Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-03

IN Nj
used In fulsome praise of Ittner and
all his works and In thunderous
phillipplcs against me; thousands Of
dollars worth OF free advertising was
| given prominent place In the daily
papers. supplied. l am told. by the
indefatlgable Mcfarland; circular
letters were printed by tho hundreds
and sent out broadcast to the men,
bers OF the Chamber OF Commerce.
Paid advertisements now appeared.
contributed / understand by Mr.. Nc
Farland, giving tho telephone num-
bers OF the gentlemen OF the board
! who had tho temerity to stand out
against the ideas OF this self-ap-
| pointed mentor OF all things civic in
Harrisburg. / say contributed" by
/ Mr.. Mcfarland merely in the sense
/ that he supplied the matter, not at
all in the sense that he himself paid
! for the advertisements. for IL my in
/ formation be correct, the bills were
handed to the Chamber OF Com
merce for payment. which institu-
/ tion l am reliably informed Is disin-
clined to pay them.
"Calumny against me was resorted
/ TO by some OF the papers and by
| individuals as we'll, and as time
1 passed with the situation unchanged,
| calumnious utterances became al
most n campaign OF NilitiCation.
Meanwhile, no one can show that in
my one-man fight against such
heavy odds, 1 used stronger argu-
I ments against Ittner than COM
parison of his high costs with my
moderate ones and the advantages
/ accruing from the selection of To-
cal man. l was ever very glad to
say that Mr.. Ittner was a very
] apable architect no doubt. And
[ still persisted in working for the
/ business along legitimate lines and
without the aid OF either benign or
malign politics. or of any OF the ad-
herents of either. Candor compels
( the statement that my opponents
were not equally ethical in their
methods, for they certainly did use
/ political methods which were quite
I amazing, and tried unsuccessfully to
employ others"
The elimination of these meth
! DDS was reached some weeks ago
\ when the aid of Mr.. McIlhenny was
sought, either by Ittner himself, or
by the school furniture contractors,
it does not particularly matter
which. A curious commentary on
the consistencies surrounding this
controversy is supplied in that, while
Mr.. Stamm based his objections TO
me entirely upon my alleged con-
nection with Mr.. McIlhenny, (al-
though Mr.. McIlhenny was not at all
in my confidence in this school tran
saction. and had done nothing what
soever for mel yet Mr.. Stamm says
/ he sees no objection to Mr.. Ittner
comforting with Mr.. McIlhenny.
suppose, however. ii is unreasonable
to expect any great degree of con-
sistency at this stage of the game
II have pursued the even tenor OF
my way in this controversy and have
done nothing to ruffle the feelings OF
my fellow architect, Mr.. Ittner, but
he has not reciprocated in kind. His
lintimations as to my alleged division
/ of commission with McMcIlhenny
and my acting in the capacity of a
collecting agency for the same
gentleman, as we'll as a few gratui-
tous and pharasaic comments on al
legged "sordid" conditions in this city
seems to be carrying his zeal to Sc
cure the Harrisburg business rather
far. and is much beneath his sup
posed standing in the profession.
''It has been explained that Ittner
the architect, and Boyd the furni-
ture contractor. are close personal
friends, and l have understood that
il is Ittner's custom to specify the
school furniture, a condition not pre-
vailing in this 'sordid' community
Was it not quite reasonable that Mr.
Boyd in the dual capacity of friend
and furniture contractor should fly
TO Ittner's assistance when IttneI
needed one vote so badly? And tc
continue that assistance to attempt
TO extract him from a difficulty, even
by going to the length of having one
of his employees execute a scurrilouS
affidavit, to which affidavit Mr.. lit.
ner was tacitly a party.
so much for the general history
and aspects of the case. which has
been very long episode. I now de-
sire to take up the special aspects
of the matter in which l am particu.
larry concerned.
Long an Architect Here
Il have practiced architecture in
Harrisburg for nearly % years, and
in that time have had a great per.
centage of the large architecture
work. have enjoyed the confidence
of leading men of affairs, at least tC
the extent of doing their private
work and disbursIng their money,
and | do not think one of them be.
lieVeS | have ever betrayed tha'
confidence. Does it seem reasonable
that | could have been STOPPING tC
the nefarious practice of commits
sion taking for all these years, either
with public or private work and re
main in business to-day?
Il state most positively and un
equivocally that l have not acted IL
the capacity intimated, namely, tina
of an agency for collecting commits
sions for Mr.. McIlhenny from con
tractors or from other persons. No
have 1 collected or arranged to col
lect any commission either for my
self or for Mr.. McIlhenny, or for an!
school or other schools. Neither Mr.
McIlhenny nor any other person ha!
profited a single dollar by any sucl
arrangement, for the very good ant
sufficient reason that no arrange
ment or even tacit understanding o
that sort existed at any time. II
! short, Mr.. McIlhenny has never ask
; ed me to collect or arrange for com
missions from contractors, subcon
; tractors or material men, and if h
had asked me TO do this. | certainl.
would not have complied. In thi
connection it may be stated that Mr
: McIlhenny has never had a singh
a.