Greater New York Election

The people of Greater New York appear very changeable. First they want a "reform administration" and when they have had two years of that back they go to the embrace of the tiger. Two years ago they thought they wanted Seth Low and they got him. Tuesday they swung back to Tammany and elected Geo. B. McClellan by more than 63,000 majority. Mr. McClellan is a clean and honorable man but the organization chiefly responsibly for him is neither clean nor honorable. just what kind of an administration the city will get, therefore, can be guessed with considerable certainty. No man in this position can make his administration alone. Such an administration must of necessity be something of a composite of all the men and influences which go to make it up. This composite in New York cannot be expected to be better than the average and may be much below that average. Tammany administration is generally believed to be way below the average. Whether Platt rule is much better is doubted by many. it is true however that in the present campaign the reform element of the city was for Low. Still the people after two years of him have turned him down with a decisive majority. This seems to indicate that a large majority don't want the kind of administration he has made. will they get better or worse? There seems little chance of a better one. It may be much worse. This too without any reflection at all upon Col. McClellan.

Joseph G. Cannon will be speaker of the house of representatives. This is the first time in the history of the country this honor has gone to Illinois. This position is considered a very honorable one, and is certainly one of great power. Elected by the majority party in the house the speaker is nominally the servant of the house, but really its master. Under the Reed rules the speaker is a czar and the house his servants who do his will. The house has assumed this condition of subserviency willingly of course, but the members are none the less servants of the speaker whom they create. As the result of this humiliation fact the representatives of the people have become a much smaller factor in the affairs of the nation that they humbly do the will of the autocratic speaker and his committee on rules.