist candidate,Mr.Hillquit, was avowedly for America against Germany, and for the prosecution of the war. The election in actual fact turned directly on local issues. New York occasionally witnesses an occasional insurrection of virtue, but the city has never in fifty years given a good administration a second term. The insurrection ofvirtue at one election is followed by a Tammany revival at the next.
The result of the election in New York City was not heartening to patriotic persons, but right next door, in the Connecticut congressional district which includes Bridgeport, a contest for a vacant congressional seat resulted in a way that speaks well for the Republic. The Republican candidate, Schuyler Merritt, a man of high probity and capacity, with a forward look in international affairs, came out in bold and straightforward fashion, saying he would support the President in all measures for the efficient prosecution of the war until victory came, that he would do all he could to prevent our again falling into the condition of shameful unpreparedness we had for three years occupied, and that he was for universal obligatory military training for our young men. He won by a majority much greater than that which his predecessor received at the time of the presidential election last year.