New-York daily tribune., 1857-10-26

schemes 10 Which the Pre- sent crist mas given orh,
that Of Mayor Wood as set forth in his recent mes
ssee to the Common Council is certainly the m,s.
extraordinary. He proposes in the present scarcity
of money that the City should introduce for the pay
ntnt OF certain exta aborers Of whom he rec )m-
meuds 'be employment, currency Of flour, corn
neal ard potatoes. at wholesale prices, to enable
tfe City to supply Itself with which currency he
proposes further the is,ue of construction stock
Iedeepable fifty years hence-snd certainly if the
CITY is goipg into this sort of business il is very
judicitus to postpone the payment Of the bonds to
at least that period of time. 1t would have been
better, perhaps, to have said hundred years.
The only objection which our public spirited
Mayor con zee to this operation, is triaing matter
Of ilegslity. The Common Council have no
authority 10 iisue construction bonds any other
kind Of boncs, without an act of the Legislature;
aId their authority also to turn the City into
cealer by wholesale ard retail in four corn meal and
potatoes IT, as the Mayor is fain to confess little
questionable But Fernando Wood is not man
to quail before mere legal obstacles, aud he encoY
sges the Common Council to go oD, with the sug
gestion that it will be very easy to get act of
the Legislature to put everything right. That
however, would not seem to be quite 80 certain.
The san C experiment of running into debt without
authority, in the hopes of csjCling the Lesisla-
ture into authorizing the issue Of construction
stock wherewith TO psy was tried in the some
what famous case Of the LOwoer swindle. That
attempt did not succeed and this new one might
not
But. however adrot and successful the Common
Council might be in getting over this little obstacle
of legaty, we think we zee two other pretty teri-
ou. Obstacles in the way Of the successful working
Of this plan. In the first place, we doubt very
moch whether the country people would be quite
viii & to part with their -four, corn meal and po-
tatoes for illegal city construction bonds, having
ffty years to ron; and in the second place, we
eoubt much whether the labcrers would be inclined
to iske -four corn meal and potatoes in pay for
tier work The market just now is somewhat
oyerstocked with construction bonds" aud We
)aiber question whether this going into the flour,
corn meal aid potato trade would be apt to add any
Il ipg to the credit of the City. But if these bonds
would btiDg -four, corn meal and potatoes, they
would also bring money. Indeed, the process un-
d, ubtedly would be- fist to sell or shave them for
money, snd then to invest that money in -four corn
meal s1d potatoes. Now, the laborers might be very
lib ely to ssk-ard, 60 far We can see it might not
BE- se easy to answer them-why not pay US the
uoney instead of tblieing us to accept in payment
soui flour musty corn meal and rotten potatoes
for that kept in city store houses the hour would
would soon become sour, the corn meal misty aud
tie potatoes rotten-what little the rats might
leave of them (f indeed they we're not sour, mus
ty and rotten when purchased )-caunot we think,
admit of doubt
We beg leave to remind our excellent Mayor of
the bubbub which namesake Of his occasoned iu
ireland a century ard more ago, by a similar al
tempt to supply scarcity OF money by the intro
duction of q new coinage Of his own. We question
much whether Fernand, Woods potatoes would
give SLY greater satisfaction In the way Of payment
ran cid William Woods half pence and hrthings.
However il might turn cut for the City and the
rmerous friends and psrtisans Of Mayor Wood to
employed at good salaries or with large commits
ions in the purchase, custody and distribution of
be -four, corn meal and potatoes, We are inclined
tOink the payers would set down the operation as
small potato job