New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-23
TIE AoUEDUC7 FRAUDS EXPOSED.

Bean finally burted out yesterday during his
examination before the Senate Committee
point the way to series of criminal prosecu-
tons which need to be promptly instituted.
We shall shortly find out who the incriminated
persons are, and all of them. The disclosures
have now gone too far to leave any guilty man
the chance of escape 1t has always stood to
reason that the bad work which the Aqueduct
contractors were VIGOROUSLY doing could go on
in no other possible event than that of criminal
connivance on the part of the responsible au-
thorties or some Of them. Contractors do not
persist in dishonest practices unless they know
they are safe. They do not maintain an i'm
pudent and defiant front toward honest super
vising engineers unless they understand what
they are about. They do not swagger around
and bully and threaten honorable inspectors
whose truthful reports embarrass them unless
they feel that sense Of security which comes of
the knowledge that they are masters of the
situation.
No intelligent reader Of the newspapers
during the last three years has doubted that
there were facts such as Mclean testified to
concerning the AQueduct work, and plenty Of
them, if only they could be got at. McBean's
story is undoubtedly only a suggestion Of the
whole truth. 1t does not even show COM
pletcd crime Large and important bits of
evidence are wanting But he told enough to
place every member Of the ring Of Democratic
politicians and contractors, which has been
sucking the public treasures through the Aquc-
duct, at once upon the defensive.
Mclean was a member Of the contracting
firm of Brown, Howard & Co., whose relations
with the Aqueduct Commissioners were not, UNI
Til recently, so intimate as those of OBrien &
Clark. At the same time, they quickly fell
into those dscrcditable practices which they
perceived were easily and successfully per-
petrated by their associate contractors and they
soon had as much bad work chargeable to their
account as even the firm had dared to do whose
head was the chairman of the Democratic State
Committee and the devoted friend Of Governor
Hill Not all the engineers and inspectors en-
ployed along the line Of the Aqueduct were
rogues. Enough Of them were faithful and
honest to make it impossible that such frauds
could escape detection. They were reported
and explained and lied about and investiga-
ted and considered In the manner which
repetition has rendered so familiar to the pub
lie. In numberless cases, as the recorded testi-
mony shows, they were ignored or patched
up by an amiable compromise such as the dis
charge of the faithful inspector who reported
them. But in this sort of adjustment Brown,
Howard & Co. did not fare as well as the firm
whose head ran the Democratic State machine
and paid Governor Hills election expenses out
of public contracts. And now, Mr.. Mclean
tells how it happened that he was at such a
disadvantage. He hadn't enough policy" he
says. He " didn't put on the grease" and when
pressed to declare what these pretty metaphors
mean, he frankly says they mean money. He
had friendly hint that all his sins Of omission
and commission as contractor would be for
given him if only he should make a judicious
application of grease" The hint came from
no less person, the candid contractor sWears,
than cx-Congressman Benjamin Lefcvre who
now assists the present chairman Of the Ma
tional Democratic Committee in the manage
ment Of great corporate interests. The wit
ness described MIR. Lefevre as good Demo-
crat,o perhaps intending to convey his notion,
and one not confined possibly to him only,
that 4" good" Democrat never shows his virtue
more clearly than when dropping hints about
the best way to use grease" AT all events,
Mr.. Lefevre, he says, told him that 81 10000
divided among three of the Commissioners
would settle the question:" and gave the name
of David Paige, sub-contractor under OBrlen
G. Clark, as his authority for this impression.
How far McBeans evidence can be confirmed
is now the absorbing question for Senator fas-
sett and the committees lawyers to determine.
That they will do their full duty is fortunately
beyond doubt. The Committees session to-
day will be eagerly awaited, and there is rea-
son to believe that it will result in further
enlargement of the hole through which the
public is now catching gimpses of the Aque-
duct deviltry that has long been going on in
concealment.
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