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 504 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

hattan (old New York City) will have during the next four years. Many of Mr. McAneny's colleagues on the successful ticket were men of high character and real efficiency, as was also Otto T, Bannard, the mayoralty candidate. With the govern- ment of the city of Greater New York, and of the boroughs, in the hands of men of the McAneny type, and with Judge Gaynor in the mayor's chair, Tammany has very little to look forward to in the way of aid, sympathy, or patronage during the next four years; for it can hardly be expected that Tammany will be able to control Mr, Gaynor to any considerable degree, unless his character for independence has undergone a radical change. Many factors entered into the defeat of Tammany; but in the words of Municipal Facts, a non-partisan weekly paper pub- lished for the taxpayers and ratepayers of New York City:

For the first time in the history of New York City the taxpayers have asserted their rights and used their power. For the first time in the history of the city the dominant issue, the issue on which the Fusion Board of Estimate were elected, of a political campaign has been the ad- ministration of the city on business instead of political principles. For the first time in the history of the city the voters have shown that they realize that the all powerful factor in the making or breaking of the city is the Board of Estimate, and that as a body the men who compose it are more powerful than the Mayor. For the first time in the history of the city the voters have shown that they cannot be deceived by a crew of political plunderers.

This is the lesson to be learned from the election of the Fusion Board of Estimate and the Fusion city and county ticket. And coincident with the success of the taxpayers in shaping the course of events at the polls has been the heeding, in part, of their demands for a cessation of budget increases when not mandatory.

The taxpayers voted for the Fusion candidates because they believed they would give them a clean, honest, business administration.

As to the McClellan administration, it may be a little early to pass final judgment. The most that can be said of it at this time is that it represents an improvement over preceding Tam- many administrations. The dismissal of Theodore A. Bingham from the head of the police department properly brought down upon Mayor McClellan's head severe criticism, not only from