New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-07
STONES INSTEAD or LOlTES.


While our taxpayers await, with an i'm
patience that can barely be controlled, the
| long due and oft promised exhibit of the re-
ceipts into and payments from their treasury
| during the last thirty months, they are tan
tailed by an overture for on examination OF
! the Controllers books by committee Of the
! Chamber Of Commerce and statement OF the
aggregates paid out during the last month
| July) under different heads to meet various
obligations. The overture aforesaid intimates
that the examination it invites may be ef-
fected before the lOng-due exhibit is made.
Now Mayor Hall assured the public but two
weeks ago that the Controllers exhibit was
made out weeks previously and sent in with
his Report, to which it was an appendix, and
would be given to the public so soon as it
could be printed. 1t must, therefore, be at
least six weeks old by this time. Why, then,
is it still withhold Why are the taxpayers
offered everything they don't want instead Of
the one thing they do,land have a right to de-
mand2 How can they resist the conclusion
that the accounts of 1869, 1870, and the earlier
half of 1871, are withheld to be dOctOred-
licked into prcsentablo shape or so befogged
that their republication will reveal little or
nothing7
Suppose the Chamber of Commerce shall come
to the rescue of MessIs. Hall and Connolly,
and appoint a Committee, which will in due
time report that the latteIs receipts and pay
monts balance each other, and that vouchers
are on file for every dollar disbursed-what Of
it2 The real question is not one of book
keeping at ALL That the money paid into
the City Treasury for taxes or as the proceeds
of loans has all been paid out again, we DO
not question but what has the City received
for it and who have pOcketed the difference
between what has been paid out and what
ought TO have beeni These are the questions
which the people want thoroughly answered:
what light can the Chamber of Commerce
throw upon them2
VIGOROUSLY, the Rev Courthouse and Arm
cries Ito go no further) have cost the City at
least thrice their true value. How so Sup
pose the Chamber of Commerce should earn
estly try to fathom this mystery of Iniquity,
and call successfully Messrs. Ingersol, Gar
vey, &c. and ask them to point out the City's
value received for this and that bill, with
searching questions "a to their partnerships,
per centages, &c, &c, how long will they
continue to answer? Can they be compelled
TO testuyE II they sDOuld consent 10 hc
sworn, and then swear falsely, can they be
punished for permyl " no does not see that
nothing but whtewash can be elected by
such a process ?.
Mayor Hall finds in the new Charter n pro-
vision authorizing him and his successors to
call at discretion on the Controller for an eX-
hibt of his accounts That is very proper
provision, and will of course be Obeyed. But
the Mayor infers that it has superseded and
annuled the chartered right of the people to
an annual publication of the Controllers re-
ceipts and expenditures, item by item--a mon
strous deduction. Neither by its terms nor by
fair implication does the new Charter deprive
the people of that annual exhibit to which
they were previously entitled. The Mayors
and the Peoples rights in the premises are
seyerallY complete and wholly independent of
each other Let each be respected, and let
neither attempt TO defeat the other.
One thing the taxpayers of this City do
know-that their upper servants have been
living like Gshting-cocks and piling up real
estate Ike nabobs for the last six or eight
years, while flxc, have been swelling and the