Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1861-04-04
THIl5 GAZETTE,
THURSDAY MoRNING, APRIL /, 1861.
CoNTRACTS--PRlNATE vs..
PUBLIC ENTERPKIZE.

lyt) y VI
PUBLIC ENTERPKIZE.
\ correspondent Of the Nashville (Tenn.)
Patriot, who has lately heeu on visit to
Washington, bias written a letter, in which ne
good-humoredly shows up the manner OF per-
forming government contracts. We make the
following extracts;
Piles of brick, mortar lumber, &c, are
scattered everywhere, but the workmen seem
IL be perpetually gone to dinner There's the
new dome on the capitol They have been
baromerjng away at it for a number OF years,
md !, il not finished yet. II they had been
employed by the job they would have had it
lone 10 twelve or eighteen months; but they
sre ernployed on heavy salaries, and by the
day, and don't care how long it takes them
the longer the better They climb to the
dome occasionally. pull off their coats, take
one tug At a bar OF iron, put on their coats
again, and 20 I'll and stay q week. The
whole thing is regular swindle, anu the
government seems 10 like lt-~pertaps be-
cause it is 81 much like the government
This dome, wher completed. VIII have cost
about one million OF dollars, and will have
been four. or FIVE or six years III building
| can 90 IL Nashville and have one just ike
if uut up in Twelve months Tor hall the mo-
new, and clear large fortune by the job.
II all the money that has been appropria-
It'd for public buildings and other improve
lnents in Washington had been .lu'tlciously
and honestly expended. this would be to-day
one. Of the finest cities OF the world. AS 1t Is,
considering all things. it is next to no city at
all. liti,e government had occasion to build
upig-p pen six feet square, II coultn possibly
br done for less than 500, 900, exclusive Of the
salaries OF the superintendent, craftsman and
th, engineer, which would be about $1,000
each. If private enterprise throughou; the
country swallowed up money as remarkably
fast rs public ones do here, you couldn't get
v.,ur boots BACKED without mourning an ex-
pcnse ot one hundred dollars to save your
lie.
The way the government gets It's work
done is curious As an Illustration, you and
your family meet in convention of the whole,
apd adopt Il resolution authorizing the con-
structiun of hen.coop in your back yard
you at once appoint me super!n tendent OF the
work, putting d thousand or two OF dollars III
bank for me to check on. get you to APP
point nv brother-in-law chief engineer.
appoint TWO of my brothers assistant super
intendents. and my brotl,er-in-law appoints
TWO al MS DTotIlefS aSSlStuilt Guy Hctl -''li
ut vour expense. We buy US each IA fast
morse and buggy, and ride around town,
drink cocktails and play billiards until
tle buak deposit gives out, when We make
out IL printed report of seyentytlree pages.
furnishing you a complete Typographical sur
vey Of your back yard, and a vast amount OF
statistical information with regard to the
number of hens you are likely 10 have for the
next forty years. II.
We wind up the report with the announce
meut that the site of the hen-coop has been
selected. aud call for another appropriation
10 prosecute the work which we assure you
will be done with ''vigor." You place ano-
Their thousand or two in back and VIC employ
two hundred bands, at three dollars day,
to transport seventy-ive cents worth OF lum-
Der (which cost you under our management
ten times that nlapy dollars, to the place Of
operations. which requires about three
months In the meantime we drive around
and 60 on vigorously with the liquor and the
billiards. We then come up with another
report and demand for another appropria-
ton. With this We get the wall of the struc
ture up, and with one or two more approprl-
atlons, and a great many more cocktails and
billiards, we get the thing covered in and at
the end Of twelve months which we very ap-
propriately style one fiscal year." we pat
YOU in formal possession OF Ii ten-thCusand
dollar hen coop that any negro carpenter
would have been glad to knock up some
Saturday afternoon for suit Ot your old
clothes.