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

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In this connsetienS may say that the rasasur
ments-numerous fQsasurements made again.
the Government hsve become very intricate an
even say bungling. A stated awhile agy
the only way Of straizhtening them satisfa.
torily now, would be . r1statement and r,
measurement. 9-r
@. Who bungled themf A. Inthe first placs
there were great many fpesurements at var
Gus times before the principles were clearly e.
tablished. "a a,s -
Q. Hsve you established any nav principle
OF measurement recently A. No. think Oh
act Of 1873 certainly established . principl
very clearly, which for instance, Ne did nc
have In 1877, as you VIII find In the board n
port Of 1877, an amount charged to ths gamers
fund on Pennsylvania avenue, which oeeht nc
to have been charged It all. 1fle "a
q: MI. Rivesdid not bungle up these repoFsi
A. did not ssY that,
Q. Who did bungie them upi A. We4lt
suppose was party to It. = szsss'S =
O Then you came here not to correct Nj
hiyes's statement but to correct your ovr
statement. Is not that facti a. Well, I cor
rect both.
Q. Wherein is MIR. Rives's statement not cor
recti He said to the committee that he knew
nothing about these things except as he iouni
them In the report Of the Board of Publ
Works. Has he made any inaccurate state
ments iniregard to what is shown by the re
ports OF the Board Of Public Worksi A. I
Mr.. Rives will take the same avenue AID thi
statements Of the cost a. they were mad
up
Q. He has no access excepting to anything
which you have shown to the publicl A
Wen, If be Will take the frontage OF the prop
erty on this ayenre he certainly will find tina
there Is no oyerpayment or any overcharge
On the contrary, he will find that there was a.
underpayment.
Q. Now, how have you gone TO work in ordel
to get this thing out Of its buDgling condition
State to the committee exactly what you hayt
done, A. have just read It, sir.
@. know you havs read your results. bu
what want to know is how you got at you
have In your officei A. This very statement
shows 1t clearly. There are no papers outside
except-there are no papers outside at all.
Q. Have you resorted to anything excepi
what appears In the reports Of is72 and 1873
A. No, sir.
Q. Nothing at ALI A. Nothing at all; IL 4
all there, and in the Governors answer.
Q. This can all be deduced from the report
of 1879 and 1871 A. Yes, excepting In tn
amount of Government property. For that yol
will have to use the map Their report doe
not show it, but our maps do.
Q. You were engaged in getting I'D an &C
count against the Government of the UniteG
States and involving very large sums of money
why did you not put this I'm such shape a.
that the citizens and officers Of the Government
could understand It without an explanation
outside of what appears onthe face of you
papersi A. All can say Is that Il bad to dc
Il over again, would certainly make the state
ment BY far clearer than 1 succeeded In getting
1t.
Q. How long have you been IN the employ o
the Board of Public Works. A. Since the sum
mer of 1871.
Q. As an engineer all the whileF a. Yes, sir
not as assistant engineer all the while.
Q. Who is your superior2 A. Mr. Cluss.
Q. Prior to him, who was your superiorl A
Mr.: Phillips, Mr.. Mullett, and Mr.. Greene.
Q. Do you wish the committee tounderstant
you as saying, as an engineer, that profile o
the streets and cross-sections is not necessar
to accuracy of measurement A.. did not ga
any such thing.
Q. Yoa do not wish to be so understood 4
Not in the least. say, on the contrary Oh
more correct your record can be the better It Is
Q. Now, prior to the time that Mr.. Barne
came in as engineer In this Office, did you max
any profles or cross-sectionsl a. Wherever
had anything to do with 1t did.
Q. Were you an Office man, or man VIII
did outside work. A. I was principally a
Office man. Ienly occasionally went out; in
very few cases.
Q. Is it erisit not fact that prior to Mr.
Barney's advent into this Office there wer
rarely profiies and cross-sections made A..
should say yesr very rare.
Q. 1t was very rarely done A.. Yes, sir.
Q. Is it or not the fact that contractors wer
gut upon streets to dig them up before tn
engineers had an opportunity to take any sor
of measurement with view to ascertainini
accurately the quantities of grading A. Well
l suppose such cases took place.
Q. In all these cases, what had you to rel
upon in order to get at the amount of eradin!
that was done A. There was only the oil
grade books ina great many cases, and beside
that landmarks.
O. Would the old grading-books show wha
had. been done prior to the board going to work
A.. Certainly. The old grade-book was merei
the record of the old ground. OF course W
ought to ascertain. That was easy enough
and the difference between the two would Civ
the grading.
q. Providing nothing had been done ate
the grade-book was madea A. That is exactl
So, SIR.
o. Doyou know whether work had been don
there after that grade-book was made an
before the Board of Public Works went t
work. A. Of course that ought to have bee
matter Of record.
O.. It ought to have beenl A. Yes, sir.
do not say that 1t was.
O. Was it, A. Iwould not say that ft wa.
/ o Do you not know that 1t was not; tha
there was no such recordl A. Well, whert
ever the grades from the old grade-book ha
not been changed, supposed. the record wa
pretty nearly good enough.
Q. But Is It not the fact that after tbs
grade-book was made, and before the Board c
Public Works commenced their operations, th
grade had been changed in many instsncesl
l suppose 1t had; the extent of 1t /. could nc
say.
O. In these cases It would. be, utterly impo.
sibe for you to arrive at any correct conclusion!
would it notl A. OF course, where we had n
record whatever of the ground as 1t was,
would be utterly impossible.
Governor Shepherd. I would suggest that
record of all those changes was kept by Ii
different mayors of the city.
By Mr.. Wilson: Q. You have given the con
mittee statement In regard to these charg,
to the Government for sewers. You have en-
braeed in that brick several; A. Certainly.
@. And all classes of sewersl A. Yes, sir.
o. Did you embrace init any sewer that WI
constructed prior to the Board of Public Worl
going inte operation herel A. You will find,
think, that in the amount charged to the Go
eminent there were q few which were con
pleted in the early organization of the boar
and which ought not to have been charged, b.
yet the amount do not include those as pal
by the Goyernment-and yet the. amount Il
sewers paid by the board and chargeable to th
Government exceeds, the. amount inclusive
those.
Q. But am trying 10 get at what you hsv
embraced in this statement of yours. You die
then, embrace in this statement sewers ths
had been constructed prior to the organizatio
of the board, did you3 A.. There were som
finished, think, IN the beginning of the boar
and Mr.. Forsyth pointed them out as belonl
ing to the board. There were, think, a fe
cases with which I was not familiar. Whe
ever was familiar with anything never di.
/ Q. You say Mr.. Forsyth pointed those out |
( youi A. Yes, sir.
O. How much of those sewers was there! 4
They are easily footed up, wherever they ar
suppose they amount to something like
| could not say; II is less than go, 900, think
Q. What kind Of sewers were they! A. Brio
| and pipe sewers.
Q. What size were the brick sewersi A..
think two and half or three foot sewers.
Q. Did you embrace In that any sewer n
yet constructed A. No, sir.
Q. None that Is untyet constructed A. MOI
| at all.
@. What was the occasion for your gettil
| an average amount Of sewer in order to NAL
up charge against the Government What
| the reason you could not take the sewers ther