The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-01-17
TO THE c0MKrssIoNRRs.

Believing that factions speak louder than
words" we did not intend replying TO the person
al insinualions cast In your "statemenf' pub
liahed In the Repository and DEMOCRAT two weeks
ago, but yielding to the solicitation Of fiiends as
Well az sense or Justice TO ourselves, we VIII
give truthful" we'll as Clear account Of our
acts In respect to matters In which you have
called our honor In question.
We have not avaied ourselves OF the aid Of le-
gal talent In Representation oflnslnuatOns tech
nicalitles, and ingeniously planned invasions be-
levlng that plain, honest recital is preferable TO
studied perversiOn,
Aswe told you laStsummer when we frat spoke
OF bridge affairs the only interest we had Tor have
had sinceO In bridge contracts, except our inter-
est as taxpayers, was that justice be done.
j., W, Hoover, "sOn ant nephew" Of the under
signed respectively located at Indianapolis Ind,
following bridge contracting, requested that we
furnish him information concerning bridge work
In the county, As was perfectly natural, this we
were willing to do. We looked for advertise
ments, but found none, though we asCertained
that bridges had been and were being Quilt, with
out having been advertised. We then asked you
personally for information concerning bridge
work and were told there was an advertisement
In the STARK COUNTY DEMOCRAT. Upon procur
ing a copy of The DEMOCRAT we found the fol-
lowing:
BRIDGE NoTICE-NotiCe Is hereby given that
sealed proposals will be received at the Auditors
ofhce, at Canton, Stark county, Ohio, up to noon
saturday, September 8th, for the construction OF
an iron bridge over the Tuscarawas river at Mas
sillon. The bridge to have a capacity of 100
pounds to the square foot, and not strain iron
more than l2,50O pounds in tension and not more
than 5000 pounds per square inch in Gordon's
formula for compression. The Commissioners
reserve the right to reject any and all bids, By
order OF the Commissioners.
JAS. P. soURBEcK, Auditor.
We thought this to be vague and incomplete
| but sent II to our "sOn and nephew Back come
word he did not know how wide the TusCarawas
river was what kind Of bridge was wanted sim
gle or double roadway, any sidewalks or not and
that this knowledge was necessary for the prepar
alton Of plans. TO send this information II was
first necessary that we have It, so we went to the
| Auditors office, from whence came this adver
| tisement by your order" and where all informa
ton should have been found, but were told that
nothing was there. and were referred to you As
| our son and nephew" could not well come In
| from Indianapolis to "see the CommissiOnersn Ia
| get the needed information for a bid, we made
| our famous trip to Lake and TuScarawas town
Ships IRON pure public snirt" to get the needed
information required, We asked for nothing
| more, except that no discrimination be made AZ
! you very well know Specific advertisements ap
peared later in the Repository and DEMOCRAT. Az
to our speaking In commendation Of the bridge
or approving the masonry and site at this time We
whatever concerning the necessity ol
location Of the bridge, We emphaucally deny
that we ever recommended the building of the
bridge or that we justified your course as far al
you had proceeded. We afterwards did see anC
commeHd the masonry and yet say 1t reflects
credit to the builder but we did not at any time
commend the bridge project.
In this connection, however, we will say tina
up to the day of the letting had your actions haC
| the semb anCe of fairness, whether our "son anC
nephew" had been successful or not, as far as w
| are concerned, your digressiOns would have beer
overlooked, thinking they were errors of omission
| instead of commission. Not knowing what in
| ducements counsel you to award the contract TO
the canal bridge at Massillon TO the Massillon Co.
without advertising the same and what nigh
induce you to award this bridge to them, W,
wished to see the run of the machine" II ma
chine 1t was, and consequently were both in anC
about the court house at the time Of the letting
THE last straw breaks the Gamers back" ant
this straw, with many more, was heaped on wheI
you locked yourselves in your room TO the exClu
sion of all, save the Auditor and his deputy, whit
gained admission by first rapping at the door
showing plainly thatfurther belief in your assur
ance Of justice being done, was but vain delu
sion You claim ut is not correct that yol
opened the proposals secretly If opening then
in your room to the exclusion of the public
publicity there is publicity In the halls of secre
societies which members enter after rapping, o
in the councils Of thieves who meet in their mid
night brothels You say mo one asked to b
present" Why? Because owing to an intimatiO
from you, they left the room, when you closed an
bolted the door You say after opening the bid
we made them known" You made nothin
known in executive session that day. Mr.. Woo
came from your room, passed through the hall O.
his way to the train, saying you had adjOurne
till the 24th-this being the 10Th. We then en-
, tered your public" room, but found no bills, n
specifications no nothing but your bland smile
, You had not and did not then refer the plans
an engineer, but were requested to do so b
young Mr. Hoover" as well as to throw all pre-
posals open to the inspection of the public, bu
you refused. You say you made known the bid
When and to what extent? After repeatedly re
fusing to make any thing known, telling us W
are dealing with honest men and all will be sal
isfactory when we would not be satisfied wit
promises, when law and exposure stared yo
openly in the face, then you mot in executiy
T session. but long afterwards,) made known tn
, price per foot that certain unknown bridges ha
been offered. This you say would certainly prt
vent any change before the final award" Will
we made or make no accusation concerning an
change, If your innocence depends upon your il
, ability to change anything, 1t has weak supper
, II would beRs easy to change the speCifcatiO
corresponding to certain price per foot as
change the price per foot corresponding to ce
tain specification. They both constitute the prt
pOsal You kept back one thing-the specifCatiO
that the law reqnires to be made public, and
there was no change it was given to lack of II
Clination and not of opportunity.
When you met on the oath, you pretended
desire the "OpiniOn of some engineer as to tn
- | IbldLlN6 llSIllS VI tl6 plhuh anu hhlu you WOul
submit them osome one competent to Judge.
Why did you not do this at first as requested
. 1--WE cannot suppose" that you gentlemen VIII
/ have been so fair in every thing else wished fC
more time until after the election, but the nel
we heard was after the election. Upon going
the Auditors Office and inquiring, we were tol
t that no record Of an award was there, but tn
/ same day, dropping into the American Hote
were told by Mr.. Hipp that Mr. Raber had tOl
. him to tell us, should he see us, that they ha
awarded the contract to the Massillon COmpan,
Of course () we then thought the engineer
whom you referred the plans had found materii
difference between them. but according to th
letter you received from the engineer there We
, no material difference betwden the two, both b
, ing up to the requirements. In conversation h
also says there was no difference. The difierenC
in price was 465,00, yet you awarded the cOntra
to the higher, In your statementwhy did you NJ
f justify your award by the report of the engineC
to whom you referred the plans? To summarize
. Commencing contrary to law continuing so, di
sarily pOstpOning from time to time asSumn
the guse of fairness by referring TO able and di
interested parties, and then totally ignoring the
report; discriminating between parties to the d.
: tTiment of tax. payers for reasons known only
yourselves and finally personally msTepresen
ing to parties who asked for no more than 20
know should have been granted without asking
thus do we find fulfilled your promises that ju
; tice would be DONE Very respectfully,
DANIEL HOOVER.
JOHN P0NTIUS.
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING.
We insert tine foregoing out of respect to th
worthy citizens whose signatures are attached nj