The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-05-14

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Johnston, sixteen days after, gives no account
of his arrival.
Altogether this news il not favorable. II
smells Of gunpowder. Tho kormons evidently
reay too much on tho factious spirit evinced In
Congress, and believe that the executive arm
viii be paralysed BY tho want Of troops and
supplieA II will be necessary for the govern
ment TO send forward men, munitions Of war
and supplies vita all despatch. If the Mormons
want war It must be made a. brief Is possible.
They must be overawed II once, and we can
bring force enough In the field to do II, If tho
authorities are prompt In their part Of the work.
The MACHINERY BIZ WHICH TIE CrY Is PLuN-
DERED-It is needless to reiterate the fact that
the unhappy taxpayers Of this CITY are plum
dered at the rate of about three millions per
annum, and have been for the last ten years,
through the medium of the Street Department,
the Finance Department, and all their attendant
bureaus. The fact itself Is now too well
established to need any further proof; but 1t
may be interesting to know tho exact mode by
which this peculation is effected, and an ex-
PLANTATION of this mode will we think solve the
mystery Of how 70 many officers Of the Corpora
ton, with moderate salaries, retire after few
years masters Of q splendid fortune, and possess
handsome country seats, yachts, fast horses
and the other fast ct ceteras essential to the life
Of fine gentleman. 1t will be found that In
every case of fraud some of the sub}oined
methods have been adopted.
When a street is TO be graded or regulated
specifications are first made out by ONE Of the
city surveyors of the kind and quantity Of work
required to be done, previous to the advertise
ment for bids And here, in the infant stage Of
the transaction, the machinery begins to move.
A larger amount Of work-say in excavating
rock, filing and 60 forth-is often specified
than L. required, and in addition, small quanti-
ties of the very expensive kind Of work are
returned and large quantities of the cheap kind,
so that the contract will appear small But
when the job is measured after its completion,
the quantities, by some singular coincidence,
are found to be vice-versd, and the contractor is
paid accordingly This is method number one
Of che ating the property owners
Now GENES the taking of bids for the
work and here it may be pecessary to
state that these frauds are all committed
by COLLISION of surveyors, assessors, col
lectors of assessment, inspectors, clerks In the
bureaus and often the heads Of departments
themselves, or some of these, with the contrao-
tors In no other way could they be success
fully carried on; and the recent investigations
have ehown such combinations to exist. All
the astounding frauds have been undoubtedly
perpetrated by few persons-about twenty,
probably regularly organized band. acting
in concert, and helping each other TO plumber
the treasury. When bids are invited. three
contractors conspire and carry out their plans,
=. so,,ovs-p-.--. Uias 81, 000-probably
fair price-Jones 81 900, and Robinson $4,000.
The contract is awarded, of course, to the low
est bidder; bat Brown suddenly discovers that
he has made wrong calculation and declines
to accept IL; 1t Is then offered, as the law d.
reefs, to Jones, who finds that his hands are 80
full that he cannot do the work, and he declines
II also. II b then offered to Robinson, who &C
cepts it at $4,000. He then assigns II over to
would leave him a fair profit at his own bid Of
S. 1000, and the extra $1,000 is divided between
the three. Method Of cheating the property
owners number two.
When the job is flushed surveyor measures
it, for the alleged purpose Of ascertaining that IL
is done according to the plans and spcoiaca-
lions. In this stage Of the business the follow
ing mode Is adopted:-False returns Of the
quantity of work done are made; prices are
changed to higher figure; work not contract
ed for at all, but always of q profitable charac-
ter to the contractor, though often worthless to
the property, Is returned, go that the amount Is
swelled 10 some fifteen or sixteen thousand dol.
lars, instead of twelve. Method of cheating
number three.
The returns then go to the assessors, who pro-
coed 10 assess the property owners And here
very often, though the assessment amounts
to certain sum, and 20 appears on the roll, FIVE
or Elk thousand dollars more are collected offthe
unfortunate property owners, who are assessed
mostly in small sums, and the spoIls are d.
vided. Method Of cheating number four.
The papers then 60 to the Comptroller's De-
partment TO have warrants issued for the
amount, and there they form part Of the loose
rubbish which comprises the books and papers
Of Mr.. Flagg's Office which he calls his ac-
counts Another mode now comes into play
by altering the figures in the surveyors re-
turns, az was done In the Third avenue case, 40
properly exposed by the City Surveyor, Ed
ward Boyle, by sbstracting papers which
might prove damning evidence against some
one by forging receipts, erasing endorsements
and making additions to contracts But, the
reader may ask. how can all these things be
done p have we not faithful watch dog in