were before dull of vision that we did not

see.

In the sculptor's studio the sculptor is at work with the plastic clay modeling the form, and his pupils are watching how he does it and trying to imitate him. God is still making men of clay, but breathing life into the clay as no sculptor does. And to us he says, You may help. Nay, I will stand back, and let you do the work, and I will show you how." The world is a kindergarten of very little children, and the great God is offering to them his great love and his great life.

Why does he not do it at once?" Did you ever try the experiment of putting a big life into a little soul? You cannot do it except as you can make the soul grow big to hold the life. That is what God is doing through the ages-making the souls of men large enough to take his life, and giving the life that by giving he may make the souls large. And in all this work he takes his instruments from humanity. He takes Moses, the Hebrew, to lead the Hebrews out of their bondage; David, the sensual man, to teach the world what is the meaning of spirituality; Paul, the Pharisee, to preach the gospel of catholicity; Luther, the monk, to proclaim liberty through the nations of Europe; Beecher, brought up in New England Puritanism, to teach the world a love that has broken the icy bonds of Puritanism. He takes men to do work among men and for men.

This is the very heart and essence of his method. For when he would make full and glorious manifestation of himself, he does it by entering into human life with his own glory, so teaching us that God can and does dwell with and in man; and the man in whom God dwells is the supremest possible revelation of God. And then, when the Christ of God goes, this is the last word he leaves to his disciples: As the Father hath sent me into the world, so send I you into the world. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. I have done works: but greater works than these.shall you do, if you believe in me." "Greater works," because God is still co-laboring with us. Christ fed a few thousand, but Christian charity has fed by the million since. Christian charity to-day is healing more in a single city than Christ healed in all his lifetime. As the fruit of his preaching, five hundred converts gathered after Christ's death. As the immediate fruit

of the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield, Methodism had shaken all England from center to circumference; had crossed the ocean, had wrought its work of conversion in America, and had crossed the Channel and wrought its work of conversion in Europe. Eighty thousand people are said to be the number of the converts that were made through the work of Wesley during his own lifetime. More have been converted to Christ, far more, by Charles G. Finney, Dwight L. Moody, Henry Ward Beecher, the elder Beecher, and a dozen names I could mention to-day, than were converted by Christ's preaching while he lived. It is as though Christ said, I will show you how to do it, then I will step into the background. I will not leave you, I will show you how to correct mistakes; when you go wrong, I will set you right again; but I will stand behind, and I will give you the honor and the glory and the blessedness of the work that I have just begun.

God is working out the world's redemption. He is lifting sin and sorrow off human hearts. He is teaching men what manhood really means. He is teaching them justice and truth and duty and love. And he says

to us, You may share in this work if you will; you may come into my studio and paint pictures for me; you may come into my nation and build temples and palaces for me; you may come into my community and teach brotherhood for me; you may come into my Church and teach faith and hope and love for me.

Some of us cannot do what we call work. Some of us must be content to teach men how to suffer. Some of us must be content to teach men how to stand and serve by waiting. God has given to some of us an infant class of our own in our own home, and that demands all our care. I know not what your appointed work is; but this I know, that somewhere there is some work appointed for you. God's work is going on; it is to be accomplished, and by and by we shall come bringing our sheaves with rejoicing. When we so come, will you have a hand in the sheaf-bearing and a voice in the harvest song, or will you stand only as the spectator of the joy and the glory of others? We in this world look longingly forward for the glory of heaven; but I sometimes think when we get to heaven we shall look longingly back, and wish we might return for the cross-bearing and the service and the campaigning which this life alone offers.

66

F

USION," according to Noah Webster, "is the union or blending together of things into oneness." The Fusion Movement in New York might be described as the union of all who believe in the principle of non-partisanship in municipal affairs, to the end that the people of the city may enjoy an economic and efficient administration in which expediency is replaced by principles. What gives the efforts of these citizens more than casual significance is the fact that their activities are part of a widespread movement in the United States to improve municipal government, which James Bryce and other students of government have called the weak spot in the American system. The forces of corruption against which the batteries of Fusion are aimed find expression in some degree in every American city of consequence. many Hall is local in name alone. In New York the struggle for good government is on a larger scale than elsewhere; the play of the opposing forces is visible. to the naked eye. Social and political phenomena that exist to some extent in all our cities are perhaps best epitomized in the metropolis.

Tam

The genesis of Fusion was the spontaneous germination of the conviction in the minds of a considerable number of citizens that the problems of city government in New York could be handled satisfactorily only by men of business judgment and constructive ability, unhampered by party ties. "Our city is a huge corporation," said these men; "why should it not conduct its affairs as efficiently as a private corporation? National parties divide on National issues, which do not affect city affairs."

Accordingly, a number of these "municipal patriots," including some who had been in the fight against Tammany four years ago, constituted themselves a committee of ways and means. On March 19 a mass-meeting was held in the Fifth Avenue Building, and foundations were laid for what bids fair to become a permanent municipal party.

A

committee of twenty representatives of the five boroughs was appointed, with Dr. Henry Moskowitz, head worker of the Madison House Association, as chairman. This body worked day and night for six weeks selecting, from more than seven hundred names of representative men from all parties, the famous Committee of One Hundred and Seven, or Citizens' Municipal Committee, as it calls itself by preference. The number 107 had no mystic significance, but was simply the fairest approximation that could be secured of just representation of all the factions concerned from the five boroughs, without regard to race or creed. Most of the races found in New York's welter of nationalities are represented on the Committee. This body and its executive committee took up the task of selecting candidates, and from the middle of May to the end of July sifted and analyzed public opinion, receiving suggestions from citizens and civic bodies galore.

Soon it was evident that as regards the nomination for the Mayoralty public opinion was all for three men-John Purroy Mitchel, Collector of the Port of New York; George McAneny, President of the Borough of Manhattan; and Charles S. Whitman, District Attorney of New York County. How Mr. Mitchel was selected to head the ticket early on the morning of the 1st of August, after the Citizens' Committee had been deadlocked all night, and how the two unsuccessful candidates magnanimously decided to bury their disappointment and accept the positions offered them, the Presidency of the Board of Aldermen for Mr. McAneny, and the District Attorneyship for Mr. Whitman, is a matter of history now.

The point to bear in mind is that, while the men who named these candidates had only self-constituted authority, their choice has been accepted by all as the choice of the elements in the city opposed to Tam many. The consideration of certain striking aspects of Fusion may throw light on this phenomenon.

In the first place, Fusion is a popular revolt, not a political movement, and therein differs from past alliances against Tammany. For sixty years prior to 1895 Tammany had tasted defeat only once; but in that year inspiration came to the leaders of the other parties, and, with a foresight that was as admirable as it was delayed, they agreed to bury their differences in a united attempt to twist the tiger's tail." In the first of the so-called Fusion campaigns the united forces elected, as Mayor, William L. Strong, and proof was given the world that the forces in the metropolis opposed to Tammany could rule as long as they were united. Apparently the party leaders missed the lesson that was so plain to outside observers, however, for in 1897 Tammany elected Robert A. Van Wyck Mayor, through the failure of the Republicans to line up with the other elements opposed to the Fourteenth Street organization. In 1901 complete fusion elected Seth Low, but in 1905 the Republicans again put Murphy in power by entering a third ticket. Four years ago the election of Mayor Gaynor by Tammany and independent voters was made possible by the obstinacy of Mr. Hearst, who insisted upon himself running for the place, although he supported the rest of the Fusion ticket, which was successful. Thus during the past eighteen years has the lesson been driven home that Tammany Hall, as the most complete embodiment of the unholy alliance in the city between dishonest politicians and the forces of privilege, can be beaten only by the united action of its enemies.

While past Fusion campaigns have been launched and guided by machine-trained political engineers, however, the 1913 attack was begun and is being sustained by men who get whatever recognition they enjoy through their prestige as individuals and the tacit backing of the mass of public-spirited citizens. It has been well said that the Strong campaign of 1896 was multi-partisan rather than non-partisan, and the same statement would apply to other anti-Tammany alliances prior to this one. In the words of Mr. Norman Hapgood, Chairman of the Citizens' Municipal Committee, "All other Fusion movements were attempts to get the anti-Tammany machines pulling together. This year the citizens tailed onto the traces of the band-wagon without waiting for the machines. The machines got in line because they had to."

Here, then, we have an attempt by the people to govern themselves directly. Readers of The Outlook may have wondered how it was that Mr. Hapgood and those with him could cram their candidates down the throats of Republican, Progressive, and Democratic party leaders, not to mention the Independent gentlemen who have formed a league professedly opposed to dictatorial political methods. The answer is that no forceful feeding was done by Mr. Hapgood and his associates; the process was rather one of eager deglutition by the politicians, who swallowed Fusion as a starving Eskimo absorbs a juicy piece of blubber.

In the gubernatorial election of 1908 the Republican vote in the four counties of Greater New York was 261,186; in 1910 it was 197,727; and last fall it dropped to 111,630-a decrease of more than fiftyseven per cent through three elections. The organizations of the Cleveland and the Empire State Democracy, the former the shell of a once powerful party and the latter an amalgamation of the "highbrow elements in the party, formed not long ago to fight for direct primaries, were both, as usual, itching for a dig at Tammany. The Hearst forces, coalesced under the emblem of the Independence League, were in a similar mood. Furthermore (but speak it not above a whisper!), it may be suspected from the rapacious manner in which the party bosses have fought for the lesser places on the ticket, as well as from the disappointment that some of them showed when the chief nominations were made, that each boss hoped to get the butter of the Fusion churning. In short, not only did the antiTammany machines face the alternative of accepting Fusion or a loss of prestige, but the signs are that each of them planned to use Fusion as a stalking-horse for its own ambitions.

It is only fair to remember that past successes of the allies have taught that all the corruption and misgovernment in New York has by no means emanated from the Wigwam on Fourteenth Street ; and the success with which that unique body, the Committee of 107, has thus far held at bay the hungry party wolves is a testimonial to the tact and acumen of the Committee, as well as to its sincerity of purpose.

Another respect in which this year's brand of Fusion differs from those of the past is that the defeat of Tammany is only an inci

dental part of the programme.

"Tammany

is combated," as Dr. Henry Moskowitz said in addressing the first meeting of the Citizens' Committee, "because Tammany has symbolized the shame of our cities."" "What we hope to do," said Chairman Hapgood recently, "is to take the city out of politics entirely. When we've elected our men, the fight to get laws insuring real home rule, a short ballot, absence of party emblems, and a permanent business administration will continue." Hence the insistence on the principie of non-partisanship. The Fusionists want to put the affairs of this huge corporation, with an annual budget of more than two hundred million dollars, on a business basis and keep them there. That the Citizens' Municipal Committee is the nucleus of a permanent municipal party was evidenced by the recent action of six of its members in taking out papers of incorporation by which the Committee is empowered to set up a ticket of its own at any time, irrespective of the actions of the old parties.

Here, then, is the reason that the action of the members of the Fusion Vigilance Committee as leaders by divine right" of the forces of good government has remained unchallenged. Tired by the failure of past unions of anti-Tammany machines to give the city a régime much cleaner than what it was wont to receive from Murphy and his predecessors, the mass of voters were only too glad to accept the leadership of men from their own ranks whose sincerity could not be questioned. In the face of this wave of popular feeling the machines didn't dare dispute the mandates of the Citizens' Municipal Committee, and, with varying degrees of grace, accepted the inevitable.

The platform of Fusion is admirable for its directness, brevity, and the quality of its material. Home rule is provided for by planks calling for the framing by the city of its own charter, the adoption of a thoroughgoing direct primary, the elimination of National party names and emblems from ballots used in city elections, the control of city revenue-including the subjects and rates of taxation, the control of public utilities, and the enlargement of the powers of the Board of Estimate, to make it in name, what it already is in fact, the responsible governing body of the city-with the abolition of the Board of Aldermen, or, at least, the removal of all power of the Aldermen in fiscal matOther important provisions in the

ters.

platform relate to the reorganization of the police, the creation of new sources of city revenue through the taxation of franchises and other privileges, the power of excess condemnation, and some excellent measures of social reform, including the establishment of a Department of Markets with wholesale terminal food centers in each borough, the creation of a Municipal Department of Recreation, the reorganization of the Department of Charities and its correctional system, and the supplying of food at cost to school children by the Board of Education. The supporting framework of the platform, however, is composed of those planks that call for economy and efficiency in city administration, and, judging from early utterances of the nominees, insistence on these reforms is to be made the principal issue in the campaign by the allies, who in so doing will be able to refer to the notable progress in these respects made by the Fusion members of the present Board of Estimate. Some of the measures advocated to save the city money are the establishment of a central bureau to purchase all city supplies, the standardization of salaries for municipal employees, the issuance of bonds for permanent improvements only-and never for longer periods than the probable life of such improvements the appointment to office for merit alone, and the abolition of all sinecures.

In selecting a leader for their ticket the members of the Fusion nominating committee were not hampered by lack of material— in fact, the worth of no one of the trio that from the first led the field in the race for the Mayoralty nomination was ever questioned. The fight narrowed into a question of availability. The friends of Mr. Whitman pointed to his record as a City Magistrate, Judge of General Sessions, and, more particularly, as District Attorney, in which capacity he had brought to justice the murderers of Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, and successfully conducted the prosecution of police grafters which was an aftermath of the murder case. Such a record, it was urged, would assure the District Attorney of the support of thousands of voters outside his party. Mr. McAneny's advocates based his case on his admirable record as President of Manhattan Borough, and declared that the many measures he had fostered, with resultant saving of the city's money, made him just the man to place at the head of a vast public corporation. In their turn the adherents of Mr.

Mitchel called attention to his signal service as an exposer of corruption and departmental carelessness while Commissioner of Accounts, and, later, his farsightedness and independence of party ties shown while President of the Board of Aldermen and while Acting Mayor during Mr. Gaynor's incapacity in 1910. These traits, it was said, put him on a par with the others as far as fitness was concerned, and, when it came to the question of expediency, Mr. Mitchel's followers averred that he was most certainly the logical candidate." As a Democrat in good standing who had been honored with appointment to the Collectorship of the Port of New York, Mr. Mitchel was easily more "available" in a Democratic city than Mr. Whitman, a lifelong Republican, no matter what the personal drawing powers of the latter might be. As opposed to Mr. McAneny, the Collector could command the support of the Hearst forces, which were openly against the candidacy of the Borough President; and it was also claimed that the labor element would be more generous with its votes to Mr. Mitchel than to Mr. McAneny. The force of these considerations may not have been much, but, like Mercutio's wound, it was enough. The Collector won by a hair after the name of McAneny had been withdrawn. The first of the final polls gave Mitchel 32 votes, Whitman 29, McAneny 28; the eighth and last count was Mitchel 45, Whitman 44. Thereupon the Committee unanimously nominated Mr. Whitman for his present position and Mr. McAneny for President of the Board of Aldermen. One of the most refreshing developments of recent New York City politics was the fine spirit in which both these gentlemen determined to stand by the ship of Fusion, thereby insuring the solidification of the anti-Tammany forces, rather than heed the advice of self-styled friends and selfseeking party leaders to go it alone for the whole cake or nothing."

The Fusion Movement is a young man's movement, and the man who leads the forces of good government into battle is the junior of all his lieutenants. John Purroy Mitchel was born in Fordham, Greater New York, thirty-four years ago, the son of James Mitchel, at one time Fire Commissioner, and the grandson of John Mitchel (an Irish patriot and associate of Daniel O'Connell), who was banished from his native land because of his too rabid advocacy of Home Rule. The Fusion candidate for Mayor doubtless got

his absolute fearlessness and his fighting strain from his fiery grandfather. These qualities have more than once stood him in good stead since he began his public career as Assistant Corporation Counsel; but they were particularly prominent during his investigations while Commissioner of Accounts, which resulted in the reorganization of several city departments. That is one salient feature of Mitchel's work: it is always constructive. The worst thing his enemies have said about him is that he is a Hearst man. But although his views and Mr. Hearst's have coincided on several questions, he has refused a nomination on the Hearst ticket unless his colleagues on the Fusion ticket are included. For his bitter opposition to the subway contracts he has been much censured; but even most of his enemies admit that in this matter he followed his lights and acted through disinterested motives. Perhaps his best asset as Mayor would be his tremendous assimilative and analytical powers. As a member of the Board of Estimate he has written more reports than any of his colleagues, and it has been said of him that he can grasp the details of any subject, no matter how technical, if put before him in simple language. This tireless, far-seeing, serious young man has the stuff in him of which the best public servants are made.

Charles S. Whitman and George McAneny, "the right and left bowers of Fusion they have been called, whose presence on the ticket lends it almost as much strength as does Mr. Mitchel's, are both young men, and have both long been students of municipal affairs. Mr. Whitman, who was born in Norwich, Connecticut, forty-five years ago, is a graduate of Amherst College and of the Law School of New York University. Like the nominee for Mayor, he entered public office as an Assistant Corporation Counsel, being appointed in 1902 at the beginning of the Low administration. He became the personal legal adviser of Mayor Low, and in this capacity was afforded frequent opportunities to acquaint himself with the workings of municipal machinery. From that point until he reached his present position the rungs in the ladder of success were for him successively a City Magistracy, the Presidency of the Board of City Magistrates, and a seat on the bench of the Court of General Sessions. While President of the Board of Magistrates he created the Night Court and broke up the business of professional bonds