268 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



were incomplete. Eighty-two out of one 

 hundred and nine churches made returns. 

 Sixty-one churches reported an increase of 

 one hundred and twenty-nine members since 

 1873. The treasurer's statement showed his 

 receipts to have been 813 13s. 6d. and his ex- 

 expenditures 931 16s. 4:d. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. In January, 

 petitions were introduced into the Senate of 

 the United States and the House of Represent- 

 atives, signed by the citizens of the District of 

 Columbia, praying that an investigation into 

 the affairs of the District be ordered. The 

 chief cause of complaint was directed against 

 the action of the Board of Public Works, which 

 had entered upon an extensive system of pub- 

 lic improvements which was bringing financial 

 embarrassments upon the District, and griev- 

 ous burdens upon the inhabitants. It was fur- 

 ther alleged that the proceedings of the board 

 had been attended with irregularities and cor- 

 rupt practices. 



Congress proceeded at once to appoint a 

 joint committee, consisting of Senators Thur- 

 inan and Boutwell (the latter, in consequence 

 of illness, was succeeded by Senator Allison), 

 and Messrs. Stewart, Wilson, Hubbell, Bass, 

 Jewett, and Hamilton, of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives. The first meeting of the committee 

 was held on February llth, and on the 5th of 

 March the investigation was begun. After an 

 immense amount of testimony had been taken, 

 a report was made on the 16th of June. The 

 committee reached the following conclusion : 



Your committee are of opinion that the present 

 embarrassments of this District, and the serious 

 complications which now environ its finances and 

 affairs, are primarily chargeable to the attempt early 

 made by the authorities placed over it to inaugurate 

 a comprehensive and costly system of improvements 

 to be completed in a brief space of time, which 

 ought to have required for its completion several 

 years. 



A system of improvements, covering more than a 

 hundred miles of streets, contemplating a system of 

 sewerage and of other expenditures which were to 

 extend over almost every street and avenue in the 

 cities of Washington and Georgetown, as well as of 

 the roads in the county, and to be undertaken at a 

 single stroke, without the preliminary organization 

 of the various details of engineering work, and plats, 

 plans, and estimates, in a community situated as was 

 this at the time, could not well be otherwise than 

 pernicious. It made but little difference in some re- 

 spects what plan of letting contracts was adopted ; 

 any plan under these circumstances would have been 

 found defective. And in contemplation of the fact 

 that, when the Board of Public Works entered upon 

 the execution of this plan. of improvements which, 

 as it was originally designed, involved the expendi- 

 ture of not less than $6,000,000, it, from one cause^or 

 another, so changed and enlarged the plan as to in- 

 volve an expenditure of $18,000,000 instead, it is not 

 surprising that we find that the difficulties and em- 

 barrassments which might be expected to attend the 

 lesser scheme were proportionately increased ; and 

 while your committee join in the. general expression 

 of gratification at beholding the improved condition 

 of 'the national capital, the embellishments and 

 adornments everywhere visible, they cannot but 

 condemn the methods by which this sudden and 

 rapid transition was secured. 



Taking into consideration the expense involved in 

 the comprehensive plan before referred to, arid en- 

 larged as stated, your committee are or opinion that 

 the board adopted an erroneous and, in its results, 

 a vicious method of letting contracts for this work, 

 viz., without competition open to the public; and 

 that the method adopted by the board resulted in 

 the payment of an increased price over and above 

 what would have been paid if open, fair, and free 

 competition had been invited. 



After the passage of the loan act of $4,.000,000. the 

 Board of Public Works invited proposals ancT bids 

 for work to be done in pursuance of said plan, and 

 on the 1st of September opened all these various 

 bids, giving notice afterward to the bidders that 

 none of the bids would be accepted, out that the 

 board would fix a scale of prices for the various class- 

 es of work, arid let contracts at their discretion, upon 

 this scale of fixed prices. This opened the way for 

 favoritism in the letting of contracts, and for a sys- 

 tem of brokerage in contracts which was demoraliz- 

 ing in its results, bringing into the list of contract- 

 ors a class of people unaccustomed to perform the 

 work requiredj and enabling legitimate contractors 

 to pay large prices in order to secure contracts, and, 

 in the opinion of your committee, was the beginning 

 of nearly all the irregularities disclosed in the testi- 

 mony in the letting of contracts. Any system which 

 would enable an adventurer to come from a distant 

 city, and, in the name of a contracting firm, make 

 proffers of fifty cents per yard to any person having, 

 or supposed to have, influence with the board, where- 

 by a paving contract could be secured, and, after per- 

 sistent effort, succeed in securing a contract, and 

 actually binding his principals, the contractors, to 

 pay $97,000 for a contract of 200,000 yards of pave- 

 ment, after an effort of five months to secure it, the 

 gross amount to be received being only about $tOO,- 

 000, in its nature must be vicious, and ought to be 

 condemned. 



The committee called attention to discrep- 

 ancies in the measurements for work done as 

 made by an engineer appointed by the com- 

 mittee contrasted with those certified to by 

 the board, and criticised the absolute power 

 vested in the vice-president, Shepherd, and 

 also the reckless manner in which the func- 

 tions of treasurer and auditor had been per- 

 formed. The committee " unanimously arrived 

 at the conclusion that the existing form of 

 government of the District is a failure ; that 

 it is too cumbrous and too expensive ; that the 

 powers and relations of its several departments 

 are so ill- defined that limitations intended by 

 Congress to apply to the whole government 

 are construed to limit but one of its depart- 

 ments ; that it is wanting in sufficient safe- 

 guard against maladministration and the crea- 

 tion of indebtedness ; that the system of taxa- 

 tion it allows opens a door to great inequality 

 and injustice, and is wholly insufficient to se- 

 cure the prompt collection of taxes ; and that 

 no remedy short of its abolition and the sub- 

 stitution of a simpler, more restricted and 

 economical government will suffice." 



As the session of Congress was near its close, 

 the committee recommended the appointment 

 of a commission to manage the affairs of the 

 District under limited and restrained powers ; 

 and that a committee should be appointed to 

 devise a new frame of government to be sub- 

 mitted to Congress at its next session. 

 In accordance with this recommendation, a 



