Wyckoff's Bad Methods

New York, 1895

They Impose Taxes Unjustly on the Town of Jamaica.

A Superintendent of the County Poor said to a reporter on Monday:

"The Overseer of the Poor of Jamaica will bankrupt the town if he keeps on at his present business."

The reporter asked the Superintendent to explain the situation.

"That fellow Wyckoff is sending persons to the county poorhouse who are not residents of the town of Jamaica, nor of the county. They are tramps, and if the Overseer knew his business, he would have them sent to the penitentiary under the tramp abatement law of 1891. The Superintendents will not permit these tramps to be supported at the expense of the county, but as they have a commitment to the poorhouse, we are bound to receive them, and so we charge their support to the town of Jamaica. It is bad business for the town."

The Superintendent was asked to explain what the Overseer of the Poor should do.

"When he finds a person in need of relief who is not a resident of the town, it is his duty to notify one of the Superintendents. The Superintendent will send the person to the county poorhouse at county expense, provided he or she be a resident of the county. If not a resident of the county, we send the person back to the county in which he or she last resided."

The tax-payers of Jamaica can understand from this statement why the support of the poor is costing so much. The people have got to pay in taxes this year nearly $9,000 against $3,500 last year, and they are a good deal poorer this year than they were last year. It is an outrage to compel this town to pay the board of tramps at Barnum Island.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 1.