New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-23
PRICE FOUR CENTS.

contractor and official alike. The contractor gets
all he can; the official betrays trust. The Ring
has such firm hold, however, on every branch OF
tho canal service that the engineer who attempts 10
resist the progress of fraud is almost sure to be
cowed into subsection or forced from his place. I'M
less he has friends sufficiently influential to protect
him. Some former Resident Engineers say that IN
Justice is done that class in saying that they arc
responsible for the conduct of the assistant eDgi-
neers, by whose sufferance only can the frauds be
committed. and narrate instances where tho
Resident Engineer. making himself an obstacle 10
the operations Of the contractors. was completely
ignored By both those above him and these under
him. accounts passing directly from the assistant
to the Division Engineer and thence to the Canal
Commissioner in charge of the Division. 1t is well
known, however, that the Resident Engineers have
generally been fellow-members of the Ring with
their superiOrs and suboTdinates and the con-
tractors and it is hardly to be believed that hold
ing tho position he does, the Resident Engineer
could mot prevent or at least expose frauds con-
nved at by his assistants. 1t needs no penetration
TO see that the whole system is prcmeditated
tumble III which confusion covers multitude OF
sins.
Tho contracts given below exhibit, besides tho
extraordinary difference already shown between
contract prices and contractors receipts, several
instances of the arbitrary way in which the specit-
cations or totals of contracts altered by resou
ton of the Canal Board, often making difference
in the cost of work of many thousands of dollars.
Contractors will often point, in answer to criticism,
to resolutions Of the Canal Board and acts of tho
Legislature in virtue of which their gains are in
creased, and repel Indignantly the accusation OK
wrong-doing because their acts may have had tho
sanction of law. But it should be remembered that
these favos arc obtained by all the arts Of the lobby,
and are none the less unjustifable because they
have passed through certain red tape methods.
Canal Boards and Legislatures have been
manipulated by the Inland Tammany, just as con-
ventIons and caucuses have been and are. It is for
such purposes as these largely that members OF
the Ring come to the Legislature, for often they
seem to be men who would rather make money than
speeches. The rooms of certain prominent though
silent worker of the Ring at the Deayan House arc
said to be maintained by general assessment OH
the leading contractors, and it is from
this as a center that the Influences radi-
ate which have SO often resulted in acts
of the Legislature of tho State, and awards and
resolutions of the Legislature of the canals Mem
bers Of the Ring take care to cultivate friendly re-
lations with the lobby, and learn in this way who
are approachable and who are not. One Of the Ring
said only the other day, Il can lay my hand on
every man in these two Houses who VIII tate
money" SO that, after all. the methods of Tam
many by the seaboard and Tammany inland differ
less in principle han in detail