San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-03-20
A GREWsOME PICTURE.

Antonio Taxpayers.
70 the Daily LIGHT:
What a pitiful and humilist-
ing ending to such glorious and
suspicious beginning! Begun with
high hopes and a desfening saloo
OF cheers, amid the sound Of
trumpets aud the strains Of music,
our grand undertaking, to supply
the city with a demanded system
of sanitary sewerage, has lapsed
into a cesspool OF scandal and
promises to eliminate in a grie-
vous and disgraceful failure.
From the very inception OF the
enterprise, doubt, secrecy, mysteri-
Gus negotiations and suspicious
have marked the undertaking.
From the moment the contract
was awarded in defiance OF the
interests of the taxpayers, there
has been a continuous subordina-
ton of the interests and rights Of
the city. With an utter disregard
of the commonest dictates OF self
protection and business prudence,
which no one has ever attempted
to explain, the contract was
awarded to bankrupt adven-
turer at cost OF more than SAC, 900
in excess Of the bid Of solvent
and more responsible bidder. Sub
sequently, in the carrying out Of
a bargain and trade repeatedly
nrged and never denied, the fav.
ored bidder was permitted to
transfer rights and equities, which
IL ever possessed he had forfeited
under every reasonable construc-
ton, to an opposing firm whose
bid had been ignored by the mayor
and council, Notwithstanding its
price named was more than $780,
600 less than the sum at which
it was awarded to the favored con-
tractor.
1t was stipulated in the bond
that home labor and home ma
terial were to receive preference
from the contractors. How has
that pledge been redeemed? Cheap
alien labor has been imported and
home enterprises have been per-
mitted to languish while thou
sands of dollars have been sent to
Monterey, Mexico, to pay for the
importation OF an inferior and
in some instances worthless quail
ty of brick to be used in the sewers.
Specific charges Of inferior work
msnship and defective material
have been permitted to pass I'M
challenged and stand ignored,
while an honest and trusted in
spector OF the city was summarily
dismissed in disgrace npon the
demand of the city engineer and
the contractors because he Loyalty
insisted upon exposing the use Of
condemned, defective and worth
less material. ct is humiliat-
ing fact that since John Kuefner
was dismissed no inspector has
had the temerity to file a COM
plant or utter a charge)
With a stupidity born OF mex
cusable ignorance, or a venality
which could only find place with
the premeditstedly corrupt, the
construction of the sewers was
begun at the source instead of at
the outlet, thus necessitsting the
complete construction Of the sys-
tenn before a foot OF it could be
used. Had the work been COM
menced at the outlet, and the con-
struction prosecuted inward, as
every dictate Of common sense
and precedent suggested, the
sewers could have been tested by
practical use, as completed; but
that probably was what neither
the consulting and city engineers
nor the contractors desired. At
least, such is inference, from their
vehement opposition to all propo-
sitions to test the work thus far
alleged to have been completed.
Formal charges that rotten and
worthless cement was being used
in the sewer works have been
ignored and permitted to p ass un-