A Sewer Scheme Built on Incompetence

Leaving out of consideration for the time the graver charges which are made in connection with the work now in progress on the sewers, it must be admitted by any unprejudiced observer that it is marked by a most reckless waste of public funds, due to extravagance, lack of system and the employment of inexperienced men whose only recommendation is their ability to work primaries or control conventions. Any taxpayer can satisfy himself by a tour of observation in the streets in which work is in progress of the reckless and extravagant manner in which the city's money is being expended. Front and Commercial streets afford an instance to the point. These streets are torn up from the Oregon Improvement coal bunkers to Union street, a distance of more than a mile. All of this enormous trench must be sided with heavy timbers, and although this siding is poorly done, new and heavy timbers have been used, when old street planking might have served the purpose as well. The manner in which the men are handled is equally eloquent of extravagance and incompetence. There are foremen and overseers in plenty—too many, in fact. They are, however, with few exceptions, men totally incompetent for the work—ward heelers and politicians who are unable to handle men in a manner to secure good results.