CHAPTER XXVII.

THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.*

I.

HONEST AND EFFICIENT WORK.

THE APPLICATION OF BUSINESS METHODS TO THE ERECTION OF POSTOFFICES AND COURT HOUSES UNDER EXISTING MANAGEMENT.

Among the many scandalous methods in vogue in the public service during former years few were more serious or more costly than those connected with the contracts for public buildings. Many incompetent men who permitted vicious business methods to rule had occupied the office of Supervising Architect of the Treasury. The government had thereby been subjected to great loss, and the cities which it would be supposed the public buildings would adorn from an architect point of view, were compelled to put up with structures of the most outlandish and forbidding appearance. Even these were not honestly built-many of them being constructed upon a simple basis of collusion, which if the conspiracy laws had been rigidly enforced, would have sent a good many architects, superintendents, contractors and Republican politicians to serve terms in the Albany penitentiary.

The investigations of a Democratic House had exposed these methods pretty thoroughly before the advent of the present administration into Executive control, and the most serious abuses had been corrected. Still incompetent and commonplace architects had been given charge of this most important work, and as a result serious loss in money and much in the character of the public buildings of the country resulted.

THE PROMOTION OF ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY.

Under the new management of the 'architect's office the purpose has been to so direct the operations as will result in the most economical prosecution of all work under its control, consistent with substantial and satisfactory workmanship, and to attain this end it seemed necessary that the technical work performed in this office should be curtailed; that a greater publicity should be given to the invitation for proposals and thus secure keener competition, and, that wherever practicable, the number of contracts to be awarded should be reduced to as few as possible. In July, 1887, in the case of some buildings twenty to twenty-five contracts existed, thus dupli. cating drawings, specifications, legal and clerical service, which could have been avoided had a number of the branches of work been concentrated under fewer

contracts. At different buildings throughout the country, twenty-two draftsmen were engaged, being paid on an average of five dollars ($5.00) per day. This expense was discontinued, as soon as it could be done without detriment to the Government interests, and thereafter the work in question was performed in this office, without necessitating any increase in force. This is roundly placed at one hundred dollars ($100) per day, and notwithstanding this change the number of draftsmen now employed is less, by seven, than the number employed in July, 1887.

A saving also amounting to over two hundred dollars ($200) per day was effected, at the close of the building season of 1887, by the retrenchment instituted in the contingent expense at buildings being erected at various pointe.

That the labor and consequent cost for the preparation of drawings and specifications under previous methods was largely in excess of that under the present system, must be apparent when it is known that for four buildings under the first method three hundred and eighty drawings and fifty-one specifications were prepared, while under the present method for four buildings of nearly corresponding cost only eighty-six drawings and four specifications are required. This comparison has excluded those cases where the drawings were prepared largely in excess of the average here taken, as for instance, for the Baltimore building, where four hundred and four drawings were prepared, and for the Pittsburg building two hundred and seventy-nine.

SHARPER COMPETITION AND QUICKER WORK.

To secure keener competition in submitting proposals, a wider publicity was given to invitations for tenders, and instead of publishing advertisements in a local paper and in one or two building periodicals, as formerly, the office has now the use, free of cost, of the advertising columns of eighteen building papers published in all points of the country, and this is supplemented by paid advertisements in seven other building publications, in the daily papers of some of the large cities, and in the local papers where the work is to be done. In furtherance of this end, also, the Architect's office has secured the co-operation of forty-three building exchanges located in all the principal cities, and as a result where three or four proposals were formerly received the number has increased in one case as high as forty-four.

One very important factor in the cost of public buildings has been the long time expended in prosecuting the work, and this, in many cases, has arisen from the variety of contracts entered into, each contractor being in great measure at the mercy of other contractors; but this has now been reduced to zero by making one contractor responsible for the rapid prosecution of all work and holding him liable for any expense incident to the proper superintendence of the work, subsequent to the date stipulated in the contract as the date for completion.

BUILDINGS NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

During the past year work has been commenced on seventeen buildings; ten buildings have been completed, and there are now twelve buildings in so far advanced a condition as to warrant the statement that they will be completed before the date of the next annual report in September.

The work of the architects for the past three years is shown by the following statement:

1887. Number of buildings commenced..

7

4

..13

6

..10

3

As an evidence of the advanced condition of the work in the Architect's office, it may be stated, that plans are now being prepared, as a basis for the invitations for proposals for work, before the expiration of the present session of Congress which authorized the expenditure.

II.

VETO OF PUBLIC BUILDING BILLS.

THE CARE MANIFESTED BY THE PRESIDENT WHEN DEALING WITH NEW COURT HOUSES AND POSTOFFICES IN SMALL PLACES.

For a long time the method of making appropriations for the erection of public buildings has led to many and serious abuses. Representatives from different sections, States or districts would practically club together for the purpose of putting up expensive public buildings in towns and villages where the requirements of the public business were not such as to demand or justify such an expenditure from any conceivable point of view. The appropriation of sums ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 have in some cases been made, and in many more asked, for buildings where the annual rental of offices for the transaction of the public business did not exceed $700 or $900.

THE LOG-ROLLING OF PUBLIC BUILDING BILLS.

By the judicious use of a system of log-rolling, not peculiar to the political institutions of this country, members from every district where the people of some ambitious county-seat town had sighed vainly for a postoffice building would join together in passing the first public building bill, perhaps one of merit, which could secure a favorable report from a committee. Then the promoter of this bill would feel a sense of obligation which could only be discharged by voting for every other bill in the districts of the men who had helped him. In fact, the passage of bills for erecting public buildings has very well illustrated the old ditty of Davy Crocket, in which he represents his neighbor as saying to him:

"Tickle me, Davy, tickle me true,
And in my turn I'll tickle you too."

HOW IT WAS RECOGNIZED BY THE PRESIDENT.

President Cleveland early recognized the bad results of such a policy, and with his usual courage he vetoed a number of the bills passed at the first session of the forty-ninth Congress. He laid down the general principles as a guide in his work that expensive buildings ought not to be erected in small towns where the Government had no business except a postoffice; that appropriations ought not to be made for this purpose where the interest on the money was greatly in excess of the annual rental already paid for good accommodations, and that it was scarcely good policy for the Federal Government to undertake the work of putting up a building to be a decoration to a given town unless the demands of the public business were such as to justify it.

He also found that in many cases bills would be passed fixing a limit, to which it was never intended to adhere, and that as the result the year after the first bill has passed a new one would be enacted into law which increased the limit of cost and thus led the Government to make an investment of a sum of money larger out of all proportion than the demands of the public business could reasonably justify.

Applying this general principle to the actual conditions as shown in the towns affected by the bills sent him by Congress, he had, before the close of the fiscal year 1887-8, vetoed fourteen bills making appropriations for public buildings in various sections of the country, North and South, East and West.

MONEY NOT TO BE SPENT FOR UNNECESSARY ORNAMENT.

In one of the first of these veto messages he said:

So far as I am informed the patrons of the postoffice are fairly well accommodated in a building which is rented by the Government at the rate of eight hundred dollars per annum; and though the postmaster naturally certifies that he and his fourteen employes require much more spacious surroundings, I have no doubt he and they can be induced to continue to serve the Government in its present quarters.

The public buildings now in process of construction, numbering eighty, involving constant supervision, are all the building projects which the Government ought to have on hand at one time, unless a very palpable necessity exists for an increase in the number. The multiplication of these structures involves not only the appropriations made for their completion, but great expense in their care and preservation thereafter.

While a fine Government building is a desirable ornament to any town or city, and while the securing of an appropriation therefor is often considered as an illustration of zeal and activity in the interest of a constituency, I am of the opinion that the expenditure of public money for such a purpose should depend upon the necessity of such a building for public uses.

PAYING TOO DEAR FOR THE WHISTLE.

In another he laid down the rule in the case of an appropriation made for a place in Ohio of no considerable importance:

It is not claimed that the Government has any public department or business which it should quarter at Dayton except its post-office and internal-revenue office. The former is represented as employing ten clerks, sixteen regular and two substitute letter carriers, and two special-delivery employes, who, I suppose, are boys, only occasionally in actual service. I do not understand that the present post-office quarters are either insufficient or inconvenient. By a statement prepared by the present postmaster it appears that they are rented by the Government for a period of ten years from the fifteenth day of October, 1888, at an annual rent of twenty-nine hundred and fifty dollars, which includes the cost of heating the same.

With only these two offices to provide for, I am not satisfied that the expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for their accommodation, as proposed by this bill, is in accordance with sound business principles, or consistent with that economy in public affairs which has been promised to the people.

LOOKING TEN YEARS INTO THE FUTURE.

Concerning another in Massachusetts he says with a grim humor characteristic of the man :

Congressional action in its favor appears to be based, as usual in such cases, upon representations concerning the population of the town in which it is proposed to erect the building and the increase in such population, the number of railroad trains arriving and departing daily, and various other items calculated to demonstrate the importance of the city selected for Federal decoration. These statements are supplemented by a report from the postmaster, setting forth that his postal receipts are increasing, giving the number of square feet now occupied by his office, the amount of rent paid, and the number of his employes.

This bill, unlike others of its class which seek to provide a place for a number of Federal offices, simply authorizes the construction of a building for the accommodation of the postoffice alone. The report of the postmaster differs also in this case from those which are usually furnished, inasmuch as it is ther in distinctly stated that the space now furnished for his office is sufficient for its present operations. He adds, however, that from present indications there will be a large increase in the business of the office during the next ten years.

It is quite apparent that there is no necessity for the expenditure of one hundred thousand dollars, the amount limited in this bill, or any other sum, for the construction of the proposed building to meet the wants of the Government.

AN ATTACK UPON THE GOOD FAITH OF THE GOVERNMENT.

In another he reveals some of the methods resorted to in the localities to be affected, by saying:

It is not claimed that the Federal business at this point requires other accommodation except for the postoffice located there.

As usual in such cases, the postmaster reports, in reply to inquiries, that his present quarters are inadequate, and, as usual, it appears that the postal business is increasing. The rent paid for the rooms or building in which the postoffice is kept is eleven hundred dollars per annum..

I have been informed since this bill has been in my hands that last spring a building was erected at Lafayette with special reference to its use for the postoffice, and that a part of it was leased by the Government for that purpose for the term of five years. Upon the faith of such lease the premises thus rented were fitted up and furnished by the owner of the building in a manner especially adapted to postal uses, and an account of such fitting up and furnishing is before me, showing the expense of the same to have been more than twenty-five hundred dollars.

In view of such new and recent arrangements made by the Government for the transaction of its postal business at this place, it seems that the proposed expenditure for the erection of a building for that purpose is hardly necessary or justifiable.

ANOTHER CASE OF TOO GREAT COST.

He elaborates the same idea more fully in another case:

The usual statement is made in support of this bill setting forth the growth of the city where it is proposed to locate the building and the amount and variety of the business which is there transacted. And the postmaster in stereotyped phrase represents the desirability of increased accommodation for the transaction of the business under his charge.

But I am thoroughly convinced that there is no present necessity for the expenditure of one hundred thousand dollars for any purpose connected with the public business at this place.