New-York tribune., 1907-12-27
THE ATTACK on THE WATER BOARD.

THE ATTACK on THE WATER BOARD
The labored and sophistical report which the
Commissioners of Accounts have made to the
Mayor attacking the Board of Water Supply
for its award of the contract for the Ashokan
DAM affords not the slightest reason for chang
ing the opinion which expressed some days
ago that the meagreness of the case against the
board is such TO make ii seem strange. Sllr-
prising and-to those who have regard for faith
ful performance of important public duties-dis
appointing and discouraging that charges so
f1imsily if not insincerely based should ever nave
been seriously preferred 1t would he tedious II
expose in detail all the unwarranted insnua
tjons and illogical statements which crowd this
amazing output, but a few of them, on the prin-
ciple er pede HercuIem, may fittingly engage
passing attention Thus the report says:
The members OF the Board of Water Supply
had one reason for the rejection of the lowest
bid-the fear Of delay-resting upon two causes.
inexperience and q losing price. They had be
fore them Gbsoluteiy nothing to justify their con-
clrsi0H that such causes either eristed or We're
sufficient except general statements Of opinion
and experience
The fact is that the Water Commissioners had
before them TO justify their conclusion that the
cause of inexperience existed the specific state
mant of the lowest bidder personally made:
II hare nrrer done anything in the tcGy OF en-
--baHkment and such ercGrGtion as rs called for
@Under this contract My engineers
took the Judgment of other engineers who had
had experience. as they claimed. in that class
"of work. The report continues:
There was before the board at the time of its
decision upon the matter absolutely no evidence
that the Peirce bid in whole or in part was at
prices below cost.
OF course. cost could be positively determined
only by actual performance of the work. But
the Board of Water Supply had before II the
positive and specific declaration. personally
made by the lowest bidder concerning his bid
on excavation and embankment, the chief part
of the contemplated work: Il satisfied that
lit is too Iow-too low to do satisfactory 4rDrk
for myself or the city Again the report says:
They neglected to bring out the facts from the
lowest bidder.
They brought out from the lowest bidder the
facts that he was entirely without experience
in the largest and most important part of the
work which he proposed to undertake; that he
had made his bid in ignorance, depending upon
the Judgment Of other who claimed TO
have had experience: that in doing the work be
would have 10 be dependent upon the experience
of others: that he could get no figures from men
of real experience to protect him in his bid and
that in his judgment his bid, so far as the
chief part of the work was concerned, was too
low for the satisfactory performance of the
work IL would be exceedingly interesting TO
have the intelligent and solicitOus Commission
ers of Accounts inform the public what other
facts should or could have been brought out to
convince the board of the unwisd0m of accept
ing that bid, And yet more the report,
with what we can consider as nothing less than
gross disingenuOusness declares that the lowest
bid was passed over by the Board of Water
supply upon the ground of inexperience and in
sufficient price, without evidence that the sue
"cessful bidder possessed much greater expert
"ence".
The fact is that the board had before it evil
dence. perfectly well known to every who
knows anything at all about such matters. that
while the lowest bidder was. by his own con-
fession. void of essential experience, the bid
ders to whom the contract was awarded had
had wide. varied and conspicuouSly successful
experience in every class of work involved in
the contract. and particularly in that kind of
work which formed. in both bulk and impor-
tance. the major part of the contract.
But enough, for one day, of such farrago
of Inconsistencies and misrepresentation. That
such a thing, or that the specific charges which
are presently to be preferred in line with this
report could prevail against public servants Of
the character, ability and painstakIng devotion
to the public welfare which have been mani
tested by the Board of Water Supply should be
incredible ana Impossible IN any community
where any other law than that of loot was para
mount. 1t would be difficult TO imagine anything
more ingeniously and cynically calculated to
drive out and keep out of the public service men
of integrity and efficiency, more certain to
give rise to scandalcus, but at least plausible
suspicious concerning the motive of this assault.
What that motive is shall not now presume
TO say. 1t will appear in time. But for the
present have hesitation in saying that if
there some unclean Tammany ring which
itched 10 get a rich "divvy' out Of the S161 800
0o0 appropriated for the Ashokan waterworks
and if ii nfurated against the Board of
Water Supply for standing like an impregnabe
wall between 1t and the Doodle which it craved
and for awarding the chief contract under that
appropriation to corporation with which the
ring could have no hope of doing business
in Such circumstances. precisely such report
as this before US and precisely such charges as
are threatened in it would be precisely to the
liking of such ring