They nominated and, after a most
spirited campaign, elected John Purroy Mitchel as mayor. He was a
young man, not yet forty, had held important city offices, and
President Wilson had appointed him Collector of the Port of New
York. His experience, his vigor, ability, and straightdealing
commended him to the friends of good government, and they were
not disappointed. The Mitchel regime set a new record for clean
and efficient municipal administration. Men of high character and
ability were enlisted in public service, and the Police
Department, under Commissioner Woods, achieved a new usefulness.
The decent citizens, not alone in the metropolis, but throughout
the country, believed with Theodore Roosevelt that Mr. Mitchel
was "the best mayor New York ever had." But neither the
effectiveness of his administration nor the combined efforts of
the friends of good government could save him from the designs of
Tammany Hall when, in 1917, he was a candidate for reelection.
Through a tactical blunder of the Fusionists, a small Republican
group was permitted to control the party primaries and nominate a
candidate of its own; the Socialists, greatly augmented by
various pacifist groups, made heavy inroads among the
foreign-born voters. And, while the whole power and finesse of
Tammany were assiduously undermining the mayor's strength,
ethnic, religious, partizan, and geographical prejudices combined
to elect the machine candidate, Judge Hylan, a comparatively
unknown Brooklyn magistrate.
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