National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-06
DISTRICT INVESTIGATION.
lContin,led from seeond paqe. ]

1
loss, and made me very Indifferent about going
on with the thing at all. The fact is, prices
straight through were oolow for any first-clsss
manufacturer to live by; the Board Of Public
Works could not buy those goods, as regular
4 thing, in the market at those prices. Our coal,
wages, and clay would not allow us to sell them
i and make q proft-not by q long shot. The
Board of Public Works came into the market ct
q very favorable time for them. There were
seventy or eighty houses In the United States
turning out large lots OF goods, and trade was
| very dull, and we were very eager to sell so as
/ to get money to pay men. That Is about the
secret of it, started the low prices, and the
Western men, In order to get a share In the
matter, went trife under me; but none OF US
were very particular; none of us would have
died of grief If they had cut of our contract at
anv time; we considered them very low prices,
indeed.
BY Mr.. Wilson: Q. What time did Mr.. Wall
come into your EMPLOY A. cannot tell you
| the exact date. 1t was three or four or FIVE
months after he was out of tho employ of the
Board of Public Works.
Q. Can you give US the year and the time of
the yeari A. think 1t was in January, 1873.
Q. That he went into your EMPLOY A. Yes,
| sir.
Q. In what way was he in your employ A.
he was my travelling agent and salesman.
| @. Did he make any sales to the Board of
Public Works for youl A. think there was a
sale made in 1873; this last shipment that am
speaking of here-one Or Two of the last ship
ments.
Q. What was the extent of that salei A.
Seven or twelve thousand dollars; don't know
which. Some small amount.
| z. Did you pay him a percentage on the
salesi A. No; paid him salary and travel
ing expenses.
BY Mr.. Stanton: Q. You speak of deducI
tions having been made by the Board of Public
/ .WNrl-. what thay fnr2 A
were very strict in their inspection of the pipe,
and any pipe that had the slightest defect was
thrown out without mercy. The same pipes
engineers in the North would readily put under
the ground was refused by these engineers and
inspectors here, and they left them on our
hands; sometimes as much as $500 or 81 900
taken of of settlement for pipes rejected.
By Mr.. Wilson: Q. Were not, afterwa-i,
pipes which had been rejected, taken by the
boafd' A. Not that know of. Quite num-
Der remain on our hands yet.
By Mr.. Stanton: Q. Will you look at this
list and find the prices and kind ofpipe Indie ated
in this price-list of Linck q Blackl A. For the
12-inch pipe, that is down in this printed testi-
mouy of Mr.. Evans at So cents foot; our
card-price is so cents. TIE 15-inch pipe in the
printed testimony at 80 cents a fool, In our
card-price is ST. a foot; the 1S-inch pipe in
the printed testimony S1.15, is in our card
price 81 GO; the 12-inch bend, in the printed
bCS db on CCIlS per lOOb, ID 1910 piece
in the card- price. The 12-inch double rs, at
so cents per foot, would rate, one size of them,
about S2.75 foot. The 15-inch bend, at 81 10
per foot, card prce is S. foot. The f5-inch
double rs, at Sl.10 per foot, part of them
would be somewhere about So or something
over foot. The 1S-inch bend, at 90 per
foot, card-price is 81 so per foot. The 1S-inch
rs, at 50 per foot, one size of them is s.
foot. The 1S-inch double Us, So foot,
rate at the card price something over 81
foot, should judge.
By Mr.. Christy: Q. Did You have contract
with the Board of Public Worksl A. Well,
we had a contract in a way. We did not have
q definite written formal contract. We pro-
posed to furnish them goods at certain price.
Q. Was that proposal In writinga A. 1t was,
| sir.
Q. Filed with the Board of Public Works2
A. cannot answer personally. 1 am not per-
sonally cognizant of that fact, whether 1t was
filed; but 10 was in writing, and the Board of
| Public Works would rot accept our figures, but
cut them down very much, and we said we
could furnish at that price If we chose.
Z BY Mr.. Stanton: Q. That is at the reduced
price! A. Yes, sir; they cut down our figures
very much, even more than supposed. Then
they gave us permission to furnish goods at
their rates. 1t was 50 low that / could not
bind myself to furnish in any amount, and
suppose the tacit understanding was that I
should furnish what I chose under those
prices.
BY Mr.. Christy: Q. Then the board finally,
refusing to make the contract at the price that
you indicated, did determine to accept, pro-
vided you would furnish at another prize ild
Gated by thcmP Yes, sir.
| Q. Was that resolution of the board, or de-
termination of the board, transmitted to you
in writing' A. 1 think 1t was. It was the GER
| titled copy of that portion of the minutes of the
board that considered made the contract. I
did not ask for anything more definite or
formal, because, at those tremendous low
prices, did not want to be bound to furnish
any given quantity; so Just took the matter
as 1t was. They furnished US a certified copy
of the minutes.
| @. And it was under that that you furnished
so much pipe as you did furnishi A. Yes,
| sir.
Q. And no other contract A. And DO other
contract.
dspensation from your association to furnish
to the Board of Public Works Of the city of
Washington certain piper A. Yes, sir.
| Q. Was that the rates that they subsequently,
agreed to receive your pipe for, or the rates
that you first proposed to furnish for7 A. The
association, in giving oil of the different mem
bers the right to sell to the Board of Public
Works, did not fix any rates, but gave them
permission to do as they pleased, or, as It was
rated, their right to 90 to the devil in their
| own way.
Q. This also included the firm of which you
complaIned-Linck & Blackl A. Yes, but this
was 1872, not 1S71-the year they were alleged
to have made this offer.
Q. This contract was in January, 1921 4.
| Yes, sir.
| @. Then your first purpose was TO eIcluds
| from this market foreign pipe; that induced
| you to offer at these low ratesi A. oh, yes
| no, sir; there you are wrong. II was not alto
| gether the motive. .
Q. That was one of the motives. A. We
had our pipes to sell. The manufacturers, at
the end OF the first year of the association,
complained that trade had been dull and their
stocks had ruin up on their hands, This bind.
ing of prices had kept them thsrS They then
alluded to the fact that there Sssa large con-
tract in the Washington market which, unless
prices were unloosened, the importers Of foreign
| pipe would certainly take out Of their mouths;
and the want Of money and the desire to beat
the importers of foreign pipe, caused the asso-
ciatiop to grant the members the right to do
as th6y pleased down here.
Q. So those were the motives operating upon
your mind in January, lS72l A. About those
motives; yes, sir.
o. Then you continued to furnish pipe at
those rates until July, 1881 A. Yes; of and
| on.
Q. With a contract as you understood IT, that
did not bind you excepting at your own Volt
tioni A. Yes; just so.
@. DID all these three causes that combined
to induce you to make this offer, continue until
July, 1872 A. No, sir; 1t was like an inter-
mittent fever-sometimes 1t was, and some
times It was not.
Q. Then why was IL that you furnished at
such times as this intermittent fever was upon
youl A. Well, whenever we got heavy stock
of goods on hand and got very low in pocket,
we would come down here and replenish
| little.
Q. So I understand you to say that these
rates at which you furnished these pipes were
really Improbable to your A. Yes, sir; de-
cidedly so.
Q. And yet you continued, after the causes
had been interrupted or entirely suspended, to
furnish until July, 1871 A. No, SIR; did not
continue when the causes were not In force.
As long ss the low pocket and high state of
the stock was in force we would continue to
sell here.
Q. Do you mean now that when you found
that you had market elsewhere that you then
refused to furnish them materiall A. Well,
We did not refuse to, but we became very in
different about it.
Q. You neglected. A. Well, we did not
neglect; we were not bound to deliver any
,ttkr A. kNI1 4 49,