New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-26

been paid out OF the United STATES Irebouiy. 1850
herd told mo that the Board chained the hight 70 cnarse
10 the United States ts share of the expenses OF the
improvem and 20 expend the money In advance Inc
only source from which the Board can derive suon au
thority is the organic act, which reads:
"And 1.-THE Board, shall assees sdch manner rs sna
DO prescribed by law upon the property ADJOINING an
TO be specially benefited By the Improvements auo
lied by law and made by rbero. roasonaoo pfopo
OF the cost Of the not exceeding on'
of such cost tr.t. ~ .
But there are crave doubts II this clause cooie
ON the Board the right they claim. II thoy can A's
the property OF the United States, they can sen ~
delinquency In payment OF tho assessments '' oao
herd was obliged TO admit 10 me that tho boaru n.n
made such assessments because the 2io0Oo charged
the United States was part OF his assets from "n'cn 10
expeced 10 meet his liabilities incurred before last NJ
vember otherwise he would have 10 admit Sioia'ion
of the law forbidding the Board to make contrao'S "
work until an appropriation TO pay TOR IL hao Deen
But II the law have quoted empowers the Doaia "
assess Government property at ALL 1t Ia perieotV coo
that the assessments must be made In tho same way
that they are upon private property In the taoo ~
snecaI assessments" published In the report OF tne
Roard find two columns with the following headings
| 4" Assessment to property -holders one-tanu' ,
| CHARGED to the United States, dve-sixths' "'f''
uoury diseoses the fact that while private property on
each side OF street that IL improved Is assessed one
sixth OF the net cost OF the Improvement wheh tno
| u
building IL on that hve-sixths OF the eroo'
In this the Board reported on
the frat Of November last only about ssoooo WORM
work completed, they figured up 2los2o % rs due from
the United States and Congress voted the money 70 pay
IT. IT would be interesting to through Tho list OF
streets improved and how successfully THIS ingenious
method OF robblng tho United States Treasury WORKS.
but will take only Que two streets rs samples
HOW UNITED STATES PROPERTY IS OVER ASSESSED
The cost OF improving Ist from Fifteenth to Seven
teenthst according TO the Boards report, WAS SJei w.
The Boards measurements show 1878 ala feet front OF
private property adjoining this Improvement and there
are In addition. two small squares owned by tho GOV
eminent each having frontage of little more than
400 feet On feet front of private property the as
are ss 90 the less than $50 feet front OF
Government property the assessments are s9'ooi
The cost of improving Ponnsylvania-avc. from FIJI
feminist to Rock Creek was t22sr57l a. On 6''Ie2
feet front Of private property the assessments amount
to t2612 90 The Government property ADJOINING ths
Improvement consists OF tho Treasury Department
Presidents house, War Department. Lsfayettesquare'
tbree or four small triangular parks and tho circle at the
intersection OF observation-disclosures, making frontage
In all OF less 1000 feet and Is called upon to pay
sl16,Og7 on.
In examining the assessments against the United
States discover that Mr. Shepherd In his statement
I'm rgs TRIpUse either placed the amount OF assess
ments which the Board is authorized to make on
private property 10000 too high, or else his method
OF computing assessments in his report Ia erroneous
In explaining the matter he said that for every
dollar appropriated by Congress tho Board author
lied 10 assess property But In his report
IN dividing the expense of each Improvement he first
subtracts the amount charged 10 the United States and
then assesses onehrd OF the remainder upon the prop
erty He did not therefore, up to the Ist OF Novober.
treat the appropriations which he expected from the
United States In such manner as to make them in
crease the aggregate OF assessments, but rather to
reduce thom have already shown that the assess
ments already made only 81 per cent OF tho whole
cost OF the improvements, while the Board was author
ICED to mako them 80 per cent.
In closing this letter Tish 70 speak OF the probable
cost of completing the work planned by the Board OF
Public Works in The Summer Of 1911 In of my dis
patches placed 1t. the authority OF competent
eneer at 50 100000 Other persons place it at much
larger sum. Mr. Shepherd assured me repeatedly that
$4,000 would complete tho work. think could point
out the space Of few squares In the northwest
part the CITY, work that has been begun aud which
it will require two three times that amount OF money
10 complete have already shown that the estimated
cost of the work completed last November less 20 per
cent was S8i6637 Tho estimates place tho cost OF
all the improvements proposed less 20 per cent. at
&c 57s,397. Tho amount then reported complete
therefore conG OF tho whole amount Co be DONE
But as Board had already spent 25ss9j 05. they
90 on and complete tho work the scale tho
tire cost will be s067ss6T G5 The cash recepts OF the
Board thus far have been: