New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-10-24

ON Thursday night Mr.. Bourke Cochran dis
played his professional capacity for assimilating
Of short notice a vast mass of INSTRUMENTATION
and pouring it out for the benefit of n profitable
client with as much rhetorical feryor as III ne
believed il to be true. That is not an UNJUST
characterization of Mr.. Cockran's latest addition
70 an cratic series of political efforts. On the
contrary il is fair. and even generous. to man
who is capable of saying that the present ad-
ministIatlo is the worst since Tweed's time.
OF course Mr.. Cochran has never held or even
entertained such an opinion But he was not
asha med. for the sake of pleasing a Tammany
audience and exciting the applause which is the
very breath of an orators nostrils, TO take the
responsibility of making that fantastic asSer-
ton. He inevitably received the momentary
reward for which he made his bid 10 the sup
porters OF the organization by which he has
been alternately idolized and loathed, but we
like 10 think that he must have felt hearty
contempt for himself even before he went TO
bed.
As for the detailed misstatemeHts of fact on
which Mr.. Cochran based his appeal for Tam
many. it is fortunately not necessary TO as
sumo that they were deliberately dishonest. 1t
is sufficient to say that they revealed colossal
ignorance. In denOuncing the present wise and
prudent policy in respect TO the sinking fund.-
he apparently took his cue from the campaign
textbook which TammaDy recalled in haste after
Mr.. Grout's nomination, in order that 1t might
give Mr.. Grout the credit for a measure which
Deputy Controller Stevenson originated, and
which has been indorsed as absolutely safe and
sound by an almost unexampled array of disin-
terested experts. Mr. Cochran has either made
no attempt to understand that matter, in which
case il was highly discreditable to him TO ex-
press positive opinion upon it, or else has been
unable 10 master 4 question which is clear to
financiers
One OF the two features OF Mr. Cockran's
speech on which he spent the most time and
laid the most stress was the proposition that
under this administration taxation has been
lowered for the rich and made heavier among
the people of the tenements An advocate Of a
bad cause has seldom shown more audacious
impotence in trying TO prove his case. His
so-called proofs, cited with ponderous sOlemnity,
are ludicrous. He was thrown out Of court in
advance by his candidate. the Controller in an
official compilatio published only couple OF
months ago. Mr.. Cochran simply did not know
what he was talking about Under the modern
educational system a schooboy who had
crammed for an examination to so little purpose
would not be iogged, but he would certainly he
sent back to a lower class. An example of the
whole is seen in Mr.. COckran's specification Of
the Kuhn-L Loeb building. Having snatched at a
fictitious valuation OF the LOT, he proceeded with
childish faulty 10 denounce the low valuation
Of the building in blissful ignorance Of the fact
that the building had not been put up when the
present assessment on the property was made.
Laughable. isn't it. to nearly everybody? But
how humilating TO a profound thinker and
great orator who is looking for campaign en-
gagements,
With a warmth Of defamation perhaps psyche
logically generated by the topic, Mr.. Cochran
went on TO inform his hearers that fire insur-
ance rates have gone Up I'm NewYorz within
the hast two years 'by leaps and bounds" Per
haps he was fooled by some old table with the
date gone, but however that may be, the insur-
ance men who know the facts that he was guess
ing at have promptly consigned his statement
10 the rubbish heap with an explicit and abso-
lutte contra diction. Rates have gone down, not
mp, owing TO conditions largely produced by the
present administration.
Mr Cochran lavished on bis audience last
Thursday evening a vast Volume Of sound and
a considerable amount Of characteristic fury
But the fabric Of his speech full OF blow
holes. If the pecuniary arrangement had been
the reverse Of what it Is supposed TO have BEEN
and Mr.. Cochran had contributed a thousand
dollars to the campaign fund for the privilege
many would have been numerically underpaid