The record-union., 1896-04-22
A SHAMEFUL JOB.


Only three members of the Board of
Trustees, Messrs. ToZer, Mckay and
Wachhorst, had the courage on Monday
evening to stand UP for economy and
fair play in the interests of the people
in the matter of the street sprinkling
contract. Trustees Kent and Devine,
as usual, led the majority around by
The nose, and the result was that a bid
to sprinkle the streets was rejected,
though it was s., ,165 less than the ag-
gregate of all the other bids.
This bid was made likewise by a re-
sponsfble citizen, and a man of long
residence in the city, and who is of good
repute and responsible. The shout
went up Immediately that if the bid
was accepted the opportunity to dis
tribute pap" would be gone, and pap"
being an essential in the matter of for
tifying oneself with the ward push,
and the people as a whole not being in
with political gangs, down went the low
bid, and up went an order that will alb
solutely preclude the further bidding by
the citizen who had underbid all the
others
Obviously, it would be the wise thing
to do to contract with one man to do all
the street sprfnkling. Clearly it can be
done greatly cheaper by one man hay-
ing the contract for the entire city than
by fifteen or sixteen men operating in
small districts Undeniably the duty
OF a sworn Trustee Of the municipality
Is to do the best for all the people, and
while preventing waste and destruction
by refusing to be niggardly, to also pre-
vent loss and imposition by insisting
upon true economy in the administra-
ton of city affairs
But where do the Trustees find war
rant for attempting to make the city
a charity box? By what right under
their solemn oaths do they propose to
so distribute sprinkling contracts as to
give men jobs of work at a loss to the
citizens Of over 81 100?
If they have any right whatever to
distribute public patronage to conserve
private interests, they have the right to
disburse the entire City Treasury in
the interest of men who want jobs We
wish ali men could have good paying
jobs remunerative jobs, steady, profit
able jobs, but when it comes to letting
contracts for public service the clear
duty of the Trustees is to get the serv-
ice for the lowest possible figure con-
sistent with capacity to perform and
excellence of work to be done
No one, not even Bosses Kent and
Devine, suggested that Mr. Meister
would not sprinkle the streets well and
UP to the contract No one ventured tn
suggest that he Is irresponsible. No
one dared to say he is not a citizen of
long standing, tax-paying, hard
working citizen, or that he had not bid
strictly according to the call for bids
which permitted the contract to be lei
to one man.
But, as we have said, such letting
would permit of no use Of patronage to
prop up political fences, and so down
goes Mr.. Meister. His bid price is now
known; so, too, are the bid prices of all
the other bidders, and therefore under
the order for new bids the bidding viii
be just exactly what the push" wan,
It to be-
The people will grin and bear it, and
proceed at the next election to send
these men back to the board to do theiI
prettiest once more to make them
selves solid Clearly we are gettins
precisely the kind of government we de.
serve A city that puts up Board OF
Trustees that can crawl through sucl
a knot-hole as that in the sprinkline
bids of Monday night deserves JUS
what it gets, and that 1t costs tht
pretty sum of 81. 100 is nothing: let tht
voters go down on their marrow bones
and thank the good Lord that 1t is mo-
$1,000. as it well might be. since it /:
impossible to deny that had the de.
mands been sufficiently large fol