Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-25


Muddling the Whole District Adj
ministration of Affairs,
Curious thing, but nevertheless true, that
when one gets a little authority he abuses
it. There are many words of wisdom to be
cleaned from some of the things which
have been done down at the District build
ing recently. AS It is pretty well known
the proposals for supplies for each year are
taken early in May. The law provides that
bids for all Of the executive departments
shall be taken on the same day at the same
hour Then the bids are scheduled and
transmitted to the Joint High Commis-
sion" consisting of the Secretary of the
Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior and
the Postmaster. General. These high 9TH
cials Of cours have too much to do to at
tend to the matter themselves, but they dele.
gate their authority to their hunkeys.
Great heads and great brains have been
found at the District building. Some adept
clerk thought he knew how to get good
lumber, 50 when he wrote out the schedule
for the proposals for the Ist of May he made
a provision that the lumber should be in
spected at the yard of the dealer and then
delivered, and if at any time before the
lumber should be used it should be found to
be unfit for the service for which it was in
tended, the dealer would be required to take
| it back and credit it to the account Of the
District. What sweet prospect for the
dealer; how pleasant to conte mplate. An
authorized inspector to pass the goods and
hen some cheap John carpenter or hodcar-
l cd. tfroe - se ftrtr 70,
serve the purpose for which It was intended.
Well, we admire the sense Of the lumber
people They did not bid They simply
/ silenced the District people by keeping
silent themselves.
/ But the lumber schedule was not a circum-
stance TO the fuel proposal; it is really
curiosity. A copy ought to be placed in
the archives Of the Library of Congress and
carefully preserved. For a business propO-
sition it is the hottest thing we have ever
seen. In fact it is dangerous to have one
about unless covered with an asbestos en-
velope. The kind and character of the coal
and wood is described to an exact nicely, so
much ash so much slate aud bone, but the
wise guy forgot to specify that the coal
should have any fixed carbon Now, of
course it Is not necessary that coal should
be anything but contain a minimum amount
Of slate-that is the only important thing
worth specifying about. Theu you must
state what colliery aud if you are to send
from more than one mine you must put
special prices on each kind. Read and re-
read the long printed conditions as you may
you will find that aside from the iuadequacy
of the same, and aside from the current of
humor which is apparent to any one who
ever heard of coal and who ever saw the
front or rear door of a sensible business
house one paragraph caps the climax.
ANY doubt as to the meaning of the speci-
cations or any obscurity in the wording of
them will be explained by the Commis-
sioners, who shall have the right to correct
any errors or omissions in them, when such
correction is necessary for the proper full
fllment of their intention"
How sweet! How lovely! o temporal o
moresl Fancy yourself contemplating and
speculating on what the intention of the
Commissioners is. 1t might be well enough
to think what some people meant when
they used the English language, but to try
to think on what the Commissioners might
be thinking about land they changing their
mind every five minutes). Can il be thought
that the coal barons of the city are clair
voyants? Will they be required to 60 into
a trance and ascertain what's doin'2 Well
the coal people do not appear to be as good
business men as the lumber people. In
stead of treating the matter with silent con
tempt, some few of them bid.
lust how it all originated is somewhat Of
a mystery 1t is to be noted that the lords
of education (Boynton, si ai.) have decided
that they are lit" IN the coal business, that
they are to decide what is best in all mat
ters from the true account Of the Battle Of
San Juan Hill to the proper tint of a particle
of ash. The so-cailed board of education
have stated that the janitors must inspect
each load of coal as delivered and accept or
reject it as the case may be. And the law
says there shall be one inspector of fuel
ETC. But Boyutou ef AZ. raised such fog
in 1901 and 1907, Just before the beginning
Of spring time, that they had to be ap-
peased How could Henry B. hesitate to
do something; he had appointed Henry ".
and asked that he be made president of the
board Henry " likes the salary and don't
want to let go of the job he is fond of jobs,
il there is a salary attached. SO he must
make bluff at something. SO to set mat
ters right, kid from the engineer depart
ment was. dispatched at District expense
to the anthracite regions to find out about
coal. We believe there are about six hun
dred mines but he chose to go to Hazel
ton Now there are better places than
Hazelton for a bridge builder to find out
something about the mining and prepara-
tion Of coal, but there are other attractions
at Hazelton. 1t is the center Of the social
swim for that part of Pennsylvania And
in social matters the bridge engineer made
a great hit, so the gossips say. He thought
ne made great in the coal schedule, but II
did not hit Alright It simply hit the
pockets Of the people to the tune of $4,000