The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-23


and, when necessary, call to his aid those
skilled in that particular branch of bust
ness. Thus, when we are afflicted with
disease we call to our aid the services Of a
physician; in cases involving litigation we
employ an attorney; never in such cases
do we rely upon our own knowledge or
presumed experience. We ask the advice
of our physician Or attorney, and impli-
city rely thereon and follow it. If in such
cases, we should disregard their injunc-
tons, we should simply be fools, be re-
garded as such, and inevitably leone to
grief" If we desire to purchase goods, we
90 TO the men who make it their business
to deal in that class of goods that we want.
The day for the success of those kinds of
thinkers, who are jacks at all trades and
good at none has gone bye never to return.
With this division of labor, civil engineers
have come to he indispensable. No man
will now enter upon the erection of any
large store or house, no contractor will be
| permitted to erect public building or en-
ter upon important public improvements
without the aid Of an engineer, careful
| plans and surveys; and experience has
shown that their direct supervision is ne
cessary during the whole work.
For the want of this supervision, for the
disregard of his plans and directions we
have recently had a fearful instance of the
foolish man building his house upon the
sand. land great was the fall thereof
We refer Of course, TO the terrible flood
of last Saturday, in western Massachusetts.
1t was worse than this. The men who
owned. superintended the building and had
control of that dam were not only the
foolish men spoken of but they were, also,
the ones TO whom they were compared.
They directly and papably dsregarded
every injunction of duty, morality and re-
ligion. With n competent engineer at hand,
with careful surveys, with proper plans and
specifications, with warnings constantly
sounding in their ears, for the sake of say
ing few paltry dollars, they have de-
stroyed the. lives Of scores and robbed thous
ands Of every cent of their property Ir
their miserable foolishncss, their disregard
OF religious, moral and business principles
in their petty parsimony, there is glim
merng of consolation in the fact that the
same men have lost thousands of dollars fol
every dollar they have attempted to save
4 Just rctributiOn sometimes come, even
on earth but it will not bring back tht
lives sacrificed in moment, in the twink
ling of an eye it will not restore tho
pleasant and fertile farms of Hampshire
it will not rebuild the houses. barns ant
other buildings washed away without thu
fault of their owners but all due to
the miserable parsimony of others. There
must he an added sting to the justification
under which the survivors of the origina
owners and builders Of that dam must b,
suffering, when they think that if they hat
followed their engineers direction, all o
these lives would have been saved, no prop
erty would have been destroyed, neithe
would hundreds have been thrown ont o
employment.
We have another instance of the down
fall Of a house built upon sand and o
that it may be said great was the fal
thereof. Here, too, the engineer come
in. He was at hand, was employed for
specific duty, but was ignored. By lgnor
ing him, it was thought that fraud and cor
ruption might run riot, as they did for
time; il was thought that a superstructur
OF wealth and reputation might be builded
and it was-but it proved to he hous
"bult upon sand" 1t was so built in tw
WAYS, first becauseits foundation was wash
cd away by the storm that came from dis
regard of business principles, and the ig
noring Of competent engineers; and. also
because these men were endeavoring t
reap unjust wealth by measuring and IT
ceiying pay tor superabundancc of sand
1t is unnecessary, after the disclosures pull
lishcd, in detail, in yesterdays GLOBE, t
say that we refer to the m1n,nculate Coy
ernor Shepherd and the board Of publ
works Of the District of Columbia. We d
not now propose to go over these disclosure
= again. Ii is no wonder that the member
of the board reaped great riches II is II
wonder that at first, it was impossible
get at the facts. The press of the distric
with, perhaps, an honorable exception {
two, were loud in their denunciations {
any one who dared accuse the governc
and his associates, but the reason thereto
: is now although it is to IL
shame and disgrace of the American pres
: They were silent or praised, because the
!, were presented with fat slice or intcre
= in the contracts. When, however, an hon
? est engineer comes forward, one whose dut
: it was for the others to consult, comes 70
4 ward examines the work, finds that his il
e structions have been disiegarded, his plai
. varied his measurements increased the
=, the house Of those foolish men Shephel
=. and company falls, because it was built III
: on sand. and in violation of the preccpts
G religion, morality and duty. For these re-
S sons, millions of dollars have been diverted
t to use no harsher term, and the rottenne
j of another 'ring' exposed In the regul;
4 division Of labor, we must have skilled cl
!. gineers and their directions must be folloy
c ed. a disregard thereof leads to the d
J., struction Of lives and property and unto
e suffering, but not always, as in this case,
d the unearthing Of corruption and tho u
f covering of whited sepulchres.
e Ehc Sanborn Contracts
II Mr.. Foster of Ohio, addressed the IIou