Robbery in the Name of the Law

New York, 1895

As matters stand to-day the county will be put in a hole for $9,000 for the improvement of a small and unimportant piece of road in the towns of Newtown and Flushing, while those towns will contribute but $2,000 each to the cost of the improvement. It is robbery in the name of law, and it will surprise all honest people to find the Flushing Journal supporting such jobbery and censuring Supervisor Pople because he does not pull in with its advocates.

There never has been a doubt as to the rascality of the whole proceeding, and the board of Supervisors should leave nothing undone to prevent the consummation of the rascality. The improvement is for the particular benefit of two corporations, but to be sure, some public benefit will result, and Supervisor Pople is right when he says that all the circumstances smack of dishonorable dealings, and all fair minded people will sustain him.

One particular piece of extravagance is outlined. The engineer said that a necessary bulkhead could be built for $1,400, but the contract provides for a bulkhead that is to cost $4,000. Then again, the roadway was to be eighteen feet wide, but the contracts call for a road fifty feet wide, and all the benefit inures to the Brooklyn City railroad company, whose agents have usurped the authority of officials and made the officials their figureheads in the whole business.

The law under which this improvement has been undertaken has been perverted. It provides that where a road improvement between towns is so costly as to be burdensome to the towns, one-half of the expense may be placed upon the county. Under the original plans the improvement would have cost $10,000, and the Brooklyn City railroad company agreed to pay $5,000, leaving $2,500 for Flushing to pay, and a like amount for Newtown, certainly not a burden within the intent of the law. Because the county could be made liable for one-half of the expense of the work, the scope of it was increased so as to double the expense, and there are those who believe that instead of $18,000 the work will cost $40,000.

The county was never made a party to the proceeding at any stage of the game, as it should have been, and we believe that the whole thing can be upset in an action at law, but George Wallace has demonstrated that he is not capable of grasping the question or promulgating a proper action, and it will be too bad if the county is put into a hole for from $9,000 to $20,000 without an effort to prevent it. We hope the Supervisors will rise to the occasion and engage special counsel to start a fight.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 10, 1895, p. 4.