In Politics
It
was these experiments of Jones which attracted public attention in Toledo to
him. In the spring of 1897 a convention of the Republican party in that city was
held to select a candidate for mayor, and it so happened that there was a
deadlock between the supporters of three contending candidates, no one of whom
could secure a majority. It was necessary to compromise upon a new man, and the
belief that the name of Jones would appeal to the labor vote caused the
selection to fall upon him. He had always been a Republican and a church member
and was supposed to be entirely conservative and respectable -- a little
eccentric perhaps, but with eccentricities which might prove good vote getters.
Toledo was a Republican town and Jones was elected by a majority of over five
hundred. If his nomination was a surprise to the party managers, his course in
office was still more so, for he refused absolutely to listen to partisan advice
of any kind, and devoted himself to the task of applying the Golden Rule to the
administration of the city government. He tells us that he thought that the
great need of municipalities was the formation of ideals. Looking upon us as
"a nation of Mammon worshipers, with gold as our god," he endeavored
to "lift the public mind in some measure into the domain of art and
idealism." "I believe," he adds, "that it is the artistic
idea of life that helps us to see the possibility of a social order in which all
life, every life, may be made beautiful." In this way he took up the
ideal of social justice, and advocated an eight-hour workday for municipal
employees, and succeeded in establishing it in the police department and the
waterworks. He induced the police commissioners to adopt the merit system of
appointment to the force. In his second annual message to the common council he
made many recommendations, including the ownership by the city of its own gas
and electric light plants, a larger share of home rule to be obtained from the
Legislature, the referendum upon all extensions of public franchises, the
abandonment of the contract system of public work, the addition of kindergartens
to the school system, larger appropriations for public parks and for music in
the parks and for playgrounds and baths. But it was not so much the specific
measures advocated in it as the spirit of brotherhood breathing through the
whole message, which drew wide attention to this unusual document, and brought
letters of approval from Count Tolstoy and W. D. Howells. When the Mayor's two
years' term of office drew near its end, the Republican convention met again to
name his successor. The supporters of Mayor Jones were almost numerous enough to
nominate him, but by underhand means they were prevented from securing the
necessary votes and the choice fell upon another. Jones at once announced
himself as an independent candidate, believing that the people approved of his
administration, and the liveliest campaign ensued that Toledo had ever seen. The
Democrats nominated a third candidate also, and all the power of both
"machines" was exerted to put down this political upstart. He was
actively opposed by all the newspapers of the city. The clergy turned against
him because he was considered too friendly to the saloon-keepers, the fact being
that he could not help being friendly to everybody, while he believed that the
Sunday laws should be enforced "according to the standard of existing
public sentiment." One of the reforms which he had instituted was the
substitution of light canes for clubs in the hands of the police. "I have
sought to impress upon the patrolmen that they are the public servants and not
the public bosses," he says in a letter of defense of his mayoralty during
this campaign; "I have told them individually and collectively, and
especially impressed upon the new men, that the duty of a patrolman is to do all
in his power to make it easy for the people to do right and hard for them to do
wrong, and I have added, 'An officer can often render better service by saving
the city the necessity of arresting one of her citizens, by helping a
prospective offender to do right instead of waiting for him to be caught in a
fault in order that he may be dragged a culprit to prison.'" And he pointed
with pleasure to the fact that the number of arrests had fallen off about
twenty-five percent, or a thousand cases in a year, and that the city was more
orderly than ever notwithstanding. The real issue of the local campaign was,
however, the grant of a franchise for practically no consideration to an
electric light and street railway company, and the false issues of the saloons
and the police were brought in to becloud the mind of the public. The labor
unions promptly rallied to the support of Mayor Jones, and his own employees
organized a band and glee club, which accompanied him wherever he addressed the
people, singing labor songs written by himself. The enthusiasm of his meetings
was unlimited, and a blinding snowstorm was not sufficient to prevent a grand
procession of his supporters, their energy being only stimulated by "two or
three inches of snow" on their umbrellas. The newspapers on the eve of
election predicted the overwhelming succcss of their candidates, but when the
votes were counted Jones had received 16,773 out of a total of 24,187, while his
opponents divided the remaining votes pretty evenly between them. He had
received sixty percent of the vote, against the united and determined opposition
of all the parties and the entire press. It was a personal triumph such as is
rarely experienced in popular elections, and not only a personal triumph but a
demonstration of the power of the spirit of the Golden Rule over the multitude
when it is frankly expressed in the life of a man. Mayor Jones was reelected in
the spring of 1901, and again in 1903, and held the office at the time of his
death. His knowledge of political parties gained in office led him to doubt the
value of these institutions, and soon after his second election he announced his
conviction that parties were evils, and occasionally he signed his name as
"a man without a party." In the autumn of 1899 he was a candidate for
governor of Ohio upon a no-party platform, and received 125,000 votes, the
campaign giving him an excellent opportunity to preach his views in all parts of
the State. He might have gone to Congress the following year, but he declined
the nomination. The last time he was a candidate for mayor, in 1903, the
animosity of the press was so great against him that the editors of Toledo
agreed not to mention his name, referring to him, when it was unavoidable, as
"the present incumbent of the mayor's office," but still he was
elected by a plurality of 3,000 votes.
