New-York tribune., 1877-03-14
THE NEJV CHARTER.

In its more important features the bill reOr-
ganizing the City Government, reported at
Albany yesterday, does not vary from the ac-
counts already given of it. The consolidation
of the Dock Department with that of Public
Works. and the vesting in the latter of all control
over the streets the reduction of all Department
Commissions, with the exception of the Police
and Charities and Correction, to a single
head ; and the provision fOr Spring elections
have already become familiar In its less
important features as well, the bill fol-
lows the same rigid policy of consOlida-
ton and retrcnchment. The Building and
Excise Departments are reduced to bu-
reaus. The Bureau of Contract Clerks in
the Department of Public Works, and the
Bureau of Licenses in the Department Of
Finance, are abolished; the Bureau of Water
Register, now IN the former department, is
transferred To the latter and consolidated
with two others; the Bureaus of the Re-
ceiver of Taxes and Collector of AS
sessments are merged together. Various
ornamental lawyers are stricken Off the
ay-rols, including the Attorney for the
Building Department, the Corporation Attor-
ney, and the Public Administrator and various
ornamental cOmmssionerships are abolished.
The duties of these bureaus and officials are
to be performed by others, and, in some cases,
The transfer of the whole expense as well as
of the duties is guarded against by limita-
ton of their expenditures There are some
other features of interest The Mayors term
is heightened to three years; the term of the
Common Council is made of the same length !;
six Aldermen are to be elected at large, of
whom one is TO be President of the Beard
AS we have repeatedly suggested, it is for
the heads of departments to show us in what
respects these changes, or any of them, VIII
be ill-adviscd. Thus far, they have certainly
failed to make out "a case. TIE TRIBUNE
gave them hearing in its columns
but day or two ago, and what
was the substance of their peaf That
a bureau, hidden behind great department,
could not he so easily held to a strict IespOn
sibity as when it maintained n separate ex-
isence that this was " "filtration," not iiXity,
of responsibility. The argument is worthless
enough, but the illustrations cited to sup
port it were fmsier still. They were
drawn, almost without exception, from the
days when the people hardly dared yet to
murmur against the Tammamy Ring, and when
the government of the city was only COM
plicatcd organization for the disbursement of
stolen money. The inierences to be drawn
from the abuses of that time are chiefly IN
ferences against men, for where the heads OF
good systems and bad alike were busy en-
gagged in stealing, the good systems seemed
no better than the bad, and the bad
no worse than the good. OF the wisdom
Of consolidating wherever there can be con-
soldatiOn, of reducing a department to a
bureau wherever it can be reduced, of wiping
out bureau wherever it can be wiped ont,
there can be no question. When bureau is
inflated into department. or desk into
bureau, the number Of its officers and the size
of its salaries nrc inflated with it,. The bigger
the office, the less work there is to do, and