New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-12-01
4 NOTABLE PRESENTMENT.


One of the most useful functions of the Grand
Jury is revealed in the presentment made on
Friday respecting the dangers of electric wires,
the habitual disruption of street surfaces and
the Board Of Electrical Control. This doc
ument reveals nothing which had not been
affirmed before and it is not more precise and
ntrnsically fOlCible than many previous UNI
official utterances on the same subjects; but
this fact, instead of imparing, enhances its
value. II is an authoritative confirmation of
popular belief, and by embodying public senti-
ment in legal form refutes the disingenuouS eX-
cuse of those upon whom it places the response
bity for numerous evils, that they were under
no obligation to listen to ignorant and idle
clamOr. A body clothed with ample powers to
ascertain impol tant facts affecting the public
welfare and TO declare them deliberately and
dispaSsionatey is of great use to the com
munity. Grand Juries have generally deserved
the confidence and the gratitude Of the people
Of this city. 1t is very seldom that their action
tustifieS the slightest suspicion of prejudice.
Their judgments are usually sound and weighty,
and above all, they are listened to-
| The declarations of the recent presentment
| in regard to the outrageous abuses which cor
polations maintaining underground structures
are legally permitted to infct upon the city
ought to be adopted as the basis of LEGISLATION
at the coming Session. A community less ac-
cuStomed to be made uncomfortable and rdic-
ulouS would find the perpetual npping-up of its
pavements absolutely intolerable The nrac-
tice has been endured by the citizens Of New
York hitherto with astonishing equanimity.
partly because there has not been until recently
any general comprehension Of what good pave
ments are. PROFESSIONALLY, as the Grand Jury
say these operations ought to be conducted by
the Department of Public Works, and under
such guarantees as to make the honest restOra-
ton of street surfaces certainty. So long as
the present selfish, parsimonious spshod, con-
sciencelesS methods are legally possible decent
pavements will be, to put it very mildly, rare
exception in New-York.
There is some satisfaction in the assurance
of the Grand Jury that the opposition of the
electrical companies to burying their wires has
practically ceased, and there would be more il
there were any evidence to show that the Sub
way COmmissi oners, and the contractors acting
under their authority, had proper conception
OF their obligations The relations of these
factors TO each other and to the work in hand
are not thoroughly understood but there is a
general conviction that they are not what they
ought to be, and for the very good reason that
the results of their labors and manoeuvres arc
meagie and unsatisfactory. Looking to the
future Mayor Hewitt was right and the Grand
Jury ale right, in saying that the city ought tc
become the owner of its own subways, and that
their management and control ought to be vest
ed in the Department Of Public Works. II
would be absurd if the city should permanently
bestow privileges and profits in hands which
have proved themselves so expert in shifting
the responsibility for long delays and genera
incompetence.
The Grand Jury are. unfortunately, unable