New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-04
TIE CANAL FRAUDS.

The first report of the Special Commission
appointed by Gov. Tilden to investigate the
affairs of the Canals of the State, under the
resolution of the last Legislature, has been
submitted to the Governor, and Is printed
herewith in full. 1t reads like a chapter
from the Pirates Own Book. In the
exposures of Canal Ring methods origin
ally published in THE TRIBU-E, which, i'll con-
nection with Gov. Tilden's message upon the
subject, were the melting cause of legislative
action upon the subject, the processes by
which the Canals were made the instruments
of stupendous frauds and continual robbery of
tie State were very fully set forth. In the
light of these exposures the Legislature did
not dare refuse an investigation, and even the
servile tools Of the Canal Ring were forced by
the action of the Governor and by unmistaka-
bic public sentiment to consent, though some
what ungracefully, to the prosecution of an
inquiry into Canal management. The appoint
ment of the present Commission gave assnr-
ancc that the inquiry would be searching and
the investigation thorough and practical. And
the first nstalment of their work i'll the par
tial report published this morning fully veri-
fes the public confidence.
The readers of THE TRIBUNE are already
familiar with the system of unbalanced bids
so thoroughly ovcrhauled and exposed in orr
columns last Winter. The report of the
Commission officially establishes the cor
rectness of our descriptions of this
system of robbery and throws new
light upon the details of the process.
The Commission has not been content with
the oral testimony of witnesses or with the
Of fhn ks
of the canal, the walls and slopes which the
Ring contractors have tinkercd with and
weakened while they were paid for repairing
them. have been dissected and made to furnish
evidence of the most conclusive character of the
rascality of the contractors. If there was Il
lingering doubt in the mind of any one OF the
existence of an organized Ring and complete
system of robbery and fraud in connection
with Canal administration, the report Of the
Commission must remove 1T. The eX-
tent to which these frauds have been
carried in all the years i'll which the
Ring has held the State in its clutches
it is of course impossible to ascertain with
defniteness, but we may get an approximate
idea of it from the figures and facts detailed
by the Commission in connection with a single
contract of Ii. ID. Denisons, upon which he
has already received six times the amount
of his bid, though the work is not yet done.
Nor can the extent of the direct damage suf-
fered by the State from these plunderers be
estimated without taking into consideration the
fact that in the fulhllment of their fraudulent
contracts in many cases the little work they did
was an absolute injury 10 the Canals. it being
done in the most slip-shod, careless manner for
two reasons-onc to make present profit and
the other to insure future contracts on neccs-
sary repairs.
The Commission has done more, too, than
make an elaborate exposition of the methods
of the Ring. 1t has gone TO the bottom of the
business and traced the responsibility for all
the frauds and rObberies to which the
State has been subjected in connection with
the Canal contracts. The twenty-five sepa-
rate articles in which their conclusions
are contained sum up the whole matter
and Lay the responsibility and the blame where
they belong. Criminal negligence, incOmpe-
tence, and downright, deliberate fraud are
pointed out, and in each CAGE the guilty