New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-02
. RELATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

pa<ar-inp to the excellent demonstration IN
our Albany dispatches last week OF the inter
horough cOmpany's responsibility TOT anu ueeP
interest in the notorious series OF street
bills before the legislature, we salu lhdI Il 'no
men who were so eager TO have those ne"euAeS
passed had frankly acknowledged ther paIei-
nity at an early date, and as frankly urged lhelI
enactment, they would have put themselves III
perfectly reputable position. ana perhaps nave
gained the popular support they neeueu' AHeIe
appeared in The Tribune and other papers yes
terdav morning over the names Of Mr.. August
Belmont president of the Interborough Rapid
Transit Company. and Mr.. Arthur Turnbull
president of the New-York and Long Island h2ll-
road Company an advertisement othclally an
nouncing the paternal relation of those corpora
items to the so-called grab bills under CONSIDER
alton and inviting the public TO believe that It's
interests also would be greatly promoted by
their adoption. 1t will have to be admitted we
think, that this concession to proprety-thls ac-
acknowledgement that the people in whose name
laws are passed and executed have a right to
know their source and purpose-is seriously be-
lated. 1t would have produced a better impress
sion if not stronger effect, If It had been made
at the outset instead of just at the end of the
session and seemingly under the compulsion OF
untoward circumstances. Nevertheless, it is
better late than never.
This confession Of responsibility and plea for
favor suggest several questions which we hope
that Mr.. Belmont, having at last taken the pub
lie partly into his confidence will instruct his
agents at Albany or elsewhere to answer. He
and Mr.. TurnbIll speak OF provision in soma
ordinance securing to the city "a percentage of
1.-The gross receipts in compensation for the fran
"chiSe." It would be interesting to know what
percentage the city is to get when the old Stein
WY tunnel rights have been made enormously
valuable TO the possessor, and whether it will
be coIlectible without resistance or reduction.
The advertisement mentions the circumstance
that one Of the pending bills would authorize
the abandonment Of an "unconstructed route"
The public would ike to hear more about that
Another BILL" we are informed authorizes
amendments to cure technical omissions and
defects" That statement must be regarded as
rather too casual and modest. The word tech
meal" has at times highly untechnical signif-
canoe. We have known it to cover a multitude
of statutory sins. In this instance It is desirable
TO ascertain just what Omissions and defects
the bill referred to cures. A franchise that was
not merely allng, but absolutely dead, has Occa-
sionally been cured by a very unpretentiouS
remedy ekilfuIiy administered Then too theirs
Is the question OF perpetuity, an outworn abuse
repugnant to the charter and the people
1t appears to us that, while something has
been done to improve the position Of these bills
IN moral sense, they still require a large
amount of explanation and defence, which we
hope will be forthcoming before they are per-
mitted to get a single step nearer to enactment.