Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-22

DiAtn-lne com mas JDdt the OIlgii-
al cost of FIVE double turreted monitors, the
amount already expended upon them, and
the amount of money required to complete
them, together with the original cost of the
old material supplied to the contractors, will
aggregate over four million dollars each, or
over twenty million dollars for the whole. In
the case of the new Puritan, the official re-
ports supplied by Secretary Thompson show
that no regular and proper contract was made
for the construction of the new vessel, nor
any necessary steps taken to guard the public
interests. The contractor managed every
thing, and the new vessel is pronounced by
the ablest experts IN the navy to be failure.
1t appears from an official report to the de-
partment. by Chief Engineer J. w. King,
that during the administration OF Secretary
Robson forty new boilers were sold out Of
the eastern navy yards to Messrs. John Roach
and H. G. Gardner, who were large contract
ors for boilers and machinery with the de-
partment, and during the same period con-
tracted with the government to supply al
most the identical number of boilers. Mr..
King states that the governments loss on
thirty of these new boilers, which were sold,
was FIVE hundred and ninety-fve thousand
six hundred and eighty-one dollars, the
amount realized being being only twenty
eight thousand two hundred and forty FIVE
dolla:s. Mr.. King further says, In his report:
There has never been a question as TO the
propriety Of selling condemned materials,
stores, etc., worthless for use in the naval
service; and if exchange of condemned
articles for materials needed can be made to
better advantage than by sale, such,
for instance, as the exchange of
old tubes or old scrap to be worked
into new metals, it would seem best to do so,
there being NO, law to the contrary. But the
boilers sold were not old materials, worthless
for use; on the contrary, they were new, and
stored In the navy-yards for use In naval YES
sells requiring new boilers, and for many
years many of precisely the same kind were
supplied to vessels returning from cruises
with their boilers worn out and condemned.
If any proof be needed that the thirty
new boilers sold were sound, in good order,
and in all respects fit for use in naval vessels,
it can be found by AN examination of the six
boilers in the Colossus, still On the stocks at
the New York navy-yard.
Eighth-The committee finds, from the
statistics of the bureau of provisions and
clothing supplied by Secretary Thompson,
that provisions which were known to be mer-
charitable were sold with a view of supplying
that bureau with money. 1t is shown that
by this bureau large quantities of valuable
stores were privately and sometimes c0nfden-
TALLY sold to contractor, William Mathews,
of New York. The entire amount of sales to
him amounted to nearly seven hundred thou
sandd dollars, for which he paid the govern
ment in clothing, at high prices, about thir-
ty-three per cent. of the cost of the goods
sold to him. Secretary Thompson has sup
piled to the committee very able and care
ful report, by his assistant pay director,
Cooper, under date of May 18th, in regard to
the irregularities In this department.
The following are the important portions
of this report:
81 have respectfully to report as follows
The official sources of evidence upon the SUBJ
ject show that during the joint administra-
ton of Paymaster General John A. Bradford
and Acting Paymaster-General James Fl.
Watmough, as chief of said bureau, and SUBJ
sequently when the former retired and the
latter was appointed to the full position,
there were repeated and varied irregularities
in its administration, frequent absence of
due regard for and conformity to law. Espe-
cIally was this the case with regard to the
bureau own distinctive purchases and ar
engagements for supplies, its sales of public
property and disposition ssf the proceeds
thereof. barter or exchange of the same. 1t
is evident that In all these matters either the
laws governing them were not known or they
were not respected or considered as binding.
The system positively required by law of
openly inviting competition by advertising
for proposals for needed supplies, and making
regular legal contracts for the same, seems to
have been, so far as the bureaus own dis
tinctIve purchases and arrangements were
concerned, not merely sometimes but almost
wholly ignored by Mr.. Watmough. Mere bu-
reau orders were commonly given, and with
out advertisement, without possibility of COM
petition, without legal contract, sometimes
without need, and without sufficient funds
under the proper appropriations, and this was
done with regard to larger as well as smaller
transactions, as the accompanying papers will
show. The records OF the bureau also
show that Chief-of-Bureau Watmough
made illegal sales, or barter, or exchange
of public property to an enormous extent all
along during the years of 1874, 1875 and
part of 1876, and that none of the proceeds
thereof were-as required by law with regard
to everything except condemned clothing
covered into the treasury by him, but were,
except tr1he, covered into the bureau in the
shape of other and new supplies. This was
done, not at public auction without public
advertisement and without possibility of COM
petition; it was done privately and with sin
gle individuals All this was violatiVe of the
disposed of were sound and merchantable
and of navy inspection when sold by the bu-
reau, some simply odd, and some con-
demned and unfit for issue Immense guam
titles of stores, abroad and at home, at all
points, were sold as they were, unseen, for
certain agreed upon prices, some of them
shipped directly to the purchaser. The bu-
Icdu diOuO dIIduRcuy uAiuS the PRIZES Vi OOGu
sold and purchased or exchanged articles.
The pay officers had nothing to do with the
mat er, nor any board, and the officers in
charge had simply to obey the bureau orders,
and turn over and receive the articles accord
ingly, and at the prices specified by the bu-
reau. The bureau during this time thus dis
posed of six hundred and thirty-nin thou
sand nine hundred and ninety-four dollars
and eighty-three cents worth of stores of
all kinds this amount includes a sale
and exchange or batter by MIR. Bradford
of ffty-four thousand three hundred and
thirty one dollars and sixty,one cents worth
of old beef for nine thousand two hundred
and six dollars and twenty-five cents paid in
beef), the proceeds of which went, not into
the treasury, as required by law, but, as
stated, into the bureau. Necessarily these
sales and exchanges involved much loose and
irresponsible action, heavy sacrifices and great
confusion. An indefinite quantity Of ;ndef-
mite articles, good, bad and Indifferent, were
proffered by the bureau, payment to be made
In case, in improved navy bills, in small
stores, new clothir e, etc., and settlement
to be made direct with the bureau and to be
considered confidential. So that articles
under one appropriation were to be sold and
paid for sometimes in one way and sometimes
in another, thus most strangely and illegally
intermixing and confounding everything con-
nected with the matter. IL finally resolved
itself into AN exchange or barter of stores on
large scale All this clearly was in positive
violation of law, and especially of certain of
the well-known ARTICLES for the better gov
erpment of the navy"
The Republican members of the committee
had nothing to do with the preparation of the
report