New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-05

cation is opened
THE ENGINEERS MISTAKES.
Heretofore the trustees have spoken only OF
the danger in stage whispers and have not had
the courage to admit that their engineers, the
great engineer of the special commission and
themselves, were wrong when 1t was repre-
sented to the War Department and the Gov
ernor of the State that the Chicago River had
been fixed so that it would easily accommodate
the maximum flow Every trustee now knows
that the current will be destructive to navga-
tion and that the Sanitary District will have
to spend billions on the Chicago River, and
spend them Immediately, If the population of
the district is TO have the beneht OF the ex-
penditure of over S33, 100000. The Board is
just where Lyman z. Cooley, former chief en-
gineer of the district, always said 1t would be.
Until he grew tired of doing so, Mr. Cooley
warned the trustees that in it's present condi-
ton, and with centre pier bridges, the chicago
River would never accommodate now or
100000 or 100000 cubic feet per minute without
creating current that would be destructive 70
navigation. He declared that big vessels would
have to go through the draws like bear coming
down tree, stern foremost and with all claws
out.
The Government engineer. Mr.. Marshall, said
the same thing and the newspapers abused
him roundIy for so doing. But the eminent Des-
mond Fitzgerald, of Boston, and the speclai
commission and Chief Engineer Isham RAN
dolph declared that the river was adequate AT
the meeting at which the resolution was passed,
which, by the way was the hrst open session
members of the Board raked old skeletons from
closets and charges and counter charges or IN
competency flew about Mr.. WenteI, I oar5sse
stated that if the Board had not been an aggre-
CATION of idiots and kindergarten for more
than year the channel would have been hnisheo
two years ago. BY implication members were
charged with standing in" with contractors ana
pushing through fraudulent appropriations 1or
extras amounting to hundreds OF thousanus Gl
dollars Members became vehement ana cholerlc
in their assertions of incompetency and eXtrav-
agance due to friendliness to contractors, and
the public halo which has surrounded the great
non-nartisan Drainage Board was rudely dis
PEELED It openly charged that 70 Mac
Arthur Brothers contractors, had peen pau , q
bonus of $4,000 in the hope that they would
hasten work which hope was never readlzed;
Another member charged that over $45ooOo had
been needlessly sunk in the substruclure OF lue
great eight-track railroad bridge at Camppel,
ave and still another asserted thal cIdhah N
Tevrna had ALWAYS stood in with certain MEM
hers with the result that several hundred thou-
sand dollars had been paid them for extras. Inc
head of the firm is Thomas Gahan, democratic
Central Committeeman and former state w are
house commissioner. Chicago is amazed al the
spectacle presented, and residents or the SAM
tary district thanking "a kind Provloeness
which gave the trustees sufhclent brains 10 noi9
executive sessions until the channel was opened
and thereby to delay the removal OF the ven
until the danger point was passed
MORE COMPLAINT OF sTREETcAR SERVICE
Charles T. Yerkes is having his revenge upon
Chicago. For years the citizens cr1eo out
against him and the newspapers keapeo ABUSE
and removed to the more hospitable climate Oh
Nevyork When he had gone the people SAID
''Now we shall have adequate transportation on
the North Side; but alas, it is Infinitely worse
than in the pamy days of the Yerkes regime.
The passing OF Mr.. Yerkes was folo"eu
by the advent of aggregations OF street
railway magnates from the city or Phlla-
delphia Former Judge Egbert Jameson, gen
eral counsel for the Yerkes system, was Sc
lected for the new president Mr.. Jameson
nuhIiclv stated that Yerkes's service on the
North Side had been of a character to smell to
high heaven. and that he proposed to start re-
forms which would bring facilities commeh-
surate with the demand of the public. In snort
he aroasted" Mr. Yerkes, with the result that
he was sidetracked and not placed at the heao
of the consolidated concern. After time the
aged snd good Jesse Spaudng, lumber mer-
chant and reformer, was called TO assume the
duties formerly devolving upon Mr. ferkes
From the moment he took charge OF the Union
Traction Company streetcar- service began to go
from bad to worse on the NoTth SIDE Grip
cars were made haul such long trains that
they frequently became stuck in the tunnel, ana
four or five times in the week passengers nave
been compelled to walk home at the dlnner
hour Owing presumably, to the fact Jhat the
good Mr. Spaulding is on Chicagos list or emil
nent reformers and has never been charged with
having corrupted LEGISLATURE nor having pui
chased a City Council, the newspapers nave
been silent where they were wont Vehemently
to condemn. AS a matter of fact, chicago is
about twelve years behind the times in the mat
ter of TRANSPORTATION facilities and the North
Side streetcar lines are so primitive ana IN
adequate as to be laughable, were the matter
not so serious TO a large part of the citys popu-
lation return of Mr. Yerkes would be hailed
with delight by every one save the newspaper
managers
JUSTICE PURSUES DREYER AND BERGER.
Justice is still in pursuit of E. S. Dreyer and
Robert Berger, who wrecked a bank and de-
spoiled public funds so long ago that Chicago
has nearly forgotten the circumstances. The
nit tate
MED the petition of the former bankers for
writ of habeas corpus, and the States attorney
has declared that ne will again place the men
trial the mandate arrives. His
lawyers have succeeded IN keeping Dreyer out
of the penitentiary for over five years. and they
| declare that prison doors will never close behind
| HIM Once the States attorney succeeded in
| getting him as far the county Jail in his
journey toward the penitentiary but the State
| supreme Court interviewed. There about
| nineteen indictments standing against Dreyer
| for having received deposits after known in
| solvency, and for failure to turn over some
! S4O0,000 of West Park Board funds which had
been placed IN his possession. The States at
| torney asserts that he will exhaust the list Of
indictments before he gives I'D the hope of land
| ing the former bankers behind bars Berger is
now critically Ill with appendicitis, and may not
recover 1t is now a hard stretch of the imagi-
nation to think Of z. S. Dreyer as once being
the most respected citizen in Chicago.
MASON AND THE TIPPECANOE CLUB
William E. Mason, United States Senator
from Illinois, is having a hard time of it, Be
tween the cares of State and of his Philippine
brethren and the sings which his former friends
at home are launching at him. 1t is wonder
that he sleeps at night. The latest poisoned
barb comes from the Tippecanoe Club of which
Senator Mason was for years the guardian angel
The members Of the club held a meeting and
after carefully debating the matter expelled the
m rh0aTf