Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-05
COURT HOUSE JOB
NEEDS INQUIRY,
YOUNG REPORTS
Candidate for Hudson County
Supervisor Makes Public Re-
suit of Investigation.

Ralph Young, Republican candidate
for supervisor of Hudson county to
succeed Luke j. Clark, who. after
threatening mandamus \ proceedings
against the Court House Commission,
secured it's minutes, today makes pub
lie a partial report upon the result of
his Investigations. He insists hat the
minutes show the need of a judicial
inquiry into the whole Court House
building job. n that there should be
no need for the further expenditure of
a large sum of money for the construc-
ton of the Hall Of Records. which the
Court House Commission proposes to
build. He takes a fall out of John ].
Mulvaney's law library scheme and
goes into other details, which he al
leges show gross carelessness in the
expenditure of millions of dollars of
the taxpayers money. Mr.. Young
says:
81 have made a hasty examination
of the minutes of the Court House Conn.,
mission and have there found enough
to satisfy ms that there ought to be
an elaborate and judicial Investigation
npf the actions of these commissioners.
I desire to call attention to the public
at this time to a few of the things
which these minutes show.
1T appears from the minutes that
after the architect was appointed he
was directed to acquaint himself with
the needs of the county as to a Court
House and to submit a set of plans and
drawings for a Court House of sufficient
capacity to accommodate all the needs
of the county for many years to come.
This he did. and on December 6, 1908,
he submitted a formal report, In which
he says:
Architects Report.
81 herewith submit a tentative plan
and list for the proposed new court
house. The list is prepared after a
careful study of the requirements of
the courts and the various departments
to be placed in the proposed structure.
Upon estimating the entire cost of the
court house as upon the basis as thus
stated I find that the total cost will not
exceed the sum of 1890, 000.'
ut was upon this basis that the
court house was undertaken by the
commissioners Inc the architect. What
shall be said of public officials who go
or record that the needs of the county
can be subServed by a structure costs
ing 1890, 600 and who end with a struc-
ture which costs SO, 500. 900? Does not
this argue incompetency, or worse.
somewhere? Who Is to blame for this
monstrous discrepancy, the architect or
the commissioners, or both?
1T was a simple proposition to de-
termine. The architect and the COM
m~issioners knew exactly the probable
needs of this county for years and
years to come. The space required for
every court, for the offices of the county
clerk, the register, the surrogate, the
freeholders and the different other
county officials all were known. The
space occupied in the existing building
was available for inspection and COM
p%arison, and each official In the exist
ing building ought to have been an x
pert as to what would be the requires
ments of his department for many years
to come. There was thus nothing diff
cult or uncertain about the problem.
Zone Of the most unjustifiable things
in connection with this building, in my
opinion, is the fact that the court
house as completed, costing more thar
three times the original estimate, ap-
parently has no space for the registers
office, and the minutes show deliberate
ly the job to spend other millions for
"a new hall of records to accommodates
the registers office has been cooked up
by the commissioners. The minutes
show conclusively that there was ample
space. and is today, for the books of
the registers office. and that there Isl
no need of n additional building, al
though such a building has been de-
cided upon"