February 5, 1910





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





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Vol. LXXXV.





FEBRUARY  5, 1910.





No.  2186





THE committee of the AssembLy which submitted a
report to the Legislature condemning the Ivins char¬
ter has been commissioned to draw a new charter, embody¬
ing their ideas upon the manner in which New York City
should be governed. Could anything be more ridiculous?
A legislative committee, consisting for the most part of
country lawyers and politicians, come to New Yorl^, and
hold about a dozen hearings in .reference to the existing
government of New Yorli; and about a certain proposed
manner of re-organizing it. At these hearings nobody
appears except a few people whose political or financial
interests would be injured by the proposed new charter.
On the strength of the l^nowledge so obtained the commit¬
tee prepares a report which disapproves of practically all
the more important changes made by tlie Charter Revision
Commission. At the same time it vaguely advocates cer¬
tain principles of municipal organization, which have been
proved to be erroneous and dangerous by the whole history
of American City government, and which are being aban¬
doned by all the progressive cities in the country. Finally,
to crown the performance, this third-rate committee, which
is without any exact knowledge of New York governmental
conditions, and which is apparently ignorant of the whole
trend of charter-reform in the United States, is authorized
to spend a few weeks of its valuable time during a busy
legislative session in preparing a new charter for the lar¬
gest city in the country. The Charter Revision Commis¬
sion, which was composed of thoroughly competent residents
of New York, considered it necessary to sit constantly for
more than a year, and to hold innumerable hearings before
venturing to submit a new scheme of municipal organiza¬
tion for tbe Metropolis. It consulted everybody who by
experience and knowledge was entitled to an opinion on
different aspects of local administration; and the conclusions
it reached exhibited, not only the results of an abundance
of well-digested information, but a firm grasp of appro¬
priate principles. But the committee of the assembly can
dispense with any such elaborate and exhaustive prepara¬
tion. It can toss ofl a charter for the Metropolis with the
utmost ease and celerity, and at the end of a month or six
weeks. New York will be presented with a new system of
government, which wil! have the distinction of requiring
the smallest amount of preliminary preparation on record.
Of course, the ivhole performance is a farce; but one can¬
not help wondering whether it is as ranch of a farce as it
seems. The committee must know that its performance
will not receive any serious consideration; and the question
is: Why is it taking the trouble to do it? There must
be some possible advantage in it for the machine of the
two parties. The Ivins charter has been killed by the
politicians, for a certain object; and they must have the
same object in proposing a substitute as they had in knifing
the original.





of government, which would promote responsibility, effi¬
ciency and economy, were utterly indifferent to the whole
project. It raised far more opposition among a few own¬
ers of real estate iu the Bronx and Brooklyn, who feared
that they would not get as much out of the city treasury
under centralized administration than it did support among
their fellow taxpayers. In fact, the project inspired so
little popular iiiterest and approval that, perhaps, it is just
as well ,tliat it has failed. If the more intelligent and
well-to-do people in New York City have not been con¬
vinced by the experience of the past five years that the
^ financial interests of the city can be properly protected
and promoted only by a highly efficient centralized admin¬
istration, they have certainly fairly incurred any possible
costly results of their blindness. It is better that the
revision of the Charter should wait, until public opinion
has been convinced of the desirability of an effective re¬
organization. There is at least one conspicuous advantage
which will be gained by waiting. New York will be able
to reap the benefit of the experience of more progressive
cities all over the country. At the end of a few years the
new ideas now being embodied in municipal charters will
have been much more thoroughy tried out than they have
been as yet. The commission plan is still experimental,
and further experience of it may expose defects or suggest
improvements. The Boston plan, which concentrates re¬
sponsibility in the mayor, will have also been tried for a
sufficiently long time to test its success. Finally it is pos-
.sible that Chicago, also, will adopt a very different scheme of
reorganization, the effects of which may, also, be of help
to the future charter-makers for the Metropolis. The exist¬
ing charter has many grave defects; but it is not a wholly
unworkable form of organization, and in the hands of good
officials, it may be made into a fairly effective instrument
of public service. Its worst defect, viz., separate borough
administrative responsibility, is neutralized by the fact that
the existing Borough Presidents are competent public-
spirited men. As long as they continue to do as well as
they are apparently doing at present, the demand for change
cannot be very urgent.





THAT the Ivins charter is a lost cause, there seems to
be unfortunately no doubt. The professional poli¬
ticians of the two parties did not want it, because their
interests are opposed to efficient and_ responsible municipal
government. Their opposition might have been unavail¬
ing, in case there had been developed in New York City
any effective body of favorable public opinion, but such a
body of opinion failed absolutely to appear. The taxpayers
who should have been most interested in securing a form





rp HE most casual observer must be struck by the fact that
J. the temper of the present Administration of New York
differs radically from that to which the city has hitherto
been accustomed. Never before have tlie new heads of
departments turned their attention immediately to the task
of cutting the deadwood out of their offices, of reducing
expenses, and increasing efficiency. Even in Mayor Low's,
subordinates who were admirable in certain respects, ac¬
complished nothing in the way of departmental reorganiza¬
tion. At present a good prospect is offered that the city is
going to be better served during the next four years at
smaller expense, and that the departmental chiefs will have
some other object in view than that of securing the largest
possible appropriations from the city treasury. Not less
promising is the behavior of the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment. In the first pJace, its several members are
really getting together. They are not sciuabbling or play¬
ing politics. They are cooperating in the interest of good
government, and what is more they are cooperating effec¬
tively. They have agreed practically to do all that the
law allows to increase the control of the Board over the ex¬
penditure of the city's money. They are really testing what
can be done under the existing charter to that end; and the
test is certainly worth making. It remains to be seen how
much can be accomplished by these means. The outlook
for the taxpayer would be very bright indeed, were he not
threatened by the terrifying possibility of being called upon
to pay many million additional dollars to the women school
teachers in the city. No economies which can possibly
be effected by either the departmental chief or the Board of
Estimate would be sufficient to fill the hole cansed by an
acquiescence in the demand for "equal pay," and we cannot
believe that the Board which really wants to benefit the
whole city, will deprive itself of the means of doing so by
submitting to the demand. Considering the need of subway
and other improvements, the means which are available for
carrying them out, and the responsibility of the Board for
doing so, it is not too much to say that submission to the
equal pay agitation would be tantamount to the ruin of the
administration. Thereafter its hands would be tied. It
would have increased taxes without giving the taxpayers any¬
thing for ttjeir money, and it would have injured both the
credit of the city and its ability to pay for essential im¬
provements.        Its   power   for   good   would   be   so   seriously





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