New-York tribune., 1910-01-04
METZ; MIR. METZ
AND GLAD OF 1T, TOO.
Has Ideas, Great and Small,
and Spreads Them.

Herman A Metz had a day as eventful
and as full of incident yesterday as a man
going back to making new millions after
years of spending them as Controller of the
City of New York could expect For in
stance. he stroIled in the afternoon to the
third floor and entered the office of Miss
May Culyer, stenographer, in the big,
roomy. well lighted building in muddy
Hudson street where the business of the
H. A. Metz DyeStuffs Mandatory is con-
Quoted.
The telephone cord that extended from
the window carried the moisture down TO
Miss Cuyer's desk and leaked water over
Miss Culyer's typewriter and the carbon
papers and everything. Why. for months,
Miss Culyer simply couldn't touch anything
about the desk unless it dripped with
water from that telephone cord. So she
just told it all to Mr.. Metz himself when
he got back yesterday and went up to the
third floor
Why. soak it with celluloid solution.
soak it with ceIluloid solution; soak it till
it's covered soak it till every inch is wet
began Mr.. Metz, in the brisk conversation
of a financier turned into a chemist. He
had bottle of sticky solution in his hand,
grabbed a piece of cloth and tore enough
of it off to use in slowly applying the
solution to the cord
The conversation was resumed: Just
let it dry; let it dry. and this stuff will be
celIuloid, and then you'll have celluloid
coating over this cord. Then it won't get
wet Can't get wet with the celluIoid all
over, n the celIuloid will be a non-con-
ductor, and you won't get shocks No
shocks, and won't be wet from now on
Might ha' stopped this long ago
'tWhy didn't Clarkson fix it? Suppose it's
because he's only a chemist and. bein' a
chemist wouldn't think that celluIoid would
stop the cord from dripping. Just the diff
ference between the emplOye and the man
, with ideas. The man with the ideas bosses
others instead OF being the man who is
bossed himself. Eth? There, that's fixed
and you won't have any trouble with it
any more.
Mr.. Metz. repairer of leaky telephone
cords, director of three factories, with
branches in all the principal cities in the
country, wealthy business man, is a happier
man than Controller Metz. He was glad
to get back to his businesses. and his bust
nesses. or the hundreds of men in them,
were glad to have him back.
Their testimonial of welcome, a floral
piece three feet high, was on desk be-
when he consented to recall Mr. Metz,
Controller and give his views on some
things that could be corrected in the city
government
The first thing to do he said, ''is to
make it one city instead of five, and TO put
responsibility on the Mayor. The thing to
do is 10 make the Mayor the real head of
the city government, instead of only the
nominal head. and make him responsible
for the acts of the borough presidents To
get a business administration three things
must be done.
The first is to wipe out the charter as
1t now stands. The second is to wipe out
the Board of Aldermen through its power
to vote on appropriations and special reve-
nues. Then it wouldn't be possible for
them TO hold up necessary improvements
for political reasons. The third is to wipe
out the Corporation Counsels office None
of the departments can do anything with
out the sanction of the Corporation Coun-
sells office, except at the personal risk of
the official doing It, although the Corpora
tion Counsel may be wrong a hundred
ways in his opinion
1t isn't so much matter of men as OF
system. No matter how unbusinessIike
contracts are, if they are approved by the
Corporation Counsel they go. Many fool
contract has passed in this way The city
is always found TO get the short end
The condemnation law and the Civil
Service law ought to be changed. 1t would
be cheaper 10 pension most of the veterans
in the Civil Service and get young men to
NIL their places.
The Civil Service law is pure hypocrisy
1t can be used TO keep Democrats out of
office, while twenty-three Republican dis
trict leaders in Brooklyn and twenty-seven
in Manhattan get jobs by appointment of
President Taft and Governor Hughes"
Mr.. Metz said that he was out of public
office for good