The Pickens sentinel-journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1903-1906, 1904-02-17
SCANDAL IN THIS STATE.
CAUSED BY THE REPORT OF THE
CAPITOL COMMUTE.
Declares That Gross Frauds Were Per-
petrated Upon the State in the
Construction of the Capital
Contractors and Archi-
teCt ScOred-COI.
lusion implied.


pointed last year to investigate the
completion Of the State Capito
was submitted to the General AS
semhly last week. The report
makes very serious criticism of the
work done by the contractors, Nc
Twain, Unkefer g. Co., under The
supervision of Architect Frank P.
Milburn AID the original commits.
sion.
Those members of the commits.
sion who approved of the final re
port Of the contractor and of the
architect were Gov. McSweeny, w.
b. Cooper, Secretary of State !;
Representatives CAN'T and w. j.
Johnson and the following from
the Sinking Fund Commission ::
Senator Mower, Representative j.
Harvey Wilson, G. Duncan Bel
linger, Attorney General; ]. P.
Derham, Comptroller General, and
Il. II. Jennings,S State Treasurer. The
Governor and the Secretary of State
were also members of the Sinking
ing Fund Commission
The Investigating Com mittee' g
report sustains the protests made
from time to time by Senator Mar
shall, which we're not needed by
the commission, and his minority
report to the Legislature, which
brought ahoat the investigation.
The Investigatigating Committee
consists of Senators Robert Aldrich
and r.. /. Manning, Representa-
tives j. q. Patterson, NJ. j. Raw.
linson and L. Y, Williams, by
whom the report is signed. A gov
ernm~nt architect from Washing
ton suStains the committoe's criti-
cisms.
In brief the charges are that Mil
burn left much Ill the specification
to the "discretion" Of the alchi-
tect, AID used that discretion
against the states III nterus'; that
the work az done DIES not comply
with ments, aid is fraud
on the STATE; that the building m
mission excused the contractors
from doing work for which theS
we've paid, and that vas worth
thousands Of dollars; that st, el
ceiling in the cOrridof as removed
nndapptopriated hy tho c";trac-
ra,and replaced with $500 worth OF
shoddy galvanized iron; the mar Y
thousands Of dollars worth of ma
terial belonging TO the state was
sold by the contractors, and that a
brother Of one Of the building com.
missioners, Mr.. CAN'T, made money
on the transaction; that n part IF
the portico is unsafe, and the dome
IL 'monstrosty.
In concluding the committee
says: "Your committee do n. t
consider that it comes within thoir
duties to determine questions Of
law involved in the matters ems
hracod herein, but would regard it
remarkable, indeed, civil Or crimi
nal, or both, to bring these male
factors to Justice. and to some. ex
tent to redress the wrongs of the
state. "
1t recommends that appropriate
legal steps be taken to recover, if
possible, from Frank p. MIlburn
and McIlvain, Unkefer & Co., as
much as possible Of the damages
the state has suffered through thoir
misconduct and breach of contract
and such other legal redress az
may seem to he advisable;" that
the most glaring and damaging de-
focts in the work b, repaired un-
der the authority of the Legisla>
ture until such time as the fnnncJs
Of the state will admit Of the
whole work being done over in a
manner TO conform to the original
design.
A tremendous sensation is crea.
ted. Architect Milburn declined
to appear before the committee.
Cold Wave Coming.
Won hoyn pr1.,Ioa ~