The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-23
The Alleged Municipal COrrupttons
and the Duty OF the Mayor.

The Alleged Municipal Conceptions
and the Duty or the Mayor.
Unless Mayor Havemeyer is extraordinarily
obtuse, he must by this time understand that
it will not profit him politically or in his per-
sonal reputation to permit continuance OF
the present disreputable management OF the
city government The people have been
patient under the experiment of hybrid adj
ministration, and have been slow to admit the
utter failure Of the reform movement and the
dishonesty Of its promoters. They have ex-
tended lenient Judgment towards the Mayor
himself, and have displayed singular good
temper under the provocation of his ridicu-
lous and reprehensible appointments to Office.
Indeed, they have rather relished as joke
the nonchalance with which he has cheated
his associates of the reform ring and distrib-
uted his patronage in q manner to suit him.
SELF But official buffoonery ceases to be
amusing when it disgraces and Injuries the
city, and unless there is speedy and CON-
plete change in the mode Of administering
the city government the Mayor will find to his
cost that the public patience is about ex-
hausted
No person holds Mr. Havemeyer solely re-
sponsible for the present scandalous condition
Of public affairs. The fault lies with all the
political adventures who sought to turn the
popular movement of 1872 to their personal
advantage with the republican Legislature
which passed city charter and charter amend
ments with the sole object of benefting their
own party and securing for it a hold upon the
rich patronage of the municipal government;
with republican leaders who, after heaping the
foulest abuse on the Mayor, bargained to place
additional power in his hands in return for
a few lucrative offices with the ''reform" as
sociations which sought to fasten all their
members on the public treasury with the
Mayor who from the first used the city gov
eminent as a personal perquisite, and ran it
in his own interest and not in the interest
of the people, with the Aldermen, who
have been too ready to use trading Executive
for their own selfish purposes. The reform
movement which elected Mr.. Havemeyer was
a blistering lie from beginning to end. It was
corrupt trade and dicker between politicians
against Tammany to seize upon public posi-
tons they never could have otherwise OBJ
tanned. Mr.. Havemeyer was one of the buck
sters, and as such is equally responsible with
his associates for the imposition practised
upon the people. But he stands now in o
position very different from the rest He is
at the head of the government, and is re-
sponsible under the law for its honesty and
efficiency. Two of the municipal depart
ments-those of Police and Charities and
Correction--are so Occasionally managed as
to render one Of them the subject Of
censure, and the other of Indictment
by grand juries. One of the Commits
sioners of Charities and Correction has
been shown to have purchased dry goods
for the city through o relative in violation Of
law and at fraudulent prices. Another has
been purchasing thousands Of dollars worth
of -four Of brands ranging on the market at
81 to SIS SO barrel, tor which, it is alleged,
the city has been charged as high as 81 to 50
barrel Enough meat has been paid for by
the city for the same department to feed an
army of ten thousand men on full army ra-
tons daily for year. Yet the Mayor, whose
duty demands that he shall enforce honesty
in every public department, takes no action
against these Commissioners, and strives to
screen them by make-believe investigation.
Why does he thus neglect his duty to the
people? Is it because his son supplies the
tea and his son-in-Iaw the butter used in the
tainted department?
Mr. Havemeyer may rest assured that the
people will begin to ask these questions, and
to ask them with view to invoking the pro-
lection the law affords them against an IN
faithful Executive, unless he adopts differ
emit course and evinces disposition to do his
duty as Mayor of the city. Messrs. Stern
and Laimbeer must be brought to account and
forced to explain oil that appears extraordi-
nary in their official conduct The Mayor
may chuckle over his smart attempt to befog
the issue as to the faithfulness and compe-
tency of the present management of the De-
partment of Charities and Correction by
getting up comparison with former man.
agements, but the trick will not be
successful The Mayors Commissioners
Of Accounts, one Of whom was ap-
pointed at the instance Of MI. Laimbeer,
may make whitewashing report of the con-
dition of the department But the people
will insist upon a thorough investigation OF
all these alleged irregularities, and of the
share the Comptroller has had in passing the
illegal and exorbitant dry goods, -four and
meat bills despite his large force of experts
and examiners" The sooner the Mayor
understands this fact the better will it be for
his own official safety.