Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-07-31

in Middlesex, the Newark Evening
News, last night, devoted abont four
columns, telling of the methods of the
Board of Freeholders in this county.
The st ory in part is as follows;
New Brunswick, July 3O-Through
the falling out of two partners in a
contracting firm some of the methods
of conducting public bust ness in Mid
dlesex county have been exposed
which may lead to the overthrow of a
system by means of which it is be-
lieved the county has been methodic-
ally robbed for years.
so far, gross extravaganza in the
conduct of county affairs is the worst
of which the freeholders or any mem
Der of that body has been directly
accused. Mismanagement and misuse
of public moneys, which may exceed
the bounds of extravaganza and have
to be called by an uglier name, are
limited at. The suggestion for an in
vestigating commission was made by
the grand jury, and was based on dis
coveries of a surprising nature made
after only cursory probing of the
subject.
Nine years ago there was so much
talk and so many nasty rumors about
the methods of the freeholders that
commission was created and an in
vestigation similar to that now pro-
posed, was held. There was Demo
cratic board, Democratic sheriff, a
Democratic prosecutor, and Demo
cratic grand jury. The investigation
amounted to little.
Although heretofore referred to as
a ring, in reality the affairs of Middle
sex County, so far as the freeholders
are concerned, are dominated by one
man. Asbury Fountain, who for five
or six years, has been director of the
the board and the guiding spirit and
boss in the administration of it's policy
and business. Fountain lives at
Browntown, and represents Madison
township in the body.
ga Democrat, man of good pres
ence, fine appearance and considerable
ability, Fountain has become potent
factor in Middlesex politics. While
Millard +. Ross, a sou of the late
M les Ross, is regarded as the Demo-
cratic leader in the county, he has
never been able to control Fountain,
and by sort of tacit agreement or
understanding Ross and the other
Democratic leaders have for years
given Fountain free hanu in the
running of the Board of Freeholders
and conduct of county finances, roads
and institutions in return Fountain
contributes literally to the campaign
funds, sees that others do the same,
and does not interfere with Ross and
his followers in the nominations of
other county offices or in State politics.
Gin addition to running the free
holders, Fountain acts as agent for
the American Book Company, and by
the use of this official influence man
ages to see that few other publishers
of school books get any amount of
patronage from MiddleseX schools.
One of his latest moves was to have
the board appoint II. Brewster Willis
as it's counsel In that position Willis
draws a salary of 81, 900 a year. AS
county superintendent his salary is
81, 500, and he also gets $500 a year
for acting as counsel for the New
Brunswick Board of Health AS
county superintendent he has not
little influence with the rural boards
of education, and it is asserted by
many Middlesex citizens that this in
fiuence may affect to no little degree
the selection of school books for use
in the schools.
"a little incident of how Fountain
uses his Office as county director to
help along the book business was told
to the grand jury week or two ago.
"The Board of Education of South
Brunswick Township had just decided
to give an order for books, amounting
to several hundred dollars, to Phila-
delphia publishing house. One night
Fountain called on the president OF
the board, H. H. Mershon. During
the evening the condition of the roads
in the township was talked over. The
road from Monmouth Junction to
Kingston had been recently graveled.
Mershon thought it should have been
macadamized.
50 I'll tell you what we'll do,
suggested Fountain. You give me
the order for those books and I'll
macadamize the road for you.
"The bargain was agreed to, Foun-
tain got the book order and an addi-
tional $3.50 order, and few months
later, early last winter, work was
begun on the macadamizing of the
Kingston road. The ground was
frozen at the time, and when it thaw-
ed out in the spring many of the
stones disappeared, so that its condi-
tion was not greatly improved.
"About six months ago the freehold