Germans in Assembly district unions by which delegates should be elected to a general committee. As members of the executive committee, Messrs. Oswald Ottendorfer, Carl Schurz, Arthur von Briesen, Gustav H. Schwab, Edward J. H. Tamsen, Isidor Straus, Geo. F. Vietor, Hubert Cillis, Carl Hauser, Charles E. Hauselt, James Speyer, Charles F. Wiebusch, William Ballin, and Ad. Hintze were elected. They were authorized to open a bureau and to engage the necessary clerical force. Subsequently Messrs. Isidor Straus, Wm. Ballin, and Ad. Hintze resigned, and Messrs. Theodore Sutro, Louis Windmueller, August Kleinau, and John B. Pannes were elected members of the executive committee. The members of the committee went to work without delay; they elected Mr. von Briesen chairman, raised at once a fund of $2,000, adopted a constitution and by-laws for the district organizations and the general and executive committee. The platform, on motion of Mr. Schurz, was condensed into the following resolution : "There shall be formed a union of German-American citizens, without distinction of party, the object of which shall be to secure the purity of the ballotbox, a correct count of the votes, an honest and efficient administration of our municipal affairs, and especially to wage an open and aggressive war against the abuses in the municipal government and the administration of justice in the city of New York as at present fostered in and by Tammany Hall." Unfortunately a gentleman was appointed as chief of bureau and district organizer who was anything else than an "adept in practical politics," -- an amiable character, a philosopher and poet, imbued with good intentions, but without any knowledge of our municipal affairs, or of the Germans who had theretofore taken an active part in politics, or of the requirements of a political organization. Strange application of the principles of civil-service reform, which the supporters of said gentleman have for years warmly espoused! In consequence of this mistake, the work of organizing the districts was delayed until the summer and was done in a slipshod manner. It may be safely said that the organization work of said gentleman would have been a failure had not the startling exposures of the Lexow committee, through its great counsel, John W. Goff, and that hero of municipal reform, the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, and the unremitting appeals of the New York Staats Zeitung aroused among the Germans such indignation and wrath against Tammany Hall, that they were irresistibly driven into the Union. On the 14th of August, 1894, 326 delegates from twenty-nine district organizations met at Vienna Hall to effect the organization of the general and executive committee. The enthusiasm for the work at hand was great, and at every stage of the proceedings an earnest determination made itself manifest to march in the front rank against Tammany Hall and corruption. Great applause greeted the temporary chairman, Mr. Schwab, when he exhorted the delegates to perfect a solid organization, saying: "We have before us an army of disciplined opponents, who have been firmly organized for the last forty or fifty years, and who can be defeated only by a similarly organized power. If we should attempt to beat this disciplined force at the polls by an unorganized or motley crowd, we are bound to go through the same experience which innumerable former movements of this kind went; that is, to be beaten at the polls and to have labored in vain." A committee, consisting of the presidents of the several district organizations, appointed to nominate the officers of the general committee, recommended the following members for the different offices: President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Third Vice-President, First Recording Secretary, Second Recording Secretary, First Corresponding Secretary, Second Corresponding Secretary, Sergeant-at-Arms, OSWALD OTTENDORFER. CARL SCHURZ. JAMES SPEYER. JOHN B. PANNES. JOSEPH WINTER. FERDINAND F. GRIESEL. CHARLES L. LEWENSTEIN. These nominations were ratified by unanimous and enthusiastic acclamation. A committee of seven proposed resolutions, reiterating the platform of the Union and recommending co-operation with other similarly disposed organizations of good citizens, without distinction in respect to national politics, for procuring an honest and efficient administration of our municipal affairs, for selecting candidates solely on the ground of their capacity, honesty, and good character, and irrespective of their national politics, for securing the purity of the ballot-box, and for the separation of municipal from State and national elections. These resolutions expressed the sentiments of the delegates and were adopted without a dissenting voice. Immediately after the adjournment of the general committee at 10:15 P. M., the executive committee met and organized itself by the election of Gustav H. Schwab as chairman; Arthur von Briesen as vice-chairman, and Theodore Sutro and Hermann Rosenthal as secretaries. To be ready for conferences with other organizations, a committee of one from each Assembly district was elected, from which the chairman was to appoint a sub-committee of seven. He selected the following gentlemen: Edward J. H. Tamsen, Dr. Julius Weiss, Dr. J. H. Senner, Percival Knauth, Herman Ridder, Henry Eggers, and Gotthilf Kraft. Messrs. Arthur von Briesen and Theodore Sutro were added as officers of the executive committee. For a better division of labor, the following sub-committees, to be appointed by the chairman, were created: Committees on Finance, Literature, Naturali-. zation, Registration, and the Press. The important work of strengthening and perfecting the district unions was imposed on a Committee on Organization, consisting of one member from every Assembly district. It elected Mr. F. O. Dettmann as its chairman. The Committee for Naturalization hired a bureau at No. 234 Broadway, where several clerks and a counselor-at-law were at all times ready to assist candidates for naturalization in obtaining their citizenship papers. As a permanent headquarters for the Union a hall was hired in the Lexington Opera House. The sub-conference committee held several meetings with a sub-committee from the Good Government Clubs, and on the 4th of September, 1894, a conference took place at the Coleman House with representatives from the Republican County Committee, the State Democracy, the Good Government Clubs, the Anti-Tammany Organization, and the Independent Citizens' Organization. At this conference Mr. Theodore Sutro acted as spokesman of the German-American Reform Union, and Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer was invited to be present as ex-officio member. The delegations agreed on resolutions that their organizations represented the majority of the voters of the city of New York, and that a union of all the citizens opposed to the abuses of Tammany Hall was desirable, in the interest of a good administration of our municipal affairs; but when a resolution was offered that the organizations should bind themselves to take any candidate who might be nominated by them off the ticket, in case Tammany Hall should indorse him, Mr. Ottendorfer raised his warning voice and showed that the adoption of the resolution would mean to give Tammany Hall a veto power on all the candidates to be nominated on a union ticket. Mr. Sutro supported Mr. Ottendorfer, but the Republican delegates from the Reform Union voted for the said resolution, and one of them had the assurance to declare that Mr. Ottendorfer did not voice the sentiments of the German-American Reform Union. This incident aroused a general indignation among the members of the general committee, and when this body met on the 5th of September, 1894, the vote of the conference committee was censured as hasty and unwise, and Mr. Ottendorfer's views were sustained by an overwhelming majority. The declaration of a number of influential Republicans that their party would under no circumstances support a Democrat for Mayor, evoked among the Democratic members of the Reform Union the spectre of a Platt bossism. They did not want to exchange the dictation of a Croker for the rule of a Platt. They argued that the Republican demand was not only unfair, because twothirds of the voters of the city are Democrats, but also dangerous to the success of the whole reform movement, and that the said demand should, therefore, be opposed. These views were shared in by the New York Staats Zeitung and expounded in its editorials. Instead of fairly and honestly meeting this argument in debate, it was used by certain leading members of the executive committee as a cloak for a malicious and slanderous attack upon Mr. Ottendorfer and the Staats Zeitung, by imputing to them a desire to make a union with Tammany Hall. They introduced resolutions reiterating the platform of the Union, and declaring "that the German-American Reform Union will enter into no political convention which requires the support of State, Legislative, or Congressional candidates." In the debate on these resolutions it became evident that certain members were smarting under their inability to dictate to Mr. Ottendorfer and his editors, and that in return therefor Mr. Ottendorfer should be made to feel that he had no influence in the Reform Union. The resolutions were adopted by 33 to 27, but at the next meeting of the general committee one of the movers of the resolutions offered a substitute which accorded to the district unions the right to indorse Legislative candidates of other organizations, which was just the reverse of the resolution forced through in the executive committee. These men had in the meanwhile realized not only the absurdity of their resolution, but also the fact that it would be rejected by an overwhelming majority. They retreated from their position, but they could not undo all the harm which their dictatorial course had inflicted upon the Union. Mr. Ottendorfer resigned from his position as president of the Union. "An inspection of the stenographer's minutes of the last meeting of your executive committee shows that insinuations were uttered against me, and that the sincerity of my sympathies for the principles of your organization was questioned by reason of my position as editor of the Staats Zeitung. This was manifest not only in the debate, but it became also patent that these insinuations were the principal motive for the introduction of a resolution by the two chairmen of the executive committee which aroused great indignation among a great many members, and called forth emphatic protests in a number of district organizations. As far as I am personally concerned, silent contempt would be my only answer to such insinuations. It cannot, however, be denied that the influence of the German-American Reform Union will severely suffer. This must be prevented under all circumstances. The simplest and most efficient means to effect this is that I resign from my position as president of the German-American Reform Union, and this I hereby do. I shall hereafter, as I have done heretofore, exert my influence to combat the corruption in our public life, to free our municipal government from the pernicious influence of partisan machine politics, and to support the German-American Reform Union in its devotion to this task to the best of my ability." This letter made a profound impression upon the delegates, and a motion was unanimously adopted to send a committee to Mr. Ottendorfer for the purpose of inducing him to withdraw his resignation. Gloom and despondency pervaded the meeting, but only for a few minutes. They were suddenly dispelled, when Mr. Edward Grosse offered the following resolution : "Whereas, the battle against the abuses in the municipal government, and in the administration of justice in the city of New York, as at present fostered in and by Tammany Hall, can be brought to a successful issue only in case the voters will elect a man for Mayor whose past life furnishes the guaranty that he has not only the firm determination, but also the courage, the intrepidity, and, together with a thorough knowledge of the causes and props of our municipal corruption, above all the ability to effect its eradication, without which the best resolutions would be like a knife without a blade ; "Whereas, Mr. John W. Goff has in his past career, and especially through his labor as counsel to the Lexow Committee, demonstrated beyond a doubt that he possesses the said qualifications in an eminent degree; "Whereas, Mr. John W. Goff has proved himself to be an absolutely honest and unswerving character; "THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the German-American Reform Union declares Mr. John W. Goff as the man whom the present situation requires as candidate for Mayor in preference to everyone else, because he is in himself the strongest guaranty for the eradication of the corruption permeating all the departments of our municipal government, and for the suppression of the monstrous criminal practices prevailing among our officials and terrorizing our city. in the most baneful manner. "BE IT RESOLVED, that the German-American Reform Union recommend to its conference committee to propose Mr. John W. Goff to all the other organizations, which are ready to participate in the defeat of Tammany Hall, as candidate for Mayor, and to secure his election as the standard-bearer of the municipal reform movement." The effect which these resolutions had upon the meeting was truly magical. The delegates jumped to their feet, waved their hats and handkerchiefs, and rung out cheer after cheer. It took a long while before Mr. Grosse could make his fervid speech in support of the resolutions. A Republican delegate moved to lay the resolutions on the table. He had a few friends in misery, but they left him when the vote was taken on the resolutions. The affirmative vote was unanimous, and the result was announced amidst the greatest exultation of the delegates. The sentiment of the meeting was best expressed by the following remarks of the chairman, Mr. Carl Schurz: "Before we part, permit me to say one word. How many years, nay, tens of years, has it been the effort of many of us to get the Germans together at least for once under the same hat. I believe that in the city of New York we are at this moment nearer this goal than ever before in our whole lives, and nearer than many of us have ever thought to get. We can say of ourselves, that we have gone into this battle against the maladministration of Tammany Hall for no other object than to serve the public weal. There is not one among us who is actuated by selfish ambition, not one who wants anything for himself, but we all desire to contribute something to the general welfare. In recommending the nomination of Mr. Goff we have taken a step of great importance, which, I hope, will lead to good results." The action of the Committee of Seventy on this recommendation is related in another article. When the general committee reassembled on the 14th of October, Colonel William L. Strong had been nominated for Mayor, and Mr. John W. Goff for Recorder. The Democratic delegates, who numbered at least four-fifths of the whole committee, accepted the situation without a murmur, and with a fixed determination to carry the ticket to success. Mr. Theodore Sutro introduced the resolutions indorsing the ticket nominated by the Committee of Seventy, the preambles of which stated, among other, the following reasons: "Although believing that the success of the reform movement, by reason of the great predominance of Democratic voters, could be best insured by the nomination of a Democrat for Mayor, nevertheless, in view of the fact that all the other reform organizations have accepted Colonel William L. Strong as the champion of the reform movement, we are convinced that under his leadership Tammany Hall can be crushingly defeated and forever incapacitated as the fountain head of corruption. That the platform of the Committee of Seventy, to which Colonel Strong has subscribed, is identical with the principles of the German-American Reform Union." The indorsement of the ticket was made amidst great enthusiasm, and it was evident that the Reform Union would do everything in its power to secure the majority of the German voters for the ticket. Realizing the great amount of labor required to accomplish this purpose, and that the delegates best qualified to perform this work should be intrusted with the same, Mr. Jean Weil, the chairman of the Twenty-ninth Assembly District Union, offered a resolution to have a campaign committee of thirty members elected, one from each district, which committee should also have the management of the bureau during the campaign. This resolution was |