The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-22
Dur Municipal Tyrants-"A Plague
ON Both Your HOusesi'

| With thirty tyrants more or less, I'D power
this should be, politically. happy city; for OF
course, every individual tyrant OF the number
is resolved to make us happy if he can' espe-
cially if in SO doing he can see fair oppor-
tunity to improve the appearance OF his own
bank account; and nearly all of them do see
this opportunity so that If the people have
no great reason to congratulate themselves
upon the result the fault must be in their
stars Just now we ought to be happier than
ever, for the tyrants are in state Of special
activity since this is the season devoted
from time immemorial to the prepare
ton Of Estates" In this season Of bios
SONS, for our political phraseology assumes,
for special purposes, an Indian style, the
wise men put their heads together, or as
near together as seems safe, in view of the
fact that their tempers are often uncertain,
and reconcile, if they may, their claims and
counter-claims for Office and plumber. In their
own words, they make "a slate" Now,
slate is a treaty. and the high contracting
parties to the treaty are the city tyrants-as
many of them as happen to be in power or
fancy that they can get into power. Each has
6 protocol of his own-a scheme for the dis
tribution of power and patronage as he would
like IT,; but each expects to give way on some
or any point if he can gain an equivalent
advantage on some other point, and
the slatemaking is an exercise of
mutual blufing and concession. Sketched
out in the spring, it is more amply
| discussed through the summer. Anciently
these plans ripened at Rockaway or even
Coney Island, and then on the fat sand about
the now generally forgotten Ocean House, and
then at Indian Harbor, and now, perhaps, the
process of slatemaking is perfected at Long
Branch or kindred points of general attraction
and revelry. Some changes take place in the
summer perhaps, and the battle comes in the
fall.
$50 was it when our lives began; )" so is it
now when we understand it great deal
better, and the principal changes that have
taken place have been in the personal names
of the tyrants who thus bargained away the
popular power and in the places where they
talked their plans over on the starry summer
nights. Our Ring men were the pupils and
acolytes Of Fernando Wood, and as
Fernando received the tradition from
his seniors he conveyed it to his
juniors. That municipal Caesar, however, was
too logical. He saw that, despite the pretty
political fiction Of the supremacy Of the peo-
ple the true supremacy was in a dozen or
two party leaders, and he could not see why
the process of concentration might not be
carried still further and the political su-
premacy of the metropolis be gathered neatly
under Mr. Woods hat. His endeavor to
realize that dream brought hideous ruin and
confusion down on his fortunes 1t put him
in collision with Tammany Hall, and the gov
eminent of the city fell into the hands Of men
whom Wood had trained and who now readily
crowded him out, only to be crowded out IN
their turn; and still in the name of virtue re-
form, good government, economy and abstrac-
tons of that sort. All those ring tyrants
were crowded out by the pretty group of
tyrants now in power. These are Mr.. Have
meyer, the Mayor; Mr.. Green, the Comp
troller Mr.. Van Mort the Commissioner of
Public Works Messrs. Charlick and Gard
ner, Police Commissioners, and, of course, all
the tyrants together in the Board Of Alder
men. All these are reformers Of the most
on the wave of q popular uprising in the
name of virtue but they are just like all
the others. Under tyrant Green and tyrant
Havemeyer the city is governed quite as
poorly as it ever was before, and the govern
ment costs q great deal more. In the name OF
economy the city has been made bankrupt
in the name OF good administration it
has no administration at ALL Virtue,
economy, clean streets and q non-partisan
police, these were the cries on which
Mayor Wood was driven to the exile and outer
darkness Of q seat in Congress; but let the
public see what progress we have made, con-
sidering our condition now, on oil these
points. For economy especially, see Mr..
Green's accounts. For virtue, the streets and
sundry similar particulars, witness the edify-
ing spectacle of Board of reform Aldermen
urging upon reform Mayor the imperative
necessity of i1npeaching and removing re-
form Board Of reformed Police Commissioners
for malieasance and corrupt practices in Office.
We were to have rosy times when the
Tammany Ring fell. There was to be no
more corruption, no more squandering OF
resources, no further encouragement to crime
and political debauchery. This great city,
which had been plundered by one combina-
ton, was to be recreated by another combina-
ton The dishonor of tainted government
had been removed and we we're to have
new, fresh, vigorous government, un-
doing all the evil that had been perpetrated
by the Tammany Ring and doing the thou
sand things its leaders had failed to do in
their rapacious tenure Of power. But what
has been the result? In what respect have
we improved upon the infamous reign of