The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-17
RIVER AND II CONTACTS.
A System that Has Sprung Up Within Six
Years-Its Advantages and Drawbacks.

WASHINGTON, May 6.-The defeat by the
Senate of the proposal to limit the expenditures
of the River and Harbor bill on contract work
has at least brought out To public notice the
enormous extent to which the contract sys-
tenn has lately been carried.
The system itself is u very recent one. Ac-
cordlng to Mr.. Cannon, "it was born in the
Fifty-hrst Congress" its first application being
In o matter In which members were very much
Interested. the Congressional Library build
ing. But 1t was eagerly taken up for river
and harbor projects; it found applications even
for the navy, and. in short. the Sundry Civil
Appropriation bill, which takes up contract
work of all sorts, has grown to be SO vast under
this system that Mr.. Cannon proposes, If he
Is in the next Congress, to have a fourteenth
appropriation bill added to the thirteen that
now exist. and to be wholly devoted to con-
tract work.
The point specially worth notice is that this
comparatively new system deceives the public
as to the real amount devoted to certain prof.
ectS. For example. the Army Appropriation
bill carries a specific amount, but there may
lie millions more in the Sundry Civil bill, for
such army matters as the building and repair
of forts. Above all, whila the River and Har-
Dor bill, as it passed the House, nominally
appropriated only SlO,604.7ls. yet the con-
tracts 1t authorized on over thirty projects
represented an aggregate liability of S5l, EEL
30: The Senate added over $4,000, 900, while
lied represents 1900, 900. Apd, as has been
said, az effort 10 cut down the amount that
mishs ns,v e55p ps.st. on contracts was over
Mr.; German, in advocating such a %restrlc-
ton. remarked that now, for the first time.
ness of authorizing contracts" The system
began, In 1890, in a very moderate way, by
ects, namely. the hArbors OF philadelphia, Bal
tim9Orsi and G.lvsston, St Mary,s Falls Canal.
great p s''' ys otst .df t.i' % TO- the fsf e:Stln %!aST
M %e!ade ed' tSs hs al sns Of Sq s.n.nn %,E. c pa; .H1y
] sl.s,paii. IL, r: qHS IG::.roaMT,.. ';;,n: s RRPaa,.td as t IR.; Hoi Mis:
the Great Kanawha, and the snip channel OF
river and harsor projects on the sundry Civil
i s.ssiir%s l sH:~ 9ns sA f...on T., ' thas X. s 9y *;
E snS ~ seP Reg Sr are 'Gnu S:n and tn: aiyer
to The long ss;;ton only: Again, ne River
ssuaIndry CiVvti Iii z not' as Il v So%Ia' imvo I've
too s~ertouHly various executive departments,
n tha Yat s%eP bl fH'1 ti!Dg TO get ib ARE s y.nriy i landed
p%riattons without being subject TO lilo IRE Of
1904, however, no additions were made, but
now, IN tho present bill. the system has bsegn
pushed so far that Mr., oOrmAn calls II a"wh0Ir'
sale" arair. while = most determined and
successful rally has been MADE against resnG'
ing even w . trAsdsA the heavy annual in
stallments such e0A trsStA now call for.
1t l. only fair 10 say that while this new sys-
rapidly and volume, h really founded UPON
a right principle, spd only needs ~ to he Gar
ried TO excess. That Is to say, II a national
sars,, ii'Tre on dredging a har6or or a river, or
building a break water, is Justified at all, its
full amount should be faced, instead ~ com
hitting the country 10 the plOiect under n ploa
that 50 little 4. required for beginning II. There
are rtyer and harbor Jobs which have cost a
great deal Of money in Che aggregate, some nnal-
~ shown to be imprAeticaBle, carried along by
virtue of small initial installmsnts.
Besides, theTa is good evidence that econo-
my has been effected by this method OF con
tract work, Thus Gen, Casey, IN l589, wrote
that Tho Hay Lake Channel work. estimated AT
$1,000, 10. would 10 completed under the new
system for $500, 900 less, thus saving One-third,
and also that tho same saving OF Oue-thiri
would he eneCled at Philadelphia from the
average price of dredging contracts on the Del
aware for like work. ten, traIghli. writing
on the 2jth OF March last 10 Congressman
Hooker, Chairman ~ the House Committee
on Rivers aud liHrbors, Observes that the say-
ing by tie continuous wuTA system At Charles
ton was S5+b,5On, or 80 per cent. at savannah,
In round numbers, probably 5000 OuO, or rs
por cent? At HUMBOLDT, In California, Rrob-
ably Sss2,2o2, OF about 30.per cent. ION The ship