New-York tribune., 1884-01-12
WHIT If HE SPOKE OUTP

WHIT IF HE SPOKE OUT?
1t would facilitate the popular cOmprehen-
sion of public affairs if Mayors and other func-
tionaries who write annual messages would
substitute a little plain truth for the polite
fictions and conventional periphrases with
which custom requires them to soften the
asperities of official business. What sensa-
ton it would have been for the taxpayers II
Mayor Edison had told the Aldermen all that he
knows about the condition of the municipal
departments if he had said that the expenses
of the City Government are increasing at a
frightful late without any Ostensible reason;
that the administration of the affairs OF New
York is without parallel in the world Tor
extravaganza and inei1iciency; that some OF the
bureaus are known to be rotten with fraud, ana
that nearly all of them are under suspicion;
that he himself has made scandalOus appoint
ments under political pressure; that we are
marching straight toward chaos and bank
rIlptcy; and that the chief cause OF all the
disorder is that the city is governed not for the
benefit of the citizens but for the purposes of
two or three political "halls "a hall being
nothing but n number of men organized to get
living out of the public treasury. Thus under
q
voters are compelled to trust their affairs to the
class which makes a business OF bctraying
them. The interests of the governed and the
governors are essentially and always mtagonlS-
tic. This condition of things constitutes
despOtism, whatever name we give il.
Mr.. Edison could not have spoken as he did
about the Department of Public Works If the
plain truth had been in fashion. Nobody
knows better than he does that the Department
of Public Works is the principal support OF that
particular body Of strikers known as the County
Democracy that its expenditures are swollen
to the utmost possible limit because the
County Democracy has to be taken care of;
and that Mr. Thompson was appointed Com
missioner not because he had any particular
qualifications for the nominal duties of the
place, but because he was a County Democracy
boss These facts are perfectly well known.
SO it is well known that Mr.. Thompson has
evaded the one thousand dollar contract law in
order to make profitable jobs for men who have
a certain influence and importance on account
of their alliances with the County Democracy
The County Democracy is the key TO all the
operations Of the Department OF Public Works
That great truth is as notorious as anything in
current political history. And yet Mayor Edison
does not hesitate to assume in his Message that
there is serious question whether Mr. Thompson
has done any wrong, or is deserving patriot
prosecuted by the newspapers from motives OF
"malcen "a question which, he thinks, the
pending investigation by the Grand jury is to
settle decsively. If Mr.. Edison were to express
his mind freely, in his private parlor, he would
no doubt talk like any other citizen of pcnetra-
ton and common sense, and admit that the
question before the Grand Jury is not whether
Mr.. Thompson has served the interests of the
city but whether, in serving the interests of the
County Democracy at the expense of the city.
he has succeeded in keeping beyond the reach
of the law. That is the real question; but what
a violation of official precedent it would be to
recognize it,
And if Mr.. Edison would cause a sensation by
telling the truth to the taxpayers, what world
be the effect of an outspOken Message upon the
AldermenY lie would have to remind those
gentlemen that they are in fact only the
delegates of the rival halls" appointed to see
that their respective associations get fair
share of the plunder; that they are the agents
through whom the political clubs defeat all
attempts to govern the city upon honest
business principles that they are at this
moment engaged in a dsgraceful quarrel over
the prospective spoils and are DOstpOning all
other business while they discuss a trade, in
which one side demands the selection of a rum
seller TO control the taxes and expenditures,
and the other requires the reappOintment of
the discredited Commissioner Thompson, even
while he is virtually on trial for malfeasance.
A Message from the Mayor, telling the whole
truth, would make the greatest commOtiOn in
the Board that august body has ever seen. We
should like to have the experiment tried. The
municipal system of New-York is fraud from
top to bottom; and if we could once have the
sham properly treated in public document the
people might get some benefit from the novel
sensation.