New-York tribune., 1874-04-13

certify article. enumerated have been received and
VIII be- sUS 10 te construction she Marine Hospital at Chicago
Ill., and that the prices paid were iut and reasonable
W. A. RnHARDsox Supervising Architect
Received this ID dsy Of June 1872 from D.bu.
ing Clerk the of thousand one M hnnSIsd and ninety dollars
$3.50 ~ sSsd IN duplicate ALEX. r.
Comparing tho item. of copper and Timing in
cluded in this voucher with those In the
last four bills quoted above, it will be
seen that tho system Of overcharging discovered
in the first two vouchers settled through this also
The copper &c. 49, aud IS cents, the great bulk OF
beng at first price, and only 80 sheets costing 35
cents But the Government paid 80 cents for 1866 sheets
and SO for 81 sheets. The prices for timing are
also raised so per cent will also be that the Is
per cent profit charged the increased prices This
being small job the aggregate amount stolen from the
Government only few thousand dollars. But this
same Company is covering the roofs Of public buildings
all country, and there is good reason to sup
pose that the system of overcharging is practced in
every case II this true, the plunder respect
able proportions.
But the first thing that attracted the attention Of
those who had charge of the accounts Of construction
OF the Marine Hospital in Chicago, when they received
the copy OF settlement voucher, was that certain
moneys paid during the progress OF the work had not
been deducted. They supposed that the settlement
voucher copied above covered ali OF the material and
~,
been paid in Chicago, beside the payols for October
and November 1871 s97 90 for Is small items, 2A %
as per voucher No and, was afterward discovered
1888 81 as per voucher MOL Those who had charge Of
the work believe that all OF these sums ought to have
been deducted, and they are sure that the frst one
s97 9 could not have been otherwise accounted for,
since the only statement OF 1t in the hands of the
superintendent until he gave IL to Mr. w. B. Shepherd
and also because the material covered by this amount
was charged for IN the settlement voucher above given
The proof of the double payment Of bills Nos and
IL more crcumstantal 1t will be seen that the rooW
ing words are indorsed down the left hand margin OF
the vouchers Date, 1872 From Dec 49, lS7l 10 March
30 ls72" This seems exclude bills Nos and set
tied previous to Dec 2s 1871 shown by vouchers Nos
1 and g. although 1t does include payrols for Octo-
her ami November 1871 But If the material paid for,
as per vouchers Nos and is not included in the set
Element voucher, tho amount Of copper charged
TO the Government is considerably greater than the
amount purchased for this roof In New-York even we
include bill No which Is suspected to be
bogus The number OF sheets covered by each bill is as
follows: No. l. 4si; No. 6S4; No. g. $780, No. T. 3ls; No
52: No G. $50; total 267s The number OF sheets paid
for by the United States BY voucher No. ], tH
voucher No q 63i; settlement voucher. 1885, total,
sOs. Here $40 more sheets charged
10 the United States than were ever bought In New
York. aud II we subtract the 52 sheets covered by Dill
No that we're received In Chicago the number
IA sweled TO 852 IT, on the oner nanu VIC suppose tht
all the copper used accounted for In the settlement
voucher $50 sheets), and compare that amount with
the amount actually received In Chicago as shown by
the records OF the transportation companies t2l66
hsets we find that there received ZIG sheets more
than was paid for in the settlement voucher. This
would very natural since IL would be Impossible TO
tell IN advance Just how much copper 1t would take to
cover the roof and II would he necessary TO snip more
material that would ultimately be used But 1t would,
of course impossible to put more copper on the roof
than was purchased.
Another method OF demonstrating that bills Nos and
were twice paid for is by computing the number OF
squares which the copper purchased IN New-York as
shown by the original bills would cover. The following
table shows that only 81 o squares could be covered
by this amonnt Of copper il we omit from the cacua
ton the amount contained n bin No g. suspected TO be
bogus. II add the amount included IN that bil the
number OF squarcs covered, not allowing for POINTS or
waste, would ll3 2-l0O the roof measured on tue
3Oh OF March, 1874 contained VI squares and that was
tue amount on which the Government originally paid
ROYALTY.
Tabulasa Statement Of and 'iz, Of sh' Of copper as p
original bills us,d. ~
TUNED Tuned Timed Timed Timed shel'htK
sheets sheets tbcets fheeis shectS sls.s
1850 24IGO 2II7S 45Ii2 lfidSS l"s9