The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-02-21
NECESSARY AMENDMENTS.

When the Morris administration last
fall made 4 hurry-up letting of con-
tracts in connection with the new wa
ter supply. in order TO get the benefit OF
the work during the municipal cam
paign. The Tribune protested against
the hasty action. We pointed out that
ii was impossible to prepare the speci-
flcations properly when the work had
10 be hurried. as though great ep1er-
gency were pressing; that N work OF
such importance-the conduit being the
main factor In the proposed added Wa
ter supply, after the securing of the
water itself-it was necessary to go
over the ground carefully, and TO scru-
tiniZc with keen anxiety every detail,
In order to have the work done proper
ly and In such manner that IL would
be satisfactory and permanent.
But this good advice and dwarning fell
upon deaf ears. No attention was paid
Repeated remonstrances against the
undue haste that makes waste were un-
needed The warning that was en-
phatically conveyed, that revision CT
the work at n time after the contract
was let, when the construction was In
progress. and when II would cost more
than at first to do the work properly
was set at naught: the campaign eHi-
gency was put above the public inter
est. and the contracts were let on In
complete and weak specifications.
1t is now found, on expert examina-
ton. that the specifications were faulty,
just as it was inevitable that they
should be. There must be additions,
viz, inside plastering with cement, at
an added cost of S17 .5l9 80. protection TO
the conduit by earth covering. S4,1S6;
and strengthening of the weak side
walls by making them one-third thick
er, s33, $685. total addition to the cost
of SIS, sos 50. And it is cheap enough
to get such radical faults repaired At
that cost. II the lower corners of this
square conduit could be rounded little
with cement, IT would make for clean
illness and ease OF flushing
In this increased expenditure for CO.
ing the conduit work properly, ;he city
is simply paying the price for its folly
In putting incompetent and partisan
schemers and political plotters In
charge of important public work. So
eager were those schemers to get work
under way SO that they could use the
fact in their electioneerinG campaign
that it was actually In progress, that
they ignored all proper business pre-
cautions, threw prudence TO the winds,
and let contracts for work that had rot
been properly planned This in defiance
of common sense and specific public
warning.
The result is added cost to the city,
for the work as planned would not do
as a practical propositions; 1t was uh-
dertaken only for political purposes,
and would necessarily have been re-
vlsed, no matter how the election might
have gone. And the very dark-c corner
conspirators and howlers who now so
fervently decry the exposure of the In
competence and recklessness of their
favorite politicians. would have found
II necessary to defend Just this sort of
revision In case Morris had been re-
elected: 1t was revision that necessa
rily had TO be made, in any event.
A cry out against It, therefore.
is merely a clamor against the best in
terests of the city, by clique which by
incapacity and dishonest procedure has
rendered itself unfit to have any voice
In this matter.