The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-27
Oh, HOW IT FLOWS!
Further Particulars Of the
Supposed Water Depart
ment Leak.
DETAILS OF THREE PAYROILs.
Extravaganza of the .Big Four "
Last April, and Economy Of the
RefOrmers in October.

The totals of the Water Department pay
rolls for the closing months Of 1888 when
the Big Four were in possession Of the
Board OF Works, were compared in THE
JERSEY CITY NEWS of Saturday last with
the Water Department pay rolls for the
closing months of 1889. when the present
Street and Water Board was at the helm.
These tobals showed that the cost of rum
ming the Water Department for the
months mentioned was as follows
1885, fess
October. ..-....-.-....-..1 ,ss1 q 1856 q
November. rs, ,694 30 1884 10
December. ,908 93 13.e20 "a
The grand total of expenditure for the
three months of 1888 was therefore $780,
594.65; that for the three months Of 1889
was S47, ,070.88. The difference against the
economic new government, and in favor
of the Big Four Combine. noted for.their
reckless squandering of the public funds
is SIC, ,476.2S. IT the same increase OF COST
that marked these three months should
prevail during the other nine months OF
the first year Of the new Boards adminis-
tration, the Water Department. will cost
the taxpayers over 10000 more than
during the last year of the Big Four's
miSmdnagement.
But this is only one Of the departments
OF the new government, and the one In
which, from the fixed nature of the
duties to be performed, the opportunity
for extra outlay is the least favorable.
An increase of SAC, 600 per year in its con-
duct might be construed by unfayor&bla
critics to mean an enormous increase
of expenditure in the conduct of all the
branches of the municipal government.
MARCH AND OCTOBER 1882
The most surprising and interesting
comparison that has been made Of the
accounts, however, is that between the
Big -Four water pay rolls ts, tS;. n ereh and
April, 1S89-when they filed the depart
ment, as much as they dared, with
heelers to help them in their anti-charter
Boards pay roll for October, 1882 The
total for March. 1889, Us noted in Satur-
days JERSEY CITY NEWS, was 1914 1Sy
and for April, SIS, 1884 while th@ Octo-
ber expenditures reached an aggregate Of
S19, ,316.24 This was 81 400 more than the
Big Four had lavished upon the Adepart-
ment in March and s., 700 more thu they
had lavished upon it in April.
The election was held in N0yeMQp5f,
and the size of the October account fnay
be PARTLY due to that circumstances: put
then it was scarcely a part of the schf 2ne
of the new economic reform governuae2J ~
to turn any of its departments into polffks
cal machines. The theory of the reforf1
is that all departments are to be run only
for the proper discharge of public func-
tions, and the providing of places for men
of influence to win their support for con-
didates for Freeholders. and Assembly,
men can hardly be described as a public
function within the lines of the municipal
reform idea. Il is among the possibilities
that pile of work had been allowed to
accumulate, and that public purposes
were answered by having 1t all done by
busy hands in October. That would
have left less work to do in November
and December, and the misfortune Of
the plea is that the pay roll
for neither November nor December falls
below the average expenditure.
PAY ROLLS FOR COMPARISON.
1t would be tedious TO describe the
features of difference between these
three pay rolls; but the items are
of undoubted interest, and, SO that the
readers of THE JERSEY CITY NEWS can
make their own comparisons, the threa
pay rolls are produced. They are as fol-
4 -.