How the Socialists Would Run NewYork

...Almost all this land was paid for from the proceeds of long-term city bond issues...

...Old-Law Tenements The city must do away with the disgraceful old tenement houses that still house one million and a half of our people, depriving them of air, light and sunshine and ruining their health...

...The total debt service on the city's long-term debt Is $111,000,000...

...In these calamitous times of depression and unemployment the city must come to the rescue of the 1,150,000 jobless workers of New York, most of whom are destitute and will be literally exposed to the danger of starvation in the coming winter months...

...A Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice awarded him $303,000 for the property, more than live time* what it cost McCooey and his associate...

...A Socialist Administration A Socialist : / ninistratlon would alto increase the city revenue from other tourcet...

...They pointed out that experience in other cities where centralized purchasing had been established had resulted in a 16% cut in costs...

...Many small cities in the United States finance themselves from the profits of municipally owned and operated utilities...

...This must be attributed to a consider* able extent to its "pay at you go" policy for public improvements under the leadership of the Socialist Mayor, Daniel Hoan...

...And, finally, the city must pay fair compensation to its large army of employees...

...The Civil Service Reform Association maintains that at least $25,000,000 i nthe'budget represents compensation to men and women who do no real work, but are rewarded by city jobs for their political activity...

...Mayor Walker, who had appointed this committee for display purposes, promptly filed their report and forgot about it...

...For every dollar borrowed, two dollars must be paid in unproductive interest charges...

...Over 100 Republican and Democratic district leaders on the city payroll draw average salaries of $7,300 per year...

...Onehalf of its public improvements for many yean have been paid directly from taxea without any recount to borrowing...

...Such also it the political racket conducted by Tammany Hall...

...Such are the beer and speakeasy rackets, the gambling rackets and the number of business rackets that infest the city...

...It was this slogan that made Mr...

...To the Socialists the first concern is that adequate provisions be made for the full and proper exercise of the vital social functions of the city government...

...Its harbor, parks and schools have been universally acclaimed at among the finest in the country...

...Not all graft and waste in the budget can be eliminated at once...

...The system works in this manner: Whenever the city needs land for a school site, a bridge approach or other public purpose, it condemns the private property thus required...

...Pounds, the Republican candidate for Mayor, has adopted as his watchword and program in this campaign...

...The two organizations in the city are not, properly speaking, political .parties, .but .political rackets...

...A 15% reduction brought about by centralized purchasing would mean a saving of $15,000,000...

...By Morris Hillquit How the Socialists Would Run NewYork Candidate for Mayor Telle How Million, in "Honest" Graft Can Be Saved, and How the City Can Be Run for the People Who Live in It—A Call to Action to the Worker...

...We are utterly opposed to overcrowding of class rooms and skimping on teaching personnel and school buildings, and we demand more and better public parks and playgrounds...

...An Unsound Policy New York's policy of paying for the great bulk of Its public improvements out of flfty-Jrear bond issues is unsound...

...The great and wealthy city of New York should set an example as a model employer and should not be allowed to underpay and exploit its workers...

...It relies on its organization and practical machinery for getting the votes...

...Thit policy hat not retarded necettary public improvements...

...Often the Court awards the owner three times its actual value...

...The city of Jacksonville, Florida, with an annual budget of $4,000,000, raises about 40% of this turn from the profits of its municipal electric light and power plant...

...The compensation to the owner is determined by the Supreme Court...

...Under an honett, efficient Socialist administration in New York City, such at Milwaukee has enjoyed these many yeart, the city's long-term debt service would be about tlxty millions lett...

...itself...

...It must provide for a reasonable building program to furnish the poor with bright and sanitary dwellings at low rents...

...He "persuaded" the Board of Education to select his property for a school even though it was in the midst of gas tanks and incinerators...

...r When these fundamental needs of the city have been provided for, every dollar raised for city expenditures should be wisely and honestly spent and every useless dollar should be cut out of the budget...

...These jobs are the havens of the district leaders and the election district captains...

...The city of Milwaukee aaa earned a national reputation because of its sound finances...

...For example, the city in the past ten years has paid about 200 millions more for land acquired for public improvements than it should have...

...In this campaign the Socialists alone present a comprehensive and enlightened program of city administration to insure to the people u humane administration and a civic ideal transcending the narrow program of a paltry tax reduction...

...It makes no apologies for the wholesale corruption at which it was caught in the Seabury investigation and makes no promises of betterment or reform...

...This property originally tost $57,000...

...Tammany, on the other hand, needs no slogan or program...

...In this trinity of civic virtue Economy is given first place...

...The city, although it paya for the expenaive streeta which make tht large but profits possible, hat had practically no ahart In tht profits...

...We stand for ample and effective school facilities for the children of the poor...

...To Tammany the important thing is that the appropriation for every department be large enough to permit of continued graft to its henchmen...

...Good Government" To the "good government" advocates of the middle-classes, who often appear in city campaigns as anti-Tammany fusion forces and who have this year failed to fuse, the eity is above all a business corporation, an abstract, soulless corporation, to be administered on a maximum of technical efficiency at a minimum of cost...

...McKee so popular with the municipal reform elements in the first weeks of his office as acting Mayor, and it is the same slogan that Mr...

...Only S Socialist administration could glvt the city an economic, efficient and honett government and at the time time take full care of the soclnl and humane needt of its people and particularly its workers...

...The four privately owned power companies of New York reap many millions of annual profits from the needt of the people...

...Tht policy of turning over tht city's streets to private but operators mutt be stopped...

...The city also must provide adequate service for the health, safety and protection of its inhabitants and cheap and efficient transit facilities for the workers going to and coming from their work...

...If the Socialists were In power in New York they would take over the electric light companlet and distribute part of tht huge turn to the small contumer in the form of reduced ratea and use the other part to help support the social services of the city...

...But knowing Tammany as we do, it must be considerable...

...It is the essence of a "racket" to create a monopoly in a business or enterprise, mostly of an illegitimate nature, and to maintain the monopoly by an organized system of graft and terrorism...

...The racketeer offers protection from competition and prosecution to the beneficiaries of racket and levies tribute from them for his services...

...For almost ten yeart the ttrtets of New York have been a gold mine for private but operators...

...Since the city hat gone to tremendous expense in providing highway!, it ought to an joy all thete profit...

...To the "reformers" the main objective is cutting the tax rate and lighening the tax burden of the "small home owner" and the big real estate operator...

...Useless Dollars There are plenty of such useless dollars in it now...

...Cut the budget and reduce taxes" is the inspiring slogan of the middle-class "good government" advocates in this campaign...

...When it comes to the establishment of the budget, i.e., the schedule of expenditures on the different functions of the city government and the methods of raising funds to cover them, each of the three main political elements approaches the problem from its own point of view...

...Economy Unattainable Economy, efficiency and honesty In the government of New York are utterly unattainable under a Democratic or Republican administration...

...Municipal operation of the lines just described would yield the city at least $5,000,000 annually...

...In most cases the incumbents rarely ever appear at their desks, and the work performed by them for the city is negligible...

...To us Socialists the city is first and foremost the home of seven million human beings, men, women and children, whose health, centfort, education and well-being largely depend upon the municipal administration...

...A FTEK years ot mismanage ment, waste and graft in the city * government under Tammany control the good citizens of New York are now awakening to the need of economy, efficiency and honesty in municipal administration...

...John McCooey, the Brooklyn boas, for example, invested in a certain property through an associate...

...Eliminating Graft The city spends approximately $100,000,000 annually for supplies...

...To the political ring now in control of the administration the city is primarily an object of graft and loot...

...Nothing is more important in the life of the city than the proper bringing up of our children...

...Thus, the city, without curtailing In any way its social services, without cutting the wagts of Its employee!, without sacrificing the 1 five-cent fart, could provide adequate and humane unemployment relief and also afford necettary tax-relief by adopting an Intelligent Socialist program...

...The differences between the three political forces that normally contend for the mastery of the city are vital and spring from the fundamental difference in their conceptions of the nature of the city and the functions of its government...

...The $200,000,000 in excess payments is to be found in the current budget as debt service and is represented by an annual charge of $10,000,000 in interest and amortization...

...In 1928 a survey of purchasing practices was made by a group of Columbia University governmental experts, at the request of Mayor Walker...

...It offers a free hand to the predatory business interests that exploit the people of the city and in turn is allowed to loot the eity treasury and to share the profits of vice and crime with the organized underworld...

...To a considerable extent, we are today paying the price for the corrupt and Inefficient adminisstration of New York's municipal affairs under Tammany rule in the past decade...

...How much of this, in addition to the ten million just mentioned represents interest on excessive payments to contractors who split with the organization, is difficult to determine...

...That can only be achieved through municipal ownerahip and operation...

...To this day the eity owns the site, bnt it has not used it for a school because of its undesirable character, nor is it being used for any other purpose...

...The beneficiaries of these excess payments have been Tammany retainers...