New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-26

Inquiry sends forth report after report all
filed with disclosures of fraud and official neg
ligcnce, at which the whole State may well
stand aghast. People are almost tempted to
ask after all this if any work on the canal has
ever been done according to contract, or any
canal officer has ever been both competent and
honest.
Yesterday we published a curious mass OF
testimony and report from each of the two
investigating bodies The Legislative Com
mittce gave us an official narrative OF the
notorious OtiscO Lake swindlc, which
has been pretty fully described before.
The Governors Commission devoted Its
fourth report to a contract which differs
in many interesting particulars from
those previously examined The usual practice
has been to cheat the State by unbalanced
estimates and fraudulent measurements but
when Assemblyman Willard johnson took his
contract for the West Troy lock, he combined
an extraordinary variety OF Illegal anu u.s.
honest devices, Including double payments
double measurements, bold and even de-
faint departure from the contract prices, ana
tbe construction of great deal of work not
sp,cificd in the contract at all. Having been
authorized for instance to build lock- ne
went on without any warrant of law to put mp
an iron bridge, construct waste weir, ana
lnclose and pave an area of G,OOC square
wards of ground and upon this "extra work.
as there was no alusion to il in the contract,
he nut the most prcpostcrous prices. Having
agreed TO build so cubic yards of vertical wall
at Sc yard, he put up 1,32c cube yaioS oi
il. and then reclassifcd it, calling part OF
asher curved retaining wall at SO,
and part coping at $50, WHEREBY
fine State was cheated ont of $4,000. Paving
which should have been 10 Inches thick ana
have cost 80 yard was laid less than ~
inches thick and then charged IA vertical wall
at Sc. Excavation and lining were charged
and paid for twice. Over 10000 pounds OF
scrap and pig-iron worth cents p0lid
was charged and allowed as cast-iron at II
cents. Clearing ont an old dock filled entirely
with earth and gravel, mixed with some loose
stones. aDpears as crock excavation at 81.
For removing eight canal-bOat wrecks
from the basin, n job which fell WITHIN
the category of "guhhing and clear
ing" contracted for at $40, Mr. johnson
first charged 80 for each boat, ana ihdihg
that little swInde easily successful he altered
the charge to $3.50, or $1,000 for the eight.
In these and other ways Johnson managed to
obtain S1l1,19S under u contract when calIcu
for only $40, O2G, and the Commissioners ind
that over $3.50, 600 of the amount represents
snccr fraud by false rates and measurements
It il not worth while To waste Indignation
ON Willard Johnson. Far more guilty than
The swindling contractor are the faitcss state
officers by whose inconccivable negligence or
purchased conniyance this cheating was made
possil,e. For it must he remembered that
Engineers and Canal Commissioners are ap-
pointed to represen; the interests OF the people
in all these Transactions that al bill, must be
audited and allowed, all work supervised
and approved by the proper officials. Follow
ing the good custom which they established
from the start, the Investigating Commits
sioncrs give the names of all these State
functionares among whom the responsibility
has to be shared. They are Canal Commits
sioncrs George w. Chapman, Alexander
Barley, and Adm Thayer, and Resident
Engineers Peter Hogan, W. W. Jerome,
Charles Hilton and s. +. Babcock. The rcpu-
tation of some of these gentlemen has hitherto
been good the reputation OF others Is GER
tainly very bad now, whatever 1t may have
been before the Governors Commissioners
began the publication Of their reports. Bat We
have nothing to do with personal regulations
in the presence of these damaging disclosures
A bad record stands against every one OF the
persons We have named, and the burden OF
establishing their innocence rests upon them.
We are far from assuming, for orr part, chat
every Canal Commissioner or Engineer who
allows himself to be used by the Ring con-
tractors is actually partner i'll their thefts.
The shameful lax;ty in the administration OF
canal affairs to which MesSrs. Beach and Rich
mond gave snch striking and unwilling testi-
mony the other day, has been so much mat
ter of course that gentlemen who are faithful
and upright in all their unofficial business
have thought it quite the correct thing
to sign vouchers and reports without reading
them. inspect work with their eyes shut, and
take all manner of things for granted iii order
to Obige that combination of politicians and
swindcrs which the Commission justly de-
scribed as the only permanent political power
in the State. Ii will be one of the most val
liable results of Gov. Tiilcn's reform if he
arouse3 the conscience Of the average respect
able pliice-holder to proper sense of official
responsibility, and teaches those statesmen,
whether Republican or Democratic, who pride
themselves upon the decOrum Of their official
lives, that there is something for them to
think OF more important than department
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