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Seth Low: Theorist of Municipal Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

L. E. Fredman
L. E. Fredman
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, New South Wales
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Extract

The genteel and incapable Mugwump reformers received yet another battering in 1968 with the publication of John Sproat's ‘The Best Men’: Liberal Reformers in the Gilded Age. They are presented as being consumed by their moral imperatives and their hysterical fear of the lower classes, and sinking amid the social turmoil of the 1890s; their label, ‘liberal’, is but a convention for the benefit of their misguided contemporaries, and as we now know what it really means, they should be rejected as unworthy. Like many people, Sproat apparently sees the 1890s as a self-contained decade overwhelmed by the Pullman Strike and Free Silver, with the Klondike and Cuba as a fortunate tailpiece to avert the pending revolution. But amid the turmoil, one era of reform – the era of the ‘Bolt from Blaine’ and of the Civil Service Act – in fact blended into another – the era of Progressivism. The continuing public career of Seth Low, the type of organizations and men who supported him for office, and the principles of municipal reform announced early in his career are some aspects of this blending process. When one considers the diversity of liberal concerns and the regular infusion of new men and aims, then it is high time we modified those explanations of Progressivism based only on an explosion of material self-interest or cravings for lost status after 1900.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , April 1972 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 E.g. Kolko, Gabriel, Railroads and Regulation, 1877–1916 (New York, 1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hofstadter, Richard, The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F D. R. (New York, 1955), pp. 131–72.Google Scholar

2 The Butler library, Columbia University, holds the Low Papers and a large collection of Citizen Union Papers. See generally Low, Benjamin R. C., Seth Low (New York & London, 1925)Google Scholar; Low, William G., A Genealogical Quest (n.p., 1908), pam.Google Scholar; Kurland, Gerald, ‘Seth Low: a Study in the Progressive Mind’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation presented to Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 1968).Google Scholar I would like to thank the following for their helpful advice: Mr Richard S. Childs, National Municipal League; Dr Gerald Kurland, History, Brooklyn College; Dr Jack Gabel, History, Long Island University; Dr Gerald McFarland, History, University of Massachusetts; Dr Richard Skolnik, History, City College; Dr Wallace Sayre, Political Science, Columbia University; Dr Bayrd Still, History, New York University. The word ‘Mugwump’ will be frequently used. According to the O.E.D., it is derived from the Indian for a chief or great man, was being used as early as 1832 as a jocular term, and then widely used to describe those Republicans who bolted from their party after the nomination of James G. Blaine in 1884 and seemed to represent a distinct and consciously superior social type.

3 His main works are Civic Victories: the Story of an Unfinished Revolution (New York, 1952)Google Scholar and The First Fifty Years of the Council-manager Plan of Municipal Government (New York, 1965).Google Scholar Mr Childs has also been closely following the British reforms projected in the Maude Report.

4 The Critic, 19 10 1889, 8 February 1890.Google Scholar

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10 Low, , Addresses and Papers on Municipal Government (n.p., 1892 ?)Google Scholar, is a pamphlet containing five works, 1882–91. ‘An American View of Municipal Government’, in Bryce, James, The American Commonwealth, 3 vols. (London & New York, 1888), vol. 2, pp. 296–317Google Scholar; Shepard, Edward M., ‘The Brooklyn Idea in City Government’, Forum, 16 (09 1893), 38–47Google Scholar; Low, , Low, pp. 44–9Google Scholar; Syrett, Harold, The City of Brooklyn, 1865–98: a Political History (New York, 1944), Pp. 103–37, 143–54.Google Scholar

11 Scrapbook No. 2, Low Papers, for acceptance letter (29 October 1881), campaign cards, emphasizing his youth, and article in the Brooklyn Sun, 7 November 1881Google Scholar, indicating that Low, sensitive to the charge that he could afford to buy the election, would not spend his own money on himself. ‘William A. Prendergast’, in Oral History Collection, Columbia University, pp. 90–1Google Scholar; Syrett, , Brooklyn, supra, esp. pp. 120, 124, 136Google Scholar; Steinman, David B., The Builders of the Bridge: the Story of John Roebling and his Son (New York, 1945)Google Scholar. Shepard (n. 10) had been co-author of the state civil service law of 1883. Low thereupon appointed him Brooklyn's first civil service commissioner. They later clashed in the election of 1901.

12 Ions, Edmund, James Bryce and American Democracy, 1870–1922 (London, Melbourne, Toronto, 1968), passim, esp. pp. 136–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bryce, to Godkin, , 22 10 1888Google Scholar, Godkin Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Low, to Bryce, , 6 02 1889Google Scholar, James Bryce American Correspondence (comments on completed book).

13 Rudyard, ‘Letters of Travel, 1892–1913, and Other Sketches’, in Works, 31 vols. (London, 1913–1938), pp. 13–18Google Scholar. White, Andrew, ‘The Government of American Cities’, The Forum, 10 (12 1890), 357–72Google Scholar. Bryce, , American Commonwealth, pp. 269, 281–7Google Scholar, although the whole book, particularly part III is riddled with the Mugwump viewpoint.

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15 See n. 10, supra.

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19 Committee report, ‘Coming of the City Manager Plan’, National Municipal Review, 3 (01 1914), 44–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. As the song has it, Chicago is unusual; Carter Harrison Sr and Jr were each elected five times to the office of mayor between 1879 and 1915.

20 MacDonald, , City Government, pp. 205–7Google Scholar; Wiebe, Robert, The Search for Order, 1877–1920 (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; International City Managers' Association, The City-manager Directory (Chicago, 1967), pam.Google Scholar Interviews with Richard S. Childs, November and December 1968.

21 Kurland, Gerald (‘The Amateur in Politics: the Citizens Union and the Greater New York Mayoralty Campaign of 1897’, New York Historical Society Quarterly, 53 (10 1969), 352–84)Google Scholar emphasizes the opposition of the CU to a fusion nomination. Wilcox, Delos, ‘Greater New York's First Election’, Municipal Affairs, 2 (06 1898), 207–20Google Scholar, for a contrary view. Breen, Matthew P., Thirty Years of New York Politics, Up-to-date (New York, 1899), pp. 830–6Google Scholar, emphasizes opposition of the franchise interest to Low. Wheeler to Low, 5 November 1897 (an incisive comment by the later President of the University of California), and Low to Cutting, 3 November 1897 (importance of George's death), Low Papers. Dr Kurland comments on George (supra, pp. 380–2Google Scholar). As George associated with the Mugwumps on ballot and tariff reform, he would surely have pulled some votes from the CU.

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23 Based on scattered material in the Low Papers; also Low to Taft, 6 November 1912, Ibid.; letter to The Outlook, 102 (26 10 1912), 387–8.Google Scholar

24 Arndt, Walter T., ‘A Quarter Century of the Citizens Union’, The Searchlight, 12 (14 12 1922), 2–8Google Scholar; Sayre, Wallace and Kaufman, Herbert, Governing New York City: Politics in the Metropolis (New York, 1960), passimGoogle Scholar. Welling Papers, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library, and his As The Twig is Bent, pp. 57–65Google Scholar, for origins of CRC activities, and switch to CC.

25 Arndt, , ‘Quarter Century’, pp. 8–9Google Scholar; New York Times, 5 08, 14 09 1897Google Scholar; The Nation, 12 08, 9 09 1897Google Scholar. Low to Beebe, 6 September, Low to Gilder, 8 September 1897; Low Papers. Despite Butler's comments (n. 5, supra), he urged Low to run (Ibid., 5 August 1897).

26 Roosevelt, to Low, 29 06, 11 09 1897Google Scholar, Letters, vol. 1, pp. 633–4, 673–4Google Scholar; Low to Cutting, 3 November 1897, 26 December 1899, Low Papers.

27 New York Times, 12–20 09 1901Google Scholar; The Nation, 2 01 1902Google Scholar (party composition of Low's appointees), 3 April 1902 (criticism of the police); Arndt, , ‘Quarter Century’, pp. 13–14Google Scholar; Kurland, , Low, pp. 190–201.Google Scholar

28 See notes 22, 27, supra. Even The Nation, or reform press, gave party labels to appointees.

29 Public Opinion, 31 10 1901.Google Scholar

30 Note 27, supra; New York Times, 14 09 1897, 14 10 1901Google Scholar; Tie Nation, 26 12 1901, 25 06 1903Google Scholar; Veiller, Lawrence (Low's Deputy Commissioner, Tenement House department), Oral History Collection, pp. 139–40Google Scholar; Calkins, Raymond, ed., Substitutes for the Saloon, 2nd ed. (Boston and New York, 1919).Google Scholar

31 Mowry, George E., The California Progressives (Berkeley, 1951), pp. 25, 46Google Scholar; Link, Arthur, American Epoch: a History of the United States since the 1890's (New York, 1955), pp. 68–91Google Scholar. McDonald, Forrest, The Torch is Passed: United States in the 20th Century (Reading, Menlo Park; London, Don Mills, 1968), pp. 42–4Google Scholar, distinguishes a positive and a negative phase of Progressivism, broken by the depression of 1907. In the 1890s, the City Club in New York set up a Good Government Club for each Assembly district or combined districts.

32 E.g. Low's acceptance letter, New York Times, 14 09 1897Google Scholar. I do not think these views are inconsistent with Hays, Samuel's important article, ‘The Politics of Reform in Municipal Government in the Progressive Era’, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 55 (10 1964), 157–69Google Scholar, but I would hesitate to generalize in his manner.

33 The Declaration of Principles and Objects of 22 February 1897 may be found in Arndt, , ‘Quarter Century’, p. 2Google Scholar, and various pamphlets in the Citizens Union collection, Columbia University.

34 Warner, John DeWitt, ‘Municipal Betterment in the New York City Elections’, Municipalv Affairs, 5 (09 1901), 625–40Google Scholar. Bogard, , Redemption, pp. 26–8, 49–56, 154–9Google Scholar, and New York Herald, 17 10 1901Google Scholar (William T. Jerome, Low's District Attorney and erratic supporter), in similar vein. The editor notes Warner's article, despite the date, was handed in after the election.

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37 Cary, Edward, ‘Tammany Past and Present’, Forum, 26 (10 1898), pp. 200–10Google Scholar; Glaab, Charles N., The American City: a Documentary History (Homewood, 1963), pp. 378–89Google Scholar, for an extract from Plunkirt.

38 Cit., Fredman, L. E., The Australian Ballot: the Story of an American Reform (Lansing, 1968), p. 83.Google Scholar

39 Howe, Frederic, The Confessions of a Reformer (New York, 1925), pp. 5–6, 85–145Google Scholar; Shaw, Albert, Municipal Government in Continental Europe (New York, 1895), pp. v–vi, 180, 292–8, 392.Google Scholar

40 This article was originallya paper delivered to the fourth biennial conference of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association which met at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, in August 1970. Since this article was accepted for publication, DrKurland, Gerald has published Seth Low: the Reformer in an Urban and Industrial Age (New York, 1971).Google Scholar