New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-03
SIGNS OF DOODLE.

SlUNO VI DOODLE'
This IS certainly patient community. 1t VIII
stand almost anything It seems impossible TO arouse
its indignation to degree sufficiently high and hot to
remedy even the most notorious abuses. Every man
in New-York knows that tho Board OF Aldermen is
composed almost entirely OF bummers and thieves.
Everybody knows that there are not enough honest
men I'm the Board to give its proceedings SO much
as shade of Responsibility. Everybody knows that ~
has degenerated into legalized body OF blacKnaiers
that the great majority of its members cannot SPEAK
a correct sentence to save their lives that their
ignorance is as deep their depravity that several
of them are as Alderman Conking expressed It, simply
drunken ruans" that they the very dregs OF tho
degraded political system which the Democratic party
In New-York has given us, and In brief, everybody
knows that they secure their Office solely for the pur
pose OF Matchmaking people whose business requires
special permits that must BIO held In restraint IN
great city, that every legitimate purpose thoy are In
tended to should be properly transferred to the
departments, and that not even an excuse can DO
given for their continued existence.
All this IS notoriousE true that It cannot be de-
bated yet tho public sits quietly by and permits
these scamps go levying blackmail on everybody
who has anything to ask OF the Board whether he be
railroad president or street pedler, whether what no
wants IS public nuisance, public injury or public
benefit In all sincerity I do not believe that such
a consdera ion as the public advantage or disadvantage
ever suggests itself to the minds of more than half
dozen now sitting In that Board! Tho only thing
they think of Is how much they can make out OF a
given resolution. and so ordinary and generally under
stood is this that It would not be odd II several
OF them really believe themselves entitled to take the
brides they steadily demanding.
Why shouldn't they believe IT? The Board has
now no powers of municipal legislation which mako
seat in IL matter Of honorable ambition. The only
reason why there any honest men there at all
Is because there arc few districts in this city from
which rogues cannot BIO elected The Board has power
only to grant few permits for sewer privileges for
fruit stands and the like, and to give and withhold its
consent to railroad and ferry franchises Its penal
ordinances of no account. Scarcely pretence
Is made Of enforcing them. That duty is imposed upon
the Corporation Attorney but because of our cunber
and expensive legal machinery he could no
more punish all the offenders against city ordinances
than he could skate up the Gulf Stream. The bark
OF French poodle, chained with an inch-thick CABLE
is just as effective ordinance of tho Board Of
Aldermen. Its solitary function IS the dispensation
Of these few privileges and 1t very naturally at
tracts only low, vulgar fellows who "on the
make"
These reflections are brought out a result Of
my attendance upon a meeting of the Board last
Tuesday. The question was on a resolution Of the
Railroad Committee permitting the New-York and
Harlem Railroad Company, which is the Fourthave.
horses 1t goes without saying of course, that this
movement of the company Is in the line of Inevitable
progress that 1t ought to DO encouraged, and that
the questions Of availability and safety being indis
putably settled, the cOmpany's willingness to spend
81 900 in order TO test the electric system is to be
commended. Well, the Railroad Committee, into
which President Forster for the sake of his reputa
ton, put majority Of decent men, reported, and
then the strikers got to work. They consulted ex-
adod IN NTH cto
came to the Board meeting saturated with science.
Ignorant as mud they yet undertook to declare that
electricity a motor a failure, and they voted
the resolution down. This, Of course, was nothing
more less than a request for the company TO
" come and them" They knew that the company
would not abandon ifs carefully prepared plans,
and they expected It TO ask them their price. But
they found that they not dealing with another
Jacob sharp The company appealed to public
opinion 1t plainly declared that it had plenty Of
money for legitimate enterprise but not penny where
with to buy Aldermen, and they found themselves
under the penetrating eyes of the press.
This the situation when the meeting of Tuesday
was held. proposition made to reconsider the
vote by which the resolution had been defeated Only
four OF them had enough daredevil spirit to vote
against The motion. Then other tactics were resorted
to. motion made to permit the company TO
electric traction II It would reduce the fares to
three cents, proposition both silly and Illegal
That was defeated and finally after long-I suppose
l must call It-dcbae, the whole question was post,
poned.
1t is great pity that the voters ofNew York could
not have listened TO that debaten / really believe
that 1t would have aroused them to action and that
they would have abolished the Board of Aldermen
before the next Legislature ten days old. Idotlc
Is name for IT, IL does not describe II TO say that
primary school children would have conducted 1t
higher level The verbatim remarks of Aldermen
Benjamin, Bowling AID Won Mnden would reveal
such barbarous English 10 be painfully ludicrous
l could not possibly repeat them from memory and
do justice TO their grotesqueneSs. They were agin
do compny.n "What I'D happen" cried Downing
:" If collisions was 10 Gomez Do you know wot's
under the seats Of electric carr Sulphuric acid /
Suppose the bottles busted. DO sulphuric acid I'D
burn Off dc skin of de people an dis Boari ud be |
held responsible" And that was the reason he voted
against the resolution.
The Board Of Aldermen should be abolished. The |
bill passed but vetoed two years ago, by which the
were to be elected general ticket would
not, II It became law, be a remedy. That scheme
would simply give the Democratic bosses moro power
than they have now for II would completely dlsran-
chise the Republican minority and make the return |
of sodly Democratic Board inevitable. II is false
in theory too for II Aldermen desirable at all,
sach district should have the right to choose It's own
representative. But the fact is that the Board IS
only and entirely unmgated nuisance II 1t did |
is duty honestly, II would stn be clumsy machine |
It's functions should BIO transferred to the Departments
md the very Legislature should DO called upon
70 amend the charter TO that effect
ILL.,
INVESTIGATING MR.. JASPER.