Mr. Vacheron's Queer Work

New York, 1895

The State proposed to spend a sum of money for surveys and the like with a view to building a canal from Newtown creek to Flushing bay, to connect these tide waters. The bill provided for a commission to do the work and defined their duties and powers. Assemblyman Vacheron used his influence and his vote to defeat this bill, thereby depriving this county of an improvement of incalculable benefit, and the Jamaica Standard proceeds to shower glory upon him in this lavish fashion:

"On Wednesday, the gigantic scheme of F. F. Shultz, to appropriate a large sum of money for the building of a canal in Queens county, to connect Flushing and Newtown Crook, came up in the Assembly. The bill called for the appointment of six commissioners. This provided fat offices at state expense for political henchmen. Mr. Vacheron vigorously attacked the measure. Mr. Vacheron's speech was the effort of his life. This completely knocked it out. Those who witnessed this fight said that Mr. Vacheron did the work of a hero."

We cannot fathom the Standard's opposition to the bill, and its praise of Mr. Vacheron for helping to kill it, on any other theory than that there was nothing in it for Mr. Vacheron or Boss Youngs, and the Standard sympathised with them and followed the orders of the boss.

If the state should decide to spend a million dollars or more in an improvement that would be of immeasurable benefit to Jamaica, Newtown and Flushing, and incidentally to the whole island, the people of the county should welcome it, first, because we would be getting a return for the state taxes that we pay, and, secondly, for the general benefits that would accrue to business and property.

Queens county has to contribute annually a large sum of money to maintain the canals, but receives no direct benefit whatever. We have paid as much as $40,000 a year for the canal system, and this year the share levied upon us was $24,150, and when the state proposes to give us the direct benefits of a canal here at home, at the expense of the state at large, Mr. Vacheron and his cronies refuse to let us have it! A greater outrage was never committed upon the people of this county.

The only objection the Standard is able to present to the bill is that it provided "for the appointment of a commission of six. This provided fat offices at state expense for political henchmen." This is rich and rare, when we recall that the Standard was perfectly willing to have the Commissioner of Jurors bill passed to provide an office for Mr. Vacheron at an expense to the people of Queens County of $10,000 a year; and the editor of the Standard even went to Albany to help Mr. Vacheron and Boss Youngs lobby the rascally job through.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 24, 1895, p. 4.