New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-20

gersOll, and Woodward, and the rest of the
famous gang who accumulated fortunes by
fictitious vouchers. The most cursory inspec-
ton of tho contracts which we print this
morning will show that they could never have
been executed in good faith. Fraud is writ
ten all over the face of them. Rock excava-
ton is bid for at one cent per cubic yard III
some cases, at two dollars in others; but both
bids are accepted without question. Oak Tim
Der is put at one dollar per thousand IN one
case, at seventy dollars in another; but the
engineer in charge supposes 1t to be all
right and asks no questions. And 50 the
petty contract to repair small section
of canal goes on year after year, getting
bigger and bigger. The time assigned for its
completion expires, and gradually fades into
the dim past, and still the contractor stands
there with his pocket open, and the engineers
and commissioners keep on throwing money
into it-ten thousand, fifty thousand, hun
dred thousand half million; but the work
is never done. A canal contract is as steady
source of income to the owner and his po-
litical friends as contract for marble, for
iron safes, for thermometers and cuspadoros
used to be in the days when Ncw-Yori was
trying to finish the new courthouse"
We see by these contracts also some of the
secret alliances by which the Canal Ring con-
trived not only to dcplete tho Treasury. but
to corrupt the politics of the State. Plans
such as are here laid bare could not be car
red out except with the connivance of a
whole army of officials, from the Commission
ers down. We are not surprised, therefore,
to find that n number OF the most lucrative
of the contracts are in the hands of cliqucS-
which we might call firms except that the
partnerships are not open ones-whosc po-
ltcal affiliations are far-reaching and
powerful Senator Jarvis Lord appears
in this story, as might have been expected /;
his son is a contractor who has been slgnalIy
favored. Assomb,yman Willard Johnson IL
the real owner of two contracts which were
awarded presumably to men Of straw, and he
is supposed to be concerned III still other
arrangements. A leading member oi one Of
the most active and unconscionaLlo of the
cliques of contractors is intimately allied, by
financial and domestic ties, with the Chairman
of the Assembly Committee on Canals, Mr.
Alanson s. Page. And so it goes. If one part
ner is a Republican another is a Democrat. IA
one has colleagues in the Assembly, another
takes care of the Senate Changes OF admin
istration, revolutions in politics, have never
shaken the confidence Of these thrifty patriots.
Parties may rise and fall, but the C;nal Ring
goes on digging and multiplying, with no
prospect of completion" SO firm seems to
have b en- its hold upon the successive Com
missoners and their subOrd.nates that up to
this time an unbalanced and ridicul0usly
fraudulent bid had never been rejected for
fraud but once, and when Commissioner
Thayer made that innovation his acton was
regarded with amazemeut and Indignation.
Gov. Tilden proposes practical remedies for
the present state of things. They deserve tic
most careful attention. for, like everything else
in his Message, they seem to be sensible and
well considered. Before we reach the remedy,
however, we have some further explorations TO
make into the extent of the disease, outrage
Gus contracts to explain, and allies of the
Ring to drag into the light. Gov. Tilden on
his part may be assured that he has provoked
the undying enmity of the worst and most UNI
scrupuous faction of his own party, ami has
given the signal for bitter though we do
not believe vcry long battle For this he
ia undoubtedly well prepared, and VIC can
trust him to iOrce the fighting.