Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-09
BROKE UP BIG RING
Gaynor Caused Downfall of
"Boss" Mclaughlin.
LANDED McKANE IN CELL
Twice Refused Nomination for Gov.
ernor of New York.
HAS ALWAYS FOUGHT GRAFT
Elected Mayor Last Year on Demo-
cratic Ticket, Defeating W. r.
Hearst and Otto Barnard.
HAS ALWAYS FOUGHT GRAF.

| Mayor William J. Gaynor is of Irish
English stock and the Of man who
supported Gerritt Smith. the aholitionist
friend of John Brown of Harpers Ferry
fame. He was born on his fathers farm
at Oriskany, near Whtestone, Oneida
county, N Y in 1851 the soil Of which
farm was cleared by his Irish grand
father. Life was a bitter struggle for
bare necessities on that little farm. and
Justice Gaynor's boyhood was one Of toll.
Through the district school the boy
| passed on to the Whitestone Academy,
graduating from which he taught in the
public schools of Boston. Mass, and
| afterward located in Utica. n. Y, where
| he studied law in the Office of Ward
Hunt. afterward justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States. In 1915 he
moved to Flatbush, l.. l.. where there
then existed a corrupt municipal govern
ment
in Flatbush studied his surroundings.
| With other conditions he ascertained
the fact that Flatbush had forty saloons
but only one saloon license After col
| lecting satisfactory evidence he had the
saloonkeepers arrested and compelled
them to obey the law. which required
them to take out licenses. Then he start
ed in to elect honest officials. Calling the
people together. he explained his desire
for reform. Both political machines in
election day he elected his entire reform
| ticket by a sweeping majority.
| Having smashed the political rings
of Flatbush. Mr.. Gaynor in 1855
Brooklyn. in which city BOSS" Hugh
Mclaughlin had been powerful for a
quarter Of a century. Mr.. Gaynor
studied the Mclaughlin ring. and for
mulated plan for the overthrow of
the boss His great opportunity
came in 1889. when the town Of New
Lots was annexed to Brooklyn. There
was little water company in New
Lots known as the Long Island Water
Supply Company. 1t was said that the
for s1S5.00O and then got Alfred c.
Chaplin, mayor Of Brooklyn, and his
associates to make contract to buy
it for the city for about $500, O0O-a
profit for the ring Of more than ST.
100000.
Brings Suit to Stop Deal.
Mr.. Gaynor denounced the deal as a
swindle and said it would not go
through if he could prevent it. He
went about Brooklyn seeking for some
|
his name as plaintiff in a suit to stop
Zens to whom he applied dared to incur
the enmity of the powerful machine.
Mr.. Gaynor. however, finally induced
one of his old clients, William Ziegler.
| to allow the use of his name. That
suit, carried through every court to the
highest, defeated the ring. Mr. Gaynor
was a comparatively poor man, but he
paid the whole cost of the fight, $14.-
100 out of his own pocket.
| Mr.. Gaynor won several other vic
tories over the ring, and in 1893 the
people of Brooklyn became aroused. The
sight OF one man whipping the COM
bined forces of political corruption in
battle after battle stirred the city pro-
| foundry mass meeting asked Mr..
Gaynor to run for mayor. He declined
A few weeks later he was Unexpectedly
nominated for justice Of the supreme
court. He at first refused the nomina-
ton, but was finally persuaded to run
to help elect Mr.. Schieren, the fusion
| candidate for mayor. The election was
Gaynor was elected to the supreme
court by a majority of $4,000 votes.
and the whole ticket with him That
was the end of the famous Mclaughlin
ring
fall and imprisonment of John Y. Nc
Kane, the master of Coney Island. In
the campaign which resulted in his
election TO the supreme court MI HdS =
nor publicly declared that if Mckane
tattempted to again debauch the ballot
box he would send him and all his as
sociates to states prison Mr.. Gaynor
sent watchers to the Mckane polling
places He armed them with injunc-
lions procured from the supreme court.
forbidding the Coney Island boss to
interfere with them. Mckane laughed
loudly when the watchers appeared,
and said: "Injunctions don't go here"
and
driven away.
McKane Sent to Prison.
1t was predicted that Mr.. Gaynor's
election would satisfy him, and that
nothing more would be heard about the
| Coney Island boss. But Mr.. Gaynor
forced the governor to appoint deputy
attorneys general to take the matter out
| of the hands of the local district attor-
ney, and threw himself into the work
| of prosecution vigorously that the
was sent to prison for seven years, and
sixteen of his followers also were i'm
| prisoned.
In the year following the final rout Of
the ring the democratic party tried to
nominate Justice Gaynor for governor
| He refused. A year later mclaughlin
went secretly to Justice Gaynor's house
at night and offered to nominate him
| Tor mayor or BROOKLYN. ne ocCiucu
Two years afterward Richard Croker
wanted Justice Gaynor to run for mayor
of Greater New York. Again he declined
And in 1904. when Parker ran for Presi-
dent the state democratic bosses, at the
suggestion of Judge Parker, once more
! invited the justice to be candidate for
| governor; but he could not be persuaded
Decides to Run for Mayor.
But in 1909 conditions in Greater New
York were such that Justice Gaynor de-
cided he could best fight graft and cor
luption from the inside, and so he &C
cepted the democratic nomination for
mayor He was opposed by Otto Ban
nard, the republican nominee. and Will
| liam Randolph Hearst, the nominee of
the Independence League, and was elect
ed by a decisive majority.
Since he has been in office Mayor Gay
nors course has been distinguished by
| the same fearlessness and activity that
marked his previous career. He has
shaken up the police department and
other branches of the city government,
and given the city an honest and efficient
administration.
| Records for Twopfv-Four Honrs