Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-05-23
WITTPENN BOARD
IN GRAF t SNARL
Mayors Reform FreehoIders
Accused of Dissipating Tu-
bercuIobis Hospital Fund.

JERSEY CITY, n. J., May 20
Mavor Wittpenn's board of nine
freeholders. which assumed once
January / and whose members were
pledged to economy and the elimlna%
ton of graft, is already under hre-
From what can be learned the meth
DDS of the present board are even
worse than those of the old poaro
which it succeeded and which was
the subject of several investigations.
Conditions that we're never expected
to exist under a supposed reform
body of officials have been reported
tn Supreme Court Justice SWayze
and a court inquiry may. result.
The board of managers of the
county tuberculosis sanitarium at
Snake Hill find that their appropria-
ton of 100000, lostensibly set aside
for the care Oh consumptives, has
dwindled, through certain alleged r.
regular and uniustifable drains upon
it, until there is not money enough
left to keep the institution open ana
feed the patients until December l.
the beginning of the next fiscal year.
The first raid upon the S1OO,O0O ap-
propriation was made when several
thousand dollars were used by the
freeholders to liquidate debts con-
tracted last year by a former board
of managers. The next raid upon the
money ostensibly set aside for the
lessening of the white plague was
the seizure of $4,000 to pay part OF
SIG 900 water bill which Jersey City
forced the county to pay for water
furnished the county institutions.
The managers ascertained upon in
vestigation that it would, have been
practically impossible for the sani-
tarium to have used more than $1,000
worth nf water in the time covered
by IT,. bill The managers nave
asked the Jersey City Water Depart
ment to install separate meter at
the sanitarum, and if 1t does not do
so, will install one from the instltu-
ton funds, hoping to get the meas
I,ure of the water used and recover the
amount illegally or Improperly taken
from the appropriation to pay the old
water bill, even If it is necessary to
go to court to do so.
These things were not all that were
told Justice Swayze. He was told OF
the charge that the acquisitions of
the board of managers for supplies
for the santarium are handled py
the freeholders who, instead of send
ing them to be filed by recognized
dealers in the articles required, dole
them out to friends. He was told
that the managers have had to hold
IN bills which upon examination
were found to be greatly in excess
of all reason, and of the quarrels
with freeholders who were looking
after the interest of the business
men interested, which resulted.
ore instance is illustrative of the
system. A meat chopping block was
needed in the sanitarium kitchen
and a requisition was sent to the
freeholders for one. A chopping block
was supplied by a drygoods mer-
chant and the price was several
times what it would have been for
the same article if it had been
bought of a dealer in chopping
blocks. The bill was held UP by the
managers.
The board of managers do not want
to turn out the patients who are in
the institution, but fear they will be
forced to do so shortly as the funds
are fast disappearing and the free
holders will provide no more.
1t is said that the colony of con-
sumptives could be fed quite while
on the money which has been wasted
on excessive profits to Industrious
merchants who have secured requi-
sitions from the freeholders. The
law of 1912 under which the tuber-
culosis work in this county is or
ganized, provides that the State may
aid counties in the care of consump-
tives by paying a certain sum per
diem for each patient treated,