New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-01

As the inquiry goes on the frauds seem moro
and more enormous and before The TRIBUNEs
engineers have finished their investigation we
shall probably find good reason to doubt
whether there is single honest Canal Con-
tract in force. Every variety of cheating
seems to flourish along the tow-path From
tho deceptive and cOllusive Quantity-sheet
down to the mud mortar, rotten timber, and
crumbling walls, it is one consistent system OF
rascality in which contractors, engineers, leg
islatOrs and high officers of State, arc equally
at fault.
In little while many reputable citizens
who have been connected with the Canals III
one way or another will be heard lifting their
voices in loud disclaimer of responsibility.
1t is true that great deal of money has
been stolen, but they will tell us that nobody
is responsible for stealing it. Canal Boards,
they will say, have been faithful; engineers
have been vlglant contractors (th0ugh there
is more or less human nature IN
the composition of the best of them)
have been fairly honest as men go /;
but the system, you see, is so rascally
1t is all tho system. The men are honest, but
the system makes them steal without sin and
cheat without dishonor. The contractor will
tell us that he can do no work without the
engineers approval, and if length of slope
wall mysteriOusly stretches from hundred
Yards to a mile, the engineer should be held
to account for It, The engineer will tell us
that mistakes must happen in the best regu-
lated families, and if piece of land estimated
at three acres actually measures 419 IN the
final account, we should remember that man
is prone to err, and the best surveying in;tru-
mcnts are imperfect. The Canal Board will
tell us, if we point to unbalanced bids, that
the law gives them no license to reject
fraudulent proposal but cOmpels them to
award the contract to the lowest bidder.
A word just here. Yesterday we received n
letter from Mr.. ID. A. Billiard, assuring us that
Canal Commissioner Thaycr is in tho Canal
"Ring and is not honest" because he accepted
the unbalanced bids of March II, which we
have already printed. And this reminds us
that Mr.. Billiard ought to know something
about unbalanced bids, for he put in some III
1860 to rebuild the Bassctt lock on the Cham
plain Canal. Mr.. Billiard proposed to do 4,OOo
cubic yards Of earth excavation at the monu-
mental price of So 80 per cubic yard, and 400
cubic yards of rock blasting at &c, Offer
ing to undertake all the rest of the work
for the nominal sum of $40. Tho Canal
Board rejected this bid as fraudulent
on its face. Billiard, they inferred.
meant to complete the excavation and
then throw up the rest of the contract.
The operation would stand him in as follows:
Price for earth excavation at 50 50, $4,000;
q, =
Deduct actual cost of excavation at 20 cents,
$500; actual cost of blasting at 81, $500; for
felt of damages, fixed by law at 10 per cent
on the bids, S1,661; forfeit of 10 per cent,
amount retained on the payments till the com
pletion of the work, S2,4j0; total, 3j,12l. Net
profit to Mr.. Ballard, Sl0,Gi0. Ballard applied
for q mandamus to compel the Board to give
him the contract. Argument was heard on
appeal by the General Term Of the SUI
prcne Court, where Judges Could, Peck
ham, and HOgcbOOm cOncurrod III denying
Mr.. Billiards. petition and defining the charac
ter of his proposal in pretty plain English.
Their decision was aftcrward sustained by tnc
Court of Appeals. And this is an important
case, especially applicable TO the present dis
cussIon, because it settles the question whether
the Canal BO9ru Is Douhu 10 accepI u"pii-
anccl bids. The highest court III the state
has decided that the Board Is in duty bound
not to accept them; and Judge Pcckham, in
his opinion elsewhere reproduced, describes
the precise system of fraudulent bidding
which We have been exposing, and lays down
the duty of the Canal Board under the law
so clearly that there ought to be no mistake
about il. The Canal Board is required to
exact from contractors an adequate security
for the protection of the State, and 1t goes
without saying that under the usual system
of unbalanced bids there is practically no
security at all.