JUDGED BY THE PAST NOT A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.
"There is more aggressive rottenness and less aggressive patriotism in our large cities than anywhere else," Governor Folk declared in his Academy of Music speech. "If the patriotism can be made as aggressive as the rottenness, the problem of good government will be solved by the people taking the government into their own hands. . . . If corruption is to be eradicated, the people alone can do it." The Durham gang in Philadelphia holds up its hands in pious horror at the sight of Tammany looting the city of New York. And Tammany shudders in public over Secretary Root's description of the Durham gang as a criminal organization trading under the Republican name. Both exist through appeals to blind partisanship, and there is little choice between them in their methods of plunder. Murphy is a Democrat for revenue just as Durham is a Republican for revenue.—New York World.