The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1870-10-18

I
| Mscemb to send some practical man 10 view
the work and inform himself of the general
facts Of the condition OF the work, aud the
circumstances connected herewith, and
| report if there was any Just grounds for
complaint. Upon this Major Stickney
replied that be had been upon the work
every day and knew ell about it.
We then said that We would be quite
| willing to leave the mat,erto Gen. Rodmsn,
who was in the Government service, ana
whom We thought Was . practical man ano
capable Of judging such work, but this "ss
declined.
We then stated that there was four piers
and the upper rest OF the draw pier 10
com plete that We had nearly sufficient
stone to complete three piers, and from =
letter we had received from Messrs Singer
l. Talcott, the parties who furnish the stou. :,
they thought that if Major Stickney was
wiling to pay the extra railroad freigh,
from Lamont to Joliet, that they coulu
furnish the stone this fall, in winch case We
proposed to complete the three piers in
process OF construction by the 10th Of No.
vember next At the same time if their
object was to expedite the work as fast a.
possible, we were ready to show our
willingness to Cooperate with them b,
allowing them TO do part of the
work, there being about 5000 cubic yards
Of work remaining TO be done. We propose
ed that they, for the Government, take two
piers. which contain, in the aggregate, about
900 cubic yards, and complete them; that
We would complete the other three pierr
which contain about 1000; that this woulo
be eXpediting the work and accomplishing
the object desired, and at the same time
they could then judge more correctly BY
prosecuting the work by the side Of us wbeth.
er or not We were not using due diligence
in prosecuting our work, that VT would have
| some advantage OF them in having som.
parts # our dams buils, but We would hsv.
double the amount of masonry TO Law.
Col. Macomb thought this was fair pro-
osltion, but Major Stickney did not think
the matter could be managed in this way
He said he would want the entire use of our
machinery for loading and unloading stone.
We answered that we would give it up t.
hlm to use if our proposition was accepted.
He then said that the men would CLASH. W.
then said that in case they took part of the
work to complete that whenever q case
occurred that one of their men had been in
tentlonslly interfered with BY us or any ont
under US. and that man would 40 state it 10
Col Macomb, and the Colonel believed that
that the man was making a truthful rep
resentation, that upon our being informed
Of the fact. We would surrender our con
tract to him.
This seemed to US as fair a proposition As
men could make, and had the early COM
pletion of the work been the desired object
would have been accepted.
While Col. Mscomb is directly RESPONSE
BILE TO the governm ent for the course which
has been taken in this matter, We do not
feel that this would have been his indepen
dent action upon the letter relating to the
work, which he received from he department,
at " arhing ton, had he not been misinformed
by his subordinate, Major Stickney, as TO the
exact progress beng made in the work, and
Of the efforts being made on our part to
push the work forward to completion.
We do not believe that the letter above
referred to contemplated any such steps as
has been taken by the officers here 10 charge
Of the work. but think its intention Was 10
have them urge us to push the work for
ward as fast as possible, but think Major
Srckney was ready and willing to give this
letter an Interpretation, which would
eem to justify him in his toe
wiling disposition to deprive US of
the work. We say Major Snckney, because
We believe that it is through his counsel
that the matter has been brought about
hat there have been other parties who.
from motives of self interest have done all in
their power to bring this very state of affairs
about, we hope full knowledge. but We be
Ieve that attention 20 our own business
would better accomplish the successful com
pleticn of GUS work then in wasting time with
them.
We have known with what interest the
citiuens in this vicinity have watched the
progress of this work That is was the
bridge they all wanted, and that at the
-arliest practical moment. And we. from
the very day the contract WAS executed,
have let no opportunity whereby we could
facilitate the work, pass without embrac
ing it.
We make this statement in justification Of
ourselves, and leave the public to judge
whether not we have been fairly treated in
the matter. HARVEY K LIvEsEY.