The age-herald., 1900-12-09

Tbomas G. Hayes, Mayor of Baltimore contributes an interesting article to the Saturday Evening Post of New HorK on the subject of Business Sense in Clty Management" The question Of economy and efficiency in municipal government are more and more attracting the thoughtfui attention of good citizens, and for this reason MT Hayes article is certainly to be widely read. It will as certainly provoke a great deal of discussion. It deals with the practical problems of municipal gov ernment in a frank, straightforward man. ner. No space is wasted in theorizing. Mayor Hayes explains in detail how he has been enabled, under the new charter of the city of Baltimore, to save for the tax payers of that city the sum of 771,5O2.59 in a period of ten months. The fact that he has accomplished a feat in municipal gov ernment so extraordinary is in itself a matter of unusual interest. No person who is interested in better city government can fail to be interested in the ways and means by which Mayor Hayes effected so remark able saving in the municipal expenditures of Baltimore.
 MT. Hayes explains that he consented to accept the office of Mayor with much re- luctance, as it meant to him a considerable financial sacrifice. But his pride in the new charter was so great, and his faith in its efficiency to accomplish needed reforms was so strong, that he consented to accept. 'I am a thorough party man," he says, "and rather set in my partisanship; but, so far as conducting the business of @ city is concerned, l am simple business man, using the best business methods to return to the taxpayers the largest value for their money. To put 1t another way, ' he adds, you cannot keep your oath of office and also listen to politicians whose ia to TlluDder the npOOlap
 Mayor Hayes explains at some length the methods which he adopted for reduc- ing the expenditures of the city without in the least curtsiltng ths ssEvteas RsDHerea or impairing the efficiency of the various departments. He says:
 ''I selected the best men I could find, ir- respective of factions, and when they were appointed we had meeting and told them frankly and earnestly that under my ad- ministration there should not only be no commissions or rake-offs, or anything of that kind in the matter of purchases by the city, but that If I found out that any such thing had been attempted l would bring the whole legal machinery of the city in force to land the guilty party in the penitentiary. There was no special threat or play in this, but I simply wanted the men of my administration to know that the promises made were to be carried out, and that we were trying to give to this coun- try an example of what might be done by honesty and earnestness in administering the affairs of a municipality. The new charter gave us the machinery, and with <he right men to handle it we began the work The previous administration had submitted to the City Council the ordl- nance of estimates for the fiscal year 1900 A honded indebtedness of $Ss, ,79S, ,9S2. .95, con- suming annually an interest charge of $l,- 5OO.OOO rested upon the city, and the tax rate had reached $t.9S on the hundred. de- termined at once to see if l could not do something to reduce these burdens. Tn. estimates and the consequence was that with the cooperation of majority of the City Council we were enabled to save in this one matter s29O 5.61, and this included ss6,676 in salaries. I want to make 1t per fectly clear that there has been aosoiutely no effort to force a record for economy at the expense of the public service, and this may be illustrated by the salary reductions probably better than anything else. Take'