The New York herald., 1879-02-02
Mayor Cooper's Views OF Reform.


for pay that is only due on the 30th in four
months OF the year and on the 31st IN seven
months. He deems it an abuse that the
city should, by slipshod practices, get into
the habit OF paying in advance for the SER
vices of its employees, though the advance
be ever so little, for they might die or re-
sign. That the city will ever lose money
10y the designations of office holders is a vio-
lent hypothesis. They never resign, or
hardly ever" But it is, of course, true
that even men of their tough fibre may die.
Undoubtedly the public could appreci-
ate better the importance of this decision
if people generally were more familiar with
the usages as to official pay days. AS we
understand it the men do not get their
money till the 1st of the month, and the
actual date when they are paid is what is
practically important from the standpoint
of the Mayors objections inasmuch as if a
man did die five or ten hours or day be-
fore the end of his month, his pay being
still in the hands of the authorities could
be withheld and a proper proportion de-
Quoted for untitled time. 1t is, therefore,
not loose system in the distribution Of
public money that the Mayor has taken his
stand against; it is only n device for facili
tating the performance of administra-
tive duties. If nobody signed the warrants
till the end Of tho month the men would
not get their money till the 4th or 5th OF
the next month and it is as bad for the city
to withhold even for a day the money ac-
tually earned as it could possibly be to pay
it before it is earned. But the money is
paid, in fact, at the right time; and the
usage of having accounts made out and put
through appropriate channels at a conven-
lent period before the day of payment is
one of those simple and natural contrivances
adopted in all great establishments where
there is an important payroll-simply to
give ample time for scrutiny and prevent
confusion and error.
Therefore the Mayors new move does not
seem to US one of those great steps likely
to add his name to the roll Of splendid
retormers and great purifiers of the public
service. 1t is little fancy at best, and
would not be of great account even if it
between payment and one of the steps in
the preparation Of paper on which pay
ment is eventually to be made. But every
man acts in the train of his own ideas, and
it may be in the train of Mr.. Cooper's
thoughts that to be precise in details OF this
sort is of the gravest consequence In such
a case o functionary will naturally take his
own way, and the people have no reason to
com plain if the way does not obstruct the
public service. This does not, so far as we
know; for the worst that is said OF it is that
it is a cause Of inconvenience to those who
receive the pay and to their landlords; but if
the landlords are not disposed to wait day
or two the officials can find others who will
Money that is sure to come will be waited
for by most men in ordinary transactions,
and it may not be the greatest of evils to
teach tho city's servants that the city does
not exist merely for their convenience.
But point that is of the greatest posi-
whether pitiful notifications like this in
the inner details of city administration are
what were intended by the Mayor and his
party in all their great projects and PROPOSE
tions for reform in the city government.
If this point is q mere garnish, mere bit
of picturesque watercress put on to decorate
dish in reform, it is not worth objection
but if this sort of stuff is to make up the
meal the people ought to know it. And as
the Mayor has been in Office month, and
has touched only points Of detail like
this, it is fair topic for wonder
whether these are the only things he
finds stomach to assail. It may be thought
that a month is a very little while, and so it
appears to be, for the preparation of reform
in the Mayors Office. In Europe they can
upset and reconstruct an empire in that pc
riod, and not half try but here, whether
because the atmosphere of the Dutch
dynasty has never been gotten out of the
Mayors Office, or for what reason we know
not, it takes at least three months to
change the labels on n set of pigeon holes.
For years before he went into Office Mr..
Cooper had the subject of the municipal
administration before him, and he had the
time between election and induction for
special preparation and should have been
ready to take hold vigorously on the day he
went in, and what has he done?
Here is the most scandalous and shameful
fact ever seen even in the administration of
our own city-the present condition of
the streets; and that is a fagrant evil
before the eyes of everybody, one that does
not need to be hunted out in the dim re-
cesses of official machinery, one that can
be seen and heard from everywhere, one
that can be waded in when the day is mild.
How tremendously His Honor has left it
alone! Not whisper, not lifting of the
little finger, not q sign that the Mayor
knows that the streets in great part of the
boy haon foucbo1 WITH