THE CITY VIGILANCE

NEW YORK CITY.

LEAGUE,

HE League is an attempt to give organic expression to the truth of the motto that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Its origin dates primarily from the condition of public feeling excited by the Presentment of the March Grand Jury of 1892. There evinced itself at that time a widespread conviction, particularly among our young men of more earnest temper, that there is a great deal in our city needing to be done in order to its purification, and a great deal in which it is incumbent upon our young men to have an active share. The feeling was one that showed itself without distinction of political or religious affiliation, and the movement has been from the start purely unsectarian and non-partisan. Protestants, Catholics and Hebrews, Republicans, Democrats and Prohibitionists mingle harmoniously in its councils and co-operate in its work.

In the inception of the enterprise, there was more sense of the need of effort than clear perception as to the precise line along which effort required to be put forth. If at the outset the governing aim was to ferret out official delinquency, that has, to a considerable degree, given place to the more substantial purpose of coming into touch with all that our municipal government and our municipal life represent, and of making a study of special conditions, moral, social, political and industrial, as they are variously evinced in the different quarters of the

town.

To this end, it has divided the city into thirty sections, on the lines upon which it is distributed into its thirty Assembly Districts, and subdivided it into smaller portions identical with the existing Election Districts. Each Assembly District has its Leader, and the thirty Leaders, in conjunction with the officers. compose the Executive Board; the entire League being made up of these and the 1,137 men that severally represent the same number of Election Districts. This is the scheme of organization which by slow and careful process is being converted into accomplished fact. Our supreme object is to bring upon the shoulders of each member a pressure of civic responsibility, in order to develop

an impulse of civic loyalty. A man's interest is enlisted only in the cause to which he gives his hand and thought.

Pursuant to this end, the Executive Board is making it its constant study to give each member of the League something to do, some aspect of municipal life with which to acquaint himself, some problem to solve, some instance of official competency or incompetency, fidelity or criminality, with which to make himself familiar. One of the most earnest and positive features of the movement has to do with coming into close and personal relations with elements of our population that have as yet scarcely been reached save by the saloon-keeper and the ward politician. Even in what are considered to be the most degraded districts of the city there is a large number of people who believe in, and desire, better municipal conditions, but who hardly suspect one another's existence and so have no adequate conception of their own possible strength.

The record of the results so far accomplished is a matter of history, and is largely included in that of the overthrow of Tammany Hall; and the years of volunteered service which many of the League members have unselfishly given, have, under the masterly leadership of their President, contributed in a large degree to its accomplishment.

During the campaign of 1894, the work of the League was systematically carried into each Assembly District, its members actively engaging in every possible method looking to the enlightenment of the masses, and the securing of an honest vote and fair count. The untiring zeal with which this work was carried on has been rewarded beyond the expectation of its most sanguine worker.

The City Vigilance League has passed through its infancy and boyhood, and is now emerging upon a third period of its existence. The plans for future work which are being formulated are upon the lines originally marked out by its founder. The comprehensiveness of its work may be judged from a review of the list of its standing committees, and the position which its members will occupy each toward the other; and that of the League toward political parties as such, can be most fully appreciated by reference to the address by Dr. Parkhurst, delivered at the banquet tendered him by the League members on November 27, 1894, from which we quote as follows:

"Now you and I, my friends, members of this League, represent rather a large idea. Sometimes it has not been thoroughly understood. Some of you allied yourselves with us in days when it was not considered reputable or respectable to be in any way identified or associated with myself. (Laughter.) Yes, it is funny now, but it was not funny then. You and I understand very well that we have from the first occupied a platform that is purely non-partisan, nonpolitical, and the question has often been asked us, what is the significance of an earnest body of young men into which the party element in some manner or description does not enter? And we have learned to understand that, however

many may be the questions into which politics may enter as an ingredient, there are questions that stand up above purely political ones, as the great hills and high mountains lift themselves above sea and valley.

"We are banded together, you and I, not because we are Republicans, for in these matters we are not; nor Democrats, for in these matters we are not; Hebrews, Protestants nor Catholics, for on these questions we are not. There are principles that rise higher than any one or all of those, in our relations to our municipality, and it is along those lines that we hold ourselves. You and I, dear friends, are not in this business for the loaves and the fishes, and in that lies ninety-nine-one-hundredths of our power. We do not care a rap for office. We would not be a mayor if we could. The men who belong to this League have a business of their own, which they do not propose to exchange for business of a municipal, State or national kind; but we do know that as young men it rests in some measure upon our shoulders and upon our hearts, to stand thus just a little aloof from official position to keep a sharp eye and a watchful thought upon everything that is transpiring in our municipality, and, however hard you and I together have jumped upon Tammany Hall, we are going to jump just exactly as hard on the Republican Party if they need it. We do not expect they will need it. Still, they are liable to. So, as long as God allows us to stand shoulder to shoulder, casting aside our own personal ambitions, thinking of one another and not of ourselves, thinking not of our own individual advancement, but thinking of the weal of our own town, thinking of the possibilities of our own municipal future, we will go on, more and more wisely I hope, more and more appreciatively I hope, but go on the same straight path, rejoicing in the privilege that is ours, of laying ourselves down, not dying, but living sacrifices upon the altar of our municipal good."

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