Morning journal and courier., 1892-04-16
CONTRACTS AND POLITICIANS.

world, has shown; --. .-. ! md best of all you never slugged, lost your tenn . per or did anything mean. tood bye, Hefl WALT. CONTRACTS AND POLITICIANS. The Proposed Change In the Form Of Contracts fer Sewers-Why There Should be no Change.
 Q the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER. | For year or two the public have heard requent allusions to the attempts in the Board of Public Works to change the form # contract under which sewers are built. 3uch change has been diligently and per Iistently sought by some of the members, md was possibly in view when they busted he engineer and some other employees who are known to be vigorously opposed to 1t. The recent hearings have brought the matter into public view, and now that the testimony is closed it is we'll for the pub lie to look the proposed change squarely 1 in the face and see what it is. The old form was certainly safe one, the pro posed change is as certainly dangerous one. The city is justly proud of it's sewer sys- tenn. So far as is known no better system | has been devised anywhere, and nowhere else has the work of construction been bet | ter or more honestly done. This applies | both to the excellence of the work and the | economy of the cost. Experts and laymen | alike testify to these facts. Moreover, the | burden of the cost of our sewers Is more justly laid than in any other city of this l country of which have any knowledge, and have enquired into that matter some- | what widely. If the proposed change can now be made another equally radical may follow in due time. There have been built, up to the close of ! the last year, upwards of sixty-nine miles of sewers, at total cost of little over $1, ,800, ,000. The work has all been first | class, even in that sewer we have recently heard 80 much about where crack was found. The witness called to prove the incompetency of the engineer testified that 'sthe work done on the whole sewer was frst-class in every respect" In the ex- penditure of that large sum on our sewers, nearly two millions of dollars, and extend ing through twenty years, so far as know there has never been a serious charge of corruption in the fulfilling of the con- tracts.
 The primary cause of this gratifying fact is easy for any business man to see. It was due to the wisdom of those who planned the system and that it was all planned outside of politics. It was planned by honest experts, who had nei- ther political nor pecuniary interests in volved, and who knew what was best for the public welfare. What might have been, had the form of contract been de- vised by interruptions politicians instead of expert engineers and able lawyers, the -l.s.~ d. 4S~nlrv tells us.
 The form of contract under which the sewers have heretofore been built has been an essential feature in guarding the public | treasury and ensuring honest work of con- l struction.
 In the fall of 1871, after the Cheabrough | system had been adopted, but before the | first contract was let, a committee consist ! ing of MT. Chesbrough and Consulting En- ! gineer Lane, (then city engineer of Mil | waukee,if I remember rightly as engineer D. Watrous as legal experts, with H. G.. | Lewis, then mayor of the city, after care | full study devised the form under which l all our sewers have since been built. It l was the best they could devise for the best | interests of the city. This form the poll ticians are now trying to change.
 The merits of the old form are briefly these: The plans and specifications are prepared by the engineers who are experts and who advertise for bids, but who have no voice in the awarding of the contracts. The competition is free and the commis sioners must award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder and exact ade quate bonds for it's faithful performance Then the construction is entirely in ths hands of the expert engineers to see tha the work is faithfully done. It is now at tempted to substitute the lay commission CTS for the expert engineers for this latte
 work, the former to deal directly with thu contractors. The possibilities and danger of such a change are obvious.
 However honest the present board may be rings would surely grow up sooner 1 or later. It could not be helped. Th' commissioners are but men, and the tempt ations would be entirely too strong to b' resisted by the ordinary politician. Tn possibilities for scandals and fraud
 would lie in several lines under this new order of things. It would inevitably hap pen that favored contractors would b. made part of the political machine. Pc litical friends could too easily be rewarded and political or personal enemies too eas fly be punished. The commissioners ia
 voring this change do not apparently wan
 an expert and honest engineer betwee, |
 We have now built over sixty-nine mile
 of sewers; about an equal length remain l to be built before all the streets are al
 severed. Imagine, under this proposes
 new system, person as Q private citizel
 furnishing supplies to a contractor am
 then as official commissioner passing ol
 the quality of the supplies provided
 Imagine a person. as private citizen, go
 ing on the bonds of 8 personal or politics
 friend for the faithful performance of
 contract, then, as official commissioner
 signing the contract itself, and finall
 passing on the work as to whether 1t WE faithfully done. There would be nor | than one crack in the remaining sixty min | miles built in that way.
 When we remember that the commii
 sioners are spending the peoples none
 and not their own, when we remembe
 that able lawyers and wise editors of tn
 political press justify the liberal use (
 public money in hiring political employees
 when we remember the lenience extende
 to the extavragant expenditure of publi
 money by politicians. nominally for publi
 works, but really with political ends
 view; when we notice the prominence (
 the argument in the recent hearings, ths
 politicians are justified in discharRing ho1
 est and efficient experts for purely polit
 cal ends; when we so often hear this ez
 cused on the plea that both parties do it.
 I say, when we remember all this, we g
 glimpse of what the proposed chang . means and what it would cost the city.
 The only ostensible argument of the pt
 Htical commissioners, who are vigorousl
 working for this change, that has ye
 been made public, is, eve ought not t
 delegate our powers" This is simpl
 "rot." WILLIAM H. BREWER.
 New Haven, April IA, 1892.
 MT. Parson,s Second Piano Recital
 At the second recital of MT. Parson
 he will play the celebrated Sontaa, Op. g
 Robert Schumann, and Mrs. Parsons wi
 appear with MT. Parsons in the Septett of Beethoven. MT. William A. Howlan
 of New York will sing.
 Coming Social Times.
 A social will be given Monday nigt
 next at Academy hall by select party (
 colored people. On Tuesday night th
 hall is occupied for private masquerad
 surprise party, and Friday night an inv
 tation sociable will be held there.
 COMING ANN1VERSARY.