Youngs' Humiliating Position

New York, 1895

The Republican Boss Scored by a Republican Newspaper.

(From the Long Island City Herald.)

The Herald announced several weeks ago that the Hon. William J. Youngs, Chairman of the Queens County Republican Committee and the representative of Queens and Suffolk Counties on the State Committee, was a candidate for Railroad Commissioner or some other important and lucrative State office, and that until he was provided for there was no likelihood of any other Queens County Republican getting anything. Well Mr. Youngs has been provided for, but how have the mighty fallen, or rather in the greedy lust for office, what a humiliating tumble has the leader of the Republican party in Queens County taken to grab a petty and insignificant position because it was the only one at present within his reach.

Mr. Youngs is reputed to be a rich man. His wealth is estimated in the neighborhood of $100,000, and yet he stoops to take a place the compensation for which is about five dollars a day. He has been appointed clerk to a legislative committee which is to travel about the state and examine the public roads. In accepting this cheap position he has broken the promise publicly and voluntarily made by him after the election last fall that he wanted nothing for himself and that in accepting the chairmanship of the county committee he could not consistently or honorably seek any office with a salary attached to it. We certainly think that Mr. Youngs has not only made a great mistake in accepting this petty office but has forfeited the confidence and respect of the Republicans of this county.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 3, 1895, p. 1.

Note: There are several other articles about Boss Youngs at antiquearchives.blogspot.com, and probably several to come!