The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-14
GUMsHoE CONTRACTS

tue snloothest piece of smooth.
work that ever went through the hoard
OF public works here slipped IN and
OUT or the secret session of that auprs+
BODY Thursday when the contracts
were let for paving and other public
work.
A1se're were only two bidders OF, nav
slhg. and one of Them only a. nominal
bidder. Before the final awards were
made the board held a nice. comfort
able little secret session ar which +,,o
representative Of the Barber AsnbaIt
company and Councilman T. r. Rlacl,
we're the guests of honor In defiance
OF the custom in such cases. the public
and representatives of the newspapers
were excluded from the session. so the
proceedings can only be surmised from
what followed
After the secret conference v,as 49,.
the board assembled in the omen and
went through the form of ratifvfne.
the conclusions reached in the stor-
chamber sOciabIe. No TURTLE 49,
slipped off a wet log with greater 90
ierlty and lack of friction than marked
he award of the paving contracts -
the Barber Asphalt company. COM.
monty known as the Paving Trust.
AFTER the performance was over. the
spectators wondered. why the hoard
ever went to the expense of advertis-
ing for bids or inviting competition in
any form, since it was apparent. that
the whole business might thus have
been transacted without so nucb IN
necessary bother and with ouitn as
much satisfaction to the taxnaver.
Just how crude the whole iob rras
may be inferred from the fact that
even the American" party dfctators
refused 10 stand for it without a pro-
test, although they had accepted the
$4,000 conduit donation to Moran with
out a whimper and acted as .thoupb
they liked It. knowing Chairman
Leonard. the head of the board. most
people could have predicted in advance
the sort of programme that would be
followed in the contract line; ana
knowing that Black, the ineffabIe. went
into the secret caucus with the Paving
Trusts agent, it was a foregone con-
elusion that somebody would suffer
the somebody in this case being the
taxpayer.
Having elected Black and appointed
Leonard, it seems hardly fair for the
Americans" to raise a row about THEN.
official actions now. Weren't they nut
into office as patriots And haven't
all the patriots been working their
Official graft for all there is in ft2 To
adopt a phrase from a recent show.
how is a councilman or other Office
holder among the patriots going to
live if contracts are TO be let out in the
open where everybody can see and
hear what is going on? And how is
the Paving Trust going to keep on do
ing business at a fat profit if il cant
have a nice. quiet little talk with the
city's representatives apart from vul-
gar listeners?
If Moran can get $4,000 added on 70
his contract price for building the co,-
duit, why can't a paving contract for
few hundred thousand dollars he LET
among gentlemen without raising 2
rumpus from the common herd whose
only concern is in the payment of the
trusts bill at the proper time? Chair
man Leonard was only following the
accepted practice of his party when he
established the gumshoe system in the
board of public works. and it is rank
ingratitude for his party associates to
object. OF course, the innocent pub
lie gets the worst Of it every time the
board let's a contract, but that it i'm
material, irrelevant and incompetent.
as the lawyers would say. The pa
triots' are in command and nobody
else has any business mixing in.