The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-08-06
TUESDAY. AUGUST 6. 1895.
This paper is Democratic an principles
and is Independent IN ats vie'0s Q" ~ 'S0a9
questions.
Tne ..yournal,sn Water yiilatny.

Tne HJournaI,sn Water viiiainys
We refrained yesterday from comment
upon the alleged report" OF the al
legged water expert. one Kent, whlcn was
published in the Evening Journaf Oh
Saturday. We did so. because, IN truth,
we could find nothing TO comment upon.
The report seemed to be written IN
the style of Captain Bunsby. In the
tangle of hypothesis and quallncatrohs
the conclusions appeared to us to nave
gone astray. At least. we coulo not
find anything more significant that the
statement that two and two make -four
and one five and two seven. or some
similar arithmetical platitude.
Was it not Talleyrand who said Words
were given us to conceal our thoughts!
We'll. this is Mr.. Kent's gift OF Ian
cuage-that is assuming he has the
thoughts.
So much for the report itself. Had the
proceeding stopped with it's publication,
II might have been passed by with a
laugh. Indeed. all you could do with
1t was laugh at it. But yesterday the
affair took another aspect. The Jour
na1,, Yesterday told us it was in
tended to mean. Perhaps the Bunsby-
ism was not without a motive. 1t may
have been carefully studied so as to
leave the Majors pen full swing in the
Interpretation.
The Interpretation is a beauty. 1t
is as clear as the report was muddy.
The whole Job can be plainly seen clean
through the words and the figures and
the juggles and the shifts. and all the
crooked and devious turns of this most
suspicious and dangerous performance.
The Journal informs US that the al
legged expert has discovered the Rocka-
way and Hudson Water Company's bid
to be the lowest. This. so far as the race
of the figures CO.. needed no expert.
Every child in Jersey City was capable
of ascertaining by simple subtraction
that $500 900 was less than S,5o0,0W; put
every one who was not a child in brain
conceded that this was but a trivial
factor in the problem of ascertaining
which was really the cheapest bid.
The journal next tells US that the
alleged expert has discovered the Rock
away and Hudson bid to be the best.
If he made this discovery, he assuredly
concealed it in his report. On the con-
trary. he draws express attention to the
strong legal reasons for believing that
the is unable to carry out any
of it's offers to the city. incidentally,
it is amusing to note that he recon-
mends the employment by the city OF
an expert.
Just what the niger in the woodpile
is, the public are not yet in a position
to Judge. 1t is hard to believe that it
is a genuine effort to boost the Rocka-
way and Hudson Company into the con-
tract. That company and its proposals
were fairly picked to pieces at the pub
Tic hearings before the city officials.
Their bids were reduced in the gem
eral estimation to a fabric of misrep-
resentation, m~iscalculation and rash
confidence. Their own answers to the
questions asked them killed them beyond
revivifcation. The Journal knows
this.
Now, why this report?
Is somebody conspiring to prevent the
acceptance of any of the present bids
by raising a fuss In favor of one which
is VIGOROUSLY impossible? Can it be
that the purpose is to scare off Commits
s,oners from voting for. any bid through
fear of newspaper persecution?
They cannot vote for a bio which they
know to be unavailable. But if they
vote for any other they draw upon them
selves the malevolence of an unscrupu-
lous journalistic scold. Therefore they
may reject all the bids and let the mat
ter drop or begin all over again.
Is this the scheme?
1t looks like it, but will our public
officials be pusillanimous enough to be