The Portland daily press., 1897-09-13

| Morrill,, who had been present during
| this discussion now arose and left THE
room and Gen. Mattocks proceeded tt
make sort of opening argument.
Gen. Mattooks said that this investiga-
ton had been ordered by the city govern
| ment to examine into the affairs of the
street commission. He said: 1--WE pro
pose to show here that the commissioner
of public works either through negligence
or because of the lack of proper informa
ton allowed things to be done under his
administration which should not have
been done and which to say the least were
not for the best interestssof the city.
don t propose at this time to fire off any
great display of fire works or spring any
sensational charges against the commits
sion or the commissioner but l do propose
to show up some things which We're moi
right. Under the old plan of the street
| department there were many things
which were not good. Street commission
ers had their favorites 'and undoubtedly
did many things that were not for the
best but at the same time the old system
had its virtues and today there are many
people who believe it to have been the
best system. When the new scheme OF
handling this department was inaug'i-
| rated we hoped that 1t would be impartial
but we have been disappointed. Favorit-
ism has been shown which has caused
men to become discouraged. Things have
been done which do not appear right and
in my opinion every official act should
be, like Caesars wife, above suspicion.
''There is one fact which wish to call
your attention to and that is that when
you call a man inahere to testify who is
under the supervision OF another man and
is obliged to obey, his orders it is hard for
the witness to say things which will Ee
directly against his own interest. want
| to know at this point whether or not i
can say that any person who may give
evidence before this committee shall not
be harrassed or embarrassed in any way
| by any official against whom he gives
| testimony"
| Alderman Rounds and the other men,
| bers of the committee assured Gen. Mat
| tocks that that was the vote of the COM
| mittee and that any witness would be
| protected
General Mattocks then continued. He
said: II intend to go as far as possible
| by subjects. will show that some arti-
cles belonging to the city have been taken
| away from those in whose custody they
were and have not been accounted for.
will show that property has been loaned
which belonged to the city and that work
| has been done for other parties than the
and stone have been hauled to persons res
licences to be used by them for private
purposes and In one instance wagon be.
| longing to the city was used by private
parties for months and was only returned
to the city stables the night before the
election last March. This wagon was
loaned to the person who bought from
Street Commissioner Staples pair of
| horses. will show that while this wagon
was in use by these parties its registered
number which showed it to be CITY team
was covered by piece of leather and thai
when at last the wagon was returned tG
| the city 1t was in very bad condition and
that it had to be repaired by the city at
an expense of $50. Without taking up any
more Of your time will now, with the
consent of the committee proceed to the
examination of witnesses"
James e. Kennard was the first wit.
ness. He Is the boss of the city stables
and has been for four years. He was sc
employed before the establishment of the
commission. He was last appointed by
Mr.. Staples Mr.. Kennard's duties keeI
him at the city stable on Sunday. On
that day the doors are not locked but
when certain MIR. Meserve, an employe
of the city's street department, was
there on some Sundays the doors were
sometimes locked. Meserve had woman
| in the stable once. The character of this
woman SO the witness said he had heard
was bad. The witness made no inyestiga-
UlOu VI I6pOGU. 016S6Itt utu CudT26
| of this stable on this particular Sunday
| in the absence of the witness.
Mr.. Kennard said that he did not re-
port this occurrence to the proper author
tiles although he said that he ought to
have done SO. Kennard said that he
knew Meserve was favorite of Mr..
| Staples though this did not influence
he knew if he did report the matter that
it would not have any effect with Mr..
Staples. Witness did not know whether
or not the matter was ever reported to
Mr.. Staples or Mr.. Fernald.
| When asked if he had ever known OF
any breech of good order in the stables
the witness said he did not know of any.
When asked how many collars and halt
ers there were at the stables on March l,
1897, he said he could not tell. The wit
ness said that he had charge OF the har-
nesses but he could not tell how many OF
the harnesses there were now. The wit
ness said that he did not know whether
any Of these harnesses had ever been
taken away or not. Some of them might
have been taken away without his knowl
edge. On one occasion a gray horse was
taken out of the stable to the black smith
shop. On that horse was a big double
yellow blanket. Neither the horse or the
| blanket were ever brought back. Wit
ness did not know whether they were sold
or not. This horse was taken away by
Mr.. Staples orders. One of the city..mer
took this horse away but the witness never
made any inquiries about the horse OF
the blanket. He did not know whether the
blanket had been sold with the horse OF
not. The horse was not valuable AMI
NAL. He was called a balky horse. The
blanket was good one but when it did
not come back pair of new blankets
were bought.
Gen. Mattocks then asked the witness
what he knew about city cart No. II
This or some other cart was let or LEM
and was away for a long time. The PEG
pie who had it were the Portland SAM
tary company. The witness did not know
whether piece of leather was nailed
over the number or not. but he had hearf
that such was the case. The witness was
not sure whether this cart had beer
brought back the night before the cleo
ton or not. He knew nothing about Mr.
Staples selling pair of horses to thu
Portland Sanitary company at the time
the cart No. II was loaned.
The witness said that Mr.. Staples
bought the hay of Burnham and Topley
and that the hay was very poor. He re
ported the matter to Mr.. Staples an6
after time the hay was not purchased
I-f L 80 All =.