The Springdale news., 1906-02-02
CAPITOL STEAL STILL GOES ON
Continued from 2nd page.

concrete and expanded metal construc tion that you have adopted, but after making calculations he offered to bet me big apple that the floor would show serious cracks if honestly tested
 Here 1 will make disgreSSion up- on the subject Of these tests. The test, if made, must be honestly made, to be of any avail It would be very easy if persons wished to make per- functory test, to put on light load, or load only portion of slab, or in some other way apparently test with out doing so.
 II also consulted gentleman who was for a number of years assistant to the peryising architect of the trea- sury Department, and he told me that the floor as described by me that of the Arkansas State Capitol was ab- solutely at variance with government practice o
 MT. Day then expressed his own opinion, in speaking of the treproOf ing and iron work that, as now being done, 1t is scarcely half strong enough to cary the loads that contingencies might, in actual experience, call for the floors to carry. He further says. If d person wants ta juggle with hE ures, it k simply q question Of how muen be wants to encroach on fac. tors of safety m such computations. v AS for the iron columns he did not calculate them at all because no draw ings were sent him showing them.
 In conclusion MT. Day advises a thorough test and inspection of all iron work by competent engineer employed for the express purpose by the State, and that t0 be done before proceeding further with the work. But still the architect in charge and the contractors are so Tar the sole judges, unless they have the records so fixed that they can saddle the re. sponsibility on the Commission.
 In another report which has already been published, the same architect, MT. Day, advises thorough inspection, 0y a competent engineer, of all of the work now done or to be done, before the acceptance of 1t by the State.
 Such power as delegated in the speci- fications for the State House would be. and is entirely proper and necessary, in the hands of an honorable and wise architect, but it can be clearly seen that when such power lS delegated t0 a conscienceless and interruptions one, the fraud and robbery that can be per petrated under the cloak of honesty could be enormous. For further eX- ample
 Ia compliance with the clause in speei tications requiring the c0ntrac tors to file schedule of prices of all the different parts CT divisions of the work ali Of which totaled should have equalled the amount of their bld, re- citing the cost of each Item sepeFate. y Caldwell & Drake did tile such q statement, but they did 1t without the footings being shown. aud when some one else made the addition, 1t was found to add up to a Million and Sixty-one Thousand Dollars, while their accompanying bid, which on it's face included everything amounted to only Nine Hundred and Forty eight Thousand Dollars. The contract was accordingly drawn up with them for Nine Hundred and Furty-eight Thou sand Dollars, but when this was done there existed two contracts with them: one Tn detail for Million and Sixty-one Thousand Dollars. and the other in lump sum for Nine Hundred and Furuy-seyen Thousand D0liars This was done by them in ant patton of the work all being changed n the future: some to be cut out altogether while more might be added u3t vel mentioned. The work to be executed