New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-08-02
OUT Of GRESSER CABINET
Joseph Sullivan Loses Public
Works CommiSSionerShip.
WAL TER H. BUM APPOINTED
Move Said to Foreshadow Gen.
eral Cleaning Out of Queens
Borough Hall.

Joseph Sullivan. Commissioner of Public
Works Of Queens. was forced out of Bor-
ough President Lawrence Gresser's cabinet
yesterday and his position given to Walter
H. Bum secretary and treasurer of the
! Colonial Safe Deposit Company. of Man.
haitian and once Appraiser of the Port OF
New York.
The move is said to be preliminary to a
general cleaning out of the Borough Hall
in Long Island City. in accordance with
the advice which, it is alleged, Mayor Gay
nor gave to President dresser in confer
ence in Manhattan last week.
THE resignation of the Commissioner of
Public Works Joseph Sullivan, has been &C
cepted,' was the way the formal announce
made.
The deposed Commissioner keeps a saloon
in Corona, where he is a power in local
politics, and it was owing to this. it is
said, that he was selected to fill the office
of Public Works Commissioner last fall
when Alfred z. Denton resigned to take
the nomination for municipal justice. lie
was known as a follower OF Joe" Cas-
sidy until the Gresserites persuaded him
to enter their fold and take a place in the
administration. and in return he rendered
valiant service at the primaries for the
II.
with the approval of the reformers, yet his
administration of the office of Public
Works after a searching ordeal at the
hands of Commissioner of Accounts Ray
mond Fosdick. came out without an ac-
cusation against it.
Bum Considered Once Before.
At the time Gresser was forming his cabi-
net on n supposed reform basis. when he
took office. at the first of the present year
Mr.. Bum. the newly appointed Commits
sioner of Public Works, was popularity sup
posed 10 be slated for that office, but Sui
livan's political prestige took precedence
and he was continued in the office. Mr..
Bum is a lawyer. He was clerk of
Otsego County, clerk to the Assembly in
1888, secretary TO the State Democratic
Committee in 1888 and 1884 United States
marshal for the Northern District of New
York from 1885 to 1889, clerk to the State
Constitutional Commission in 1890, APP
praiser al the Port of New York from 1923
to 1897 and at the time of his appoint
ment TO his new office was secretary and
treasurer eff the Colonial Safe Deposit Com
pany, He is about siXty-two years old.
Commissioner Sullivan did not take his
enforced retirement passvely, for on Sat
urday. when rumors of what was about to
happen reached Queens he. in company
with Harry Sutphin, Assistant Public
Works Commissioner. who is also editor of
The Borough Bulletin a weekly news
paper, and Ira II. LIE Neen confidential in
spectOr TO Borough President Gresser Wis
tied the City Hall in an effort TO see Mayor
Gaynor and learn why their names were
placed on the list of those booked for re-
tlrement. They based their protest on the
fact that throughout the graft scandals
which are still coming to the surface in
that borough, none of them had even been
mentioned in any connection with graft.
More Oecapitations Expected.
It was shortly before starting to Al
bany. where in person he will present to
Governor Hughes his answer TO the re-
moyal charges made against him several
days ago by a citizens committee from
Queens, that Mr.. Gresser announced the
change in his cabinet.
1t is said there will he other decapta-
tons when he gets back.
Municipal Justice John VI. Cragen. who
is out on $1,000 bail on four indictments
charging him with grand larceny in con-
nection with the graft hunt, resumed hold
ing court for the first time since the in
dictments were handed up against him on
May %. 1t was understood that he would
not do 50 until the indictments against
him We're disposed of, and IL was declared
that he would demand a speedy trial a the
opening term of the Queens County Su-
preme Court in the fall.