Highway Debacle

Before a jury of seven men and five women in Harrisburg, Pa., Special Deputy Attorney General Vincent G. Panati produced a classic capsule example of how much personal prosperity can be skimmed off state highway construction, the nation's booming, graft-prone major public-works project. Witnesses testified that two top members of the Republican-run Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had teamed up with Manu-Mine Research & Development Co. (initial capitalization: $4,300) in a plan to defraud the commission of turnpike construction funds. With then-Turnpike Commission Chairman Thomas J. Evans' nephew, Charles Stickler, as president, Manu-Mine had cozily acted as the commission's consultant, contractor (without competitive bidding) and official inspector of its own work, received an "exorbitant" $7,000,000 (of the total $19.5 million in contracts) for drilling useless holes to fill abandoned coal mines with sand and gravel along the turnpike's right of way. Prosperous little Manu-Mine's big profit: over $3,500,000.

Last week, after 42 days' trial, the boodlers got billed. Boss Boodler Evans, 73, and his fellow commissioner, former G.O.P. State Chairman James Torrance, were found guilty of misconduct in office and conspiracy (probable prison sentence: two years). Manu-Mine President Stickler and his No. 2 man face five-year prison terms, $5,000 fines.

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