Year: 1872

Aho committee OF seventy @uO snc


City Appointments.


The Committee of Seventy, or as many OF
the members of that organization as are still
unprovided with Office, held a meeting on
Wednesday last and resolved not to interfere
actively in legislation at Albany this Winter,
but to hold an advisory or supervisory posi-
ton in regard to all such measures as may be
proposed having reference to the government
or affairs of the city of New York In view of
the unfortunate effect of the committees for
mer intermeddling this will be regarded as q
wise determination, and we may now console
ourselves with the hope that nothing more
will be heard of that remarkable charter, with
its cumulative voting and its mixed commits
sions, which proved of such invaluable SER
vice to those who desired to block the wheels
of reform in the last Legislature. Like all
other citizens of character and respectability,
the members of the Committee Of Seventy are
entitled TO be heard on matters connected with
our municipal interests. and if they will
abandon the presumptuous claim of speaking
for the people instead of for themselves alone,
their opinions will be entitled to the more
respect and consideration.


The Committee of Seventy, however. did
something more than adopt this modest and
wise resolve They assailed with considerable
bitterness the appointments recently made by
the present Mayor, and clamored for the right
of the Mayor elect to all such municipal pick
ings. They denounced as recreant and cor
rupt those who by accepting Office at the pres
ent time deprive Mr. Havemeyer Of the
privilege of dispensing the city spoils. 1t is
true that they failed to bring single charge
of incompetency or dishonesty against any of
the recent appointees. Not member Of the
committee could advance q solitary objection
to Mr.. E. Delafeld Smith, or to any other
newly appointed city officer. The only COM
plant was that Mayor Havemeyer, who will
soon be in Office, should have been accorded
the privilege of distributing these snug offices
among his own friends. The committee have
frequently assailed the late Corporation Coun-
sci and others who have been supplanted
as unworthy of public confidence and
as friends and allies of the old eRing." 1t
might be supposed that body Of pure re-
formers would rejoice to get bad men out of
Office and good ones in just as speedily as pos
sible; but in the case of the Committee of
Seventy it seems that the deposition or retire
ment of unworthy officials is not regarded as
desirable until their places can be filed in
such q manner as the committee may approve.


Since the election the Committee of Seventy
have been accused by a republican organ in
this city Ehi99h supported Mayor HE!ayemeyer
of having besi too eager to Secure offices for
themselves They were told that they had i'm
paired their efficiency and created distrust sof
their sincerity in the cause of reform by be-
coming candidates for remunerative positions,
and it was announced that another organiza-
ton, pledged against ofice-seeking and Office
holding, would soon supplant the ambi-
tious Seventy" The present movement of
the committee, and the waspish, angry
feeling they display over the appointment of
unexceptionable public officers, appears to
bear out the charge of avarcious place hunt
ing already brought against them by the re-
publican organ. Mayor Havemeyer has been
the presiding officer Of the Committee of Sew
enty and it will be difficult to remove the
impression that the committees over-anxiety
to keep the best-paid offices in the city for
Mayor Havemeyers distribution is melted by
the belief that he will have a sufficient appre-
citation of the merits of his former associates
to seek his appointees from their ranks. The
people care little who may make the selections
of city officers so long as they are well made
and insure an honest and efficient discharge
of public duties.