Gaynor llapsed and died om a bullet that had been lodged his throat for three years - put there by an eventually succsful assass
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 *
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. 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.
WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR: LIBERTARIAN MAYOR OF NEW YORK
(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.
" 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.
WILLIAM J. GAYNOR
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.
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, WILLIAM JAY, -1913
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. On the duty of public men Gaynor had this to say a letter to a Philalphia supporter:.
THE SHORT BGRAPHY OF 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.
MAYOR WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
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. " Lately Thomas wr about what Gaynor said to those who disagreed wh him.
WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
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.
CATEGORY:WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR
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.