St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-29
M,CARDY,s BRIDGE.

OF all the interesting episodes in the
career Of Mr.. McCardy as a public
official, none is more significant of
the man, and none was more hostile to
the city, than his conduct In the mat
ter Of the Como avenue bridge. We
recall this to mind and republish this
morning an account of the whole af-
fair, because this was q case where
Mr.. McCardy, Of his own personal vo-
lition, without any advantage to the
public, to himself or to any living
soul, unless 1t was a Milwaukee con,
tractor. expended unnecessarily $500
and odd Of the peoples money. One
such occurrence as this in the life of
any public servant ought to damn
him forever after as q possible candi-
date for office. It is uncomfortable to
the ordinarily constituted mind how
any citizen Of st. Paul can vote for a
man as comptroller who was guilty of
the action herein described.
For two months Mr.. McCardy refused
to sign a contract for the construction
Of the Como avenue bridge, which had
been awarded to a Minneapolis firm
He based his refusal on the absolutely
silly and unreasonable pretense that
the Great Northern road, which was
to. bear one-third Of the cost Of con-
struction, should advance it's share be-
fore the contract was signed. The
railroad very sensibly refused to do
fn re
to pay it precisely as the city paid
its share, month by month, as the
amounts came due. It declined to pay
$4,000 in lump sum to Mr.. McCardy,
solely because he wanted it. That was
absolutely the only question involved.
On that issue, which was not even a
technicality, but q mere bull-headed
demand by McCardy for something that
was not within right or reason, the
contract was hung up for over two
months. At the end of that time
without any change in the situation
whatever, McCardy signed it. There
had been, in the meantime, no change
in the terms Of the contract, and none
in the attitude Of the Great Northern
railroad. No argument can harmon
ize the first refusal to sign the contract
and the subsequent agreement to do
So One or the other was utterly and
ineXcusably wrong.
Now came the question Of counting
the cost Of Mr.. McCardy's little d.
versions. In these two months In
which tha o0pfY~act hod Iloop hume
up in hds Office, the prices of labor and
material had been advancing steadily.
The Minneapolis concern, claiming
justly that conditions had changed,
and that the delay was not its fault;
declined to do the work. A new con-
for bids, and the bridge was built at
a cost Of $6,68417 more than the orig
inal figure. This last contract, again
be it observed, was signed by Mr..
McCardy without murmur, although
the Great Northern railroad had not
varied its position hairs breadth, and
agreed to pay, and did pay, its share
only as the money came due.
Here is an instance in which there
was nothing conceivable involved ex-
cept the individual stubbornness of
the city comptroller. There was no
question of the charter, no question of
law, no question of the public safety.
no question of the validity of the
contract or Of the city's security. Mr.
McCardy had simply ordered a rail-.
road company to hand over in advance
a big sum of money to please him, and
tried to force cemplianeeE at a cost to
the taxpayers of over s6g60as 1t is just.
as reprehensible as. if iheifhad squan-
dered this sum of money from the