Arizona weekly citizen., 1884-05-03

respect Q remarkable document.
 finds a school building which cost th
 people S40,000 unsafe for occupancy an
 fixes the blame on no particular part,
 claiming that the district attorney
 legal opinion was that no crime ha
 been committed and the grand iur
 could do nothing but censure some ebody
 The school trustees and contractor la
 the blame upon Mir Petit the architec
 and he in turn throws the blame upol
 NIT. Doherty, the builder. The gran,
 Jury calls the building 6 "death trap.
 The people have paid S40,0OO for
 death trap" trap to kill childrel
 with. Of course the building is dseles
 under these circumstances. It stands
 there a monument of fraud and folly
 and the grand jury cannot fix the blam,
 where 1t belongs and the district attor
 ney says there Is no crime committed
 Either Messrs. Sullivan, Fitzpatrick anC
 Prince have stultifed themselves il
 their reports concerning certain parts ot
 the building or else there has been 6
 crime committed. It may be the law, but 1t is yillianoUs one, that allows public
 buildings to be erected as "death traps and no redress. Especially is this true
 in public school building which the little children of the city must occupy daIly, the parents under constant dread of death and disaster. We cannot be too earnest in this matter. Here are school trustees, un architect and con- tractor admitting themselves that the building which they have built is faulty, the school board making the charges against the architect ;n order to get the matter before the grand jury, but We are told the people have no redress for this monumental fraud. The grand jury cali in experts and they show wherein 1t is unsafe, but they make a report and say we are instructed only to censure. Does any one suppose that this building will ever be occupied as 1t now stands? If they de, they are mistaken. No mother would risk the life of her child in a building the builder Of which tells her is unsafe, surely not. Notwithstanding the defect in the law, if it exist, there should be some way to fix the blame and punish the party that Is at fault. It Is a shame and disgrace that the matter Is left in the condition it Is. Where Is the remedy? If there is no crime committed there can be no and the people have no recourse. The building stands there solitary and alone, deserted, regard cd as an enemy to life, and those who built it are scot free from crime and obligations. It is not very pleas ant picture to gaze upon or contem- plate. We do not say that the grand jury should have swooped down upon all these parties like an eagle upon its prey; not by any means; they are as la- blC Nb CAAOI hS any OAtt but lLOAt should have been something left to | catch onto. Somebody is to blame, and l whoever that is, there is where it should l be laid; so long as it stands as it does, 3ll parties connected will be blamed and | by the people. The innocent | 1nes should not rest until the guilty ones are exposed, for according to their 1wn statements the building Is faulty" , mild term, but which means, in this :3se, unsafe for occupancy.
 This can, in justice, be said of the Board of Trustees, that they have re- used to settle with the contractor, hay ng iR their possession nearly $ll,0O0 lis due, until it is proven to their satis- action that the building is safe-made IS nearly as possible according to plans md specifications.
 Mir. Petit, in urder to draw his salary ,f S100 per month, was required to file m affidavit with the Board of Trustees each month that the building was pro- yressing according to plans and specii- 'aiions.