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GAYNOR APPOINTSIHERMAN ROBINSON€Labor Leader Is Chosen for License Commissioner atta$5,000 a Year.i\tfCOL. SMITH REINSTATED(Mayor Insists That Justice Must BeDone In the Case at AllCosts.tMayor n ay nor yesterday appointed Herman Robinson, the labor leader, Commissioner of Licenses and Instructed Park Commissioner Stover to reinstate Col. Clinton H. Smith as Assistant Secretary of the Park Board, from which place he I * was removed by Park Commisioner Smith | just before he went out of office. £Mr. Robinson is one of the best known labor men in the city. In swearing him Ittt1ifttcrC£(lt;Ctf(in the Mayor said:“ If all labor leaders had your silence, habit of thought and discretion, and always looked before they leaped it would be well for all of us.Robinson succeeds John N. Bogart, who is also a labor man. The placepays $5,000 a year. Neither of them is identified with the Tammany organiza-i *tion, although both are Democrats, and Robinson has been a member of Tammany district clubs. Bogart has not stood well with the labor men of the city fur some time, and several delegations, j headed by William A. Coakley and J Thomas J. Curtis, who were members of the Committee of One Hundred, had waited upon the Mayor to urge his displacement. , !Robinson is one of the most popular ilabor leaders in the Hast. He is 40 years iiiold and for several years has been gen- j eral organizer of the American Federation of Labor in this district and the personal representative of Samuel Gomp-ers in New York. He has been a delegate in the Central Federated Union for twenty years and its Financial Secretary since 1898.In his letter to Commissioner Stover jwith reference to .Col. Smith the Mayorsaid:Sir: Please take measures to reinstate Clinton It. Smith in his office of Secretary unless there is something that should be reported to me to the contrary, and his casp jcan later on be calmly dealt with. (That done in heat or haste is as a rule ill done. We must not only deal with poo- .pie with justice, but also with the appear- |ance of justice, the latter sometimes being ias essential as the former. IVery truly yours, IW. J. GAYNOR. Mayor. |When Commissioner Smith made up his budget request for this year he asked the Board of Estimate to cut Col. Smith’^ salary from $4,000 to $2,000, contending!that half of the amount had been paid *to him as Secretary to the Commissioner and that this was superfluous in thathe (the Commissioner) had his own secretary. The board overruled the Com-nj^ioner, however, and left the salarya«t $4,000. WIhen the budget went to the Aldermen the Commissioner again presented his request, and they made the cut. The Commissioner’s secretary at the time was a brother of Percy Nagle, Tammany leader of the Thirtieth Assembly District. He afterward figured prominently in the investigation of the. Commissioners of Accounts into the affairs of the Park Department. Then the Commissioner discharged Col. Smith at Christmastime.When the Mayor shook hands with Col. Smith in the line that greeted him at City Hall on New Year’s Day he said:“ So you are the man that lias been in the Park Department for thirty years and discharged just before I came' into office.”Turning to R. C. E. Brown, a member of the State Civil Service Commission, who followed Col. Smith in the line, the |. Mayor said:” Here is something for us to look into.” As soon as Samuel Parsons, Jr.. the landscape architect of the department, was placed in temporary charge after Commissioner Smith had resigned Col. Smith was temporarily reinstated.' Now the Mayor is determined that the caseshall be brought up on its merits and justice done. ,Among the Mayor’s callers yesterday, were City Chamberlain Hyde. Water Uom-missioner Thompson, Commissioner Barrv of the Department of Correction, and the “ stockingless Duncans.” The Duncans saw Secretary Adamson, but the Mayor was busy and they left withoutseeing him.“We came to the City Hall,” said the head of the family. “ to see if there is no one in this town who might protect visitors from intrusion or insult from such organizations as the Children’s Societv. The Mayor was busy, and we did not see him. His secretary told us to write, but/ I am told that such letters seldom get attention.”As the trio proceeded toward the Subway they nearly created a riot in City Hall Park.Ex-Controller Metz has been designated by the Mayor as New York’s Commissioner to the American Exposition to be held in Berlin next Summer. He called yesterday to get his credentials. Mayor McClellan made the appointment some time ago, and it was only necessary for the new Mayor to confirm it.A A * I I _ ■ •___ I • /A _ JL * A at
Newspaper Details
New York Times
New York, New York, US
Thu, Jan 13, 1910
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 24 Jun 2020
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