New-York tribune., 1900-06-10
DIR INNOCENT MAYOR.

! Forced into the corner. Mayor Van Wyck ad-
mits that he owns Ice Trust stock and large
! amount Of il. But for man who was so smart
! about knowing good thing" he displays the
most astonishing ignorance of the trust. Stock
| gamblers doubtless often buy or bet on listed
stocks of established corporations without
! knowing the details of the business they repre-
sent but to believe that an intelligent man like
the Mayor put S250,O00 Of cash and notes into
| a new concern just being organized without
/ even knowing where it was to operate taxes
crcdulity.
! Yet the innocent Mayor tells that he did
not know the company was TO carry on business
! in New-York. He understood it was to operate
| in Baltimore, Washington and the South. But
nobody else was so unsuspecting. The Mayor 5
! first stock acquired we believe, on April
! 20 1899. with an innocence childlike and bland
! of all intention the part of his friend, Mr..
Morse TO invade the metropolis. Yet on March
l. the newspapers announced the incorporation
| in New-Jersey of the American Ice Company
and discussed the public rumor that 1t was to
absorb the I<nickerbocker and Consolidated
companies and enter the local field, it did in
due time 1t is perfectly evident that such an
arrangement the plan from the start The
Mayor himself says he was very close to Mr.
Morse. yet he asks people to believe that he
never suspected what Mr. Morse intended to
do. what he did do. and what 1t publicly
talked he would DO long before the Mayor made
! his blind plunge of S25o,O00. Doubtless the
Police Commissioners permit pretty stiff gam
bling in this town but don't believe the
Mayor CANDLES in the dark to that extent.
The published transcript of the American Ice
Company's stock book shows that the Mayor
acquired blocks Of stock on June Ii and again
- 49,
chronicled the acquisition by the American Ice
Company of the Consolidated and Knicker-
booker companies and announced that the Amer
,can company would operate in this city. Yet
the Mayor never suspected He was doubtless
too busy looking after the affairs Of the city,
and had no time to think Of that little $3.50 900
flyer. Perhaps he was seeing that his subord-
mates did their duty. looking after the Dock De-
partment, for instance. He is a businesslike
Mayor. who attends strictly to his duties, to be
sure. Nevertheless, though it was q matter Of
record in the report Of the Dock Board that the
Mayors company leased docks from the city, he
never knew it. He never read the report of one
Of the chief departments OF the city for the con-
duct of which he Is responsible. He hasn't
time. he says, to read all the volumes that are
submitted to him. Wonderful luck not likely
TO happen more than once in a hundred years
that Mayor so devoted to business and poking
up of his subordinates with a sharp stick should
just by chance have failed TO learn anything
about the docks when the slightest attention to
the subject would have given him the knowl
edge which 1t is now his refuge not to possess
By the way, 1t is curious how some men can
go through life untouched by facts about them.
The Mayor used to give evidence of sensitive
knowledge of complaints against Tammany and
II might be thought that complaints about Tam
many favoritism Of certain ice companies were
frequent enough under Grant and Gilroy and
under himself for him at least 10 have learned
that the great ice companies leased piers from
the city. But no. He never knew It, or If he
heard OF 1t, thought 1t was some reformer's
libel, and with clear conscience bought ice COM
pany stock. He probably supposed that the ice
was brought here by balloon And for the
city's purchasing ice with his knowledge from
his company, perish the thought. He knew
there was no need His own cold cheek could
furnish all the refrigeration the city officially
required.