The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-05-24

After the showing up which he re-
ceived at the hands of the Street and
Water Board committees, yesterday,
Mayor Wanser is in a pitiful plight.
He is worse off than a man who has
been caught scheming; he is worse off
than a man who stands convicted of
grave mistakes. He is simply ridi-
culous. Nothing more and nothing
less.
The complaints made by the Mayor
regarding the Street and Water Board
affairs divide themselves naturally
into two classes, those which were
Matched and cooked in his own office,
and those which were inspired from the
outside by partisan politicians, disap-
pointed contractors and discharged
employees. The former class are ridi-
culous in themselves; the latter make
the Mayor ridiculous through the
open mouthed simplicity with which
he swallowed them as gospel truths.
There is that little business about
the dollar and a half worth of outlets
for the st. Paul's avenue sewer.
Could anything be more supremacy
absurd as a product of the reform
travail of an apostle of municipal
economy. Take the affair at it's full
par value and it is a trifie, and even
then His Honor was all wrong about
it. s9s
Pagturiatnt monies, asascet1r ridicu-
htS mus.
But there is n thing more ridi-
culous, or rather it would be if it were
not, for the element of cruelty in it.
Mayor Wanser's veto of the Laborers'
Payroll, printed in THE NEWS on
Saturday, is, taken all in all, the most
objectionable political document we
have ever seen. In the other cases,
there was some claim of an absolute
wrong done, even if it was only 81. so.
Here, there is none. 1t is admitted
that the work was necessary; it was
regularly ordered; it was done and
sufficiently well done. These men did
it. The rate of compensation. is not
too large. The amount of pay cal
culated for each is just and fair. But
Mayor Wanser will not allow it to be
paid.
Why9
Because there was a technical in
formality, according to his Judgment,
in the method of appointing the men.
This is reform with a vengeance.
The very able and humorous report
of the committee, which we print in
another column, shows by the analogy
of the scrub women the preposterous-
ness of Mayor Wanser's technicality.
But supposing it were not ridiculous,
would it not be cruel in view of all
the circumstances of the case? So
long as the claims were just, would
not a man who was only striving for
reform have passed them, merely
drawing attention to the informality,
and enjoining the Board to prevent
its repetition? Would not that have
answered every good purpose2
But 1t would not have had as good
a political effect. The item tele-
graphed through the State that Mayor
Wanser had desired the Street and
Water Board to avoid a certain infor-
mality in the appointment of their day
laborers, would sound tame and flat.
1t would do no good to a g~ubernator-
ial boom. But the announcement
that the great Champion CT the Peo-
pie had vetoed another payroll-cause
not stated, but supposed to be hideous
Democratic extravagance-makes the
Republican voter groan in sympa-
thetic agony and cry for nor Wanser
to Tickle his palate with an unending
series of political sensations.
For shame, Colonel, we really
thought better of you than this. We
did not think you would get down in
three weeks to the level of worrying
scrub women and day laborers to
manufacture political capital.
AS for the Mayors main effort, the
attack on the construction of School