New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-02-05

ter that / did not think was either
secret. or a steal, or a deal. 81,
Neither do they. Neither do they. 90
not say neither do you. because Il w
not wish to insult your intelllgence, rvs Ms
are a certain number OF peop!e III ,ort
city who do not want honest goVeinIiiiJIn-'
nor do they stand up for honest oflciaiS'
Praises Department Heads.
do not want to say anything Of my
self personally, except this, that When
became Mayor OF the CITY haa an an ~
departments, and / undertake TO say tiiaS
no more honest or competent heaus o oi
departments ever were appointed Vl ~
were doing service in any CITY ~ d az
world than these men are doing inns uay
and this night. The DOCK CommissiioiIeI
Tomkins: the Water CommlSslUne.'
Thompson: the Corporation Counseii 80 49,
son: the Charities Commissioner aidn
ynond. the Police Commissioners, WaIuo,
and so through the whole list are mn
above any political consideration IN t.e
government of this city, ana nohes'
the core and absolutely colhpeterp, cord of
And then my associates IN tne b od.u
Es,imate-need | enumerate them 10 you
Not q dishonest man among tneiIl, hot q
man CAPABLE of dishonest aCt, no ~ ~
The Controller. the Borough Preslueit ~ ~
Rrooklvn. the Borough PresldenI VI
Manhattan, the other borough presluelts
which one is capable of dlshohest
deal, much less a dishonest steal OF one
dollar of the city's money ,..,. .ha.
And vet those infamous Scoundreis VIC.
RIM their newspapers in this way 90 iiot
hesitate 10 saw so. | am beyond Cdline
what they say about me. ! am solrE W
saw II because d man should hot peOT IN
so callous. no matter now iolls nc 49,
been In public office, not TO feel 10 solllS
extent aggrieyed at what newspapers di'I
others say OF him. I do not say that !
am awfully sensitive II any ueCeIo .tP,nc
son or decent newspaper s SAWS SUI hut
of me which is not compllmel'ai!' "N'
these scoundrels-huh-no, no!
Infamous Among You
These men are Infamous among you
They address themselves 20 tne uuu ~
world and the criminal class tho,,,ssives
city They are Of that class themselves,
and they could not separate themselves
from II if they tried. What grleVeG me
though was TO take car AT tne prluSI
being late. and to see some ni Ti With vii these
papers with their head lines In their hal lid
reading about me as thief ana NY "SSo
ciates in the Board Of Estimate
Cannot decent people drop t nef ling
Them home to your families, that l am
we'll aware of. You would not De guilty
of bringing them TO your wives anu
One Of the chief tasks Of the Street
CLEANING Commissioner is to clear the sul-
tiers of them twice day. Ihere - dlio o1
now a suggestion to pass an oTuilld. ~,
that ANYBODY who throws paper III tu.
street shall he guilty OF an oHenTe. puS
I have thought IL over very careluily anu
I have some doubts about the orQinahCe
because il is a great deal better thdI 80 ~
throw the papers OF these sGdlnp -, ~ hem
gutter than that you should bring theni
nome. 49,, ,oor,o defy
them And so do my associates WHO aio
with me in the government
The Mayor then deviated from the
newspapers for a moment to speak OF
the work of himself and his confreres
in preparing the subway routes ana
contracts.
Long have we worked over this mat
ter" he said. 1T has been matter
of night and day work. 1t is the larg-
est matter that any government in this
world has handled during the time we
have been at it, 1t is a matter lnVolV-
ing the public expenditure of over
$500. 100000 II has ali been done in
the open"
Tell of Tri-Boroueh Route.
Continuing on the same line, the
Mayor said
When l became Mayor was not I'M
familiar with this subject of rapid tran
sit They had rugged up on the maps
what they called the tri-borough route,
and certain newspapers were puhlng IL;
Especially some OF your purple-npped ana
blear-eyed papers over here that you can
buy any time, and which have been
bought for forty years right here among
you.
q Loft
Queens entirely out. 1t gave Brooklyn not
one-ffth of what Brooklyn is getting now
by the present scheme. ! use that word
scheme in a good sense, but, Lord bless
us, let's see what use may be made OF IL;
The Bronx was given not one-third of
what il is given now. Manhattan was
given Just one-third Of what II is getting
now by the present arrangement.
l confess that / went 10 1t with an
open mind. | looked II all over. My
associates looked II over. We went into
conference with the Public Service Com
mission and We used 10 tramp over there
twice q week and look over the maps on
the wall and come back. Finally / feit
that the triborough scheme was not what
the city wanted. Queens wanted mucn
throughout the Belmont tunnel, and from
thence out through that great borough.
And all the boroughs wanted more Inc
Borough of Richmond was entitled 10
something, and ! thought that all f1ve
boroughs should be taken into whatever
plan we MADE.
This triborough system was being
hoped for by these same people. IL in
yoiyed an expenditure of $24O,Vo,oO We
put II up to advertisement just 10 test
IL, and while. Of course. the contractors
came forward and bid to build Ill the
sections-you Will always nave bids
enough for that-we didn't get a single
bid for operation. All the fnanciers said
that 1t was :mpracticable; that 1t would
never pay.
Belmont Tunnel History.
But what struck me about II was this
We had a subway here already. IL ran
from over here in Brooklyn over into
Manhattan, up the east side OF Manhat-
tan and then swung way over to the
west side and continued off up into The
Bronx We built that ourselves. / saw
the time when an audience like this as
sembled, nine-tenths of II would think
that Belmont built II. The newspapers
wrote editorials that they built II. They
said. why should not they make on II
when they risked their capital and built
it? Your so-called leading newspaper
here had an editorial just Ike that
read il and other papers. But not one
dollar of private capital ever went into
that subway--not one dollar. You built
It, The citys funds built 1t absolutely.
The lessee of II did equip II and put the
cars into it, but we built II. and II is ours
from the very day that II was opened.
And yet they rugged the tri-borough
t..,lA INTEL