The evening world., 1894-08-25
CANNOT SAVE NEPHEW joint
Uncle Matthew Breen Fails to
Keep His Relative in Office
Attempt Made to Distort the Now
Law Generating Aliens. .. .

When is an axeman not an sxeman
He Is not an axeman II the law stands
In the way and you have AN uncle with
a political pull That is the way thai
eminent legal authority Matthew p.
Breen. counsel to the Department OF
Street 1mprovem at $500 year,
answers the question.
If MIR. Breen had the making of the
laws. chapter 622 Of the Laws Of 1889.
would probably not be on the statute
books now. Chapter 622 provides that
no allen laborer, mechanic or working
man shall be employed on public works
OF any kind. Mr.. Breen had imported
a nephew Of his from Ireland who comes
under the ban of this law. But II Mr..
Breen can't make laws, he can construe
Nephew John ]. Breen was luckier
than most immigrants who land here.
Uncle Matt took care OF him at once and
provided him with job as axeman at
Works. When Uncle Matt learned that
John was marked for dismissal, in &C.
co.. with the provisions of chapter
equally learned authority on law had
ton between friendsPs WI Why III then fo Should
Mr. Breen ruin his peace of mind over
VI u.
Breen sat down and thought with himself,
but for a momnt only. In that instant
he declared that the law might be all
Sh no an refer s to hl Ne5 sSst Of thing but
That idea was admirably carried out
by Mr.. Breen, as will be seen by the
documents on file in the Department OF
friend Daily, the Commissioner of Public
Works. who is paid 5000 to know
whether an axeman is a laborer, but
Mr.. DAILY suddenly had his doubts and
50 ne wrote to Corporation Counsel
Clark for a decision. In his letter to
Mr. Clark he said 1T is claimed the
Of the classification Of a mechanic"
Accompanying this document were
seven letters from as many experts
expressing the opinion that an axeman
one of the letters:
speaking. no manual labor. and cannot be called
T Do or ,coI S rhs name OF ,,sm,n
His duties are, to a great extent, technical. 1t
e the lowest grad. in tn. engineering force. and
10, AZ II were, preparatory school for promotion
to the higher grades OF the profession
LOUIS A. RISE
Mr.. Risse is the Engineer OF the De-
OF Were RYen by eh
Public Works; S. e Thompson. H.
farnum ana r. Gutenberg, VINO are de-
scribed as heads of bureaus: Louis Half
fen. Commissioner of the Department Of
Street improvements, and NJ. A. KEEL
logg. Engineer of the Park Department
This note, in Mr.. Breens handwriting
and signed by him. accompanied the
foregoing: =. a.
1.-The, inelosed expressions Of opinion
were obtained by me without my having
disclosed the particular case In point
or without In any way attempting to
shape the judgments Of these gentle
men. The question was put to them in
a perfectly fair way, that the answers
given may, be relied upon as their best
Mr.. Breen, when he wrote that letter,
probably did not think that 1t would ap-
pear odd that all this expert testimony
which was obtained without having dis
closed the case in. point" was written
on letter heads of the Department Of
Street improvements, and on the same
typewriter. and that all the letters bore
the impress of the same master mind.
The language varied little. The other
letters are merely a pharaphrase of that
signed by Mr.. Rise. and In some In
stances the language Is Identical.
But Mr.. Breen had all his trouble for
nothing. The assistant to whom the
matter was referred by the Corporation
Counsel decided that an axeman was
just what his name implied in law and
In fact. and that chapter 622 could not
be circumvented by subterfuges.