National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-25

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cases.
o. This is the case YOU referred to in your
testimony day before yesterday
The Witness. VIII you allow me to detail
another onel -r--- r.-.-
Mr.. Mattingly. Oh, yes.
| The Witness. As one of the many cases you
know, have told you here in Washington, to
the best Of my knowledge, you know, the ma
chinery of the whole working is gotten from
Mr.. William Tweed, in New York-the way in
which the work is done. Now, q correspon-
dence had been springing up between what l
call the superintende1t Of property and s clerk
under my charge. tried to stop this. /
wrote to Mr.. Z. B. Townsend, the superinten-
dent Of property, as follows:
BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS,
| DISTRICT OF CoI.UMBIA,
| OFFICE OF CHEZ OF EyGISRERs,
| WAsnlSdToN, D; G., April Q. ~. -
| SrR: Having observed ncommunication referred
by you to supcrintendents branch OF this ONCE,
have TO say that any Information required from
this Office will be given only upon application d.
the the ~ room has authority e
Information, except to this office.
Very respectfully, ru1 ADoL1 C IS,
E. B. To,onsend, esq, superiatsSdsni prepHfS b.
AfteIward there comes book keeper. It is
too much for him to read that letter, and he
! has 10 have IL Endorsed BY book keeper. The
Endorsement IL as follows; l.s,
l. WASHINGTON, u, c., April ., 1874.
| Adolf Cfuss, engineer in charge, authorizes su-
pertinent property to refer for Information TO en-
dents branch has authority 70 furnish information
| except TO this of1cc. =
Respectfully returned to the engineer In charge,
inviting attention to the fact that the within let
August 20, 1874 q copy Of which was furnished the
engineer, and suggesting that the matter be sub
mitted to the board for their considsration.
1 .- Z. b. TOWNSEND,
| Superintendent PrODerty
May Il, 1874
| O. You regarded 1t as one Of the irregular
workings of the Office down there, and they
distracted letters and Endorsed the contents on
clerk has another little clerk to abstract
papers, so as to make the system 50 compli-
Gated that whenever case comes up you can
not fasten the responsibility upon anybody.
| Q. You cannot, 1t seems, fasten response
bility upon q man who puts his signature to
papers. A. Under the workings Of the sys-
TEN. Co. CT. ..-.
Q. And in your opinion IL Is system of
Tweedismi A. Il is o system Of William A.
Tweed, which was admired all over the United
States before his Irregularities were discoy-
cred
Q. You, however, remained under that sys-
tenn from the date of your appointment, Octo-
Der, 1872, until the present timea A. have
done the best could to remedy 1t by talking
hls
members of the board.
! Q. Did you ever examine the system organ
lied by Mr.. William NJ. Tweedi A. know
the blanks were imported from New York.
@. What blanks-specify the blanksl A.
The blanks for vouchers, and all those things.
Q. Suppose you were told that there was not
single blank for voucher imported from
New York, and you were satisfied that such
was the fact, would not you think you were
swearing little holly and hastilyl Would
not you think you were allowing your vindic-
tiveness to run away with your Judgment to
some extcnti A. do not know; perhaps !
ought not to be so much in detail. mean the
whole neutrality-suspicious. and so on.
@. Now, what blanksl You are undertaking
to testify here to facts. A. Well, when ! was
inspector Of buildings, when consented to
take the office under the board, was requested
to make law for buildings In the District,
and did 1t according to the exigeneies Of the
case. They at once imported a building law
from New York, and wanted me to copy it. /
didn't think II was the right thing for Wash
ington, so amended It. 1t was one Of those
cases where -.-.... 60. . .. ..-
Q. Was that building law of New York one
Of Tweed's lawsi A. No, sir; 1t was an act of
the Legislature.
Q. You improved upon it, A. Yes, sir; of
course.
Q. And your improvement of the system
was adopted herei A. Well, It was q modified
system; 1t was not improved.
Q. As modified by you it was adopted A.
Yes, sir. q.
@. That is in answer to one case, or illustra-
ton of Tweedism; now give us another. A.
/ have read in the investigation of 1872, that
Mr.. Shepherd, 20 the best of my knowledge,
was asked about William NJ. Tweed, and after
ward this very fact came out that they were in
New York-especially visited there for the pur-
pose Of learning from their organization.
Q. From that source Of iniormation-from
what you read there, you inferred their whole
system was imported from New York, and all
their blanks aud forms adopted here. Is that
it'll ........
The Witness. The machinery
Mr.. Mattingly. Yes. A. Yes.
Q. That Is the source of your knowledge
from which you are testifying herei A. And
from my acquaintance with the whole system.
Q. Are you acquainted with the Twee,
system in New York; A. Yes, sir; acqua int y
to some sItept. I have, some acquaintance q
Q. And you recognize the system here. A.
Yes, sir. .... ....
Q. And have acted under it, A. Yes, SIR.
@. Now, will you please tell US what Tweed
is m, in your opinion, means-in your testi-
m ony herei A. A very complicated system Of
eeping accounts For instance, making the
superintendent Of property an Independent
office, you know, and then having the contract
bureau. Instead of having IL united they dis
tribute It, 90 that nobody but the one, like the
Jesuits in Rome, can Control anything.
Q. That Is what you call the complication
A. Yes, sir; that Is what ! call complication.
@. That is what you call Tweedisml A.
Yes, sir. There was common error all over
the United States that this complicated system
was perfect.
: @. You think the engineer in charge ought
e. have had control Of all these thingsi A.
S6, SIR; not exactly. OF course, think, the
engineer In charge ought to have charge of the
contracts, instead of having bureau forit;
there Is not the least doubt about it. think
1t wrong, for instance, If q property-clerk buys
the material and pays two prices for It on ac-
count Of his not being acquainted with the ma
tcrial. l think the engineers know more of the
priees-of the value of the material than the
clerk does.
@. You think the engineer would know more
about the prices OF material than any property
clerki A. Yes, sir.
Mr.. Mattinely. That would depend very
much upon who was the engineer and who was
the property-clerk, wouldn'titi (Noresponse.
Q. VIII read you from the investigation of
1872 what was said there about Mr.. Shepherds
with Mr.. Tweed, which is the source
Of all your knowledge from which you are tes-
tifying here. ~ a.. ..-.z.-.e
Q. You stated the other day that you had never
seen Mr.. Tweed? A. did.
Q. VIII you look at that paper and see If It re-
freshes your memory [The paper examined by
the witness.l - ~ -..
"FEBRuARY q, 1s72
any DEAR SIR: Since wrote you this morning
have been informed that Mr.. Shepherd did once |
call on me, in company with a committee, and |
that directed the chief clerk Of the department |
Of public works, Of which / was then commits |
sioner, TO show him the workings Of the depart |
ment and Its forms, which he did. The matter |
had escaped my recollection, and have not now |
the slightest recollection Of II, but presume It is
50. write this that you may know exactly my |
relation with Mr.. 8. Yours, &C.
Ben. E. Green, esq.,, |
A. don't see that It lefreshes my recollection
any. I said all that I had to say on the second |
viz, that q friend Of mine took me
office, and showed me the forms, some Of which |
we're given me. 1 never saw Tweed; never was
Introduced to him; never asked to be introduced |
10 him. If had should have no hesitation In
saying so.
BY Mr.. Chandler q. Did you have any CORES
pondence with him? A. Never.
page 423.)
Now, that is all the testimony relating to
he connection between Mr.. Shepherd and Mr.. /
Tweed, and upon that you base your broad as
;ertion that this system on which this District
government has been carried on Is a system of
rweedismf A. 1t is this complicated system,
mean to say. -s..s>-
Q. You understand what is ordinarily meant