New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-08-04
MAYOR GRANTS PROMISES AND (Eh-

| oa;co under more favorable conditions than
those that attended the induction of Hugh j.
Grant. lie had made cledlable record as
| Alderman so far as his record was then KNOWN
| IIo had been the chief administrative officer
of the county, and was generally believed 10
! have performed shiS duties honestly ana we'll
| lie had been elected to the Mayoralty By an
overwhelming majority. and with the adNan-
taae of youth aud what were considered an
honorable enthusiasm, high purpose and
worthy ambition be set out in his career as
Mayor strongly intIenchcd in public esteem
and public confidence His first message was
an admirable document. In the lucidity with
which it described municipal problems. in the
| vIror and good sense of its suggestions as To
methods of solving them. it had rarely been
exceled by any similar paper 1t dd great
| deal to reinforce the good opinions Mayor
| Grant bad already gained and to quiet the
fears of ,.7ose who found il difficult to believe
| that virtue could exist in a 1ammany politician
| Farcr promises were never made thah thc>V
that came from this spruce young man. lie
was going II give Ncw-lork rapid transit at
once. IL was to be cheap, permanent, Snll-
Gent transit. II was to make an end of all the
| difficulties with which Ncw-lorll is NeXcd IN
| It's effort TO get uptown and down. Ihe az
| mnistration of the Dock Department was I" he
radically reformed. The evils Of the leaNin"
system were to be summary ended. shipping
| was TO be classified, the Waterfront acquire"
in the city'S name, and Ncw-lOrk ; pHm%cy
as the greatest commercial port III the New
| World forever assured We were 10 have
| whole lot of good pavcmcnt~. too. Inc us
| graceful condition of the cityS thor"nchiaTc>
was 70 become a Renaissance. and with ncNY
| and regularly paved streets, the work OF keep
| ing them clean was to be performed efficiently.
The telegraph wires were all to 20 into the
conduits, and the tcaring-up of the pavcmcut>
was to he pcremptoriiy stopped New munic-
lpa buildings large enough to accommodate the
administrative officers and the criminal courts
were to be erected upon some convenient and
suitable site, and thus the most serious and
urgent obstacles to good government were 20
be swept away.
These were Mayor Grants promises ana
they delighted the city. The performance OF
them did not seem very difficult to practical
men. They only required integrity and rcSo-
| luton. The Mayors power was almost SUI
premc Tammany already held almost every
city department. and those ii did not possess
| on January l, 1888 were soon to fall INTO liN
| hands through long list of appointments
which Mr.. Grant w0nld soon have tho right 10
| make There seemed 10 be no particular rca-
son why he need fail to make his assurances
GOOD Many people indeed looked at the
| Mayors face and said it was weak. Many de-
| carcd that he didn't write his messages. that
he couldn't construct the simplest of sentences
dramatically, and had been known 10 spell
| the name of his great Office with the letters
Mare. But these were thought to be ma
liciouS wretches. Smaltns with political envy
| The public generally was delighted with the
prospect held ont to il, and was cordially dis
posed TO give the Mayor every fair chance 10
convert prospect into reality.
| Three iourths of his term have now gone.
and what of his performance? Where Is the
rapid transit? Where are the dock reforms
Where are the now pavcmcntS? Where are
the clean streets? Where arc the buried
wires? Where are the new public buildings?
Where is anything that was promised, and the
promised things all wanting, what have we in
their stead? Was there ever a more dismal
failure or a more ludicrous SELL than the
failure of this picayune politician and the SELF
of this buncoed town! The clever young man
|
tons of 1,50O. 900 supposedly intelligent pco-
| Die turns out to be coarse and ignorant po-
Iitical happy of the regular Tammany type. In
the sworn testimony taken before Legislative
committee he is exposed as an enormous con
tributor to % DOODLE fund raised in his in
tercst to secure an Office by the wholesale cor
ruptlon Of that very Aldermanic Board OF which
he was such virtuous member. BY the
fI,,,t.- i,,t,.
he is proved 10 have paid at least 81 o, 900 II
the Tammany Boss under circumstances which
no sane person can admit to be honest or de
cent. A cloud of witnesses have proved that
in his Shrievalty administration his bank ac-
connt was increased many thousands Of dollars
, by extortiouate practices which have since been
defined in the law as crime.
Devoid of good as his MayoIalty career has
. been. empty OF any of his promised advantages
, 2 has not failed TO serve the purposes OF the
INSCRIPTIONS politicians who put HIM IN Office
Tammany has extended its clutches in all d.
, rections.. The principal boss obtained the prin-
cipal salary The second boss secured the
Office which has the largest amount of patron
age The Excise Department has been de-
{ graded into vler slavery to the liquor deal
: ers than it has ever known before in all is
wretched history. The Police Department
, which even John Kelly did not care 10 convert
, into Tammany society. has been handed com
: pletey over to the service of the bosses. The
Street Cleaning Bureau is in the hands of Z
mere politician, who has largely increased it,
force and its inefiiciency also. From begin
C ming to end the municipal government has
n miserably deteriorated. Not one good thing
= can be placed to the credit of Mayor Grant
: while the record on the other side of the bal
ance-sheet is long and black. The World,
= Fair was lost TO NewYork by his effort Il
. make it Tammany attachment. The only
= thing he attempted TO do toward rapid transit
|, | vnS u sncllrn for uammanN Ilnn the licl