Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-04-05
WOULD NOT GIVE
VAULT CONTRACT
JUST FOR LOVE
Safe Agent Testifies Regarding
Conversation With Com
mission Head.
[From a stan Correspondent ]


JERSEY CITY, April 5.-The word
graft" crept into the records at the
Hudson County Court House probe be-
fore Judge Swayze today when L. T.
Dougherty, Mosler safe agent, went
on the stand and swore that President
Clements, of the Building Commission,
had told him he was mot going to
give out the vault contracts for love"
That, Dougherty said, was the reply
he got when he called upon the chair
man at the request of his company to
ask him fatty If the board expected
any Commissions" for the contract.
'I told him then that I would go
back and consult my New York man
ager," said Dougherty. Il did so and
Clements to his face that I was in
structed to drop the matter, as the Mos
Ter people would have nothing to do
with graft et
A moment afterward, however, the
agent admitted that the Mosler concern
did get contracts for three quarters of
the vault work in the county building
Even more dramatic. however, was
the commotion caused when James
Livingston, the building superinten-
dent, testified that the marble was all
cracked and the cracks filed with
putty. Judge Swayze himself stood up,
looked at the marble pillars and an
nounced: ut looks as if there is putty
in there, gentlemen"
Livingston was the superintendent of
construction and he gave expert tes-
timony on the marble.
Cross-examined by Merritt Lane, at
torney for Hugh Roberts, he stated
that he had never had very big mar
BILE job.
Then how do you know that this is
not as it should be?" asked Lane
Although | have had no such big
jobs, I have had lots of experience,
and I know that all ornamental or
CONSTITUTIONAL marble should be free
from cracks in order to give lasting
and permanent satisfaction
Horace w. Andrews, expert on wood
and metal furniture, testified that the
entire metal furniture in the vaults,
for which the county paid 1000, was
worth only s11,04416.
Explains sao.oo0 Check.
Harry A. Crane, the paving con-
tractor, went on the stand 10 explain
how he came to get $4,000 check out
of the fund. He said that he was
pressed for money, but having done
$99, 900 worth of work upon the con-
! I, he ho1 ,iev N
part payment. President Clements was
going out of town in hurry, SO Crane
said he put the case up to him and
got the check on the strength of the
architects certificate that he had really
already given that much value received
on his contract.
James Livingston, the superintendent
of the building, was on the stand at
the close. Charles l.. Carrick, who ex-
amined him, read a statement Liv-
ingston had signed asserting that many
changes had been made in the struc-
ture and fixtures of the building from
those certified in the architects speci-
fications. Hugh Roberts, the architect,
himself confessed this when after hav-
ing made an examination at the re-
quest of Attorney McCarter yesterday,
he returned to the stand with the an
nouncemeht that all of the pilasters
and cornices specified and certified as
bronze were really of steel. He ad-
mitted numerous other changes from
his plans. He was excused in order to
make a search for further defects.
Patrick Nolan, of the Union Printing
Company, of Jersey City, testified that
his firm got out the Autographed blank
bond book, for which the county paid
$1,675, but he said that the transaction
occurred during the administration of
his father, who is now ill. He didn't
know any more about the transaction.