The Portland daily press., 1883-08-15

der the authority of the City Council, whenever the
estimates shall exceed the appropriations especially
made therefor it shall be the duty
of such committee officer having such matter in
charge, to submit the same to the City Council for
instructions before such contract is made, or any
expenditure for the object is incurred-Joint Rules
Section ~.
These ordinances and this joint rule of the
City Council the Mayor and Mr. Prince de-
liberately ignored and secuted. "Lookei
ON speaking with the Mayors approva'
admits that they did. After stating that the
bids of the builders and the estimate of the
architect were In excess of the appropria-
tion for the purpose, he says:
Not having the necessary amount appropriated
the committee voted to go on with the work by
days' work. Mr.. Prince instructed to procure
the mech hancs and supervise the whole work. He
hired all the m en-, giving preference to lowest bid
ders every time so he informs me, well as
quiring the personal supervision of both mason >
and carpenters. The Mayor
stated no member of the committee objected to do
ing the work by the day. All were in favor of it
But the custom house member requested a meeting
as he was not sure he was empowered so to do. And
to relieve his weak conscience the Mayor called the
Council together, who unanimously voted for the
committee to go on with the work. The only rea-
son for calling the meeting was that part of the
committee of the opinion that the original ap
preparation carried with it the right to expend thy
money they deemed best for the interests of the
city, while the custom house member, who probable
had promised the job to some of the ring, was 80
he stated doubtful they had the right to go ahead
All there is to be said about this strange
md aba f,,I "a fxrl, ;nl,
we doubt; but the members of the commit
tee must answer for themselves) is that the
gentleman sneeringly called 'the custom
house member'' appears to have been the
only one on the committee who had any care
to respect the city ordinances, the rules Of
oath of Office. Unless he had personally
persisted in his demand that the matter
should be laid before the City Council, the
committee would have gone ahead without
right or authority incurring debt they were
prohibited from incurring. We under
s tand that they did go ahead and that
the work was begun before the meeting was
called.
1t is true that when the City Council met
the committee were authorized to go on
W ith the work; but the authority was given
upon the representation of Mr.. Prince that
The work could be done for much less than
the price estimated by prsctical builders.
Now LOCKER On" and the Mayor, ask the
public to excuse the expense incurred because
the estimates were too low! Do they think
the people of Portland are such gudgeons
they cannot see this inconsistency?
1t is entirely in keeping with the logic OF
''Looker On that he should think his argu-
ment will be helped by alluding to the edi-
tor of the PRESS as "a new Importation
and to member of the Council whom
he does not like as s'the gentleman who
builds the fires at the Custom House,. A
man need not have been born in Portland to
know that 2 and 2 make which is about as
much learning as is needed to understand
the financial aspects of the Chestnut street
school house job. Without protesting to
faith ON the mystery of the other piece of
wit, we will venture the remark that men,
ber of the city government, whatever his
business as private citizen may be, who re-
spects the laws defining his public duty is a
more honorable official than another who
does not