New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-25
Democrats Find Highways
Department Prolific
Source of Loot.
PADDED PAYROLLS
SHOWN BY OSBORNE
Checks Collected for Campaign
Fuuds-Glynr Charged with
Baking Prosecution.
By FREDERICK W. CRONE.

hssty inventory to ascertain where tue
! biggest good things" could be oo-
tanned with the least effort. lheir
unanimous vote was for the Highways
| Department. That has been ever since
prolific source of jobs and scanda!'
of graft and Democratic indictment
In 1906 constitutional amendment
was adopted permitting the issuance OF
$50. 900 900 bonds for building state
o. stem Of highways. The idea was to
make at state expense links connect
ing county roads, so that general
svstem OF connected routes would re-
salt. Under Governor Hughes. rs
result Of study By Legislative COM
T mittee, q State Department OF High-
ways was established to take charge
OF this work. Hughes put in this
| Percy Hooker, an upstate Republican
OF proved probity; Robert Earl, an up
state Democrat of equal standing, and
| Thomas W. Allen, an engineer who
had made a reputation for construc-
/ ZION WOTh NeTb anu
men held Office when the Democrats
came in and ascertained that there
was about somewhat less of the
/ original S5O000,000 still unappropri-
ated
I The Tammsny-controlled Legislature
promptly revamped the law, putting
I out Of office the Hughes commission
/ and creating a new commission, to con-
/ sist of the State Engineer, the State
/ Superintendent Of Public Works and a
( State Superintendent of Highways.
/ Also the next year the Legislature pre-
/ scented TO the people constitutional
/ amendment for another S50,OOO.OOO OF
/ highway bonds. This made more than
/ S70,000,000 to spend.
| Il soon be ,.me evident that the
state was being looted. Roads built
/ by contractors, supervised by state
paid inspectors, needed repairing al
| r:ost as soon as they were laid. The
departments payrolls jumped tremen-
( dously.
Gave Champagne Parties.
There was gossip of a contractors
"ring" or combination" Contractors
/ held regular meetings in an Albany
hotel and in an Office in a side street.
Most OF them gave evidence of sudden
prosperity, and automobiles and cham
payne parties, in which state officials
and legislators took part marked their
enjoyment Of quick and easy way to
{ wealth. These things figured in the
campaign. Charges were openly made
| that the administration OF the High
ways Department, for which c. Gordon
Reel, the Superintendent of Highways,
and State Engineer Bensel were chief
. ly responsible, was corrupt Bensel
! was a Tammany man, long associated
with Murphy. Reel. weakling, once
admitted that he fairly loved" Muir
ply.
Nevertheless, Tammany was again
put into Office in the 1912 election.
Sulzer. the new Governor, took UNI
bragg at fanced slight Of Governor
ard Mrs. Dix to him and his wife at
the inauguration. He started cunning
/ for everything vulnerable in the Dix
administration. The Highways Depart
ment was one of the first things hit.
The existing commission was legis-
lated out of Office, and Superintend-
ent of Highways alone was put in
charge Of the work. Meantime, Sulzer
started John A. Hennessy out graft
hunting, and a Commission of Inquiry,
organized under the Moreland act, in
vestigated the Highways Department
among others. Still another official
investigation, conducted by James ".
Osborne, appointed by Governor Glynn,
followed the Sulzerian reorganization
of affairs there.
II is not necessary to 90 outside
Democratic Investigators reports TO
obtain a picture of the corruption arts
ing from Tammany control OF the high
way funds. Mr.. Osborne, once a Demo-
cratic candidate for District Attorney
of New York County, found the condi-
ton of affairs so shocking that he
recommended the indictment and prose-
cution of Reel, Bensel and Peck, the
members Of the Dix commission. lie
reported that there had been graft in
contracts, both as to prices and per
Torrance of work. He found the de-
partment rotten IN personnel and bust
ness methods. This, moreover, was
not all confined TO the Dix.regime. He
said:
THE present Highway Commissioner,
John \. Carlisle, is a political APP
pointee. His subordinates are political
appointees, where his power is not cir
cumscribed by civil service regula-
tons. The executive officers are po-
liticsl appointees. The superintendent
of highways in each particular district
are political appointees. The conse-
quence is that II each one OF these Of
fcers is TO be useful to the politician
who caused his appointment he must
employ as many persons as possible at
the highest possible wages. | find that
the payrols of the department are use
iessly padded. / find that the employees
Of the department have been compelled
to pay contributions 20 political
parties"
Why Payroll Increased.
That is one explanation why the
Highways Department payroll for 1912
increased nearly 100000 over what it
had been the previous year. 1t is an
explanation of why bakers, cobblers
and bartenders appeared on the pay
rolls, though they seldom or never ap-
peared on the job. Mr.. Carlisle is still
Superintendent of Highways, and
though he has endeavored TO produce
reforms Mr.. Osborne's report is prob
ably about rs true to-day as when he
made II.
All that the road contractors got did
not stay with them. They got il be-
cause the Democratic organizstion-or
agents of the Delmonco Directorate
which controlled the Democratic or
ganization- some OF it. Court
proceedings have disclosed the method
OF Horka "bagman's" letters and
visits TO contractors, regardless of their
political belief, and the collection of a
check for the Campaign fund" Ever
EFT P. Fowler, who has held various
jobs under the Democratic scheme of
psrcelling out good things, including a
fat condemnation commissionership.
WAS caught and indicted for this bag
man" work. Arthur A. Mclean, treas