The Portland daily press., 1877-05-29
Our New York Lette-,
"A New York Charter
Making and Tinkering-The Agile Pur
roy-Newspaper Attacks.

is tne uay tne Legislature &dlourns. The event
recurred last night, and the City and state
breathe more freely in consequence. They
have respite from legislative eccsntricities till
the 18th January, when the same annual five
months performance will be repeated. 1t is
astonishing that there is such an extensive bus
mess carried on in law making, and that there
never seems to be any decrease in it,. Thew
think nothing of passing six or seven hundred
acts at Albany in the course of a winter. which
seems. absurd when you come to think how
naVlly laden the statute book is already. Very
few people keep any sort OF run of the meas
ures that are enacted. 1t would REQUIRE an eff.
fort OF memory to do so to which few men ara
equal. But then very few of the acts are of
suficent moment to be worth remembering.
They are usually local measures affecting small.
communities or individuals
The great objective point of legislative opera
tions is the city of New York Every winter a
batch of new schemes is kneaded for the oven.
Only four years ago we were called upon to ad.
Just ourselves to brand new charter. 1t was
an instrument drawn with great elaboration
ana designed to remedy the wrong that had
grown chronic under the ring. 1t was essen
italy reform project, and was supported BY
the men who had helped to overthrow the
Tweed cabal. 1t has worked pretty well on the
whole, and seemed to improve by age. The
people were getting used to it and the more IA.
mlliar its provisions became to them the batter
they liked it. There were several departments
with commissioners at their head, deriving their
power from, and accountable to. the Mayor. He
could remove them for cause, himself and the
Governor being the sole judges of what should
constitute cause" The regulation invested
him with adequate executive authority, and
made him in fact as well as in name the su-
preme administrative head of the municipali.
ty. If any abuses existed he had the means To
discover them and the power to correct them
The charter created commission of accounts
consisting OF two persons holding office at the
pleasure OF the Mayor, who were authorized and
Instructed to examine in detail into all
the transactions of the various departments
and report any and every thing they might
discover, that was not honest and lawful. The
salaries OF officials were cut down to about
one third Of what had previously been paid for
similar services. In that respect the trainers
of the charter had hswn close to the line of
parsmony. In fine, the law as it stood was
decided improvement on any.prevous plan and
every sort of experiment had been tried first
and last, for it was the invariabe custom of
each legislature to put some sort of new patch
on the old garment of organization with which
the city was always grotesquely and shabbily
clothed.
But the mania for taking out new pieces
in
lently than usual during the recent session. If
all the contrivances that were suggestedhad been
carried into effect the body polite would have
been costumed like harlequin. There were
go many OF them that they jostled and helped
to negative each other. L have never been
able to reach an assured conclusion as to
whether the authors of these muitform devices
really wanted or expected them to succeed.
They appeared to be in earnest while they
were at it, but they dawdled over the matter
for an uncomfortable length of time, and
loaded their bills up with SO much dead weight
that they must needs have foreseeu. that they
would be exceedingly apt to founder. If
they really meant business, they showed a
pair rfui lack of judgment and tact; if they
didn't, they wasted great-d of their own
time and still more of the public patience.
by way of rendering it morally certain that
nothing could be accomplished legisla-
lature, claiming to be Republican in both
branches, begun by exasperating Democratic
governor They.snubbed him in numerous ways
The Senate wouldn't confirm his appointments
thereby depriving him of the Just prerogatiys
OF his office. There were great many little
petty annoyanoes to which they could and did
subject him. Having by these means worked
him up into Jan irritable frame of mind. thev
made such clumsy job of their charter tinker
ing that he had no difficulty in fading flaws
enough in it to warrant his veto. Hence their
wearisone labor came to nought, literally bar
rem OF useful results. However, it is question
able whether any good would have come of the
success of the leading measures they undertook
to carry. There was such a blending of folly
with wisdom in their mechanism, that it is lust
as we'll perhaps that they failed.
The neglect to make new apportionment of
Senatorial and Assembly districts cannot be
justified. The matter was left, az important
business too often is, to near the end of the ses
sion and suffered strangulation at the hands of
conference committee. This was so clearly
breach of faith that it reflects seriously an the
honor of the party which by reason of its ma
jority In both branches was directly responsible
for it. The Republicans will have to bear the
burden of this sin in the next election.
The effort to meddle with local affairs at AL.
bany in parts an fashion serves as pretexs for
bitter crusade by our city Democracy against
minority representation here at home. The
self-constituted leader of this campaign Is ris-
ing young statesman named Pdrroy. Purrov
is the president of the board of aldermen. a
restless andi agile fellow with good deal of
lingual faculty and exhaustless ambition. His
latest aspiration is to be police commissioner. a
post for which he is conspicuously unfit, inds-
pendently of the fact that his assignment TO
the place wo1ld disturb the political eouilib-
rum of the board and reduce that great arm of
the public service to mere spoil of Tammapy
Hall. The Democratic aldermen and the ward
politicians are importuning the mayor to make
this exceptionable appointment. He has thus
far refused to yield to their solicitations. Ifb
persists in doing so there are intirations of a
break between him and the Organization which
gave him the nomination and election last fall.
but his loss of their favor would be more than
compensated by the gain he would make in the
confidence and respect of the better class of our
citizens Mayor Ely Is not a self-wlled nor
controversial man. He will do anything in
reason to crafty the wishes of his political
associates. But when they ask OF him the sac
rifce of his self respect they will be likely to
discover that he has the courage and firmuess
to Withstand the temptations of preferment
with manly indifference alike to threats and
persuasons.
Purroy has the newspapers against him, but
they have got into such habit of slashpp at
everybody in wild and reckless manner that
their structures upon officials have ceased to
produce any effect. 1t is a great pity for a dis
eliminating and decorous press could be made
very eficacious in dealing with the men and
measures of the city government. The trouble
with the newspaper men is that nobody can
tell when they attack person whether there is
any justification for it or whether they have
any information about the subject of which
they treat They assail SO many blameless and
worthy people that when they do happen to
level their shafts at really vulnerable object
he gets the benefit of tthe popular theorv that