Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-02-28
THE CITY ENGINEER.
A Caustic Review of the Manner In Which
He Does Business.

To the Editor of the Globe.
Shall we be governed by the monopolists and
rings formed to subserve their own selfish ends
and personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT or by the popular
vote? Are the American people capable of
self-government? Arewe not drifting towards
monarchy and the one-man power? Are not
the peoples rights, step by step, being invaded
under the specious plea that the modern Caesars
whom they have honored by their choice of
service, but who now aspire to be their masters,
better know their wants than they themselves?
These questions have been often suggested
by the strife for political monopoly and the
greed for power, and become pertinently sug-
gestiye at this time, when trickery beneath
travelling mountebank and feats of lofty
tumbling that would astound a celestial aero
bat are rcsorted to to perpetuate in Office the
present city engineer.
In the down-river end of the Pioneer Press
of the 18th inst. appears an article entitled "a
Plot of the Contract Thieves" It begins by
congratulating the taxpayers on the reduction
of city taxes; pays its compliments to con-
tractors by classifying them as thieves; tickles
the moral sensibilitios of the board of public
works and dictates Sewall to them in advance;
berates the common council as being parties to
a conspiracy to rob the Taxpayers, and calls
upon the people to Indignantly! protest against
making any change in the manner of electing
or appointing the city engineer. It wantonly,
libelously and outrageously maligns and Wilt
fes other engineers to bolster up the waning
reputation OF the present incumbent. 1t reeks
from beginning to end with sickly mania for
Sewall-the offspring of demented mind.
Had Catiline displayed such "unbridled au.
dacity'' as the author of this article, Clcero's
Grafton would have ne'er been written. Its
whole character is outrageous, incorporate in
decent and utterly unworthy of journal rep
resentlng any portion of a moral, much less
Christion people.
The same journal takes occasion, a few DAYS
subsequent to the above TRADE, to- condone the
notorious dlscourtesY of the present city engi-
Tns h 90u f should be happy sewal Bill
Why this extraordinary effort to per-
petuate IN Office man whom the
people almost universally distrust
and whose uniform rudeness has become by-
word and a reproach. Is it not the clamor of
a ring more formidable than ever were the
contract thieves" who by crying thief first,
hope to avoid suspicion until board of public
works OF easy consclnce may be secured and
subsidized to their own nefarious interests?
Why is the office of comptroller an elective
one! That he may be check upon unlawful
expenditures by the council. Are the property
| interests of the people of less importance than
| the almighty dollar? If the people are COM
petent to choose their chief magistrate and leg
| islators, are they not also competent to choose
all officers whose acts are identified with their
real estate and homestead interests and ia II
| not of the highest Importance that they should
so choose. TIE the engineer belongs the design
| ing and recommending city improvements and
| their superintendent. and proper execution,
and it should be his highest aim to SO discharge
those duties as to bring about the most benei-
cial and lasting results-not to few speculate
| ors alone, but to the whole people. He should
be the servant of the people, and responsible to
| them alone, not an appcintee of the board of
public works, at whose beck and bidding de-
| ponds his continuance in Office, nor of the
| council, although this is preferable only be-
cause it is a larger body, and consequently less
liable to become corrupted.
Does 1t require any argument to prove that
smaller bodies are more easily subsidized than
larger ones, and do we not know that Office
seekers are constantly forcing themselves upon
the people, having no interests in common,
but only desire to lobby through such schemes
as shall contribute most to their Individual
interests?
The masses of the people are honest and capa-
| BILE OF self-goyernment They are found at the
front in the hour of peril, and are most unlike
~ to tamely submit to continued tyranny and
oppression.
What has the present city engineer done that
warrants his retention in Office? He has reck-
lessly tempered with the official grades of
Streets making continue and senseless changes
and keeping improvements in state of the
been made and grades established in the inter-
ests of the few Changes have been made with
| no visible motive except that they may bear
his own pretentious autograph. When will
these prohles of grades be filed with the register
of deeds for the information of the public?
Doubtless, if the scheme does not miscarry,
| when every city profile shall become subiu-
| gated to his peculiar system and shall bear the
impress of the fact. He has attempted. the
change OF long established lines with a disre-
gard and Indifference to the rights Of property
| which, If there were no remedy, would be per-
| fectly appalling. Whence comes this wonder
full knowledge of the ''proper Ines of prop
erty that his ipse dictum should be final He
brought but meagre stock of such knowledge
into Office and his marvellous manner of at
tempted acquisition is not likely to improve it,
| unless, indeed, he follows up the very extra
ordinary and honorable method of spying out
the works of Others and appropriating the in
formation.
Boulevards have been experimental on al
most Co the extinction of streets, reducing
| some streets to mere alleys.
The Rice street sewer is a perfect bonanza
| and for originality of conception is immense
and worthy Of its great inventor. 1t is twice
the requisite capacity and its depth too shallow
| to properly drain adjoining cellars, and in ten
years from this date will be condemned and
replaced by sewer of suitable depth and ca
pacity, or the street grade raised to suit the
present sewer, in either case involving large
expenditure which might have been avoided by
little foresight and the exercise of ordinary
common sense
large portion of the stone used in the ma
cadamizing, and in the construction of cutters
on Rice street are of the most worthless char
acter. Experiments have been Eiade upon stone
taken directly from said street while the work
was being prosecuted, and of the specif charac-
ter used both in the macadamizing and cutters,
showing that such stone hy alternate daily
V1rO for fy1a IL.
caused it's complete disintegration. In two
years from the coming summer this rare speci-
men OF able engineering, macadamizing aud
guttering, should the season be moderately
moist. will assume the consistency of thin bat
ter, but be much less palatable. MIR. Sewall
has had sufficient opportunity and experience
| in the use of stone in this city to have known
the character of this stone. Every builder
every quarryman, and we dare say every engi-
neer IN this city knows its worthless character.
Can there possibly be any excuse for this Gull
pablo neglect, ignorance, or whatever he may
be pleased to term it? He was on this street
nearly every day during the progress of the
work, and must have seen its character. Was
he in collision with the contractors (such stone
costs nothing but the hauling), or was his time
SO Sc, occupied with outside speculations at st.
Cloud and other points as to preclude the posi-
bility of his properly attending to his official
duties? If this is 'svigilant supervision.'
''frst-class ability or infexible integrity
Good Lord deliver us.
We are not disposed to critic1se the compe-
tency of the boy editor to Judge of the char
acter of the average contractor, and if his
Judgment is based on personal service it NAV
be righteous, and we admit its consistency, but
We have known honorable contractors, and we
know OF competent and honest parties who
have been deferred from bidding on city i'm
provements by reason of the uniform unfair
ness, distrust and abuse to which contractor.
are subjected in thin. city. We offer no plea for
dishonest contractors, nor have we the most re-
mote interest in any of the city contracts. but
we do say in all honor lat ,o tro,t