Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903. Excerpt: ... WHAT THE CITIZENS UNION MEANS. Origin and History of a Wonderfully Successful Non-Partisan Movement. The purpose of the Citizens Union movement is to provide "that the business affairs of municipal corporations shall be conducted upon their own merits, uncontrolled by State and National politics." The New York State Constitution, adopted in 1894, provided that municipal elections should be held at times separate and distinct from State and National elections. Here was the opportunity to accomplish the Citizens Union purpose in the municipalities of New York State. THE UNION'S AIM PURELY LOCAL. In New York City, for more than a century, the local agency of the Democratic Party had been perverted into a mere instrumentality for private "graft." It has maintained its strength on the one hand through the "cohesive power of public plunder," and on the other, through appeals to "loyal Democrats," demanding the fealty of members of a national party, where' n6 party questions were involved. "Graft" and "Regularity" have been its watchwords. It is the purpose of the Citizens Union of.New-York to rid the City of this organized piracy. Its scope is purely local. ENORMOUS POWER OF THE MAYOR." The adoption of the Constitution of 1894, and the welding in 1897 of the nearly one hundred communities in and around Manhattan Island into a single Greater City, created a very real necessity for such an organization as this. The enormous increase of power and responsibility vested in the mayor--who was to be the chief executive of a population of now 3,600,000--made it absolutely necessary that the head of this new and mighty city should be absolutely free and unhampered by any obligations of national political partisanship. THE FIGHT FOR NON-PARTISANSHIP. From its beginning t...
