Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... exertions which they entailed: the heroic character of these efforts soon wore out the zeal of the "reformers," and filled them with a conceit which made them complacently celebrate a triumph on the occasion of the slightest success. While the members of the committee of seventy or of one hundred and seventy were feasting, were pouring forth torrents of reciprocal congratulations at their banquets and having their photographs taken, the Machine was collecting its battalions and quietly recovering its positions. To checkmate the Machine, or at all events to cope with it, it was necessary to display a less heroic, but more methodical and more steady, activity, to place the free action inaugurated by the citizens' movements on a permanent basis: such were the conclusions which experience suggested and which attempts have been made of late years to put in practice. These attempts opened a new chapter in the history of the independent movements and of American political methods. VI The new departure consisted in non-partisan associations, leagues formed on a permanent basis for systematic warfare against civic indifference and political corruption. They had almost always aimed at municipal government, which they sought to emancipate for good and all from the power of the political parties; and they employed the means of action which had nearly all been already resorted to by the temporary organizations of the committees "of seventy " or "of one hundred." The continuous practice, however, of these methods gave them a new scope and an effect which was all the more intense that they became the object of a certain specialization on the part of several leagues. Some of these assumed the functions of vigilance committees, which kept a daily watch...
