New York City mayoral election, 1917
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The 1917 Election for Mayor of the City of New York replaced sitting Mayor John P. Mitchel, a reform Democrat running on the Fusion Party ticket, with John F. Hylan, the regular Democrat supported by Tammany Hall and William Randolph Hearst.
The election was notable not only for the first partisan primary elections for City offices, but for the contentious debate over supporting U.S. entry into World War One, vigorously supported by Mitchel and opposed by the Socialist candidate, Morris Hillquit. Mitchel and Hillquit each won about a fifth of the total vote, while Hylan won office with less than half the vote.
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[edit] Discussion
The Fall 1917 election, which The New York Times (Nov. 4) called a "puzzle without parallel", would have been exciting even had it occurred in peacetime. In September, the City held its first-ever primary elections for Mayor. Incumbent Fusion Mayor John Purroy Mitchel (an insurgent Democrat) who had enjoyed Republican non-opposition in 1913, apparently won the Republican primary until a series of counting mistakes and frauds (followed by criminal indictments) forced recounts that gave a narrow victory to William M. Bennett. Attempts to find a compromise anti-Tammany candidate failed, Bennett declined to withdraw from the race, and Mitchel went on to wage an independent campaign for re-election.
But the Mayoral election happened in the same year as the United States' entry into World War One on April 6th. An emergency convention and referendum of the Socialist Party of America overwhelmingly opposed U.S. participation, as did the Socialist candidate for Mayor, Morris Hillquit. Hillquit's refusal to support the war by such acts as buying Liberty Bonds won the Socialists new support in many immigrant communities, but vehement denunciations from many quarters, including Mitchel, The New York Times and ex-President Theodore Roosevelt (the Republicans' 1886 candidate for Mayor), who declared that Hillquit "stands as an aid to the Prussianized autocracy of the Hohenzollerns" [1] The Fusion campaign decided to direct its last week against Hillquit (who would eclipse Mitchel in The Bronx while matching his vote in Queens and Brooklyn), rather than against Judge John F. Hylan, the candidate of Tammany Hall and William Randolph Hearst. (Hearst, the newspaper publisher who was the 1905 Mayoral candidate of the Municipal Ownership League, and Hylan, who had started life operating subway trains, were both strong opponents of the city's private transit companies.) Hylan's position on the war was unclear, but not his sharp victory over all three of his major rivals on November 6th (exactly seven months after the U.S. Declaration of War and one day before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia). Although a divided opposition let Hylan carry the City and three of her boroughs with less than 50% of the total vote, the numbers (as in 1897) suggest that Tammany Hall might very easily have won a two-candidate race.
!["The New Western Front", a Sunday New York Times cartoon of November 4th, 1917, implying that German enemy rulers favor Mayoral candidates Morris Hillquit and John F. Hylan. The caption reads, Crown Prince: "Any more victories, Papa?" - Kaiser (Wilhelm II): "I can't tell until Tuesday" [i.e. election day, Nov. 6th]](../../../../images/shared/thumb/b/b3/New_York_Times_cartoon_4_Nov_1917_-_Crown_Prince_-_Any_more_victories,_Papa_-_Kaiser_-_I_can't_tell_until_Tuesday.png/550px-New_York_Times_cartoon_4_Nov_1917_-_Crown_Prince_-_Any_more_victories,_Papa_-_Kaiser_-_I_can't_tell_until_Tuesday.png)
[edit] Later careers of the participants
Ex-Mayor Mitchel volunteered for air service with the U.S. Army Signal Corps and fell out of his aircraft to his death while training on July 6, 1918. Eight days later, on Bastille Day, 1918, Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of Theodore Roosevelt, died in aerial combat in France, leading the former President to become more withdrawn before he himself died in January 1919. The Socialist Party of America suffered crippling losses from government actions during the war and the departure of most of its members in 1919 to start the American Communist movement. Morris Hillquit, who stayed with the Party he had helped to found, ran again for Mayor in 1932 (receiving an eighth of the vote) and died the next year. John F. Hylan was re-elected Mayor in 1921 but lost the 1925 Democratic primary to Jimmy Walker after a split between Democratic borough leaders. Mayor Walker later returned Judge Hylan to the bench by appointing him to the Children's Court.
[edit] General Election Results
| 1917 | party | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | Total | % |
| John Francis Hylan | Democratic | 113,728 | 41,546 | 114,487 | 35,399 | 8,850 | 314,010 | 46.8% |
| 46.4% | 42.9% | 46.5% | 51.7% | 58.3% | ||||
| John Purroy Mitchel | Fusion | 66,748 | 19,247 | 52,921 | 13,641 | 2,940 | 155,497 | 23.2% |
| 27.3% | 19.9% | 21.5% | 19.9% | 19.4% | ||||
| Morris Hillquit | Socialist | 51,176 | 30,374 | 48,880 | 13,477 | 1,425 | 145,332 | 21.7% |
| 20.9% | 31.4% | 19.9% | 19.7% | 9.4% | ||||
| William M. Bennett | Republican | 13,230 | 5,576 | 29,748 | 5,916 | 1,968 | 56,438 | 8.4% |
| 5.4% | 5.8% | 12.1% | 8.6% | 13.0% | ||||
| Subtotal | 244,882 | 96,743 | 246,036 | 68,433 | 15,183 | 671,277 | ||
| Edmund Seidel | Socialist Labor | 20,586 | ||||||
| others | ||||||||
| T O T A L | 691,809 |
[Others and Total from The Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale, 1995), which does not exactly match the other numbers, taken from The World Almanac for 1929 & 1943.]
Hillquit came second, and Mitchel third, in The Bronx, while Bennett (the Republican), who came in fourth everywhere else, came third and pushed Hillquit into fourth place (and below 10%) on Staten Island. Hylan (who led everywhere) won pluralities, rather than absolute majorities, in the City as a whole and in Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn, winning a slim overall majority in Queens and a decisive (4-3) majority on Staten Island.
[edit] References
- ^ ROOSEVELT CALLS SUPPORT OF MAYOR DUTY TO NATION, New York Times, Tuesday 30 October 1917, page 1
[edit] Sources
- The New York Times archives for September-November, 1917
- The World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1929 and 1941
- James Weinstein, The Decline of Socialism in America, 1912-1925 (New York 1967: Monthly Review Press & 1969: Vintage)
- David A. Shannon, The Socialist Party of America: a history (New York 1950: Macmillan and Chicago 1967: Quadrangle)
- The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson (New Haven, Connecticut, 1995: Yale University Press & New York Historical Society) ISBN 0-500-05536-6
[edit] See also
- New York City mayoralty elections
- Characteristics of New York City mayoral elections
- History of New York City
- Socialist Party of America
- Tammany Hall
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