New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-12-14
THE PRESS AS A MUNICIPAL ADMINS.
TRAITOR

IhAIUR
The New York Herald having discovered
the origin of the Nile, and secured tn,
Imprisonment of one or more special com
mlssioners sent into Cuba and Spain, ap
pears in new role. 1t has undertaken
the pursuit of the Democratic Statesman
Tweed. Columns of the paper are filled
with the pursuit of carriage drivers, will
interviews with boys and tradesmen who
have seen suspicious vehicles, and hopt
Is held out that this dagitious fugitive may
be traced to some foreign land, where hi
may be demanded or not by the fedora
authorities, as the lawyers may decide.
These papers have given the public al
insight into the morality of the New Yorl
Democratic officials by engraving thu
sumptuous apartment of Tweed in tn,
prison, with its handsome furniture aaG
luxurious bed nth t,co piIlo,os, with the
splendid mansion and the elegant car
rage and pair in which. drawn by his
own coaclman and escorted by his
friends, he took departure for Europe.
These are important services thus rem
dered to the public by the press. The
failure of the police detective system is
tiagrant. The main object of the de.
tective is to secure the reward, not the
rogue. 1t has been charged that the
Nathan murder was not investigated be.
cause the detectives were not agreed as to
the partition of the price for apprehend.
ing the assassin. There are many minor
instances in which the adage ''set thief
to catch a thief has been signally re.
tuted. The public does not place much
confidence in the average detective, and
the most the unfortunate victim of theft
or burglary can expect is to recover such
percentage of the loss as the thief and
the detective may agree between them.
The press can by publication do more to
set the whole public after an offender than
the mysterious detective who prefers to
hold the whole affair in his own hands,
and it would not be extraordinary if the
Herald should propose to take upon itself
the conduct of the pursuit and arrest of
offenders, while the Times, which intro
duced the prosecution of Tweed, should
be entrusted with the management of the
trial of these offenders when arrested.
The demonstrated capacity of the press
for the performance OF a great public
duty comes at the came time with pro-
posals to devolve upon private corpora
tons the performance of certain great
municipal duties of our own municipal
authorities.
This alleged municipal incapacity in
many of our principal city governments
ARISES from an obvious cause. 1t is the
manner in which the principal municipal
officers are chosen. In New York Tam
many Hall has virtually nominated the
city government. 1t is now made the
cause for annulling the charter of that
audacious Institution. The same system
OF party nomination has prevailed in St.
Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and other
places. New Orleans is as corruptly gov
erned by ward clubs as Paris ever was.
In all proposals to farm out the duties
of the corporate authorities, whether they
be of taxation, as formerly in Spain and
France, or of the markets and water SUD-
ply, we see the working of the same evil
system. Men are elevated to the per-
Torrance of special duties who have never
bestowed any attention upon such duties.
They employ subordinates who are not
the choice of the people; who are not
responsible to the people, and who op-
press the people with impunity. The
people, annoyed at the weakness or "a
pacity of such an administration, are
willing to sell in monopoly the duties
which are thus neglected.
The primary choice of candidates for
city Office must be conducted with more
fairness or the sovereign people may, like
the sovereign kings save themselves
trouble by farming out the police and the
prosecutors, the public charities and the
public finances. 1t may be regarded as a
warning to old political parties, that un-
less they o.fer fairer mode of expressing
the choice If the people, the people may
deprive them of their patronage by en-
ploying the press to conduct the various
departments of government. 1t would
not be astonishing if the city government
of New York should become bureaus of
few principal newspapers. 1t will be the
best way o. arresting the debt, reducing
the taxes, leaning the streets and pro-
tecting the life and property of the