Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-23
THE CAPITAL EXTENSION
IT BEGINS TO FALL BY PIECEMEAL,
THE FAULT GOING FIRST.

| =
The GLOBE believes in the old adage, 'tAn
ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure"
With view to having the ounce administered,
and the pound of expense saved, the GLOBE
called attention Friday morning to certain al
legged defects in the construction of the west
wing extension of the capitol. These defects
were claimed to exist both in the material en-
ployed and in the mode of construction. The
nature of these dangerous shortcomings were
specifically set forth, and the remedy was easily
inferred. 1t was in no spirit of the alarmist
that public attention was directed to a matter
of so much Importance, but for the sole pur-
pose of securing safe building, true in all
particulars to the plans and specifications, and
fully up to all contract requirements in ma
terial.
Fast upon this public invitation to look
| into the work done on this
public building came the retort:
.'It lis safe,'' and the architect 'sridicules"
any assertion to the contrary.
HOW PROFESSIONALS MAY ERR.
! This professional assurance to the unpro-
fessional public had scarcely reached the few,
| through the obscure medium employed, before
| the news was current that the west wing of the
capitol had fallen down.
| The old story took this phase, ut can't fall
down. But it has fallen down.
THE EXTENT OF THE ACCIDENT.
| GLOBE pedestrian heard of it, and hurried
to the scene of disaster, to learn the extent of
the damage, and the nature of the disaster.
Reaching that the ground qnait it was na
the first floor had fallen in, and carried with
it portion of the wall, and had damaged a
great portion of the rest. The stay rods of
| iron underneath the arch had been bent be-
meath the weight of the falling mass of brick
and rubbish ,b ia The c.n arch was ., sprung
the new wall Gnterior wall, not exterior
wall of the new building. The new wall was
the one damaged by the descent; the old wall
stood the shock with no symptom of bulge.
THE DOCTORS DISAGREE.
The cause the fall the next point to
be investigated. On this, no settled opinion
could be found. 1t was declared that the sup
port was removed while the arch was
green; that the late rain had a
tendency to cause the fall, as the convexity of
the arch was unprotected from the weather;
| again that the arch was in the first place, de-
| fectively constructed.
REMEDY IT NOW.
After careful view of the
whole building, the great defect
The remedy is at hand in putting in additional
basement pillars under the long length of
joist "a stitch in time saves nine." And
when that mine" may be augmented into a
mass of tumbled and crushed humanity the
one stitch had best be taken before the remedy
| came too late.
WHAT THE GOVERNOR INTENDS TO DO.
Gov. Pillsbury, from report, entertains this
idea. He had already contemplated thorough
inspection of the building by experts, and the
suggestion has been made him to request the
| services of a St. Paul architect to act in con-
junction with one selected from Min
neapolis-other than the supervising architect
of the building This scheme is useful and
necessary before further progress in the cree
ton is made. Alterations can be adopted and
introduced now, at little additional expense,
which, if done later. would exceed the appro-
priation for the building and give in the end a
mere piece of patchwork