New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-27
DIR. ABBOTT AVID THE MAYOR.

At least Mayor GaynOr can no longer
complain that DR.. Lyman Abbott has
failed TO specify the details in the pro-
posed charter for this city TO which he
objects. whether or not the Mayor re-
mains discouraged by the attitude of OPP
position. Item by item the Mayors
letter Of protest has been answered by
the clergyman, who takes pains this
time to point out the sections in the
charter as to the Interpretation and eff
feet Of which he and the city'S eXecu-
tive differ so widely. 1t is impossible
TO believe that the Mayor has yet read
this charter which he Is defending so
vigorously, for if he had his legal ex-
perience and acumen would have
grasped Immediately the facts which Dr.
Abbott brings forward and the deduc-
tons he makes from them.
MAYOR Gaynor, for instance, could not
see that the executives powers were
increased. save in the matter of a Sus-
pensive veto over resolutions of the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment
appropriating money. which provision
was taken from the WINS and Hammond
drafts. DR.. Abbott points out the
Mayors power TO appoint a majority or
the Budget Committee of the Board Of
Estimate and ApportiOnment a power
heretofore lodged in the board itself;
his power TO order the destruction or
public records and documents; his power
to appoint a hospital commissioner TO
replace the present board of trustees,
appointed on the nomination Of certain
charitable organizations; his power to
appoint a "vice-mayOr' for sixty-day
periods, and, finally, his franchise veto.
Perhaps the Mayor confused the pro-
vision requiring his separate approval
for the validity of each franchise with
the suspensive veto over financial reso-
buttons of the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment, as he failed TO mention
it in his communication 10 DR.. Abbott.
Yet it is q provision entirely new In
this draft Of the charter and assuredly
confers OF the Mayor a power in trac-
ton matters never lodged with the
executive before. The possibility of the
public's being forced to accept rapid
transit extensions from an Objectionable
corporation and on bad terms rather
than no extensions at all, which dead
lock between the Mayor and the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment under
this new power of the Mayors could
bring about seems to DR.. Abbott ex-
tremely pertinent in the present situa-
ton.
Dr. Abbott points out 10 the Mayor
that in the civil service sections of this
charter requirements for appointments to
the civil service on evidence of fitness
apparently have been omitted. In the
education chapter he indicates the
chain which almost inevitably would
drag the entire school system into poll
tics-the appointment Of partisan paid
board by Mayor and the appointment
by that board of the board of examiners,
who would fill places in the staff so
"far as practicable by examinations,
(which, so far as practicable. shall be
competitive" Finally, the clergyman
notes his failure to find in the charter
proposed any secton permitting renloNdI
by the Governor Of the Mayor and Bor-
ough Presidents, which the Mayor AS
sured him had not been done away withq
This is not democracy" Dir. Abbott
SAYS Of this charter draft aud the way
it was prepared in secrecy and almost
damned through the Legislature. 1t IS
not. 1t is Democracy-Democracy of
the Murphy -Tammany Hall brand, and
Mayor Gaynor seems to have accepted
II bodily. He, few members of the
Cities Committees Of the Legislature,
and their paid employees and one or two
officeholders are the only defenders of
this charter. Their defence so far has
been Of such a character that anybody
deeply interested in its becoming law
should pray that it be saved from It's
friends.