Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1872-04-04
The Canltal Foundation.

The Iowa City republican has open
81 its eyes to the cnormity Of the
fraud practicel upon the State by the
Capitol Commissioners in the sciec
ton of stone for ,he Foundation ofthe
building 1t thinks "thc State Of Iowa
has never seen such another botch as
las been made in the laying Of the
foundation for the new clpitol, at
Dcs MONIES. SO tar as i has progress
ed The Rep"5lieu1 also speaks o!
seeing =. piece broken from stone
on which the foot Of an arch rests,
aud this we can cnt with jack knife
rs we would cut chalk. Il is, besides,
Of a miserable yellow color, resem.
bling a piece of hardened clay 1t
also thinks ''tlc whole work now laid
silonld come np.'
The testimony Of the Repa57ican is
fully corroborated. The Ninton Jour-
al, few weeks ago, printed this
stem
J. b. locke returned FEM Das Moines
thursday. lie reports that some of the
s;one in the new capitol is unfit for such a
rurpose and we should. think i; was after
seeing the specimens he brought home.
which he took on. OF The fcun le.ion AMI
which were soft and rotten lie counted
- Of these stones in the foundation, and
eeiimates that enc t.irl OF the f,aa1ation
will Eave'to lie taken M and orc fourth of
the s'n'.e taken out and other kinds put IN.
lie thinks the commissioners were honest
hut bunielel through ignorance of the
business in;su.tctl 10 hen.
Our Des Moines correspondent, in
is last weeks letter, speals OF tho
forthcoming report Of the In"estisa.
tug Committee rs being very dam
aging to the Commissioners.
We also have on orr table sncci-
OF stone which we have vcaSon to be-
'l":e is sample of some lately rnt
into the Capitol foundation. No
competent stone mason con.l pro.
.nouncc II fit for any building pr
pose whatever. We shall look for
the report of the Investigating Com
mittee with great deal of interest.
1t looks now rs though the Legis.
laturc does not propose making any |
appropriation for the Capitol until
the Committee reports. 1t ought to
make none until the dishonest md /
incompetent Commissioners are dis
charged and good ones substituted.
1T surprises us that the Iowa City
RePabhen does not feel It's conscience
rchnko it for its course on this capitol !
stone question. Al one time 1t cave
itself elit for breaking down the
nol'te interest. 1t ought to have
toresecn that if tie Commissioners
were corrupt enough, or ignorant
enough, TO select, at first, stone so
totally without merit as the RepuJk
1aa and some other journals declared
tie Oxford oolite ic bp,,hey would be
corrupt enough, or ignorant enough
10 take any other stone with only
hal! the merits OF the Oxford ool,te
II seems 10 us, according to the Re.
pa5'icaa's own showing, that this is
a very serious case OF jumping out Of
the frying pan into the fire. The re
marks Of SO candid a Journal as the
Belle PLANE Union, are worthy Of al
icn.ion:
Now we have never seen any evidence
worthy Of attention that Tie Oxford stone |
was unsuitable fer the capitol foundation, I
ma have always believed that The real T
sroun.l OF lis rejection was the evidence. or
s least suspicion, Of a sob connected wild,
Is selection. Il viii 'ntn ont. as il seems,
IA, He exchange made was . costly enc TO
he STATE The reck'essnpss exhibited as q
lie astliiy or .hc material used. after all
he excitement and discussion Of two years
g. il soseiling surprising.