National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-03-31
DISTRICT INVESTIGATION,

DISTRICT lNVESTlGAIlON'
tCexnnssS frs~ Ftssf Pace,
know that come Of the men h.vs slresdy 60.
pay for the brick By the contractor; some had
their pay from the contractors already.
@. You say you heard that makerid was
,soldi A. Yes, sir; can bring you man.
O. am not going to ask you Whist anybody
told you, but desire to know who rave you
any such information - thati A. Inc mAn
that brought the brick.
Q. Who Il hea A. A man BY the name Oh
3. p prane, think he an maine me IN I'M isls
q. Where DOES he resided A. He lipes On
ar r street lost beyond the State Department;
4 forget the humber; It is on 8 or street, west
of Fourteenth or Fifteenth; am not certain
about the streets, but it is in that vicinity,
q. Did anybody else give YOU such miorma.
tyonl A. No, sir; he told me the prioe b Peid
O. Do YOU know anything in relation TO the
-.ons,ructiou of sewersl A. Yes, sir; ! am
somewhat acquainted with It.
d. DO YOU refer to sewers constructed under
the present administration Of Mayor Bowena
A, Under both. Tr.EFFrrF FI-Tr-fs7',s
o. II you know anything ct all IN relation to
the construction Of sewers under the present
administration that Is not proper, I'VE would
like 10 know u. A. The sewer that is built,
Whist is called the R-street sewer, believe 1t
is, running up Eighth and down X, and Of the
main branches of the sewer, when it was built,
It was effectively built, and It fell In, and q
great deal of the material washed INTO the
sewer between Seventh and Eighth ana hnooe
Island avenue, or Vermont avenue, guess
il; and when Mr.. Chapman went to put In 2
branch sewer there was on the ground, ana
noticed that this was filed with gravel. spoke
to Mr.. Chapman; says /, "You amt gong 20
fnclose this in, are you, with this gravelF he
saws, eThat Is not my business; didn't pulQ
that sewer" Says /, 81 think It very objection
able; 1t will cost good many thousands oi
dollars TO take that out; if it amt taken out
now il will have to be broken up" But, never
theIess. il was closed in, and now they have
been spending about s., 900 to take it out; they
had to break iu the sewer and take 1t out. l
think it was q very Objectionable way Of doing
business. ..-r. ...
By Mr.. Stewart: Q. Under whose superin-
dencc was that! A. don't know as there was
any Superintendent there that amounted TO
ANYTHING; there were four or five about there q
good many times, but they didn't seem to have
any authority.
Q. You don't know who had charged A.
No, sir; didn't think anybody had charge by
the looks. l know this-that the work was
pretended to be done, and that gravel was In
closed in there, and it has now been broken
through and takeu out, and there are piles
and understand it has been paid for under
contract some 81 GOO.
@. You don't know who was the superinten-
dent IN charged A. didn't know at that time;
didn't see any there at that time. ,
By Mr.. Wilson: Q. Who was the superin-
tendeus " ho took that gravel outi A. A man
BIZ the name of Gleason has the contract now,
and his charges for finishing it are about 81 900.
O. Is i: Andrew or Albert Gleason A. 1t is
the larger of the two Gleason brothers; don't
know what his given name is.
o. When did Gleason do that worki A. It
can't be over a month ago; it is just completed;
last week, think.
Mr. Wilson. would like you to give me the
contract for that work, Mr.. johnson
opening Of K street sewer, and taking out this
gravel.
Q. What would be the reasonable price for
grading in this city! A. Do you mean without
hsul-sEort haul or long haul? There is a
good deal of difference. Do you mean excavat-
ing and taking it up, and throwing it in the
cart and dumping it within 100 feet.
@. Yes; within 200 feet! A. When wages
were half a dollar q day we used to get our
work done for fifty cents q cubic yard; that was
years ago. We used to calculate in an excava-
ton, where We had no picking, but to be
shoveled up and wheeled in Q wheel-barrow;
but Of course now, wages being $50 Q day,
1t would be worth three times as much.
By Mr.. Stewart: Y. Do you mean fifty
cents q cubic yard2 A. Three times eight
would be twenty-four
@. You said fifty cents. A. said eight cents
q cubic yard when wages were fifty cents a
day Now, consider the prices here in this
city; they are rather harder than ordinary work,
but the grading, nevertheless, in streets that
have not heretofore been graded, would
be about tie same value; from 20 to Is cents
would be fair price now. We got Il done
and ok nov,ks
O. That is as to the new streets; how 10 It rs
to the old streetsi A. The old streets, i should
say, would be worth q little more where they
had been trodden down-where they would
have to use pick.
By Mr. Wilson: Q. How much morea A. It
would be worth about two cents q yard to pick
it up more than it would where you have to
shovel without q pick. You might say from
twenty -four TO twenty-six cents yard.
BY Mr.. Jewett: Q. That, Iundefstand you to
say, is where the haul is from 100 to 300 feeta
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You have been q railroad engineer A.
Yes, sir.
Q. In making your proposals for grading, is
not the price dependent to a considerable ex-
tent upon the hauli A. Whenever we let q
road we generally made what we called an
average haul, and We invited proposals, 90 much
for excavation, and so much for the average
haul. p s.-E -EE
Q. You determine, before you make your
contract, the extreme haul, and then you
average! A. Yes, sir.
@. And you ask for proposals for that aver
age haul2 A. Generally.
Q. And the price depends upon the haul! A.
Yes, sir.
Q. If it is 200 feet it is 50 much. If the
average haul is 400 feet it advances! A. Yes,
sir.
Q. understand you to say that in all your
proposals you confined it exclusively to grad
ingf A. Here in this cityl
Q. Yes. A. don't know as I understand
your question.
@. Did you confine your proposals to excava-
tions' A. To excavations only; yes, sir.
0Q. And you paid for excavation A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the price depended upon the distance
thecoatractor had to haul the waste materiall
A. Yes, sir. ..as..E
Q. Suppose that that contract not only COW
cred excavation, but fill; did you reserve the
right to direct where the waste material was to
be putt A. Always.
Q. Did you pay the contractor both for the
excavation and the fila A. Never.
O. Always confined him to excavation A,
Always confined him to excavation or its equiv
alent.
Q. What do you mean by "equivalent7" A.
If the work was measured in entertainments, of
course there had to be percentage added,
excavation. l made my calculation larger; the
work would measure In excavation more than
It would in embankment, / added that to the
embankment; but 1t was all brought to what
was equivalent. 49,. -
@. That is, the material in embankment viii
Lot measure as much as by the excavation A.
Yes, ,sir.
Q. And you made that allowance A. Yes,
cir. - ---
@. Suppose you had I'll to make, and no
excavation, and you were given contract to
make the fill, would you measure that fill as
filling or as excavation A. would measure
It as excavation. If measured It in the en-
bankment would allow the difference between
the one and the other.
Q. Suppose the same contract covered both
fill and excavation, how would you measure TT
A. Measure the excavation.
Q. You would make no allowances for the AL,
beyond the measurement in exeavationl A.
No, sir. El
Q. And you would reserve the right to put
the dirt where you pleased A. That was a.
ways the case.
@. Now l understood you that In all your
contracts, you averaged the haul; you have
given US what you supposed would be the
price of the haul from one hundred to two hun
dred feet2 A. In this work in the city, we
generally took q street as Il was, and told
them tn look NJ e. and told them ~h.,-. a.