100 years ago in The Record
Thursday, November 1, 1917
Mayor Cornelius F. Burns accuses his Republican challenger of “coarse, indecent and intemperate language” while denying that he’s filled City Hall with useless political appointees.
Burns, a Democrat, is seeking his fourth two-year term. GOP nominee George T. Morris is the maverick fiscal-conservative alderman from the Fourth Ward. The Record, which usually supports Republicans at the county, state and federal level, has endorsed Burns and attacked Morris for his obstructionism and his alleged besmirching of the city’s good name.
In a statement issued today, Burns notes that Morris has referred to City Hall employees as “rats” and “vermin” and has described City Hall itself, in more ornate language, as “a rendezvous of sinecurists, political adventurers and exploitation schemers.”
“With this coarse, indecent and intemperate language employed in speaking of reputable citizens who are giving the best that is in them honestly and faithfully to the public service, I leave you to dal in your own way,” the mayor writes.
“But lest anyone should … think that there has been a great and unwarranted addition to the number employed at the city hall, I desire to let you know just what public offices there are in the city hall building and whether there has been any increase in the number of employees in such offices since I succeeded Hon. Elias P. Mann as mayor.”
Out of fifteen City Hall departments, Burns claims to have added only thirteen positions in four departments. Ten jobs were added to the harbor and dock commission, half of them unpaid. The other five are “engaged in the necessary work of surveying, mapping, preparing specifications and the other work growing out of the already inaugurated system of dock construction and harbor improvement.”
The other three additions are a comptroller’s clerk, a chainman in the city engineer’s office and a clerk for the public works commissioner. That official, in charge of a distributing supplies to public buildings, has saved the city more than his salary through his efficiency, Burns explains.
“No public officer or set of public officers who may be installed in the city hall building will be able to efficiently transact the public business without the use of the same number of employees now engaged here,” the mayor claims.
In the city as a whole, Burns has cut 47 jobs in the public works and water works departments since taking office.
Morris also criticizes Burns for hiring people who continue to conduct their private businesses while collecting city salaries. Burns notes that Morris himself receives an alderman’s salary while continuing to run his plumbing business.