The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-15

, spite" Murphy has against him.
The mayor claimed that he had
freed the city departments from such
graft, and he told again of the reforms
he had introduced into the police and
fire departments. He also told a few
things about what he called the
"scande of the Murphy Gaffney con-
tracts" before he became mayor.
The mayor concluded his statement
by declaring that it is a matter IF
more concern to the people of the city
whether he remains in office another
four years than it is to himself.
The statement follows:
Yes, I am going to take q couple of
weeks vacation. l cannot possibly get
any privacy on land, so / am going to
spend two weeks OF the ocean, where
nobody can get al, me. l. have been
nearly four years mayor. and have not
! yet had any vacation, and I suppose
Ealmost everybody will concede that I
may have one now. I have been laid
up a few days with one of the sharp
attacks which I occasionally have from
my nishap of a few years ago, but I
am now over it, and I hope T shall
never a another.
You want me to say a few words
about the approaching political con-
test You ask why it is that the So
called political leaders, especially the
district leaders, are SO ferocious
against me. Murphy and the chaps
that sat down with him at Delmonico's
the other night and guzzled and abus-
ed me until their faces were red, were
ready to eat me up, I am told, and
yet I never did anything to them ex-
cept what tended to make them look
respectable.
Did Not Let Them Loot.
81 suppose the people of the city
know very well what the grievance. is.
II did not turn the city departments
over to their s%poliation. I did not suf-
fer them to loot the city. Every head
Of department was my man and not
their man.
do you understand the vast amount
in contracts which the mayors thirty
two departments give out in a year
for work and material, and also for
supplies? If you do, you understand
how much these hungry grating lead
ers wish to. control the heads of these
departments.
"They want a mayor who will ap-
point their fayorites as heads of de-
partments. And then they will get the
contracts for everything. All sorts of
swindling specifications will be given
out, and unbalanced bids will be call
ed for, and the favored contractor will
get the tip how to bid, and what will
be expected of him.
"And hen when he gets the contract
he has a commissioner to deal with
who is in his favor. And then that
commissioner appoints engineers to
pass upon and certify the work, and
inspectors to receive the goods, and SO
on.
"In that way the contractor has
everything in his favor, Including the.
commissioner and the engineers and
inspectors. The engineers will pass all
sorts of skimped and fraudulent work.
1t will look all right on the outside,
but be hollow and rotten within. And
the inspectors will pass third class ar
ticles for first class articles. They
will pass things by the case which con-
tains only one-half what q ase means
in the mercantile trade.
formerly when 1000 cases of shoes
were bought, for instance, the city's
inspectors would just shove the cases
along one after the other, and never
upon them. But when they were open
ed they would be found to contain
only twelve in place of t~wenty-four
pairs, as the trade term case means.
I am citing that only as a sample OF
what can be done when the contractor
and the commissioner are in cahoots.
Have State Contracts.
These miserable political grafterg
that sat down at Delmonico's, and their