"MARBLE" COLUMNS MADE OF WOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

"MARBLE" COLUMNS MADE OF WOOD.

ARCHITECT AND CONTUACTOR OF U.S. STATK CAPITOL C'ONVICTBD. Tin; trial of the architect, and contractor and a number of other persons occupying prominent positions in Pennsylvania, whe were, arrested in September last on a charge of having wrongfully obtained large sums from the State in connection with the building and furnishing of the State capital, concluded at Philadelphia recently. All the accused were found guilty. The conviction of Architect Joseph M'. Button, of Philadelphia, with many others, puts tho seal on the most sensational exposure of •corruption in public life for many a day. In their new capitol Pennsylvania folk thought they had a building to rank with . the wonders-of the world. It. was claimed • that at last a public building had been .. . erected without graftwhich is American « for illicit commission. ~ _ _ , ; But a commission of inquiry proved that: —Instead of marble for pillars in the House of Representatives wood was used. Tito bases of columns specified to be. of marble were only " .Mycenian marble,' a cheap plaster composition. Over each entrain v of the House i* u balcoiTy, supported ■ by four pillars. These, according to the specifications, were to he real marble. Instead. however, they were, made of wood and painted white. Much of th" statuary was purely plaster .work, yet, oddly enough, where, plastering was provided for in the original plans, arid paid for, if was ' taken off, >'ind expensive mar hie substituted. 1 ; _ ' Besides the .structural scamping*, it was shown that an enormous number of electroliers and quite' unnecessary fittings were . introduced for the ..purposes of swelling certain contracts. State Treasurer W. H. • Berry declared that there had been ail overcharge of from two t> four million dollars alone in the expenditure for decorating the new capitol. The length of the capitol is 525 ft. its breadth 25ift, and the height to the dome- 292 ft. Altogether, it covers 86,275 square feet. The limit, of cost for the building was originally fixed by legislation at four mi l ' / lion dollars, Unit this was nearly tripled before the shell was completed. A sum of nine million dollars was then appropriated for " trimmings." Another curious phase is that damages to the extent of something like five million dollars arc claimed by cartain firms in respect of cone riled contracts,