The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-26

1
wrong. / never have suspected Capt.
Greene Of wrong doing. ! do not know
/ that he went to Washington for the purpose
/ OF getting the contract. I thought and
think now that they knew more about the
/ business than did and bid clos5r and got
the work"
A. S. Cooper, assistant engineer, was
next put up. He entered into q full ex-
| PLANTATION of the work on the cross-tides
dam. He said that there had been no
waste Of material Absolutely none,n be
added. be was in charge of ell the work.
and knew that there was no misapDlied
material: none used that had not been con-
tracted for, and he said rather positively,
There was none paid for that was not put
in, either"
ASSISTANT ENGINEER CooPER's STATEMENT.
Col. Hughes here submitted to Mr..
Cooper an affidavit. purporting to have
been signed by him, which he identified,
and said that the statement contained
therein was his own, given under oath. 1t
was in substance as follows:
u desire to make a statement of asser-
lions made to me by Mr.. Curtis. l will
state first that l entertain no malice
toward Mr.. Curtis. Our relations were al
ways friendly but never cordial While
cannot remember the exact language, the
approximate language and the impressions
left upon me by his statements made at
various times, are as follows: Several times
in speaking Of the works at Fernandina,
MIR. Curtis stated to me that Capt. Greene
offered to make 1t worth his while to accept
the position Of inspector on the government
works in progress there, but / do not re-
member his mentioning any fixed sum.
Shortly after | returned to the Savannah
district. in the fall of 1888, Mir. Curtis told
me, in a confidential manner, that Capt
n A.SI = A. a
stating that 1t was through his influence
that Lieut.. Carter was give charge
of the Savannah works in the first place,
and that if Capt. Greene said so,
Lieut. Carter would be transferred at any
time, and that Lieut.. Carter knew this, and
would therefore do exactly what Capt.
Greene directed to be done. Mr.. Curtis
stated to me that Mr.. Gaynor was a poll
tician of great influence in the Democratic
party, and his influence, together with
Capt. Greene's influence in the Republican
party and his standing with the govern
ment officials at Washington, made a very
strong team.
AN INTERVIEW WITH Mr.. CURTIS.
shortly after making these sweeping
statements Mr.. Curtis requested to see me
privately. At this interview he stated that
he thought he had good reason to believe that
Capt. Greene wanted to get rid of me, and
that to do so he was going to offer me a
position as superintendent of some large
works that he expected to secure; failing Ia
that, he would offer me charge Of quarry
ing out rock for the Savannah work. Mr.
Curtis advised me to accept any position
that Capt. Greene might offer. | raised
the point that Capt Greene might give
me a position and then drop me on
some pretext or other. To this Mr. Curtis
replied that Lieut.. Carter would be COM
pelled to discharge me if l refused Capt
Greene anything. The interview was here
interrupted, and this matter was never
mentioned to me again by anybody.
in recounting his personal experiences,
Mr.. Curtis mentioned, among other things,
that while he was employed under an en-
glneer officer in Kentucky, in local charge
OF works on some river, that he fixed up
the specifications and plans in such way
that, knowing the meaning inferred, he
could take advantage of certain vague ex.
pressions and uncertain Interpretation of
the drawings and plans, and that after
cooking the plans and specifications up in
this manner, he resigned his position and
bid on the works. He said that he would
have made good thing on this contract
had he secured it. I asked him how he
came to loose it. He replied that thereasons
given for not giving him the contract (he
being the lowest and only bidder were only
pretexts, and that it was through Capt.
Greene's influence that his bids were not
accepted. He said he thought that Capt.
Greene did this partly out of pure mean
ness and partly out of desire to injure
him. He then went on to state that it was
his intention to get even with Capt. Greene
if it took life time to do it, but no definite
plot or scheme was mentioned by him to
me.
THE CINCINNATI TRIP.
''Mr. Curtis told me that Lieut.. Carter
and Capt. Greene came to Cincinnati, O..
for the express purpose of getting him to
accept a position on the works at Fernan-
dina and he inferred that they had cooked
up scheme to make a good thing out of
this years contracts and he was wanted to
help the scheme along In regard to the
relations that existed between Lieut. Carter
and Mr.. Curtis l saw from the very first
that it was not just what it should be, Mr..
Curtis seemed to feel hurt that Lieut. Car
ter was sent down IN charge of the works,
stating that even if he was bright student
he had not had experience enough to take
charge of such important works With
this jealousy and lack of proper respect
it naturally followed that Mr.. Curtis did
not do his duty well, beside he often preiu-
diced subordinate employees in the service
against Lieut.. Carter. and thereby injured
their efficiency. Mr.. Curtis always spoke
OF Lieut.. Carter in sneering way, and
used to take special delight in putting ex-
IRENE Interpretations upon his orders and
then holding them up to ridicule Among
other things, remember of his saving that
Lieut. Carter had habit of listening to
his Curtis ideas, and afterward advancing
them as his own. I have often seen Mr..
Curtis, in Lieut.. Carriers absence, disregard
what knew to be his explicit Instructions
Mr.. Cooper also testified that he had
charge of the work at Fernandina in 1887.
and applied to Lieut.. Carter for an
assistant who could use an instrument, and
MIR. Brown was sent down.
ENGINEER BROWNS STATEMENT.
George w. Brown was next sworn. He
is an United States assistant engineer con-
nected with river and harbor improve
ments, and the one alluded to as having been
sent to Fernandina. He testified that ne
was transferred there in the regular order
of things. He was ordered to 90, and went.
He explained the regular order of things in
this way: He was here as inspector
on jetty works with Capt Austin, under
him as assistant inspector and Mr.. Thomas
assistant engineer over him. When the
two dredges were taken off it left nothing
but jetty york. which Mr.. Thomas could
attend to himself. Only one inspector was
needed, and as Mr.. Cooper had more work
than he could do justice to, he was sent
down to Fernandina to help him. The man
| Mr.. Cooper had with him had failed to
locate the mats with the haunt and Mr.
Cooper had no use for him. 1t was to do
| Lot s,f el..