Icebergs

This is the introductory paragraph of a New York Tribune editorial: "If passengers were sailing under a captain who announced the opinion that icebergs were good for a ship, and who thereupon steered his vessel for the nearest berg, what would they do? Would they argue that the important thing was to teach him a jolly good lesson--give the old man rope to hang himself, and so on, and let the ship drive on? Or would they do everything in their power to block him and incidentally save the ship ? "Mayor Hylan is the captain. And New York City the ship.