208 The New York Police Force 



wholly unscrupulous hatred. In the State and the 

 city alike the Democratic campaign was waged 

 against the reform administration in New York. 

 The Tammany officials who were still left in power 

 in the city, headed by the Controller, Mr. Fitch, 

 did everything in their power to prevent the effi- 

 cient administration of the government. The Demo- 

 cratic members of the Legislature acted as their 

 faithful allies in all such efforts. Whatever was 

 accomplished by the reform administration and 

 a very great deal was accomplished was due to 

 the action of the Republican majority in the con- 

 stitutional convention, and especially to the Repub- 

 lican Governor, Mr. Morton, and the Republican 

 majority in the Legislature, who enacted laws giv- 

 ing to the newly chosen Mayor, Mr. Strong, the 

 great powers necessary for properly administering 

 his office. Without these laws the Mayor would 

 have been very nearly powerless. He certainly 

 could not have done a tenth part of what actually 

 was done. 



Now, of course, the Republican politicians who 

 gave Mayor Strong all these powers, in the teeth 

 of violent Democratic opposition to every law for 

 the betterment of civic conditions in New York, 

 ought not, under ideal conditions, to have expected 

 the slightest reward. They should have been con- 

 tented with showing the public that their only pur- 

 pose was to serve the public, and that the Repub- 

 lican party wished no better reward than the con- 

 sciousness of having done its duty by the State 



