With the reelection of Mr. McClellan, Tammany Hall confidently looked forward to four more years of unquestioned control of the immense budget and enormous opportunities embodied in the rule of New York City. FOOTNOTES [1] _Report of the New York Legislative Insurance Committee_, 1906, Vol. X, p. 16. [2] _Ibid._ [3] _Ibid._, p. 50. [4] _Ibid._, pp. 62 and 398. [5] _Ibid._, p. 10. [6] Mr. Croker, in 1900, had admitted his liability to an English tax on a yearly income of $100,000. [7] The company had filed articles of incorporation in 1872, but was charged with being an abortive corporation in that it had never completed the necessary formalities required by law. [8] As we shall see later, the political composition of the Board of Estimate was at this time considerably mixed; during his second term Mayor McClellan was fighting Mr. Murphy, leader of Tammany Hall, and had the backing of Senator McCarren and of McCarren’s lieutenant, Controller Metz. Mr. McGowan, president of the Board of Aldermen, was supposed to be a Tammany man, but was not on good terms with the “Organization” and was credited with being aligned with McClellan and Metz. [9] _Interstate Commerce Commission Report No. 6569_, In re _Financial Transactions of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co._, July 11, 1914, pp. 35, 38, etc. The above are but a few extracts from this comprehensive report. [10] _The Truth About Metropolitan_, by W. N. Amory, pp. 60-64. [11] In an effective article in _McClure’s Magazine_, Mr. Ray Stannard Baker showed how one of these big companies bribed walking delegates to declare strikes on buildings being put up by rival contractors in order that it--the briber--might be able to get a reputation for building within contract time, and thus exclude competitors from getting further contracts. CHAPTER XXXIII TAMMANY’S CONTROL UNDER LEADER MURPHY 1906-1909 When Mayor McClellan, in the campaign of 1905 promised an independent administration, Tammany leaders did not take his words seriously; they considered his promises mere campaign vapor. In this estimate they were mistaken. Mayor McClellan broke relations with Charles F. Murphy in January, 1906, and announced that he would keep every promise made by him “on the stump.” His appointment of anti-Murphy men to office had a nettling effect on the leader of Tammany Hall, against whom he began a systematic campaign. Results, still more serious to Tammany leaders, were forthcoming. The President of the Borough of Manhattan was John A. Ahearn, a noted Tammany district leader. He had been a State Senator from 1889 to 1902, and had been elected president of the Borough of Manhattan in 1903, and reelected in 1905 for a term of four years. It may be explained that the presidency of a borough was a powerful office, having direct appointive and supervisory power over six departments with expenditures of many millions of dollars annually.[1]