The San Francisco call., 1898-04-23


 magnitude that the dedication of Treasurer Widber will sink into insig- nif1cance by comparison.
 Enough has been exposed by the first days investigation, which was made yesterday, to show that the city has been robbed of thousands of dollars. l and that some of the heads of the de- partment must at least have had | some knowledge of what was going on. Whether the Directors themselves will be able to clear their skirts remains to be seen.
 Yesterdays developments would seem to indicate that aside from P Swift, the contractor for furnishing lumber to the department, the most culpable party Is Director Ragan's brother-in- law, John OBrien, Inspec- tor of School Buildings, while Chair man Gallagher of the Finance Commit tee and Burns of the Buildings and Grounds Committee will be called upon to explain why they audited and recom- mended the payment of bills that on the very face look suspicious, O'Brien is the same familiar John The Call had occasion to refer to less than six weeks ago. John draws a salary of $15O a month from the department and is SUD- posed to give his entire attention to the city, but it was shown that he had found ample time to engage in the con- tracing business and to superintend his private work One job in particu- lar was referred to-that of putting in foundation under a building at 725 Mission street. O'Brien was not charged with using city material in his outside jobs because it was not known where he obtained his supplies, but yesterdays investigation fully estab- lished the fact that the city has paid for thousands of dollars worth of lum- Der it has never received, and that Ragan's brotherin-law must have had some knowledge of it.
 When The Call informed President Harrington of O'Brien's private con- tracts that gentleman expressed his as- tonishment, and promised to look into 1t, but if he has he has done it so quiet ly that the public has never learned of it.
 For several weeks the Grand Jury has been Investigating the financial ac- counts of the School Board, to the won der of those who knew what was going on, for it was regarded as one of the regular cursory investigations that every Grand Jury undertakes. Mem berS of the board were summoned be- fore the Grand Jury session after ses- sion, and they seemed to regard the whole affair as bored waste of time and talk.
 But the Grand Jury was accumulat- ing data to enable 1t to begin an inves- tigation on lines widely divergent from those usually pursued, and when every thing was in readiness the work was begun. The first move of the Com mittee on School Department was to invite A. B. Truman, member of the inQuisitorial body, to cooperate with it. This was done because of MT. Tru- mans large experience in such matters. The committee consisted of Emil Bauer. H. A. Hedger and w. J. Bryan, and at their request MT. Truman, with the as- sistance of the jury'S expert, began quiet investigation into the affairs of the supplies department.
 The result of this inquiry led Tru- man to request the committee to pro- cure the services of experts in lumber and carefully inspect the repairs that have been made recently. The com mittee already had in it's possession the bills for lumber and shingles SUD- plied-or rather charged-to the depart ment for the six months beginning June l, 1897, and ending December 31, last.
 The heads of the California Lumber Association were called upon and they promptly recommended George B. Campbell and E. J. Holt as the two most reliable and expert lumbermen in the State. Their services were readily secured, and with Expert W. H. Rick ard, the jury's expert, the committee and Truman met at Bauer's office at 9 o'clock yesterday morning and began to probe into the unsavory mass of cor ruption.
 Enough had previously been learned about Contractor Swift and his ar rangement with the board to prepare the party for almost anything that might turn up in the way of crooked work. For instance, Swift's contract calls for two grades of shingles, com- mon and fancy. The first are the or dinary roof coverings; the latter are of a uniform width of six inches with trimmed ends and are used for decora- tion purposes. The contract price for the common shingles is 99 cents per thousand. The regular price, wholesale, is $1 70 a thousand For the fancy shingles Swift's bid of $1 91 per thou sand was accepted, and no wonder, for the regular price is $2 70 per thousand. In view of these cuts on the regular prices the investigators did not look for any waste of fancy shingles.
 They didn't. In fact they did not find where d SlIlSlc ldlicy oiiihSoiC iiiO OCCu used during the period named, although the city had been charged $1 91, the contract price for the better grade, for all the shingles used.
 The first place visited by the Grand Jurymen was the Clement Grammar School, on Geary street, near Jones. Their method of procedure was the same at all the buildings visited. En- tering the yard they summoned the principal and asked him to point out all the repairs that had been made during the six months prior to January 1. He did so and the jurors then put the ex- perts to work to measure the shingles and lumber used.
 The records of the school department showed that the city had been charged for 19000 fancy shingles at $1 91 per thousand. The experts measurements showed that only 10000 common shin gles had been used. In other words the city had paid s36,290 for 10000 com mon shingles, the cost of which, under the contract, would be s9s00; a differ ence of $26,390 on that one lot of shin- gles.
 The jurymen next visited the Hamil ton Grammar School on Geary street. near Scott. For repairing that building the city had been charged for IT 900 shingles-fancy of course-at $1 91, and