The Waterworks Cashier Scandal
A new administration’s nepotism costs the city hundreds in water bill blunders.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The reform Democratic administration in the water department has, in its first month, cost a dead loss to the city of little less than $700. The first act of Wilson, the new superintendent, after he got into office, was to discharge the competent cashier who had been with the company, and who, although without a particle of political influence, had been retained by the Republican administration solely on account of his integrity and capacity. Wilson at once put his son in as cashier, saying that as he was responsible he should have as cashier somebody he knew he could depend upon. Nobody questions young Wilson's honesty or even his capacity, but there is nevertheless a dead loss to the city for the first month of about $700. An examination of the accounts of people who use water for elevators shows that they have been blunderingly undercharged because the staff charged by the lineal foot only and not by the cubic foot.
“The blunder is the result of profound ignorance of the business. It needed no occult power to discover this because it is an elementary truth.”
Municipal hiring practices and oversight of public utilities remain a point of friction in Seattle, where the question of whether a public department is run for the public good or for political patronage never quite goes away.
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