The New York herald., 1877-02-15

see for himself that they perform
these to the letter. Unless he sees
in person how the affairs of the city
government are administered he cannot in
troduce any reformatory system. We have
lost all faith in official reports. They have
become documents carefully prepared for
the purpose of concealing facts under over
whelming arrays of figures. They give us
no details; for they ignore the tribes that go
to make up the most interesting exhibits Of
our city expenditures. What resource have
we, then, in the face of these difficulties? ?
None. but in the vigilance, activity and
attention to trifies of the Mayor of New
York. If Mayor Ely will only do his duty
in this respect he will discover abundant
opportunities for Investigation and i'm
provement.
Let US suggest to him series of inquiries
such as he can prosecute at once and with
immense advantage to the city. He can
find out, for instance, how contracts under
the Department of Public Works are let and
fulfilled; how the streets are graded and
improved; how reservoirs are built and the
Croton water is sold to large consumers; how
the Police Department is managed; how it
cleans the streets, disposes of the ashes and
garbage and deals with the moral nui-
sances of the city how the Health
Department protects the crowded tenement
districts from disease and abates nui-
sances how the Dock Department builds
bulkhead walls and piers and leases the
latter to steamship companies and others
how the markets are managed and the stalls
are rented how the ferry companies
accommodate the public, and the fastest
time made during steamboat races on
our rivers; how the horse car CON-
panies comply with the city ordinances,
and whether the travelling public have
any rights at all in our streets how our
thoroughfares and sidewalks come to be
encountered by piles of building material
and by whose authority; as to the best
means of relieving the principal streets
from the overcrowded traffic that obstructs
them at present. These are all the more
worthy of attention because they are made
up of trifes, as mountains are composed of
conglomerated atoms. If he will duly in
form us as to the nature and condition of
the atoms the people will give him all the
power he requires to remove the mountains.
Municipal Reconstruction - Mayor
Ely's Plan.
We print ON interesting interview with
Mayor Ely, in which he communicated to
HERALD reporter the outlines of his plan of
municipal reform. We are glad to find that
his views are such as we can indorse, in
substance at least, if not in all details.
Our worthy Mayor, having learned by re-
peated trials how vain it was to expect any
thing valuable from the conferences he
called, has consented to let the public know
what his own opinions are respecting
needed changes in our municipal govern
ment. His attempt to get any wisdom from
the respectable gentlemen he invited into
consultation reminds us of the philoso-
pher who undertook to extract sunbeams
from cucumbers. 1t was as vain an expecta-
ton as that ridiculed by the poet of procur-
ing milk from the breasts of lass "who
ne'er BARN had none" The modesty of
the Mayor in Withholding his own excellent
ideas during those vapid, twaddling confer
ences did him injustice, and he ought to
feel obliged to us for lifting the veil which
concealed his opinions.
Instead of being all at sea on this great
subject Mayor Ely has reached precise and
definite conclusions. He thinks the execu-
tive part of our municipal government
should be modelled on the plan of the fed
eral Executive, which he thinks the best
form in the world. II am of the opinion" {"
he says, 'that it is the best human wisdom
has devised, whether the rulers are honest
or dishonest" We entirely agree with him.
In the federal plan there is one responsible
executive head, who appoints the chief Off
GERS in all the departments and has an eff
cient supervision over them. He would also
follow the federal model in the organization
of the departments, each of which has a single
head responsible to the President. There
is one Secretary of the Treasury, one Secre-
tary of War, one of the Navy, one of the In
terror one Postmaster General, although
the business of these departments is alto
cether more vast and multifarious than that
of any city department 1t would strike
everybody as preposterous to substitute four
or five commissioners for each of the federal
secretaries. 1t is equally preposterous to
continue such clumsy and wasteful sys-
tenn in this city.
The Mayor illustrates the sufiiciency of q
single head by referring to the Department
of Public Works, the largest in it's scope of
any in the city government, which is never
theless successfully administered by one
commissioner. The advantage of consoli-
dation is illustrated by reference to the
Croton Aqueduct, formerly II separate
department, but now bureau in
&ho Dap,rtn,apt of publ;c Works