Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/520

 5o6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

While Mr. Jerome has suffered in public esteem, the many notable accomplishments of his term of office must not be over- looked, and he is certainly entitled to be considered one of the best if not the best of district attorneys the County of New York has ever had.

Philadelphia's election did not turn out to be so close or interesting as was at first anticipated. There was a feeling before election that Mr. Gibboney, the independent "William Penn" candidate for district attorney, and his labor union col- league on the ticket for city treasurer, would poll an unexpect- edly large vote, the feeling being that while the Penn Party lacked organization, the trend of public sentiment was toward its candidates. The results showed, however, the contrary; al- though Mr. Gibboney polled 106,000 votes, a very substantial nucleus for effective work in the future. Philadelphia's municipal situation is by no means as hopeless as many people outside of the city are led to think. The Penn party, which is now the real mi- nority party (the Democratic party having been mostly absorbed either by the Republicans or the Penn party), has a constituency of 106,000 votes. If the independent forces, however, had availed themselves last June of the opportunity given them by the direct primary law of 1906, they would, as will be pointed out later on, have won their fight at that time. The Phila- delphia situation reinforces another lesson (if that were neces- sary), namely: the great strength and power of organization. There was an unquestioned public sentiment in behalf of Mr. Gibboney's election; but the compactly organized columns of the Republican organization carried the day. Moreover, the high character of the Republican candidate around whom the battle was waged, and the excellent record he had made in office for three years, were additional factors in the situation.

Pittsburgh is still enjoying the impetus given to it by the splendid administration of Mayor Guthrie. The present incum- bent of the mayoralty, William A. Magee, definitely pledged himself to a programme of municipal action far in advance of that advocated by any preceding Republican mayoralty candi- date. His statement to the Voters' League was full, and to that