The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-07
Mayor Havcmeyer's Mcssage-Good and
Impracticabic sugg estions.

Ampr~ctlcoOic SuSS estHO"ss
The message delivered by Mr.. Havemeyer
as Mayor Of the city of New York, appears
in the HERALD to-day. It is undeniably
well written document, and character
istio of that blunt and honest civic states
man. We imagine that we can discover
in its sound democratic doctrine of self
government and independent Legislative and
executive power the hand Of that thoroughly
reconstructed Tammany Sachen, Counsellor
Tilden while there are evident traces of Comp
troller Green in the liberal putting of the
Finance Department and in two or three mali
cious little ''Aings' at other city departments
Objectionable to the financial head. Apart from
these the Mayor makes some good suggestions
and others that might be good if they were not
utterly imprachcable at this time. He takes
trammels or affiliations Of O partisan charac-
ter in consequence of the peculiar circum-
stances attending his election but in his
free and interesting conversations with our re-
porters the Mayor took more distinct ground
on this subject, and avowed his mistaken faith
in democratic principles, including all the
messages of Jackson and jefferson, whose
graphic sentences had made well-stored pin
Cushion of his mind The system of govern
ment which Mayor Hayemeyer desires to see
established in New York is one which will
give to the Common Council ample and
exclusive legislative powers, including the
raising, appropriation and expenditure
of money and to the Mayor full
and unrestricted authority over all the sub
ordinate departments Of the city government
including the power to appoint and remove at
his will. The Mayor no doubt, will find ear
nest advocates of the first portion of this
proposition in Alderman Barney Bruiser, AS
sistant Alderman Striker and their associates );
but we much question whether the Legislature
will be equally favorable to the change. As to
the principle Of a concentration of patronage
and arbitrary power in the Mayor, we do not
believe that either will receive the sanction Of
a republican Legislature, which has won
power in the city for the first time in many
years, and which will not be very likely to
neglect the opportunity to destroy once and
for all those enormous majorities which the
political friends of Mayor Havemeyer
have been accustomed to roll up
in the metropolis and with which
they have so often swept away
the republican preponderance in the
State. For these reasons we regard the Mayor
suggestions of model government as imprac-
ticable Mt the present time, and hence it is not
worth while to waste criticism upon them, or
to examine whether they were not better suited
10 the condition of affairs twenty eight years
ago than to the New York of 1873.
We regret to find Mayor Havemeyer the
champion of Comptroller Green in his ILL
judged crusade against the City Chamberlain
and in his reprehensible neglect to receive the
interest on the city and county deposits. We
should have supposed that the Mayor would
have been among the first to recognize the
improperly Of giving the Comptroller the
supreme control over the deposits in addi-
ton to the powers he already possesses,
and to approve the time-honored policy
of keeping the two Offices of Comp
troller and custodian of public moneys
separate and distinct. In his con-
versation with our reporter, published in yes
terday's HERALD, Mayor Havemeyer de-
nounced the idea of the head of city de-
partment holding also seat in the Board of
Apportonment and passing on his own requi-
sitions He doubtless alluded to the fact that
Comptroller Green, as Park Commissioner
not only passes upon his own acquisitions, as
a member Of the Board of Apportionment
but also pays oil his own demands as Comp
troller. In fact, Park Commissioner Green,
on one side of Broadway, adopts resolution
calling upon the Comptroller in his discretion
to issue bonds to the Park Commission to the
amount, say, of two hundred and ten thou
sand dollars, and Comptroller Green, on the
other side of Broadway, considers this request
and agrees to give the Park Commission
two hundred thousand dollars. If a laudatory
article should appear the next day in some
city journal praising Comptroller Green for
saving ten thousand dollars to the city by the
transaction it is all natural enough but we
agree with Mayor Havemeyer that the prin-
cipis is altogether wrong. How much more
objectionable, then, wouid II W .or .-'"..n.ro.
Ter Green to hold the city moneys in his
own possession, without check or restraint
and to draw warrants with one hand and pay
them with the other. The proposition of
Mayor Havemeyer to give this improper
power to Comptroller Green will, however
be no more likely to meet with favor in the
Legislature than the proposition to place all
the patronage Of the city in the Mayor
hands. The republicans have the full
responsibility for the future government
of the city, and they will not fail to
use the power given them by the people to
manage that government in their own way
Mayor Havemeyer complains that the utter
ances of President Grant, unlike those of JET
ferson and Jackson, pass out Of memory and