Year: 1871

Short, Direct nUd Good Road Out OF
Our Municipal Troubles.


II must by this time be evident 10 every citi-
zen of New York that under the manipulations
of schemng politicians the movement for mu-
nicipal reform is not likely to have the result
contemplated and desired by the people. The
Committee of Seventy, which has now been
in existence some three weeks, has held seve-
raj meetings and resolved several resolutions


but further than the probable exercise of some
influence in inducing Comptroller Connolly to
place Mr.. Green in the active discharge Of the
duties of his Office, in order to save himself,
they have accomplished no practical result


The application made before Judge Barnard
for an injunction to prevent the city govern
ment from raising any more money
was not the committees work, but that
tirely on his own responsibility in the
matter Hence the seventy highly respect
able gentlemen have done but little actual
good in three weeks, If we except the COM
position of well-written and praiseworthy
address to the electors of the State, calling to





and urging them to send none but honest men
to Albany next winter. This certainly Is
good advice, directed towards practical end,
and if the committee can compass thorough
reformation of our State Legislature they will
richly deserve the deepest gratitude of the
people. The Joint Investigating Committee Of
Sixteen has accomplished as little as has its
larger colaborer, and has not as yet even pub
lished an address. To be sure it has applied
to the Board of Supervisors for the delegation
by that body to itself of the power to swear
witnesses and to send for persons and papers,
with view to an examination of the heads and
chief clerks, and an inquisition into the books
and documents of all the city departments.
But If the Supervisors have the legal power to
delegate that authority, which is at least ques-
tionable, such an inquiry as that proposed
would last over the present election, if not
over that of next year, and would doubtless
end as fruitlessly as such Investigations do
end ninety-nine times out Of hundred. In
deed, as no city department appears as yet to
have evinced any disposition to obstruct an in
vestgation, the application to the Board of
Supervisors seems superfuous and only new
source Of delay. Several days ago it was an
nounced that Deputy Green had secured docu-
mentary evidence fixing criminality upon the
Mayor of the city and other public officers,
and we were promised immediate and startling
developments at the hands of the acting Comp
troller. But they are not yet forthcoming,
and Deputy Green is now fully occupied with
his efforts to raise money to carry on the ordi-
nary business of the government. Further
than this he has done no more than the
committees have done towards accomplishing
the grand revolution to which the people have
been invited. To-day the main feature of the
situation is that the city government is
deprived of the power of raising money to
carry on its business and is dependent on the
favors of those wealthy bankers and merchants
who may choose to advance funds for that pur-
pose, for which, of course, the city will have
to pay literally in the end. 1t seems now as
if this result were all that the politicians care
about accomplishing. They will keep money
and its equivalent, votes, out of the hands of
those to whom they are opposed; they will
continue to promise startling disclosures and
to make use of the strongest disparaging
epithets they can discover in a we'll supplied
vocabulary; they will persist in heated appeals
to the people until election day has come and
gone, and then the storm will blow over and
the vctors, whoever they may chance to be,
will enjoy the spoils.


Now, nothing is more certain than that the
people desire to ascertain who is corruptly
responsible for the swindling and extortion
to which they have been subjected for several
years past; that they intend to hold the guilty
parties to accountability and to drive them
from Office, and that they insist upon simple
amendment to the present city charter,
by which the Mayor, who is elected by
the people, shall have the absolute
power to remove the head of any
department of the municipal government
and shall be responsible for the honest
and efficient management of the whole. The
question is, how is the popular will to be car
ried out? We are living under the law as it
| is, not under the law as we would have it, and


we must 60 legally to work to accomplish the
TeSulCS at WHlCu We dlu. lNeW 1OTk ~ Tue
| metropolis of the United States, and her citi-
zens have time and again proved their devo-
ton to order and their determination
to preserve it at any cost. They
do not desire the rule of vigilance
committee, or a revolution, or any violence
and lawlessness, to bring disgrace upon
the good name of their city. There are two
| methods TO pursue, If they become convinced
that their present rulers are unworthy of their
confidence One is to get rid of the objec-
tionable officers by impeachment, and the
other is to elect Legislature that will use


the power of the State to legislate them out Of
Office The rantings of partisan press


amount to nothing outside these two practical
! courses, and we do not believe that
I'LL l.xx.~ 10 ttntr