Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-28
Mayor Walker Passes the Buck

Possibly there is no connection what
eve- between the two incidents, but con-
ference just been held by Mayor walker
OF Greater New York with two hundred
representatives of civic and mercantile
interests on the subject of grating and
| corruption in the city service will in
evitahly have in the public mind re-
lation to the investigation about to be
made by direction Of the Governor into
place-buying in the metropolis. For
the Tammany organization, Of which
the mayor is the representative in ONCE,
is involved In bosh the distribution Of
judicial positions and in the marketing
Of favors and privileges under the mu-
nicipal administration.
In his talk to the representative citi-
zens yesterday Mayor Walker frankly
admitted that there is graft In New
York He said that he has been in
curing into the matter and has found
that brides have been given and gifts
have been made to the municipal Of
f1cials for privileges and advantages.
The commissioner of accounts. who has
been specifically carrying on this in
vestigation, has found that in the ma
jority of cases the man who has either
given or offered q gratuity or a bride
will not make complaint. His I'M
willingness makes it impossible to run
down the incident and Ito dispose OF
the services Of the man who accepted"
So the mayor asks these representative
New Workers to 60 back to their organ
izations and enlist them In the campaign
for honest administration, to seek out
the bride giyers so that the bride takers
can be punished.
Mayor Walker is entirely correct in
his statement that the municipal graft
ers cannot be discovered, convicted and
punished unless the offerers of brides
complain. But 1t is rather q case of
passing the buck, so to speak, to put
the responsibility for checking this form
of dishonesty upon the citizens. The
fact is that the graft habit has become
more or less fixed under the long con-
tinued Tammany administration; Of
which Mayor Walker is the present
head. Favors and privileges, both with
in and beyond the law, have been OBJ
jects of barter for years. Invasions and
evasions of the law have been paid for
with only q perfunctory measure of
concealment. This immediate reaction
against the crookedness that has be-
come virtually systematic is due to rev.
Citations incident to an income tax
evasion inquiry and prosecution in the
course of which it has been shown that
the person accused reaped q rich har-
vest In fees as intermediary between
favor-Seekers and municipal authori-
ties. He was, In short, q veritable
broker of city favors. Some months ago
q FIRE occurred in Manhattan with a
serious loss of life due to the absence
of certain fire-prevention appliances,
the lack of which was attributed dis
tinctly to the enjoyment of immunity
for which fees had been paid by the
proprietors.
Now the Governor has instituted an
inquiry into judicial merchandising
no less than nine members of the ju-
dietary are now accused of having pur-
chased their places-and the mayor is
asking the business community to run
down the grafters. New York, in short,
is being put through one Of its almost
periodical inquisitions. This is double
barreled one and maybe it will yield
results. But. then, there have been
others, some Of them dazzlingly illumi-
mating in their revelations of heavy and
gross corruption-and Tammany Is still
running the city.