politics from national parties, I have come to the conclusion that, as a permanent condition, it is not possible. And it is borne in upon my mind that we are wasting a great deal of valuable force in pursuing what seems to me, after a somewhat long and unsuccessful pursuit, a first-class jack-o'-lantern. It would be a great drawback to the influence of the people if citizens' tickets were not always an ultimate resource ready to their hand; but I believe such tickets can only be reckoned upon as an occasional resort, or as a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of politicans.
There are supposed to be three alternatives: no permanent parties at all; permanent parties divided exclusively on local issues; and national parties. It seems to me that we must deny our political instincts and habits, and the American commitment to government by parties, before we can assume that the politics of our great cities will get on without permanent parties.
On the other hand, it seems to me that our imagination can hardly grasp parties permanently divided on city issues. Certainly I am wholly at a loss to construct permanent dividing lines for such parties. But even if we could construct such parties, where is the proof that they would be any better than the national ones? Sudden popular movements which result in citizens' tickets may be wise and public-spirited; but regularly established city parties, if conceivable at all, would, in face of the facts of organization and unavoidable machines, have no more chance of wisdom and public spirit than any other party machines. It is not the name of the party but the fact of the organization—of the machine—which makes the result.
So that, it seems to me, we can neither expect to get on without established parties, nor, having established parties, can we expect to escape machine methods whatever the parties divide on; and it also seems to me that, whether we like it or not, we must get on in city politics with the national parties—except that as a last resort there is the citizens' ticket as a corrective of a permanent party system. Even in London the effort to keep the new government on non-partisan lines has wholly and most conspicuously
