New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-20
SPECIMEN CONTRACTS.
THE SYSTEM OF UNBALANCED BIDS ILLUS
lRAIED.
exhibition.

THE SYSTEM OF UNBALANCED BIDS ILLUS
IRAIED.
4 GREAT SCHEME OF FRAUD-sEYATORs, ASSEM-
B!TNIES, EEGEEERs, AND COMMISSIONERS M
PLiCArrp.
FROM TILE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRBUNE.l
ALBASY, March l9.-It has never been fashionable
TO tall, about canal frauds. The Canal Ring, which
only breaks its j:dicions silence to deny its own
being, has found reserve on this subject expedient
and profitable. Neither papers nor politicians have
discussed tlclI, and they have continued for num-
Der Of years with that mpurity which impudence
exacts from ignorance. In fally disclosing this
scheme Of fraud, The TRIBUNE does the State SER
vice, which people familiar with canal history say
no journal has ever rendered before. Politicians
had such good reasons foI silence, that Emerson L.
Dayiss speech in the Assembly last Winter is said
TO have been the fist iegsiaivc analysis Of the sub
jec. on record. Gov. Tidcn's message is certainly
tho first OF its kind ard as commemorate as it is
piucky, in view OF tho influence of the Clique he
assailj, and the enmies that his action on the Cos
tigan bill excited in the dominant faction of the
party. Such disclosures can hardly fail to convince
the people Of the State thai the problem of cheap
transportation cannot be made clear until they
get rid Of the thieves who are making of the
canals sluices to drain tho public money into their
own pockets.
little reorganization of canal fraud methods may
help to proper understanding of the facts given
below l. will be remembered that the chief eXpe-
dent in these frauds is that Of artfully unbalanced
bids. The contractor bids for articles of which he
expects to finish large quantity at high price,
and in the small quantity which, by curious coin
cidence, is always named by the engineer who pre-
pares the call Tbs product is therefore small and
the sum total of all the products of the proposal
is also small. The honest bidder, who bids for the
work at fair prices, is compelled to multiply the
quantities large and small by proper prices. Some
of the products of the honest bids are therefore,
larger and some smaller than those Of the fraud
nlent bidder, but their sum total is much greater.
In this way the contract goes to the lowest bidder,
as the law requires, though almost invariably this
reduced bidding is mere trick. and the contract is
seen to have been in reality awarded to the highest
Of all the bidders.
The responsibility for this is divided, or rather
there is series of responsibilities. beginning with
the assistant engineers in charge OF the work, and
running through the Resident and Division Engi-
peers to the Canal Commissioners The first step in
fraud is in the preparation of the specifications OF
work to be done. The manner in which these are
"a
generally arranged leaves room for doubt as to
the exi,ssuce of COLLISION between engineers and
contractors Large quantities OF material are
called for on which the bidder places an entirely
INADEQUATE price, so as not to swell the total of
his bid and items of large expense are treated in
manner exactly tho reverse, for the same evident
purpose No other inference than that of collision
ia possble in such cases. When a man solennly
engages on paper to oxcavate solid rock at one
cent a cubic yard and wants q double price for
bsilding stone wsA it is of no use to put certif
| Gates of church membership in evidence. 1t goes
without saying that the specification of work TO be
| done is generally far from the truth making the
| engineer an accomplish in the crime of the con-
tractor Tho next step is the change Of the qusnti
ties in the specifications. Fortunately one safe
guard hsc been thrown about these specifcations-