New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-15
MORE GLARNG ABUSES POINTED OUT.


-FOUR 5000 ORDERS FOR ONE PIECE OF woRK-A
PROFIT OF 900 PER CENT.
There is no department of the city government
that offers the same opportunities for fraudulent
methods and loose administration that the Public
Works Department offers. It's expenditures greatly
exceed those of any other branch of the municipal
government. and they have increased enormously
under Herbert o. ThOmpsOns administration. Last
year the expenditures in this department were g.
641 607 greater than they were in 1879. In addition
to the appropriation account of 81 542 400 whichis
under the control of the Board of Estimate Com
missioner Thompson expended last year 2,44O,000
which was raised by the issue of bonds. 1t is the
absolute authority that he has to expend this enor
sum of money without any supervising power
which enables him to exert such tremendous
political influence as to become the "boss" of the
County Democracy.
The loose methods by which this money is ex-
pended to benefit his political and personal friends
have already been partly exposed in TIE TRIBUNE.
The Commissioner himself spends little time in his
Office rarely coming there until late in the after
noon during good part of the year. lie occupied q
set of rooms and lived in royal style az hotel in Al
bany, for weeks at time, while the last Legislature
was in session, in order to secure for himself the
control over the expenditures for the new aqueduc
and he was successful in defeating the bill drawn
Thompson spends much of his time at Long Branch
and other watering places. But he haa subordlnates
who respect his wishes and obey his orders im-
plicitly.
WELL PAID FOR DOING NOTHING.
1t is on record in the sworn evidence before tho
Senate COmmittee-which suppressed its investiga-
tion into the Public Works Department methods
that Charles Naide, Thomas Leahy and numberof
other persons were hired in the Public Works De-
partment at 81 a day just before the eec-
tion of 1881, and were required to report
at the Department each day until after
the election, when they were paid $56 each
and told that their services longer required
These men swore that they never did a stroke Of
work for this money further then to report at the
Department. AS as facts like these came to be
developed before the committee, it was suddenly
adjourned, to meet at the call of its Democratic
chairman, and that was the end of the inquiry.
HOW Mr.. CUNNINGHAM REPAIRs SEWERS.
1t was shown in The TRIBUNE yesterday how
Commissioner Thompson evades the statute IN re-
gard to contracts by dividing up work and supplies
into 5000 ORDERS to avoid the statutory
limitation of $1,000 beyond which there
must be public letting One of tho
persons who profits most by this system of divld-
ing work into these orders is Richard A. Cunning
ham, Mr.. Thompson's personal friend and polti-
cal associate. The order gwen to Mr.. Cunningham
to repair about Ais feet of sewer in West Fifty
sixth-st. well illustrates how studousy Mr..
Thompson evades the law. if he does not abso-
lutely break it, held by good lawyers These
four orders were dated about two weeks apart, but
all covered the one work of repairing these 415
feet of sewer. The exact language of the four
orders is as follows:
No. Ito repair sewer in Fifty-sixth-st., between
Sixth-ave. and crown east OF Sixth-ave.
No. 2.-To repair in Fifty-sixth-st., between
Sixth-ave and point 200 feet east OF Sixthave.
No 3-TO repair in Fify-siXthSt, between sum-
NIT east OF Sixlh-ave. and point $50 feet west.
No. 4-tO repair of at intersection OF Fifty
sixth-st and east side OF SiXthave.
The 415 feet covered by these four orders is shown
in the following diagram, each order being NUM-
bered: