The New York herald., 1875-07-01
Are tho Firemen To ne Paid,

1t is outrageous that the employees Of the
Fire Department-the men who do good ser
vice for the city and on whose courage and
fidelity we rely for the protection of our
homes and property from conhagrations-
should have been kept for month out of the
money due them Tor their services through
the stubbornness of two squabbling officers
the Mayor and Comptroller of the city. If
Mayor Wickham and Comptroller Green
choose to quarrel and snarl at each other; il
they are jealous and spitetul and willing to
degrade the positions they hold by unseemly
brawls whenever their public duties draw
them together; if the Comptroller despises
the Mayor and the Mayor hates the Comptrol-
Ter, they still have no right to indulge their
personal feelings at the expense and serious
inconvenience of large body of better be-
and the fremens pay for June has not yet
been received by them. The cause is well
known. Comptroller Green, out of malice
toward Mayor Wickham, suddenly changes
the manner of paying the fremen authorized
by law and pursued ever since the
present Mayor entered Office, that is,
by drawing a single pay roll war
rant for each company, and adopts the
cumbrous and inconvenient method of paying
each individual on separate warrant He
claims the right to make this change on the
ground that the charter empowers him to pay
the city employees in such manner as he may
see fit. Strictly speaking he has this right;
1,,f tbok ;o xvhv ha ohanl6 II 70
embarrass the city government and unneces-
sarily occupy the time OF the Mayor, who has
sufficient official duties to perform without
being reduced to the standing of o clerk.
Besides, the needless and injudcious change
desired by Mr. Green would delay the pay
ment of the fremen every month at least
week longer than under the old system.
There are nearly eight hundred fremen and
less than sixty companies, and to perfect,
sign and countersgn and check eight hundred
warrants would necessarily occupy more time
than to draw sixty warrants. On these
grounds the Mayor refuses to allow Mr..
Green to make the change, and withholds his
signature from some eight hundred or q
thousand separate warrants placed before
him by the obdurate Comptroller. Mr.. Green
will not give way; Mayor Wickham will not
bulge. So the suffering and hard working
firemen between these two official Dogberrys,
are cruelty kept out of their money.
1t is time that this disgraceful farce should
end. No person in the city except the par
ties concerned cares straw whether the
Mayor beats the Comptroller or the Comp
troller the Mayor in their contemplate quar-
rel If the law unfortunately gives the
Comptroller the power to obsrruct the public
business, insult the Mayor and put large
number of the city's employees to needless
trouble and annoyance, the Mayor has moth
ing to do but to submit. He con read the
charter, and if he finds that the Comptroller
has the authority claimed he should cease his
opposition and pay The firemen. Some of the
men are in serious distress for the want of the
money. We have had instances brought to
our notice in which fremen's families have
been turned out of their homes through being
unable to meet the rent due. And while the
poor fellows are thus suffering the Mayor and
Comptroller stand making faces at each other,
like two quarrelsome schoolboys, each refus-
ing to give way.