Year: 1874

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FersOnnI Government and the Failure


or Reform.


We do not deem it to be necessary in any criti-


cisms we make upon Mayor Havemeyer to say


that he is an essentially bad mana public


thief and robber, like some who have been in


office, and who, if the truth were known, are


still In office in Washington and elsewhere.


In the private relations Of life Mayor Have
meyer is, no doubt, good citizen but, as
Mayor, he is among the worst who have ever
sat in the chair of municipal authority. He has
done things since he became Mayor which
have outraged republican government. For
of what value is republican government if it
does not express the will of the people, and in
what way was the will of New York ever ex-
pressed in such appointments as Gardner and
Charlick, Disbecker and Matsell? We hear
the argument that the Mayor is responsible
for the administration of the city, and that in
the discharge of this responsibility he has the
right to appoint whoever he pleases to sub
ordinate trusts. This is unsound. 1t was the
argument of General Grant when he became
President and the natural result of its opera
tion has been to bring upon the President all
the discredit that his administration has re-
ceived. We look down the list Of personal
appointments made by the President and we
find men as incapable and unworthy as Dis
becker or Matsell We see Casey and Cramer
Akerman, Williams and Shepherd-all fruits
from the same tree of personal government
results Of the system which has given us the
present dreary and offensive state of affairs
that we now see in New York.


Mayor Havemeyer's blunder was in suppos-
ing that he owned the city of New York when
he became its Mayor, just as General Grant
felt that among the earliest of his Presidential
duties was to apply the patronage of the
Office to relieve the wants of certain members
of his family. The appointment of Mr.
Kremer to q foreign mission, gentleman
who had never been heard of outside of his
Methodist Conference, merely for family rea-
sons, and the assignment Of the Presidents S
son to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel be-
fore he had done any service as Lieutenant,
are all SO many evidences of the disregard for
the popular will, which now results in q
genuine fear Of Csesarism, and which Mr.
Havemeyer has only too faithfully initiated in
New York. If personal government had not
taken the scandalous shape we have recently
seen in this city it might be condoned, just as
we have had to condone many things in our
municipal history. But here we have not
merely defiance of the popular will. but
violation Of the decencies Of government.
Instead of a police system which ministers
to the good order and comfort of So
ciety we have simply political machine.
The commissioners are selected to serve one
interest and another, to please this ring or
that, to advance the fortunes Of schemers and
ambitious politicians, and not to serve the
people. What claim had Mr. Gardner or
MIR. Charlick or Mr.. Matsell upon the con-
fidence or support of New York2 By
what right could Mayor Havemeyer pre-
sumo that these were the persons to be in
trusted with the police of New York, or that
they would in any way represent the honest
aspirations of the people for good government
and reform?


The truth is that our city government, as
now managed by Havemeyer and Green, is as
inefficient and corrupt as it was ever under
Tweed and Sweeny. We do not say it would
be any better under John Kelly or any of
the Tammany regime, but it could be no
worse Instead Of reform We have corrup-
ton, and scandals in administration almost as
bad as corruption. The difference we can
see between this regime and that of Tweed is
the absence of the glare and show, Tammany
balls, Blk Six and the Americus Club The
old crowd spent some money in champagne,
diamonds and photographs and had brutal
way Of entertainment and display. Those
who are now in power are more reserved in
demonstration, but as unworthy Of public
confidence, as corrupt, and the cause of as
many scandals in city government as the daz-
zling Tweed dynasty. Reform is as far off as |
ever. Havemeyer has become the ally and
protector of mere political hacks, of Incapable,
useless, bad men. He has permitted his !
ideas of personal government to lead him into
foolish and deplorable position. BY his OBJ
stinacy he is virtually q criminal awaiting
judgment, and the city all the time is at the
mercy Of politicians and placemen, who SIM
ply repeat the rule Of Garvey, MgersoD and
Tweed.


There is but one way out Of this situation
Mayor Havemeyer must be brought to a real
izing sense of the fact that although Mayor
he is not master of New York. His conduct
in appointing Gardner and Charlick was
scandal, foolish acquiescence in the demands
Of certain desperate politicians. But his con-
duct in reappointing them was crime, and
not only crime but trick worthy of dicer
in o booth. He did not reappoint Gardner and
Charlick in bold, open, manly way, as a
thing he was not afraid to do, but by a sub
terfuge that showed the consciousness of the
crime and fear of its consequences Our