The San Francisco call., 1910-08-27
HARSH CRITICISM
SKATERS PEACE
City Officials Defend Building
Inspectors, but Charges
Are Reiterated
Work Excellent, Declares Board: !:
Every Poor" Asserts Mer=
chants Association

Continued From Page
been somewhat tainted with personali-
ties, Secretary L. NJ King of that or
ganization declines to be drawn into
that inspectors in the employ of the
city bureau of architecture, which de-
partment has under its supervision
the erection of public buildings, are
careless, lax and incompetent
Report Causes Split
The rupture has been caused by the
sarcasm and critical comment on pub
lie work contained in the last bulletin
published by the associations depart
ment of inspection, which is in charge
of Engineer Henry A. Campbell.
Against King and Campbell are ar
rayed President Casey, Acting City
Architect ]. L. Fisher and Commission
er William A Newsom. Fisher and
Newsom do not hesitate to characterize
Campbell's report and Kings comment
as ridiculous"
The breech between the city Of
1cials and the association has long
been threatened. On numerous occa-
eions association inspectors have been
patched up by compromise and confer
ence. The report for July proved to be
the last straw. The smoldering vol
cano burst forth and just how far the
civic temblor will carry is a question.
The Merchants association bureau of
inspection has no official authority, but
was organized to oversee public work
and safeguard the expenditure of pub
L. tvx-- frIs IL Nry-fcs
Six inspectors are employed by the as
sociation to view public work and par
ticularly municipal bond issue expen-
ditures for sewer and school construc
ton. The charge of the city inspectors
on the different jobs is that the asso
citation men claim credit for all dis
covered defects and that the monthly
reports are merely attempts to steal the
administration thunder.
Inspec tion Farce"
In the July report attention is di-
rected to the Sheridan primary school,
Denman grammar school. Farragut
primary school and Mckinley primary
school, all of which are in course of
construction. In the case of the Sher-
idan and Mckinley schools the associa-
ton declares the city inspection a
farce The supervision on the Den
man school is reported very lax
while fault is found with the cement
used at the Farragut. In summing up
the work of city inspectors the report
says:
In general, the inspection of
work on public buildings has been
grossly neglected by the inspec-
tors. the city getting about what
the contractors superintendent is
pleased to give in the way of
quality, workmanship and ma
terials In some cases the inspec-
tors have been entirely absent from
the work while concreting has been
going on. The inspection has been
particularly lax
In reply to the indictment that the
city inspection of the roofing of GER
tain schools was careless, and that the
work was to be accepted until a bureau
A. Caldewood declares that he reported
the roofing defect two weeks before
the Merchants association inspector
made the discovery. Commissioner
Newsom yesterday criticised the eff
cheney of the associations inspections,
and mentioned the hall of justice job
and the Bryant street school contract
as fair examples of association work.
While the association had passed ia
vorably on the structural steel work Of
the hall of justice, the city department
men refused to accept the work until
the entire building had been reriveted
In the case of the Bryant street school,
Newsom insisted that it stands today
a monument to the incompetency of
the associations bureau of inspection
a thoroughly bad job.