If the city government of New York had at its head a man “with a beard on his chin,” he could find a way to solve this Subway problem and all kindred problems within a few weeks, and in such a manner that it would never be presented again. He would have to be intelligent, he would have to be honest, he would have to be brave, but if he had these qualities and were, besides, a patriot wishing to do what is best for the entire community, he could win a victory which would repeat itself in all the centres of our population, and which would terminate the reign of rascality which now exploits, for personal ends, the powers and the opportunities of public office in almost every great city of this Republic. * * * * * You ask me _how_ could the Mayor do anything, when the Subway is legally in the hands of a Commission created by the Legislature? I answer that the city has the right to use its streets. One of its sovereign powers, inherent and absolute, is that of keeping its streets open for the safe and free use of every citizen. Nobody has the right to block travel or traffic, nor can the Legislature grant such a privilege. As to the Subway, it is a street under the ground. True, the _methods_ which he would have to employ differ from those which he would apply to a surface street, but the _principle_ would be precisely the same in the one case as in the other. He could say to Belmont and his employees: “You are blocking the streets. You are interfering with the rights of the people who paid for the Subway and who want to use it. You and your disputes are as nothing to me in comparison with the duty which I owe to the city. _Arbitrate your difference_, or I will exert the full sovereign power of the municipality to seize the Subway and to open it to travel. “And you needn’t run to any judge for an injunction, either. In the exercise of supreme executive authority policing the city and keeping open its streets, I shall tolerate no interference whatever from corporation lawyers or corporation judges. I give you fair warning: _Arbitrate_, and do it quickly—else the city takes what is hers, and operates the cars which you have tied up!” Who doubts that a threat like this, made by the right kind of Mayor, would bring Belmont to his senses in a couple of minutes? Arbitrate! Of course he would arbitrate—quickly and gladly. And the Mayor would have the enthusiastic support of ninety-nine men out of every hundred in New York. _The Patriot_