Carl Schurz

“ A clearer and more accurate definition of what non-partisan municipal government is can hardly be given. It is not required that the man at the head of such a government should not belong to any party as to national and State politics. ”

“ The most singularly illogical position in this respect is taken by some of the sound-money Democrats in New York, who, loudly professing to be in favor of good municipal government, still insist that the Mayor should be “a Democrat,” while at the same time they know, or at least ought to know, that they cannot elect a Mayor for the reason that he is a Democrat without again exposing municipal government to the deleterious influences of organization politics ”

“ The question, therefore, whether this ought to continue, and whether citizens ought to cultivate a party spirit which will insure its continuance, is simply whether the citizens of our great municipalities should desire to be fleeced by corrupt and rapacious rings of politicians rather than have their interests honestly taken care of for their own sake. ”

“ The only thing necessary is that men be put in control of them that are animated with the same purpose and have the same power of resistance. As it has been done in one case, why should it be impossible to do it in another or in all? ”

“ As to the first question, whether it ought to be so, it may be said that the problem of good government in our large municipalities is one of the most important problems before the American people, and also that our large municipalities have, with the exception of occasional short periods following spasmodic uprisings of the moral sense of the communities concerned, been generally very bad. ”