ness was well attended to if he and all his employés ceased work at four o'clock in the afternoon. The salaries paid by the city to its officers and employés entitle it to a fair day's work. Besides, these offices are for the transaction of public business, and the convenience of all our citizens should be consulted in respect to the time during which they should remain open.'

"This was a mere straw, showing, however, the direction of the chief magistrate's mind, and it had a wholesome effect, it may be taken for granted, upon the official atmosphere of the City Hall. His first opposition to a wellplanned scheme of the Council was to veto an ordinance providing for the opening of certain streets merely that they might become highways for railroads.

"He pointed out that if the companies desired to have such rights of way, theirs should be the cost of securing them. In their desire to be thought good fellows, the Council had appropriated $500 for a firemen's benevolent association and another $500 to defray expenses of Decoration Day. The mayor pointed out the unconstitutionality of the proceeding, as well as its violation of the city charter, which makes it a misdemeanor to appropriate money raised for one purpose to any other purpose. In vetoing the resolutions transferring funds in order to make this donation, Mayor Cleveland said sturdily and sensibly:

""The efforts of our veteran soldiers to keep alive the memory of their fallen comrades, certainly deserve the aid and encouragement of their fellow-citizens. We shall all,

I think, feel it a duty and a privilege to contribute to the funds necessary to carry out such a purpose. But the money so contributed should be a free gift of the citizens and taxpayers, and should not be extorted from them by taxation. This is so because the purpose for which this money is asked does not involve their protection or interests as members of

the community; and it may or may not be approved by them. The people are forced to pay taxes into the city treasury only upon the theory that such money shall be expended for public purposes or purposes in which they all have direct and practical interest. The logic of this position leads directly to the conclusion that if the people are forced to pay their money into the public fund, and it is spent by their servants and agents for purposes in which the people, as taxpayers, have no interest, the exaction of such taxes from them is oppressive and unjust.'

"These were minor matters, good in themselves, and important as indicating the ground for confidence in the mayor, who meant what he said, and would not forget what he said that the municipal corporation should be conducted upon correct business principles.

"There came a time when the mayor's courage was to be more severely tested. Reading the message this occasion called out, the situation is clarified. It was not so when the veto came. The Council had succeeded largely in creating popular approval of its course-at least it had the support of party organs against the Democratic mayor.

"A contract was attempted to be made for street-cleaning for the period of five years, for the amount of $422,450. The resolution directing that this contract be made was successfully vetoed by Mayor Cleveland, who said, with force, directness, and a grim dash of humor:

"The bid thus accepted is more than $100,000 higher than that of another perfectly responsible party for the same work; and a worse and more suspicious feature in this transaction is, that the bid now accepted is $50,000 more than that made by the bidder himself within a few weeks, openly and publicly to your Honorable Body, for performing precisely the same service. This latter circumstance is, to my mind, the manifestation on the part of the contractor of a

OF GROVER CLEVELAND.

reliance upon the forbearance and generosity of your Honorable Body which would be more creditable if it were less expensive to the taxpayers. I am not aware that any excuse is offered for the acceptance of this proposal, thus increased, except the very flimsy one that the lower bidders could not afford to do the work for the sums they named. This extreme tenderness and care for those who desire to contract with the city, and this touching and paternal solicitude lest they should be improvidently led into a bad bargain, is, I am sure, an exception to general business rules, and seems to have no place in this selfish and sordid world except as found in the administration of municipal affairs.'

The truth in this grimly satirical prodding of a common excuse for corrupt extravagance will be recognized in other latitudes than Buffalo. The issue had been clouded by representations of the upright character of some of the aldermen who voted for letting the contract. Mayor Cleveland was not misled. He continued:

"This is a time for plain speech, and my objection to the action now under consideration shall be plainly stated. I withhold my assent from the same because I regard it as the culmination of a most barefaced, impudent and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people, and to worse than squander the public money. I will not be misunderstood in this matter. There are those whose votes were given to this resolution whom I cannot and will not suspect of a willful neglect of the interests they are sworn to protect; but it has been fully demonstrated that there are influences both in and about your Honorable Body which it behooves every honest man to watch and avoid with the greatWhen cool judgment rules the hour the public will, I hope and believe, have no reason to complain of the action of your Honorable Body; but clumsy appeals to prejudice or passion, insinuations, with a kind of low, cheap

est care.

cunning, as to the motives and purposes of others, and the mock heroism of brazen effrontery which openly declares that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set at naught, sometimes deceives and leads honest men to aid in the consummation of schemes which, if exposed, they would look upon with abhorrence. We are fast gaining positions in the grades of public stewardship. There is no middle ground. Those who are not for the people, either in or out of your Honorable Body, are against them, and should be treated accordingly.'

"A trifle verbose, perhaps, but an honest and publicspirited purpose shining through it all. The whole tenure of Mayor Cleveland's administration has been consistent with these chapters from its record. It is one which inspires confidence among lovers of aggressively honest administration, and will strengthen protesting Republicans in their purpose to remain steadfast."

Thus, before Mayor Cleveland had much more than half completed his term, he had made for himself a name that was recognized throughout his State, and, indeed, throughout the country, for remarkable administrative ability and sterling honesty.

CHAPTER XX.

The State Campaign.-Reform the Issue of the Day.-Grover Cleveland Nominated by the Democrats for Governor.-The Republican Blunder.-The Party Breaks up on Folger's Nomination.-Loud Denunciations of the Act.-Cleveland's Letter of Acceptance.-A Proclamation of Reform.

The term of Governor Cornell was to expire with the year 1882, and the State election began to cast its shadow before, during the administration of Mayor Cleveland. Reform was the issue of the day, not only in New York, but all over the country; and it was not strange that, with this sentiment abroad in the land, the eyes of the people should be directed toward the reform executive of the great city of Buffalo, and that the Democratic party should name him for Governor. A man of his legal and intellectual attainments, who had been taken from the practice of his profession, and placed at the head of the administration of a large city, and who had not only proved himself able to conduct its business, but to institute great and thorough reforms, was the man for the hour. As a writer on the events of these days puts it:

"It is strictly true that Mayor Cleveland was swept into office on one of those tidal waves of popular protest against ring rule, that are as resistless as they are sudden. But it was, after all, a local contest, and one has yet to account for the national importance which the Buffalo election assumed, and the wide-spread interest that was felt in the new champion. There is only one way in which to explain