New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-13
STANDING FROM UNDER.

The illustrious Mr. Whaen. Counsel to the
Corporation, has changed his mind on the sub
feet Of municipal Indebtedness to the extent or
about S2000O000 Furthermore, it Is under
stood that several powerful intellects are now
at work with the expectation OF being able 70
announce in the near future that they have put
about s4OOOO0O more where 1t will do the least
harm, and that the former city OF New-York
had not exceeded its constitutional limit on the
day when II ceased TO do business as separate
municipal entity. II will be remembered that
several weeks ago the Corporation Counsel de-
livered an official opinion In his most authorlta-
tive manner from the text that debt Is debt,
and that our confding Controller employed 1t ex
tenslvely IN his subsequent demonstration that
the consolidated city had violated the constitu-
ton 10 the amount OF S50,OO0,OO0. Almost I'm
medlatcly thereafter. Mr.. Croker having sailed
for Europe and taken the courage OF his convic-
lions with him. the administration began to get
ratified and II has been painfully endeavoring to
find ont ever since when debt is not a debt. IT
Is only Just to the Controller to say that he was
spryer than his colleagues. and now has the
personal satisfaction of seeing the Corporation
Counsel come in bad second.
Not being in the confidence OF the municipal
administration we cannot describe In detail lis
progress toward a less perilous position than
that which 1t so jauntily occupied few weeks
ago But our supposltion IS that somebody who
knows a thing or two, and who has to be heard
when he chooses to speak, caught the Corpora
ton Counsel alone, and then In the secusion
which private Office grants said to him: LOOK
"here, Whalen, you have made just about the
"stupidest mistake In the history Of Tammany
politics. You haven't legal leg to stand on In
this debt-limit business. Fitch, who has forgot
ten more about municipal finance than you are
lever likely to learn, although he hasn't forgot
"ten much that was worth remembering, has
'rldded the statement which Coler based largely
ION your assumptions and, in fact, has made
monkeys of both Of you. But that isn't the
most deadly part OF your work. We could
stand legal opinions and financial calculations
(which were merely ridiculous but what do you
suppose we are going to say to contractors who
"have been held up. with about six thousand
"laboring men behind them? The quicker you
ascertain that their contracts are valid and
their men can be paid the better"
That the Corporation Counsel listened, and.
having listened, light, is, in our opinion,
10 put 1t mildly. There Is every reason to be-
lleve he saw confagration. The result was
witnessed yesterday by an anxious community
which Is not unwilling to be diverted by news
unconnected with the war. The man who after
lying twenty years in loathsome dungeon had
q happy thought one morning and, opening the
door. walked out did not reverse his former
status more comically than did Whalen his
when be released twenty millions of liabilities
from the clutches Of the constitution. Remark
able man. Whalen- Likely to shine in the light