City Hall Under Siege for Corruption

Charges looking to the impeachment of Cochran and Wolfe, Democratic members of the board of public works, have been preferred by J. S. Kloeber, president of the house of delegates, and Mayor Ronald will now be called upon to pass officially upon the conduct of his appointees. That the conduct of the department of public works has been such as to warrant the removal of the commissioners is apparent to any competent and unprejudiced observer. The department has been made, so far as possible, a political machine. Its management has practically been handed over by the Democratic members of the board to a knot of irresponsible schemers, who have used it to further their own ends. Incompetent men have been employed in responsible positions, and the city's interests have been most shamefully sacrificed in order that the wreckers might intrench themselves in power. Of course the city has suffered by this. The money raised by the sale of bonds for the purpose of constructing sewers is being most shamefully wasted. The sewers are being constructed, but incompetence, mismanagement and political favoritism are accomplishing their work and the city will find in the end that it has secured its sewers at a most exorbitant figure.