The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-02-12

| evening. / regretted that / could no
bring something to you of a nature
that would cause you to lose your griI
on the daily routine. and SO refresl
you that you might take up tomor.
rows work with renewed energy and
increased vigor. That which I will
discuss with you this evening will, In
a sense, increase your cares and your
/ responsibilities. However, this is as
it should be, for many Of you have
been allowed to evade your just share
in the responsibilities Of carrying on q
business that is yours and yours
alone.
Il am reminded of the story of the
young lady, small of stature, who took
| passage on a railway train. The con-
| ductor came down the aisle to collect
| her fare; she handed him half fare
He asked her age, and she replied, 81
prefer to pay full fare and keep my
| own statistics" You might expect to
have an engineer quote statistics by
the page, but am going to avoid them
as much as possible, only using them
to illustrate my points But I do want
to call the attention Of all Of you that
we have lots of them on file in the
| engineers Office, and only ask that
you examine them before passing
| judgment on any phase of engineering
activities in this city.
My subject this evening is Some
Problems of Our Municipality.
There are a lot of good people in
this world who live happily because
they know little about civic affairs
and never allow themselves to be
placed in an embarrassing position by
| acquiring knowledge" said Mr.. And
ers. If they acquired knowledge of
this subject their conscience might
hurt them to such an extent that they
might have to act. There are a great
many people who are afraid their
business will be injured if they take
| stand for honesty and integrity in
the proper execution of municipal
| work.
The speaker has been a student of
municipal affairs for several years,
both at first hand and thru the pub
lished works on the subject. There
are volumes written on the social
problems of the city. At almost every
election the problem of the police de-
partments in multitude of cities is
given a good airing. The closet door
is opened, the bones Of the skeleton
ratified, the old clothes aired and the
moths driven into the far corners. AS
soon as the Powers that Be" have
convinced you, "Mr. Good Citizen"
that things are pretty rotten, those
powers see that the closet doors are
as before.
In looking through the various
works on municipal subjects. I have
been impressed with the lack Of in
formation on the subject of municipal
contracts. ] am not referring now to
textbooks, describing how to draw
specifications and dealing with the le-
gal phases Of the relations Of the city,
the engineer and the contractor. ! re-
fer to the lack of anything describing
the difficulties that arise between the
engineer, his organization and the
contractor in the execution of public
work. That there are such difficult
ties none Of you will deny. You have
heard that such difficulties exist in
Winnipeg, Chicago, New York. New
York state and even in your own city
of Fargo. 1t is true that if you had
nothing else to do you could go to
Washington and pore through the
archives of the court of claims, where
difficulties that arise between govern
ment engineers and contractors are
heard and settled. But outside this
source and few things that are pub
lished Low and then in engineering
papers, little is said on the subject,
and there is no treatise written in
a popular style that any one might
read. This is due no doubt, to a
number of factors. Some of them
are that engineers are generally too
busy settling difficulties to write or
tell about them, and if such matter
is not made public by engineers it will
not become known. for no one else
knows or can know, the intimate de-
tails as he does. He. it might be
said, generally refrains from airing his
troubles, because of the so-called
bread and butter line. An engineer
must have position in order to make
use of the professional knowledge
that he has acquired and also to make
a living and take at least some part
in affairs. Few engineers become ev-
en- Well-to-do, because Of the large
cost Of preparation for and mainten-
ance of their professional standing
and the small salaries paid. They al
so must, or think they must, cater to |
the good will of the contractors, in |
order that their future may be assur- |
red. Politics also prevents, to a great |
extent, any publicity on this subject.
1T is for these reasons that I |
am going to call your attention to |
some phases of the municipal prob |
lens that you cannot read about in
books on civic reform, and that YOU
will generally hear discussed, if at all, |
by those whose whole interest is di-
rectly opposite to those of the city, |
and always in a manner to blind you
to the real issues. have heard en-
gineers classed as disloyal and in
CRATES, because they, attempted to en-
force contracts. and refuse to take al
legiance with invisible government. |
to whom, pray? / have seen
engineers threatened with loss of their
positions if they did not pay money
out on contracts for work and ma
terial that never had been done, and
myself have passed through that ex-
nHsin q in
1t is true that in two cases apologies
have been Forthcoming when the ex-
element passed away and it was
clearly seen that threats would do no
good.
Shortly after the speaker became
city engineer Of this city in the spring
of 1910, he had occasion to submit to
the city council some estimates for
payment of contract work. To those
present who may not be familiar with
the term, I wish to explain that an
is a form of certificate or
voucher that the engineer submits to
the party, firm or corporation who is
to pay for the work, and which sets
forth that a certain amount of money
is due the contractor.
81 expected, following good practice
by large private corporations, that the
estimate would be carefully gone over
by some person or persons familiar
with such work. in order to make sure
that everything was regular. Such a
proceeding casts no reflection on any
one, and is simply good business.
was rather startled, when upon asking
who would check up such estimates,
was told that no one would or could
check them up, and that any money
he certified to would be paid without
any question. This was my first shock
In municipal life, but 1t was only an
Initial one for its effect has long since |