New-York tribune., 1907-05-19

With his pot and soldering iron the plumber
work wonders. He can, at one stroke, stop
n leak in pipe and start one in his patron 5
pocketbook. With few crude instruments and
a griny suit Of oyeralls he can start as large
a flow Of money In his direction an appen-
diCitis surgeon can with a whole case full OF
silver scalpels and probes. But nature has
wisely set limits even TO the plumbers power.
With all his magical solder pots and carefully
itemiZed incantations he cannot prevent facts
leaking out about himself and his methods For
facts are such stubborn things that when they
once begin leaking out all the solder on earth
cannot check the flow. See the sad OF
MeSsrs. O'I}rien and Ryder. municipal plumbers,
who are even yet half drowned by the food OF
facts leaking out through the Commissioners
Of Accounts. The commissioners have been
scrutinlzing the city plumbing accounts of the
last three years. and while doing 50 Carelessly
opened up the fatal leak now lmperiling the
political lives OF many citizens
/. The two allied plumbers, OBrien and Ryder.
did the boroughs plumbing for these three
years According to the testimony Of the In
yestgator from the Bureau of Municipal tie
search these gentlemen had virtually no com
petitors-a fact plainly disproyng the popular
falacy that plumbing is Il lucrative trade and
showing that Messrs. OBren and Ryder tin
kered at pipes TO the tune Of $4,000 simply
10 help their beloved city out of hole or
two. Even patriotism, though could not sup
press the plumbers instincts; the investigator
reports, for instance that only two vouchers
were found for charges Of less than one day :
work, while many We're for sums very close
to the $1,000 limit, beyond which competitive
bidding IS required 10y the charter
1t may seem strange that the city has never
had Il gas jet spring leak, faucet handle
snap the packing III valve wear down or
anything else happen requiring only few min
utes' work But whoever Is surprised at this
does not understand how the plumber accom-.
modates his own ideas to those of his patrons
The plumber IS familiar with the historians
words that lin the life of cities and nations
the hours and minutes by which men measure
their own petty efforts are meaningless" Far
be it from the plumber then, 10 be 50 rude as
10 address his patron, the city. IN an unintel-
ligible tongue. Hours and minutes being mean
ingleSs 70 the authorities who have the clty's
/ life III their hands. It Dehooves the plumber
10 avoid all mention Of such in his bills
Another curious thing is that these plumbers
seem TO have done a great deal OF plumbing
/ In public buildings before anybody had asked
them to do SO. After the jobs were finished
the tOilers came around after acquisitions and
orders. This individual initiative doubtless ir-
/ ritates the lover of red tape but what has red
tape got TO do with lead pipe and solder? Yet,
in view of the anger of some people over the
fact that few large contracts which should
have been awarded by competitive bidding were
apparently broken up into small ones of less
/ than 81 900 each and handed over without com
petition to the two gentlemen aforesaid, how
awk ward ii is for the plumbers that these facts
could not have been confined to their proper
channels deep underground in the safe dark
ness Of archives and Tammany meetings.