William Jay Gaynor

Contents:

• AN ASSASS’S BULLET TOOK THREE YEARS TO KILL NYC MAYOR WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
• WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR: LIBERTARIAN MAYOR OF NEW YORK
• WILLIAM J. GAYNOR
• GAYNOR, WILLIAM JAY, -1913
• THE SHORT BGRAPHY OF WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
• MAYOR WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
• WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
• CATEGORY:WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

AN ASSASS’S BULLET TOOK THREE YEARS TO KILL NYC MAYOR WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

William Jay Gaynor.

But none of the ndidat had a story as strange as William Jay Gaynor, an old New York Cy mayor whose ath happened to ci wh electn day this year.

WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR: LIBERTARIAN MAYOR OF NEW YORK

A hundred years ago yterday, Gaynor was travelg to Europe when he llapsed and died om a bullet that had been lodged his throat for three years, after an (eventually succsful) assass shot him. Gaynor was not New York when he was shot, and he was not New York when he fally succumbed to s effects years later.

Gaynor survived, but the bullet stayed his throat, slowly robbg him of the abily to speak. Gaynor ran anyway, announcg an pennt n for Mayor on the steps of Cy Hall. His secretary had to make his speech for him, but, acrdg to the Bowery Boys, as the secretary explaed Gaynor’s plan to eradite graft, the mayor leaped up and cried, “Y, that is what we are gog to do — shovel all those miserable grafters to the mon dump!

Gaynor received the Demo­cratic nomatn for Mayor of New York Cy. (baptized Jam but later changed to Jay) Gaynor was probably born the village of Whboro, central New York State, and evince pots to the rrect date as beg 1848, the year John Qucy Adams died. Gaynor never said anythg he did not mean and, more remarkable, he never meant anythg he did not say.

WILLIAM J. GAYNOR

" Gay­nor was a public figure wh a "bent towards solu, study, se­reny, ntemplatn, everythg he summed up the word ‘n­tentment.

Gaynor tried his hand at sev­eral thgs before settlg on the legal profsn where his keen md and boundls energy brought him great succs as one of the bit of Brooklyn lawyers. Gaynor dis­patched the bs on hand wh such promptu that urt was adjourned at noon. "For Gaynor, law (though not necsarily the law) was dified mon sense.

But Gaynor for all his bullyg of unsel and csts toward w­ns "kept one thg foremost his md—the terts of the ligant. After servg a fourteen-year term, Gaynor was re-elected 1907 to a send term but he re­signed 1909 to n for mayor of New York Cy.

GAYNOR, WILLIAM JAY, -1913

What mak Gaynor worth re­memberg and knowg is not what he did, but what he was. The temptatn, when wrg about Gaynor, is to dwell on his dynamic personaly, his lorful speech and wrg. But is one thg to read about a strong char­acter such as Gaynor, and que another to have personal ntact wh him.

No, Gaynor was not a pleasant pann much of the time though wh the right pany he was a charmg per- son and brilliant nversatnalist. Gaynor is rather dif­ficult to get along wh at tim and we are glad that we have no personal relatns wh him; but the firmi do not greatly ncern the public welfare.

The late Albert Jay Nock once remarked that William Jay Gaynor "imprsed me as by far the ablt man our public life. " Gaynor was, Nock’s opn, the last Amerin, "the last, at any rate, public life. In 1912, the Supertennt of Public Instctn asked Gaynor for a msage to be read to all the school­children of New York on the Fourth of July.

THE SHORT BGRAPHY OF WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

On the duty of public men Gay­nor had this to say a letter to a Philalphia supporter:.

MAYOR WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

What sets Gaynor apart om most other public officials? " Or maybe Nock was right answer­g that the poor people unr­stood their own way that Mayor Gaynor, as an enemy of all j­tice, was their iend. Gaynor’s character and ac­plishments were unique.

Gaynor believed that ern­ment "was a nvenient and nec­sary vice for matag orr and jtice unr law but should be ltle more. Gaynor had ltle patience wh the many reformers who were al­ways pterg him to "do some­thg" about the people whose be­havr they owned upon.

But Gaynor objected to "addg to the multiplicy of laws" and to "put­tg addnal power the hands of ernment. Mayor Gaynor believed the "prcipal duty of the police is to prerve the public peace, and keep outward orr and cency.

WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

" Lately Thomas wr about what Gaynor said to those who dis­agreed wh him. Directg his fire at those "socie­ti, and private enthiasts, for the `supprsn of vice, ’ " who urged the necsy of extralegal methods to bat crime and vice effectively, Gaynor advised that they "read his­tory, and learn the supreme danger of tryg to do all at once by the policeman’s club what n be done at all only gradually by the slow moral velopment which prcipally om our schools and church…. Them that Gaynor never ceased to emphasize durg his years on the bench were the fense of personal liberty, and opposn to the ill-advised attempts of meddlome re­formers to remold social ncepts and rrect long-standg ab by re­strictive legislatn and force.

Gaynor’s le wh regard to labor disput was to mata law and orr but to practice strict ntraly between the op­posg factns.

The exceptn to Gay­nor’s le was when strik were agast the public welfare; this he refed to untenance and he nsequently angered labor repre­sentativ. When, for stance, employe of the cy threatened a ferry strike, Gaynor told them bluntly that if they did they would never work for the cy aga while he was Mayor. "Unr civil service l, " explas Lately Thomas, "subordatn was grounds for dismissal; and no­body doubted that Mayor Gaynor, unpledged and unbossed, wh a lifetime reputatn of meang jt what he said, would if nec­sary execute the law to the letter.

CATEGORY:WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

When the drivers of ash and garbage wagons did walk off the job, Gaynor treated them as men who had qu their jobs. Gaynor held firm and to quirers ma his stand perfectly clear. After the strike end, prsure was brought on Gaynor to take the strikers back, but he gave them no satisfactn.

Unlike some who profs a fond­ns for polil liberty, Mayor Gaynor unrstood the importance of enomic eedom.

The social­ist scheme of placg all lands and stments of productn unr the ntrol of the state, said Gay­nor, "would by dog away wh the centiv to dividual ee­dom greatly rce productn, and thereby crease poverty and distrs…. In our society today there are surely many men of tegry such as was William Jay Gaynor.