New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-03-13

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II is not denied in any quarter, we believe.
that the law Of last March, ostenSibly to abol-
ish the system OF repairing the Canals by con-
tract, was really q continuance 20 enable the
holders Of undesirable contracts To free them
selves from their obligations; and at the same
time by means of the clause requiring the
state to pay them for permanent improve
"ments,n and also ga full and fair cOmpensa-
"ton for the tools, materials, and nipple
"ments" they might chance, or take care, to
have on hand, to crown q meagerly profitable
business by a highly lucrative transaction.
After the established fashion of Tam
many, this insdiOus provision was masked
by another, forbidding any allowance for
prospective damages or unearned profits"
1t may be assumed with safety that contracts
not surrendered under circumstances so in
viting are profitable enough. We learn from
the Annual Report of the Auditor that Section
. of the Chenango Canal is under contract
which seems TO be of the sort not to be sur
rendered; and otherwise we are informed that
the contractor was impOrtuned TO abandon 1t,
but refused. This contractor, 1t appears, stands
between two superintendent, resOlutely with
standing all solicitations to rehnquish COM
pcnsatiOn of $3.50 for keeping that section in
repair for an entire year. One of those Super
intendcnts drew for repairs on Section /, SlS,
$50 ~ in six months; and the other, on Sec
ton 3, S9,7SG 80 within an equal term; the
three sections being contiguous, and diff
fering from each other probably in the degree
that two peas ordinarily do. There Is no pre-
tense that navigation on the contract section
was at all inferior to that on the superintendent
sections; nor can anything be clearer than
that the State was made to pay TO a Supcrn-
tendent 5l4333 AZ for the same amount of pub
JIG service which contractor performed just
as well, and at the same season, for S4,98J. If
this were ii solitary instance, it might be held
to be exceptional and to prove nothing beyond
its own case; but turning TO the Erie Canal,
we observe that Section is likewise sand
wiched between superintendent, and with
very much the same results. Here the con-
tractor clngs to contract which binds him to
maintain that section for compensation at the
rate of $4,000 for six months. The Superintend
ent who TANKS him on one side expended on Sec
ton z, during the same six months, S2l ,0G6 40;
and the other, on Section o. S27,50S 80! These
also are contiguous sections; and the naviga-
ton furnished for $4,000 was just as good as
that obtained for $4,000. Broader comparisons
of the results of the two systems show nothing
fitted to mitigate the knavery or the folly
which moved the Canal Board TO Teinstate the
Superintendents. The Auditors Report fur
nishes the figures which prove that twenty
sections which contractors had kept in repair
a whole year for $500, 1G4, absorbed more than
SsOO,OOO, in six months, under superintendent;
no no Inv
State for permanent improvement" and for
"toos, materials" &c, the total was $685.
1877 90, or "more than six times the amount
"the repairs Of these sections would have cost
I" the State if the law of 1870 had not been
passed"
AT any rate, it il beyond dispute that see
tions of two Canals were kept in as Serviceable
n condition by contractors as others were by
superintendents, at less than One-third OF the
cost within the knowledge of the Canal Board
and under the malevolent scrutiny OF Its Su-
perintendents Now, if this were practicable
and profitable in respect to two sections, why
was it not as to moreY Nay, why not to all
the sections of all the Canals There can be
but this answer: 1t was practicable, and would
have been profitable. The failure to dot was an
unpardonable breach of official duty; but the
yillanous and costly character of the substitute
adopted gives to the oilcnse The bad emlnencc
of high crime. The public service does not
now suffer for the first time from the cslnsels
of the incompetent or the forays of peculators;
but never has il been disgraced or pInndered
| by 80 bold and shameless q cOnirnternity az
that which, for the year past, has been rob
I blng the State and impering its good name,
under the protection Of Gov. lloiiman's admin
! istration. 1t would DO less. rather than more,