New-York tribune., 1918-04-15
Tanmany Sabotage

amended in 1902 calls specifically for
bureau of sanitation and bureau of
records. 1t does not say that there shall
be no other bureaus. The passage of the
Federal food and drugs act, the evolu-
ton of the whole system of state food
and drug administrations and the crea-
ton of Children's Bureau at Washing
ton have taken place since those dates.
A city Department of Health with any
vitality at all has naturally developed
along the same lines
Now comes Mayor Hylan, in a sudden
accession of anxiety over the niceties
of the civil service, and demands that
the heads of bureaus not mentioned in
the charter be deposed, on grounds of
legality and economy. Since no charges
of ineficiency can be brought, and since
the officials have been appointed only
after civil service examinations, the only
way to create the desired vacancies is
to abolish the bureaus and so depose
their heads This simple expedient it is
seriously proposed to adopt
The duties of these heads, with their
centralized laboratories and scientific
equipment, would then be delegated to
new appointees located in each of the
five boroughs. There are two things to
be said about this One is that this plan
was tried under Mayor Van Wyck and
failed The other is that either the con-
troll of food and health must revert to
methods of medieval simplicity or else
laboratories and scientific equipment
must be established in each borough, at
a tremendous increase of expense and
decrease of efficiency. Child hygiene and
food and drug control are not matters
of kindness of heart and philanthropic
relief. A political appointee with
money bag cannot cope with an cpl
demic, safeguard the children's milk or
detect food adulteration, however good
his intentions.
Let US look at two cases. Lucius P.
Brown, chief of the Bureau of Food and
Drugs, was chosen after severe COM
petitive civil service examination and
on the basis of his eight years record as
an aggressive, constructive state food Off
cial in Tennessee. And now after three
years Of service, when his grasp of local
conditions has been perfected, it is dis
covered that he was illegally appointed.
The danger of such untimely and be-
lated discoveries may account for the
fact that so few efficient men seek gov
ernment positions.
The Food Bureau cooperates closely
with the Federal food administration.
One hundred violations have been re-
ported to the national authorities in one
day-so important is New York as cen
tire of interstate commerce. Are we to
have borough heads for this work, no
centralized bureau, no functional organi-
zation with specialists in charge of each
division? Such step would mean send
ing New York to the foot of the list Of
cities as far as effective health and food
control are concerned; and no city in the
country SO needs the best and most per-
feet control that science and organiza-
tion can give.
One more point. DR.. Josephine S.
Baker, during seventeen years of de-
voted and highly specialized labor, ha,
built up what is undoubtedly the most
efficient Bureau Of Child Hygiene in the
country. The infant death rate here has
been reduced from 144 to 1873 per 900
Mn the last ten years, despite the con-
stantly increasing population and new
problems and difficulties This bureau.
the first of it's kind, is one of New York's
special claims to civic pride. It's organi-
zatIon and efficiency are widely secog-
nized. The Federal Children's Bureau is
J oposing to establish similar units, mod
ciled after the New York work, shrouph-
out the country az a part Of the nation
wide campaign to save the lives of chill
dren---a special war measure
Anything more gtupidly rcactionarv
than the abolition of this model organi-
zaticn just at this time can hardly he
conceived. Mayor Hylan has surely not
considered the consequences Of his pro-
gramme. With a war summer ahead of
ug, a probable shortage Of ice, the milk
problem unsolved, and possible recur
renee of the poliomyclitis epidemic. we
"'"iH 'i'" ""'H ''' ""i "oISt enemy lhc
congciousness that he had destroyed the
agency best fitted 70 cope with such con-
ditiong.
The Mayor, whatever his faults, il not
without feelings. The babies of the East
Side you'd pay With their Iiyes for such
an economy. The women yoters, the new
cisixsns OF New York, would, We believe.
trssk with one voice. from the chair.