[364] RICHARD SKOLNIK effort was Waring's attempt to attract public attention and to create an image of himself as tough-minded and outspoken. The New York Tribune noted "an air of cheerful audacity about the man. He had complete faith in himself and was not sensitive to detraction!'22 Waring later admitted that many things that he did were considered "'unjudicious^ 'dramatic^ and perhaps, even 'foolish'"; yet his plan "was to force the department on to the attention of the people in every possible way,... and the easiest way to do this was to introduce the personal element and to make myself as Commissioner as conspicuous as I could!' Waring's unorthodox public pronouncements on the matter of wages in the Department have already been noted. He next became the focus of a prolonged public debate when a private remark of his unaccountably found its way into print. Although a Civil War veteran, Waring as commissioner objected to municipal statutes that required him to accord veterans preferred treatment. Discipline and efficiency would be undermined, he reasoned, unless he retained complete authority. His annoyance over this matter precipitated his description of the Grand Army of the Republic as "a lot of pension bummers" Predictably, veterans' organizations throughout the city and state proclaimed themselves outraged and demanded Waring's removal.23 Waring dismissed the suggestion, remained unrepentant, and seemed Z2Times, Supplement, October 11, 1896. Tribune, October 30, 1898. Z3Times, April 22 and 23, 1895; Waring, "Secretary Rusk and the Farmers" North American Review, CLII (June 1891), 753. Waring's street cleaning. Fifth Street looking west from Avenue A, 1895. Photograph by Jacob Riis. MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.