The History of Tammany Hall: Second EditionMyers, Gustavus
History
The History of Tammany Hall: Second Edition
Myers, Gustavus
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government; Tammany Hall (Political organization)
The charges declared that Mr. McCall’s acceptance of his appointment
to the Public Service Commission was in violation of law; that he was
at the time the owner of stock in a corporation subject to the Public
Service Commission’s supervision; that thereafter he attempted to
transfer this stock to his wife “which attempt was a mere subterfuge
and a clumsy effort to evade the statute”; and that as Chairman of
the Public Service Commission he participated in the consideration of
matters affecting the value of this stock.
Further, the charges accused Mr. McCall of accepting a retainer for
legal services from a corporation, the chief owner of the stock of
which was commonly reputed to be a controlling factor in the management
of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company; and that in another case
he accepted a retainer in an action then pending in the Supreme Court
“in which action the engineers in the employ of the Public Service
Commission will be necessary as material witnesses.” Other charges
specified that he favored the public service corporations to the
detriment of public interests. The sixteenth charge particularized
that in the matter of the third tracking of the elevated railroads
in Manhattan he failed to reserve the power of supervision to the
Commission “and that as a result of such failure the lessee of
the Manhattan Railway Company [the Interborough] has entered into
extravagant and improvident contracts under which its stockholders and
the people of the City of New York have suffered and will suffer large
losses”. The seventeenth charge arraigned McCall for having authorized
the construction of connecting lines by the Interborough Rapid Transit
Company “at an extravagant and exorbitant price and without competition
to the disadvantage of the city of New York and its inhabitants.” The
eighteenth charge set forth that in the execution of the dual subway
contracts “he permitted the inclusion of a provision under which the
New York Municipal Railway Corporation will be permitted unwarrantedly
to deduct from the earnings of that company, before the division of the
net earnings between the company and the city can be accomplished, a
sum aggregating more than $10,000,000.” In brief, the charges declared
that McCall showed misconduct in office, favoritism, neglect of duty,
and inefficiency.
After consideration of the charges, Governor Whitman, on December 6,
1915, removed Mr. McCall from office as the Chairman of the Public
Service Commission, First District. The particular charge substantiated
was that McCall violated that section of the Public Service Commissions
law forbidding a Commissioner to hold stock in a corporation subject to
the Commission’s supervision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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