New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-17
THE ABEARN REPORT.

AS the Commissioners of Accounts have al
ready made their report TO the Mayor regard
ing their investigation into the Borough Presi-
dents office, the decision OF the Appellate
Division Of the Supreme Court adjudging Mr..
Ahearn in contempt for his refusal to testify
before them will have value chiefly as a prece-
dent. In future If the decision is sustained, the
commissioners will have wide powers of In
Quiry into the conduct of the elected officers Of
the city. This is as it should be. for it is not
desirable that New York should have to appeal
TO the Legislature every time 1t desires to
inquire into the conduct Of other officials than
those appointed by the Mayor, AS the majority
opinion held, public policy demands in great
city like New York, working under so complex
"a charter, that every available means of exam
lining the administration of the offices of the
CITY government be utilized to its fullest ex-
tent"
The report of the commissioners in the
Ahearn case Is an instance of the value of this
kind of inquiry. Even though the commission
ers were baked TO some extent ny their failure
to get the Borough President himself and some
of his subordinates on the stand they are able
to throw a flood of light upon the "inefticlency,
neglect, waste and corruption" in the office.
Everybody knows the condition of the street
pavements-full of holes neglected, CrumbIng
and dsIntegratng to point where seryiceable
repair was impossible. They were the outward
indication OF the way the office was conducted.
Well the inside OF the office when the COM
mIssioners exposed 1t to the public view proved
10 be Just like the streets-shamefully disor
ganiged. wastefully mismanaged and utterly
without system.
We now know why. There does not seem to
have been much corruption. There was poll
tics, of course, plenty Of it. in the office, and
favoritism In dealing with political contractors
and padded payrolls, too, for the benefit OF the
cheaper henchmen; but this does not account
for all the mismanagement Incompetence seems
TO explain more than anything else. The office
was conducted utterly without system, and
there was no one in II competent TO frame
system An instance will show what we mean:
The commissioners report that lack Of funds
was not the of the inability of the bu-
reau Of Highways to keep the pavements in re-
pair With more than two millions available
Ahearn spent little more than half of IT. He sim
ply had 10 means of learning what streets
needed repair. There was regular method OF
Inspection. Now, of course, with a million or
so unspent, n man making the most OF the
political possibilities in the office would have
found or made work which TO spend the
money. The office was deeply in politics but
even in politics it was incompetent That I'M
spent million would have taken care" of host
of henchmen and favored contractors, but
Ahearn did not even have a system which
would tell him how and where TO spend it.
Most OF the evidence gathered by the com
mssloners IS OF the same sort. The Borough
| Presidents office was run in n way that would
wreck a private business in SIX months. The
| bookkeeping was helter-skelter, inadequate, du-
| plcated in some parts and incomplete In others.
The Borough President" says the report has
| apparently been Indifferent TO the admins
'trative value of properly kept expense &c
| counts" Chief Engineer Olney told Mr. Ahearn
that 80 per cent Of his payings inspectors were
totally incompetent. Ahearn did nothing-took
| the matter philosophicaily we suppose for 4
! politician knows that incOmpetents are the
/ strength and main reliance Of the machine.
/ This neglect to reorganiZe the force the report
characterzes as serious derecton OF duty.
! The Bureau Of Highways had totally lncom-
/ petent administration" its work was "improp-
! erly conducted" under "inadequate inspection,
! and there We're in the bureau conversion Of
! funds and irregularities in the payroll 80
! 1t goes all the way through. Incompetency
! everywhere and an utter lack Of system. Mr..
! Ahearn acted on the principle that the city
! work would take care Of itself, as 1t always
/ had done while he looked after the politics IN
| IT. good case for Ahearn's removal is made
! ont in the commissioners report. If the Mayor
| does not ask for his removal some civic body
undoubtedly will.