The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1875-09-28

from the office II tcW BE- sent at % cents Il
month, or $3.50 Il year, postage paid
The Dock Department Makes Confess
sion.
The letter of the Dock Commissioners TO
Mayor WICKHAM, asking for the appoint
ment of q board Of engineers to inspect
their bunglng work along the water front
h logical cons, pucuce of the exposures
of THE SCN concerning their failures
Ever since the retirement OF Gen. Nc
CLELI.aS and tho ORIGINAL Comm ssioncrS
the work of the dopattmc has been car
ried on in blum lDriug and stumbling
way, with results 81 lamcutahle that the
present board l. AT last compelled TO make
confession of It's i'll success, and to publicly
declare that what it has been doing is
wretched specimen Of engineering inca
paoity.
In their letter the Dock Commissioners
In substance deny responsibility for the
engineering bundcrs they expose. These
blunders have long been patent to every
competent engineer acquainted with the
work going on along the water front.
Those pointed out in the letter TO the
Mayor are, however, only "a part of the
failures chargeable upon the Dock Com
mission. When the true character of the
whole work as directed by them is fully
exposed, the highly respectable gentle
men to whom il committed the improve
ment of our docks will perhaps wish that
they had never undertaken the onerous
duties Of their responsible office.
The Commissioners imply that the blum
ders they acknowledge are not theirs but
those OF their predecessors. The public.
however, cannot let them of on that plea.
The majority Of the present board cannot
avoid the odium that must attach to SO
large u waste OF the people money. The
loss has been incurred through their own
ignorance and sclf-conceit. Mr.. Commits
eioner WESTERN ELT-the designer OF the
sH,250 department yacht-was Ia member
OF the board when in November, 1874. by
formal resolution passed unanimously,
IL was in essence directed that the plans of
MCCLELLAN and the original Commissions
ers should be thrown out of the window
and new ones adopted IN their place. Tue
great amount of work which is now going
u destruction, and which they are forced
to ask to have examined by board OF ex-
perts, has been built on the plans formally
adopted at that date. 1t therefore seems
like nothing less than assurance in Mr..
WEsTERvELT 10 sign letter to the Mayor
which speaks of the acts of Tour prede-
cessor-, ana cred is these latter with the
blunIers now fully acknowledged, and
due to the overthrow of their plans.
Mr. President WALES was, ii is true, not
4. 81. 1. 10
but he came in shortly after He was
hardly Installed IN Office before he wrote
n long amateur professional letter TO tho
press, IN which, after praising Gen. GRA-
HAN, the engineer now dissredited, as a
"skiilul engineer" and ilattering Ir. VAN
BUREN, Gen. GRAHAM's "chief assistant
he proceeded ut length to describe aud
approve the work they had planned, and
which is now tumbing TO pieces After
longer experience of Office, and after TnE
BUE had pointed out the glaring blunders
of his Commission Mr.. WALES now writes
the Mayor begging that this self-sane con-
structlon shall be examined by engineers
of eminence, and throwing the blame Of
ats bunglng on "our predecessors" the
Commissioners who adopted the plans
present trouble. We are sorry to fluid Mr..
WALES occupying a position which must
be very uncomfortable to a gentleman
with head so clear rs his.
The disaster in the Dock Department is
due in great part TO favOrtism in APP
pontments. The engineer who has charge
of such a vast and costly Improvement as
that Of the water front ought first of all TO
be one who Is thoroughly familiar with
the work. This PLAN, common-sense rule
has been steadily violated since Gen. Mo
CLELLAN retired from the department. His
Successors have been men ignorant of the
task expected of them. The consequence
Is seen in the present pitiable plight Of the
Commission and the shameful condition OF
the new work. The mock turtle engineers
who have by personal favorltism aud po-
htical influence been foisted on the de-
paItment under the present board could
not Obtain subordinate position of re-
work of consequence III the country. Yet
20 such men has been intrustcd the re-
pponsibility of altering plans approved
by the best engineers in military an3 civil
life.
The Commissioners, in the letter which
We printed on Saturday, though they make
ahumiliating confession OF failure, yet do
little more than throw q tub 10 the whale
They draw attention away from natter
faT graYer than thosL VI which thaY MAKE