Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/522

508 campaign to establish, construct, and maintain a municipal lighting plant. Every conceivable embarrassment was placed in the way of its establishment by interests opposed to municipal management; but the city won.

Decency was the issue presented to the voters of Atlanta last December; and decency won. The "organization" candidate for mayor, a former occupant of the office, had many elements of personal strength and popularity, but in his administration had several times disgraced the city by public drunkenness and was, in the opinion of some, responsible for the notorious Atlanta riot. Although succeeding in carrying the white primary on promises of better behavior in the future, he soon broke down, and so shocked the sense of decency in the city that representative men of all classes nominated Mr. Robert F. Maddox, a young banker of prominence, a man of high ideals and clean life, who after a vigorous fight was elected to the mayoralty, carrying every ward in the city except two. One interesting feature of the situation that deserves special mention is the support given by the negro voters to the cause of independence. In the words of the Atlanta Journal:

The negro voters of Atlanta are entitled to the appreciation of the public for the high sense of citizenship they exhibited in supporting Mr. Maddox and the cause of good morals. It is an evidence of the esteem in which the best elements of our negro population hold the duties of citizenship and the growing regard for higher civic and domestic ideals.

Mayor Grinstead, of Louisville, though failing of re-election on November 2, has a record of many important achievements, including the reduction of the tax rate, of taking the police and fire department out of politics, a number of sanitary reforms such as the securing and maintenance of a clean and healthy supply of milk, and the adoption of a modern building code, and, above all, the guaranteeing of honest elections. Party spirit, however, still runs high in Louisville; and Mayor Grinstead's excellent record was not sufficient to overcome it in the absence of any gross scandal on the other side. Moreover, the forces interested in improved conditions were hopelessly divided, while "the