The New York herald., 1921-11-01
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER |. 1921.


Ine PreSldency OIL the bodiu VI
Aldermen is an Office even more i'm
portant than it's title indicates. The
incumbent is the Vice-Mayor. He is
a member of the Board of Estimate,
and, casting three votes, has the same
strength as the Mayor and the Comp
troller. He is, like the Mayor and
the Comptroller, member of the
Sinking Fund Commission.
AS Vice-Mayor the President Of the
Board of Aldermen serves as the
city's chief executive when the Mayor
is prevented. by absence or disabil-
ity, from attending to his duties. In
the last twenty years three former
Presidents of the Board of Alder
men-GEoRGE B. MCCLELLAN. Ar
DoIPH l.. KLINE and JOHN PURRoY
MITcHEL-have become Mayor. An
other Aldermanic President. ALFRED
e. SMITH. was elected Governor.
The Tammany candidate for Presi-
dent of the Board of Aldermen is
MURRAY HUIBERT. He is now, by ap-
pointment of Mayor HYLAN, Commits
sioner of Docks.
The conduct of the city's dock busi-
ness under HUBERT has been a scan
dal. The testimony given before the
Meyer committee showed that the
lessees of twenty-four piers sublet
them to less fortunate concerns at
profit of $4.000,O00. Senator LOCK-
WOODS estimate of the total profiteer-
ing in city piers is S24,00O,0O0.
The president of one big steamship
line testified that when he was look
ing for pier lease he was approached
by man who said he would fix it
for $4,000. He refused the offer, but
another steamship company, which
paid $34,500 to some private pocket,
got the lease.
A pier company which put $25,000
into some private pocket received a
lease on which it was able to make
$251, 900 in year.
Meanwhile great steamship COM
panies, unable or unwilling to pay
profiteering prices for docks, diverted
business to other ports.
While New York has been worrying
about not having proper pier facili-
ties for the commerce 1t wants to
handle private detective agencies have
Eeen charging the steamship compa-
mics from s30,0O0,O00 to S40,000.0 900
a year for policing the piers of this
city. That is more than the COM
bined annual cost of New York's
Police and Fire departments in Mayor
MIrcHEL's time.
Mr.. HUBERT, under whose commits
sionership this alarming state OF af-
fairs has existed in the Dock Depart
ment, is scarcely the right man to
be elected President of the Board of
Aldermen.
No man who permits, knowingly
or otherwise, such conditions as were
revealed by the Meyer committee
should be raised to an Office which
gives him three votes in the Board
OF Estimate and makes him a mem
her of the Sinking Fund Commission,
one duty of which is keeping watch
OF the city's docks.
No man who failed to prevent or
expose the shocking conditions in the
Dock Department should be put in
a place where circumstances might
raise him to the Mayoralty.
The voter who wants New York to
have a sane Board OF Estimate and
a Sinking Fund Commission that will
help to clean the docks should vote
to make VINCENT GILEoY President OF
,se Board of Aldermen. Mr.. GILRoY.
the coalition nominee, Is asDemocrat,
but he is the sort of Democrat that
considers the interests OF New York
and not those of Tammany Hall. The
campaign he has made is evidence OF
his energy and intelligence.
With CURRAN, LOCKWOOD and Git
ROY in the Board OF Estimate and
the Sinking Fund Commission Tam
many cannot put over its tricks.