The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-02-13

given assumed BY any other than the properly organ
lied department. viz. Streets and Tampa (sxcept Tnen
| deemed TO Be dstsinental to the puble hsalh).
Your committee however, desming !. essential that
snow and ics will exercise what power they eslisve is
conceded 70 Them and tina. purpose subnit the fol-
Resolved That the Superintendent of Streets be, and
he hereby directed 70 cause the removal forthwith OF
enable said of Streets 70 perform the
.ad work satisfactorily your committees sasc submit the
following ordinance for yoar consideration, VII
An ordinance making additional appropriation for the
| year one thousand eight hundred and fifty SIX.
airy Of the city OF New YOrk, in common council con-
ven<d,
ooS be- and the same i hereby, spproprsted for
| and on account Of cleaning streets.
! $1,000 : Sa4sS saapHnt, oe~..ss..
& SaS 9: S Y; %AssEs Cleaning Streets
| This report was referred to the Committee of
the Whole, the following named members being
| present.
B, #. pnekney, President; Couneilmen J. L. Smith,
Cove, Martin, Avery, Kenn.Ed Hsmphi, Cooper, kSeh
mOnd, Hart Floyd, Mcconnell, Reed, O'Rely, FArran,
y Smith, Brady Swan, AppeSy, Ies cary Merritt ptt s.
wallace Ryer Dunn, Noyes, Taylor, Baxter, Bradley,
! Cargin and J. A. Hopper.
The fate of the report in the hands OF these
patriots is thus briefly set forth in the official
report
On motion, the Board then resolved itself into Commit
lee of the Whole to take into the dinance
appropriaDg & coo to the ice and snow in the
public streets; and after time spent thereon, the
committee and recommended that the ordinance be
laid over. Which report wss adopted.
The debate in committee was exceedingly
| interesting. 1t has been said by great his
torian that all large bodies-;no matter if they
be composed Of men of extensive requirements
and acknowledged ability-have natural ten
dency to become mobs 1t is not remarkable,
| then, that our Board Of Councilmen, which has
| generally been composed of men who had mel
Their extensive requirements nor ability, should
have been mob since its existence, and that the
majority Of its members should have viewed
every subject through the contracted medium
| of their own narrow minds. We are not at all
| surprised to hear that one legislator, Mr. Swan,
said it was "waste OF the public money to
clean the whole city" 1t is to be hoped that the
constituents of Mr.. Swan who find their streets
| impossible, will remember him when he again
asks for their votes Another Scion, Mr..
Merritt, said he claimed to be practical man,
but talked very much like an impracticable
one. This Councilman, as q proof of his prac-
teal craftsmanship, desires that the people
shall pay for cleaning the streets by subscrip
! ton, having already paid taxes for that pur-
pose. ~ am not going" said the eloquent
Merritt, ''to tax the people for any such fool
ishness. ] own little property myself, and
pay some taxes, and haint going to pay any
! more than ] can help. haint going to stand
here and vote money out of my own pocket,
no how you can fix it." (Laughter). Merritt's
! district ought to be proud of him. Another
brilliant individual, Mr.. Watrous, saw no rea-
son why the streets should be cleaned. He
employed in his business numbers of cartmen,
| and they have no difficulty in getting along"
How a man could get up in his place and
make such statement as that we cannot see.
| He must have been bronzed for the occasion.
| We have seen in Fulton street and Broadway
| numerous carts completely blocked up, and q
coal dealer has informed us that it is more trou-
| BILE and labor to deliver one ton Of coal now
than it would be to cart one hundred tons when
the streets were in decent condition.
| Several COuncilmen objected to the appro
| priation on the ground that the streets coula
| be cleaned for double the amount during the
whole year. In the first place, the streets have
never been properly cleaned, except by special
appropriation under the authority of the Board
OF Health. The contract system is q terrible
humbug, as has been fully shown by the late
trial of the head of the department Even if
it were effective, it would not answer In the
present exigency, because it would require at
least a month to advertise for, receive, open
and decide upon the bids. During that time
the injury to local trade, and the damage to
| citizens generally, could not be repaid ~ seven
| times seventy-ive thousand dollars.
Another objection to the report of the COM
mittee-which was precisely what was needed
was that the money would be used mp as
| spoils Was this the case when the appropria-
ton of one hundred thousand dollars was
placed in the hands Of the Board Of Health !?
We're not the streets cleaned then as they ne
yer had been cleaned before Were not the
! intentions Of the Common Council fully real
! lied? The Councilmen could have thrown
any guards they saw fit around the appropria,
ton, and could have secured it SO that il
would be impossible to divert the money from
its original object. But they 'uld not do
that. 1t would seem that the real reason why
the ordinance was overslaughed was because
the Councilmen saw no opportunity to make
spoils out of it for themselves. The commit
tee deserve credit. The rest Of the Board we
leave to their constituents, and we have given
their names, so that they may be duly
marked.
Attic same time that these disgraceful scenes
are being enacted at the City Hall, we find the
streets getting into worse condition every day.
AT some points they are positively impossible.