The New York herald., 1921-10-28
PLUMS FOR FAvORITES
Indicted for Extravaganza
in Garbage Removal by
His Own Investigators.
INCOMPETENTs in OFFICE
Scandal in Licensing Former
Crooks to Drive Taxicabs
Is Recalled.


Herewith Is published the fifth OF
series of articles dealing with the
city government under the Hylan ad.
ministratlOn. The article to be pub
llshed Tomorrow will deal with the
Hylan administrators record in ref
erence to appointments and patronage.
The history Of the Department of
Street Cleaning under the Hylan ad-
ministration has been one of gross
mismanagement and colossal waste.
This indictment does not rest wholly
upon either the evidence taken by the
Meyer committee or the scathing sum-
mary thereof by it's counsel, Senator
Elon r. Brown. who asserted that
favored contractors had been receiv-
ing their plufns year after year at tre-
mendous cost to the city and that po-
litical necessity in a department in
which the Mayor more than once en-
forced his personal dominance had
sidetracked business efficiency.
A committee which the Mayor him
self named to investigate conditions in
that department. reported last June
that the citys present methods for
the disposal Of waste products through
the Street Cleaning Department and
through private contracting agencies
is uneconomical, unscientific and anti
quated.
That Committee reported unanimously
that the present system of dumping gar
bage at sea must be abolished. Until
October 2. 1918, New York city for
many years preceding that date had
disposed OF its garbage at substantial
profit. That was the method under the
Gaynor and Mitchell administrations.
The Mitchell administration realized for
the city In this way an average profit
of ,$124.0o0 a year by letting out the
job to contractors who operated tneir
own garbage reduction plants.
Revenue Lost. Cost Increased.
Since 1915. the first year of the Hylan
administration. the city has dumped Its
garbage at sea in the primitive. ineffi'
cient. unhygienic way. This has en-
tailed not alone the loss of the former
revenue, but also the enormous cost of
hiring private towboats and scows to
haul the refuse material to sea. Mayor
Hylan's committee recommended that
ali ashes be utilized for filling in low
nj t,aor nd In, RrnnX |
and Queens boroughs.
The Meyer legislative committee
later examined at length Arnold b. Mac
Stay. Mayor Hylan's Street Cleaning
Commissioner for the first three years
Df the administration, and also John p. !
Leo, who succeeded MacStay hast Janu- |
ary. 1t appeared that after the failure
Of the Daily & Erwin Company, which |
held the contract for final disposal OF
ashes and rubbish. the city took over
hat concerns disposal plant on Rikers |
Island at a cost of $1,000 day for |
fifty-two days, spent $56.e00 on 1t in |
that time and then sold 1t for $91 900
a municipal loss in two months of
$4,000,
Mr.. MacStay, who after resigning as
Street Cleaning Commissioner. by the |
way. was installed as Deputy Commis-
sioner under Bird 8. Coler in the De-
partment of Public Welfare, told the |
Meyer committee Mayor Hyian had been !
the unqualified boss Of the Street Clean
ing Department during the three year |
period OF MacStay's incumbency. 1t
was Mayor Hylan who dictated all APP |
1t was the Mayor who forced the ap-
poi1tment as examining engineer to the
at $500 year of Henry |
r 70 a n
engineering job appeared to have been
covered by the fact that he had con-
Quoted a drug store in the Bushwick
section OF Brooklyn and was an old
friend of the Mayor. whose prescriptions
he filled and to whose family he sold
tooth brushes and toilet soap.
When Examiner Brown asked Mr..
MacStay, Ibid DR.. Kempf have any
for the officer the wit
ness replied. II don't know OF any; he
was sent to me to be appointed and /
appointed him."
Kempf did not last long In his engi-
neering job. Frank Dowling, then
Borough President. and members of the
division on salaries and grades of the
Board OF Estimate. division created by
Mayor Mitchell to meet Just such con-
tlngencies. would not stand for" the
appointment. Kempf resigned and
Mayor Hyiah. enraeed, abolished the
division on salaries and grades.
Druggist Again ON Payroll.
The Mayors druggist remained off the
city payroll until July. 1920. when John
y. Harman Hylar's personal appointee
as Commissioner OF Parks In Brook
iyn. found It desirable and proper to ap-
point him as secretary IN that de-
partment at a salary OF s3.25o.
Mayor Hylan in July. 1918, wrote n
letter to Commissioned MacStay in
structlne that all applications for de-
parmentai expenditures be submitted to
his deputy. Frank E.schmann. close
friend OF James p. slnnott and former
stable foreman, at $1,000 year. In an
other letter the Mayor suggested that no
appointments be made without consult
ing him. IL was Mayor Hylan who. in
January. 1919, forced Commissioner
Macstay 20 demand the resignation OF
Deputy Commissioner Warren Hubbard,
saying he would not tolerate any OF the
deputies using their offices for political
purposes"
IN an inquiry conducted by the
Mayors own Commissioners Of Accounts.
II had been shown that Paul vaccarclli.
known 90 Paul Kelly" had been hiring
tricks ~ cost "a him OF gpr n dat.