The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-05-25
THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPART.
MENT.

The attacks made in the Legislature
upon the Superintendent of Public
Works is only another instance of the
inability of men. who can manage
their own affairs successfully, to grasp
and wisely deal with matters outside
of the lines of their own experience.
We are not defending all OF Mr..
Rowelrs methods. Some of them may
be open to criticism. 1t would be
strange if they were not, in view of
the fact that he is called upon to
deal practically with more details than
any man in the Republic. He is not
allowed the assistance that he ought
to have. He works more hours than
any man in public Office. excepting
perhaps the Attorney General More
over, the business of the department
has increased three fold since he took
it, and then he has had little or no in
crease of his working force.
The superintendent in dealing with
public matters, has had to deal with
a hand to mouth policy on the part
of community The adoption and ex-
ecution of large and intelligent plans
has been prevented by the ignorance
and neglect of previous Legislatures.
When the community comes to it's
senses, it invariably demands a scape-
goat.
We know that the expeditions and
cheap method of dredging out harbOr
channels was the Superintendent
invention or discovery. We know that
for many years, it was assumed that
the cost of. dredging out a ship chan
mel in Pearl harbor was fixed at near
a million of dollars. We know that
this discovery of the Superintendent
that the sand and coral on the bar
could be rapidly pumped out, instead
of being blasted out, reduced the esti-
mate to a mere trifie. We know that
Admirals Irwin and Walker fully ap-
Dreciated it and commended it. We
know that the present dredging
machine, furnished by the San Fran
cisco Dredging Co. was not especially
adapted to the material found in our
waters but was altered and changed
and made successful by the Superin-
tendent, so that it has become an
efficient apparatus. We know, also,
that the agent of that company, which
does dredging all over the world, has
adopted these improvements by the
Superintendent, and is now using
them in government work at Port
Royal, S. c.
This is only one of the many cases,
where the Superintendent has over
come serious engineering difficulties,
and saved large sums of money to the
Government. The discoverer of the
means by which Pearl harbor may be
cheaply dredged out is worthy of
public recognition.
But the men who should know all
of these facts. and act intelligently
upon them, find neither time nor oppOr-
tunity to become familiar with them,
and therefore pass flabby, immature
judgments upon them. To pass
thoughtful, intelligent judgment upon
them requires time and study.
If the Superintendent was con-
lemned after just and careful re-
view of his methods. no one should
complain. To condemn him with
''horse-shed' opinion is unjust.
The Superintendent is a very poor |
politician, we admit. A good civil !
CHI 1,n n |
good political engineer. Nearly all |
of the American communities employ
the combination talent of engineer
ing and politics in one man. 1t costs
heavily of course, and the community
is most numerically robbed, but this
method often provides places for many
worthy men, who have been kicked
out of other places for incompetence
and drunkenness.
The greatest scandals in municipal
and state governments are found in
the departments of public works.
Much of the engineering work is I'M
der ground or concealed. Frauds can
not be traced out.
So far, we have been singularly
in the management of our
own department of Public Works.
the Legislature and the pub
lie are getting little tired OF the
monotony of honesty in this Depart
ment. Let them be patient. The Com