New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-02
ANOTHER HOLD-UP.

Tho oIdermanic hoId-up Of the Newly ork Con-
- Toi1road franchise which was brought
70 hubble knowledge in yesterday Irlouht -
only one more illustration Of the way puuiic
welfare is subordinated to private interest ~
Tamnany government For more IMAM SIN
months this great Improvement OF capl'al III"
,or+anca for the development of Long Island
has heen blocked by the familiar tactics of al
dermen who seek to make illegitimate use Oh
tho authority which the charter gives them
This DELAY is not due to opposition Or compe-
+ition for the franchise. Ii the project IS one
whose merit is doubtful, let it be debated. II
aldermen wanted more light on the suD1ect, II
would be proper for them to ask It, but that
hos not been the attitude of the Tammany bosses
in that body. They have not debated they nave
not reasoned they have not even opposed. lhey
have simply preserved q stold ana eHpeclahl
inactivity What they are waiting for they do
not-at least publcly-say. Certainly it Is not
information about the plan and knowledge of
public opinion, for they have studiousy re-
Trained for many months from taking up in
committee or general meeting or in any way
considering the franchise application before
them. If the public, unable to see any legiti-
mate purpose in this delay, attributes 1t TO an
appetite for and insistence on some substantial
stimuIant TO legislative activity. the aldermen
have only themselves to blame. for their eX-
traordinary care TO be passively obstructive
lends itself naturally TO that explanation.
The aldermen, in their anxiety TO hold up this
franchise, seem to have forgotten to obey the
law. The statute directs them to act on such
an application within four weeks, and their own
rules automatically discharge a committee from
consideration of franchise before the meeting
when action is finally due according to law In
It's attempt to keep this franchise in its own
power the Committee on Bridges and Tunnels
appears to have Overreached itself and enabled
the whole board to- give immediate considera-
ton to the matter, but we suppose that Sulli
van so dominates the body tnat a majority
would stand for his Illegal procedure. Whether
this hOld-up is for the benefit of the Murphy
Gaffney contracting company, and can be ter
minated by assurances that the Improvement
will be advantageous to the Murphy family, or
some other of the gentlemen who follow the
Croker motto of working for their own pockets
eli the time are the Obstructionists it is evident
that great wrong is being done to the people
of Brooklyn and Queens. This enterprise means
the end of the commercial insularity of those
boroughs the development of a great factory
district the increase in the wealth and popula-
ton Of the whole city. No intelligent voice has
been raised against the plan. 1t is approved
on all sides. and it is now blocked without ex-
cuse by the mere brutal passivity of those whose
legal duty it was to have acted long ago one
way or the other.
This conduct, following the course taken in
dealing with the Pennsylvania tunnel and in other
cases, suggests the possible necessity of taking
from the aldermen altogether this power which
they so persistenty abuse. Perhaps If il were
taken away and vested in the Board of Esti-
mate the men who now disgrace the Board Of
Aldermen would cease TO find the Office attrac-
i've OF profitable and the serious work of legis-
latlon, which the aldermen now so VIGOROUSLY
neglect might be taken up by men Of a higher
character, who would be then allowed ia enter
the body. Experience Of aldermen as a power
over franchises does not in the least tend to
Tree them from their traditional disrepute