New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-22

Total. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. .S2O3,O29 32
To this estimate Gen. DabcOck appended the fol-
lowing certificate:
OFFICE PuBLc BulLDTNGs ,ND GR 20! Sb.,
certify that have had the work embraced in these
estimates carefully measured and the assessments. maps
ine and nl that assessed to the late corporation
OF Washington, has been chal e1 TO private property,
ton, and are III my opinion, reasonable.
o. J.. BABcOCK, Colonel OF Engineers, u :. a.
By comparing these three statements of the cost
Of the same work it viii be seen, first, that Gen.
Babcock certified it to be $27,963 43 more than the
report of the Auditing Commission shows it to have
been But the report of the Auditing Commission
was correct, because that made mp from the GER
tifcates ssu d. and the sum OF those certificates
must have been exactly the amount charged TO the
old corporation. These certificates were paid i'll
1872 and 1873 by the Territorial Government and
the amount thus paid, given on page II OF the
"Governor's Answer" to the Invest eating Commit
tee agrees exactly with that approved by the Au-
diting Commission, and with $25,31O 81 interest
added and paid at the same time makes 5000, II,
which, viii be is within about $1,000 OF the
amount of Bdbcock's measurement.
AN ANALYSIS or THE ESTIM TIES.
The only plausible theory on which the discrep-
ancy between the actual cost of the work as shown
by the report of the Auditing Commission and the
cost which Gen. Babcock reported may be explained,
is this: Congress had made an appropriation TO re-
imbursc the old corporation for this work; the fact
that it had not been paid for was not reported TO
Congress- and no provision was made in the appro-
pTiation for interest the certificates, which
amounted to more than $50, 900 In order that the
District Government might be relieved from the
payment of this $25 900 and that it might be sad
died upon the United States, the Board engineers
included in their estimate expenditures which had
olr DIV honD ia for bv the DIODCrtV and
Gen. Babcock certified that their account correct
without making the examination. II could not have
happened in any other way, because if Gen. Babcock
had examined the original accounts he would have
seen that the assessment actually made on the old
corporation for its share of the work was about
$4,000 less than the amount Of the voucher he
signed
Again Again. n comparison of the measurement certified
70 by Babcock with the report Of the same measure
Inent given in the annual report Of the Board of
Public Works for 1878. shows discrepancy Oh
$24726 49, the former being S2O3,o20 ~, ana the
latter *17s.3O2 So The voucher on which pay
ment was made and which contains Babcocks
measurement. covers four pages Of paper. Al the
foot OF the first page the footing is ,12G f3, ana
this amount is carried 10 the second page, and 50 on
until the whole account is made out. Now, it will
lie noticed that if the footing of the first page OF
the voucher be Subtracted from the total OF 1t, The
remainder will he Sl7s302 80, the amount Of the
measurement az reported 10y the Board OF Public
Works. This omission of the first page OF the
voucher in making up the report must have been
Intentional, as any one may by examining the
paper The second page of the voucher is added
correctly the amount of the footing of the first
page being included, and also The third page so that
ia order to obtain from the estimate Of the measure
1nent Sl3I S99 80 as the cost of the work Penn
sylyania-aye., ii is necessary TO subtract delib-
erately the amount of the items the first page from
the total amount of the estimate for that avenue.
II could not be obtained in any other way because
tbe figures S131 500 90 do not occur anywhere i'll
the estimate.
What was the object of making false report Of
This measurement sylvania ave. was the first
street of this city paved with wood and the exact
amount to be paid for it out of the general fnnd OF
the District well known to hundreds OF citzehS'
not only from the report Of the Auditing Commission
Int from other sources Everybody who gave any
attention to the subject knew that it was between
$4,000 and 100000. II, therefore, the Board OF
Public Works had published in 1873, as Babcock $
estimate that the United States Government should
pay 1908 900 for what cost the District Government
E25 900 less than that sum, and that Gen. Babceck
had actually found the cost of the work to be the
greater sum, citizens Of the District would have at
once dscovere ed that Babcocks estimate assisted the
Ring to defraud the Government. BY emitting the
first page of the voucher In the public report the dis
rrepancy was not discovered, while the estimate for
The full amount was in the Treasury Department "