The evening times., 1896-07-28
ENGINEERS ARE HAMPERED.
But Little Progress Made On
Government Work.
EXPENDITURES KEPT DOWN
Items Provided for in the River and
Harbor Bill Have Not Been Com
pi-ted-System of bookkeeping at
the Treasury Departmentwerks n
Hardship to Contractors.

The reports of the engineers In charge
cfyarious river and bar bor pro jectsthrough
out the country for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1886, are now all in, and the
most conspicuous thing about them is the
frequency with which the short sentence,
''No work done upon this project during
the past fiscal year, occurs. The "uneA-
pended balances are also somewhat ap
pailing, and give one the Idea that good
many officers OF the government have not
been earning their salaries during the last
twelve months.
This is not the fault OF the engineers by
any means, however, and when ono OF them
says in his report that he has an unex-
pended balance of thirty or forty thousand
dollars on hand, ii does not mean that he
has the actual cash in his safe, but that
there is that much money provided in the
bill, but not spent. Ever since the present
administration came into power there has
been more or less trouble in obtaining
money TO carry on public Improvements of
this sort, and, although Congress would
make a specific appropriation for GER
tam project, to be expended within given
time, the engineer in charge would be un-
able TO get the actual cash. Undoubtedly
many of them have been notified TO spend
just as little as possible in this way, and
that accounts for the present stagnation Is
this kind OF work.
THE ENGINEERS HAMPERED.
The policy practiced at the Treasury De-
partment has seriously hampered the op=
erations of the government engineers. As
soon as it was discovered that the present
fariff min t,a fa fan
would not bring in sufficient revenue to
meet the expenses of the government, a
system OF mathematics was inaugurated in
the warrant division of the Treasury De-
partment, Which would apparently keep
down the deficit for one month by carry
ing certain expenditures over to the follow
ing month.
The government engineers were among
the first TO suffer as a result of this pro-
ceeding, and they were often unable TO
pay the contractors for several months be-
cause of liability to get their drafts honored
at the Treasury. This system is not carried
out to any great extent now because ex-
pcnditures for government works have
been trimmed soclosely that there is seal rec
ly need OF it. An examination of the re-
ports received from the engineers in every
section of the country will show that no
work upon river or harbor improvements
has Deem done during the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1896, which could possibly go
over without detrimentto what had already
been done.
THE BOULDER REMOVED. te"
Some rather amusing things are found
in the reports of the government engineers.
AZ
ton of the region around the Great Lakes
makes an exhaustive report about the
removal of dangerous obstruction to
navigation at the entrance 10 a llarbor. He
concludes by stating that it was a boulder
about a cubic yard in size. 49,
As the water was very shallow at the
entrance 10 this harbor, it is difficult to
see how the removal of so small rock
should be an undertaking worthy of SO
much exploiting. Unsle Sam also pays quite
bill for typewritiDg in an account sent in
of the removal of a suDken Canadian
schooner in one OF the channels connecting
the Great Lakes. An elaborate description
fs given of the work OF removing this
supken wreck, which was done by contract. !.
after advertisements for bids in all the lake
city newspapers. The entire cost of this
great undertaking was 81 ,202.
Under the rules of the Department the
minutest detail of the operations of eac1<
engineer must be given, and every cent
expended thoroughly accounted for. Thou
sands of dollars are wasted each year
in surveys of creeks and sloughs, which .
the engineer officers have time and again
reported to be unworthy of Improvement
CoDgressmen have TO be reelected, how
ever, and river and harbor appropriations {
are always good campaign material. 81.