The New York herald., 1922-08-29
M ANENY RIDICULES
HYLAN PLAN AS BAIT
FOR UNWARY VOTERS
Finds City's Claim to Power
of Initiative wholly
Deceptive
FINANCE 'LUDICROUS'
Thinks Scheme Would End
What Mayor Has Left of
Five Cent Fare.
WOULD SPLIT UP SYSTEM
i,
Mulbert Replies That Transit
Head sCan Find No Flaws
So Turns to Abuse.
WOULD SPLIT UP SYSTEM

Gov. Miller'S State Transit Com
mission refuses to take Mayor Hylan's
transit plan seriously. Its members
criticised and ridiculed it yesterday
unsparingly. In the program made
public as the city administrators con-
cept OF a practical and desirable
scheme Of rapid transit development
the commission professed to see little
more than a specious piece of political
propaganda conceived in the hope of
duping unthinking voters and bulle-
tined at time when it could be made
campaign factor in opposition to
the prospective candidacy OF Gov.
Miller for reelection
George McAneny, chairman of the
transit commission, issued statement
in behalf of that body in which he
emphasized the assertions that the
State commission and not the Mayor
or the Board of Estimate Is the body
legally clothed with sole authority to
take the initiative in the laying out
that the suggestion that the Mayors
program of ''recapture, new subways,
new tunnels and city wide bus service
could be realized by an expenditure OF
ss0o,ooo, 900 was "ludicrous in the ex-
treme,'' and that. even if it were
feasible, it's realization, instead of
tending to unification Of transit facili-
ties for single five cent fare. would
disintegrate them into divers con-
trolls, each charging five cent fare,
a tearing apart of so much of the
five cent fare system as the Mayor has
left, without realizing the slightest
corresponding benefit at any point"
In the absence of Mayor Hylan in
Saratoga Acting Mayor Murray Hubert,
President of the Board of Aldermen.
made warm rejoinder. He asserted
that the only hope for the suffering
travelling public lay in the removal of
the present commission and the substi-
tuition in its place of the local authori-
ties.
Chairman McAneny's criticism in full
follows:
Under the Rapid Transit law, tine
Transit Commission has the sole author
ity 20 lay out new subway routes and
to prepare plans for their operation.
The determination OF new routes Is sub
ject to the approval OF the Board OF
Estimate and Apportionment. which,
however. has no power OF Initiative in
the matter. and can act only uponN plans
OF the Transit Commission. The law so
required fifteen years ago. and has so
required ever since. as the Mayor and
his advisers are, OF course, we'll aware.
Any suggestion. therefore. that the
scheme now presented by the Mayor.
whether upon examination 1t is found to
have any merit in II or not. can be put
into effect by the Board OF Estimate
alone Is. OF course. not TO be taken seri-
ously.
THE plan of the Transit Commission.
the outline OF which was published n
year ago. and the development OF which
has had Its constant attention since. pro-
vides not only for the reorganiza lion OF
the generally chaotic condition the COM
mission inherited, bur ror the immediate
construction OF a series OF new subways
that will give to the travelling public
relief OF the sort that it can hope to
get in no other way 1t would, Of
course. mean further delay.if the atten-
tion of the, public were diverted from the
commissions program of acruar relief
to consider alternatives that are impos-
sible Of achievement, and that are put
forward merely for the purpose Of
further obstruction. If. then. the plans
of the Mayor are intended for serious
consideration. they VIII be promptly re-
ferred by the Board or Estimate to the
Transit Commission. The commission.
as the law contemplates. will proceed IN
the natural course to hold public hear
ings Upon them and to adopt anything
they may happen to contain that would
really aid n constructive program.
THE Commission. under ordinary cir
cumstances. would avoid any advance
comment OF a positive sort upon the
particulars of any matter likely to be
submitted to II. In the consideration OF
any of the particular routes the Mayor
proposes, II certainly win follow this
rule. 1t may well be that some OF
The notifications suggested would inn
prove the routes II has already laid out
Continued on Page Three