"MARBLE" COLUMNS MADE OF WOOD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13594, 14 May 1908, Page 7

"MARBLE" COLUMNS MADE OF WOOD.

The trial of the architect and contractor and a number of other persons occupying prominent positions in Pennsylvania, who were arrested in September la.it on a charge of having wrongfully obtained large Minis from the State in connection with the building and furnishing of the Sstate capitol. concluded at Philadelphia recently. All the accused were found guilty. Ihe conviction of Architect Joseph M. Huteon, of Philadelphia, with many others, puts the «val on the most sensational exposure of corruption in public life for many a. dayIn their new capitol Pennsylvania folk thought thev had a building to rank with the wonders of the world. It was claimed that at last a public building had been erected without "graft," which is American for illicit commission. But a commission «f enquiry proved that:—lnstead of marble for pillars in tho House of Representatives wood was used. The bases of columns specified to be of marble, were only 'Mycenian marble," a cheap plaster composition. Over each entrance of the House is a balcony, supported bv four pillare. These, according to the specifications, were to be real marble. Instead, however, they were- made of wood and painted white, iluch of the statuary wa.s purely plaster work, yet, odrllv Enough, where plastering was provided for in the original plans, and paid for. it was taken off. and expensive marble substituted.

Besides Hk- structural stampings, it was that an enormous number of electroliers and quite unnecessary fittings were introduced for the purple of swelling certain contracts. State Treasurer \V. H. Berry declared that there had been an overcharge of from two to four million dollars al«,ne in the expenditure for decorating the new capitol. The Ungth of the capitol h 525 ft. its breadth 254 ft. and the height to the dome 292 ft. Altogether. it covers 86.275 spuare feet. The limit, of cost, for the. building was originally fixed by legislation at four million dollars, but" this was nearly tripled

before the shell was completed. A mini of nine million dollars was then apprpnated f„r ••triiiiining"-"' Another curious pha.se i.s that damages to the <*tent. of something lik* live million dollars are claimed by cm-tain firms in respect, of cancelled contrad*.