The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-01-04
JUDGE FINDS GRAFT
IN ALL PUBLIC WORK
Justice Howard AssaiIs AshOkaD
Condemnation System.
CUTS COMMISSIONERS PAY
Declares That the Dollar Mark Nov
Tops the FIag-PeopIe Expect
Graft, and Are to BIame-H Hon
esty a Freak.

Troy, N. Y.--"The age of patriot.
ism has yielded to the age of CONNER
cialism. Uppermost in the human
mind is not the Stars and Stripes, but
the dollar mark. 2
Such is the declaration of Supreme
Court Justice Wesley o. Howard, of
this city. in an opinion fixing the COM
pensation Of the members of a COM
mission Of three appointed by him tc
appraise damages to property along
highways resulting fromtheconstruc-
tion of the Ashokan reservoir in us
ter County to furnish a water supply
( for NewsYork City. M
Justice Howard reduces the COM
pensation of the Commissioners from
$3.50 each to $1,000, declaring, Incl
dentally, that IF expedition and in
tegrity, instead of slothfulness and
rapacity, were the law of the Asho.
kan Valley no fault would be found
with the. daily, wages paid =
While commissions furnish ave-
nues for the reckless waste Of many
dollars, there are other channels of
leakage and waste fully as appalling"
said Justice Howard ~
1T is greatlyNto be regretted that
40 public enterprise can be projected
and consummated without this ap-
palling loss called graft Graft is
not necessarily an, Illegal expenditure
of money, but it is that unnecessary,
.wasteful use which characterizes the
construction of every public venture,
At least forty per cent of all the
fof fr,. DO,
lost in graft. All things could be pos
sible if this frightful leak could be
stopped--roads, canals, libraries, asy-
tums and hospitals-all these could
be built out of graft could it only be
saved. - ,~
by what say here ] do not seek
to charge any particular individual
with responsibility nor to direct pub
dc attention to any such source In
Iced, do not believe that any partic-
alar individual or class of individuals
IS responsible. Graft is a product Of
our times and institutions. 1t is the
people who are responsible, for, by
prescription, they seem to have lost,
Or to believe that they have lost, their
title to integrity. They expect graft,
and even spoil and booty, to deplete
their resources whenever any great
undertaking is ventured by them, and
they look with complacence and toler-
alton and Indifference at rayages upon
their property. Graft is as much an
element to be reckoned with in COM
outing the cost of public structure
as is cement or lumber 1t has come
to be matter of course--this rake
of - loss recognized by all who
make estimates of cost in such cases.
Figure out what private corpora
ton, like railroad, can construct a
public undertaking for, then add forty
per cent. for graft, and you have the
cost of the enterprise. A public
structure built honestly would be a
freak"
Justice Howard declares that the
whole project of the condemnation
Of land in the Ashokan Valley is char
acterized by waste, disorder and con-
fusion. There Is no system and no
plan for doing anything. Nobody
seems to be in charge of the matter,
and the result is an endless .muddle
and mix-up."
The commission whose compensa-
ton was reduced by Justice Howard
was composed of Sidney Harris, New
York, lawyer, chairman; G. Gordon
Reel, of Kingston, civil engineer, and
DR.. James T McKenna of Trov