New-York tribune., 1908-01-22
or1upsEs or CITY GOHERNMENT.


What Controller Metz is discovering about
the parcels of real estate bought by the city
and forgotten is perfectly characteristic OF the
wav the municipality does its business. MI
Metz has found ffty-eight school sites which
New York owned without knowing it. whole
block on Goth street was bought as a site Ior
municipal gas tanks Everybody now has for
gotten the project Of city gas making, the
ownership Of the land had passed out OF the
CITY officials minds and an athletic clup had
sauatted on the property. 1t is probaDle thdt
many more tracts have been similarly poughI
and forgotten But why should all this sur
pris. Mr.. Metz? What is the city for except
to buv whatever Tammany has to sell, whether
II he department supplies or lands? Having
bought the useless property, probably the pest
thing to do is to forget all about IT. 10 recali
the fact every time a carefully accelerateo
movement in favor Of buying site for some
thing or other is aimed at the city authorltles'
that the city has already many million dollars
worth of such property unused would perhaps
have a dispirting effect upon such cheerful ell
forts. Wo hope Mr. Metz has no such heart
less purpose We hope he won't flash upon
every acceIeration aimed his way his long list
of municipal millions gone to waste for the
benefit of some Tammany Tom or Pat with
real estate on his hands and no ready market
for it.
WHIST Mr. Metz is finding out concerning the
WAY the citys records of its property are kept
is BY no means exceptional Not long ago
new Park Commissioner entered into ofhce VINO
BETRAYED what seemed TO those who knew the
routine of the department perfectly unrea-
sonable desire to know how many parks were
under his Jurisdiction and where they were.
OF course the department knew where Central
Park was and where Van COr1andt Park ana
a number Of other larger parks already IN use
We're to be found But where the smaller parks
were and especially the numerous unfinished
ones-why should 1t know? The wisest heads
in the department assured the Commissioners
that no one knew how many parks there were,
where they were how large they were. in what
state Of development they were or what they
cost, and they did not believe he could find
ont We don't know whether that Commits
sioner ever succeeded In satisfying his unprece-
dented curiosity or not. 1t is q safe venture to
saw that he never learned the cost The whole
Tammany scheme depends on forgetting the
cost.
But lest it may be supposed, from the eX-
periences of Mr.. Metz and the Park Commis-
sioner, that the city government utterly lacks
system, it is only fair to say that where labor
NAV thereby be multiplied a spendidly compli-
Gated system has been devised. When bill
has to be paid by the city an immense array
of clerks write their 20 KS upon it each Of
them probably reading nothing more than
the signature of the man whose routine duty
it is to sign it just before himself. They guard
the city eIaboratey against stealing where
there is no stealing, while the amicable and
profitable relation between the city's buyers
and sellers proceeds undlsturbed under their
supernumerary eyes.
System? Could there be a better system than
prevailed in of the departments which uses
a large number of horses? Was it the Park
Department, or another? The horses were num-
bered and the departments horseshoers went
around among them and shod them In the order
of their numbers Whether they needed shoe
| ing or not made not the slightest difference
| So. too. the departments veterinares visited
| the animals in the order Of their numbers, sick
| and well alike If a horse fell sick and died
| between his regular visits from the doctor he
acted in utter disregard Of one Of the most
| complete systems that ever came out of the
| mind Of man.