, 1874-07-01
His Conversation with Senator Logan
About That Elevator.
NIr. William L. Halo Gives a Full AC-
count of tho Whole Trans
action.
How Con. Butler Was Snubbed by The
Architect.
Action Of Secretary Brlstow.

1feh8Hry Du1tllnH at washington. las boon tho
subject Of much comment and nttontion, togotll-
or with not little exaggoratIou. Tho story
grow with repetition, until at longth tho chront-
clers had tho Senator and Architect engaged In
regular knock-down fight. The truth was, it did
not quite reach this degroc, owing to the fact
that QUO Of tho rartics WAS able to keep his tom
per. 1uaBmuca as
THE EXACT FAcTs
In rotation to this notable rumpus had not yet
appeared IL print, TRIBUNE reporter yesterday
wattod upon Mr.. William Z. Hale. Of this city,
IN whoae bchalf or upon whose account the
trouble arose, and who was proaont during tho
warm consultation, and from him loarued some
interesting particulars. -,
Previous to entoring upon recital Of tho Lo-
gan~Alnlott nnplcasantnosB, Mr. Hale. o.who is tho
senior partner iu tho firm of William T. Halo Il
Co., manufacturers of tho water-ba!anco oleya-
tor, briefly skulcllcd
TIE CIRCUMSTANCES PRECEDING
and leading to Tho ncellrionco in question, Wo
give tho statement In Ills Owl, worda
Nlr. 1Ialo-Our firm desired to present bid
for supplying tho elevators iu the Now York Post
Office, according to tho advertisement for pro-
poBnls published by tho Supervising Architect
Of the Treasury Department. Accordingly, wo
applied to bIr. a1ullott for specifications 30
drawn that our peculiar make of elevator might
not bo excluded from the competition. Ho az
suael ,s that Ito would bo vcrr glad to laxvo us
rus IN bid, and also ssntad that the contract
would DO awarded to tho lowest bidder, without
reference to tho merits of tho artiele s,1p-
piled. I excepted to this, urging that tho
question Of MORT ought to be considered, but ho
ngaip declared that tho contract sllould 70 to tho
lowest bidder When tho specifications lnd
boon prepared, 1t became evident to mo that
prepared them wi.h Wow to
Of Naw York, who had introduced Ri elevator Of
peculiar colihtruction-o operated by the pres
sure Of water bonoath tho cur. BY Alnliet'a YER
sion Of the specifications, i'll ono elso could bid
oil othor elevators wera shut out but, accord,
ing to one construction of tho specifications, our
elevator could he used. On that Understandings
we putin bid. aud on tho lat Of jun tho bids
we're opened. For tho combined stairs and ole
yator, thoro was o bid from a person aaid to 10
aud whose bid AIullet sud lie
flgnreB woso tho lowest,-S62. .Dl953; H. z.
Hale l. Co., &55, ,41!.40; mud Davidson &
Marsh, 387,sl9.s4. There wore some other bids,
but all were higher than tl,ose, ieaying, as /
snppoBcd, tho contest between our firm md
Davidson j. Marsh.
h fow days latcr, I went to Washington and
saw Muictt, who told MO chr bid WA tic lowest
to DO considered. and Davidson t. Alaysil's tho
noxt lowest aud that it lay betweon the two
firms. tllen offered to show him some letters
from prominent gentlemen In Chicago WHO had
nsc1 our olovhtor. md testified to itH merits
but he dccltlied 10 renu thons. saying TINT ho wna
entre!, satisfied with tho operation Of our
aleyntor nliS also ms to lilo tcsponsib!litr Of our
firm. Tho objection was ralscd At this conyernn-
ton thnt
TIE RorEs USED
In operating our elevator obntructcd the view ct
tie stairoase more than the piston used by
strnct the view TO much. and tinnlly agreed to
arrange tt so that there slonld DO no obstruction
at all. Mltllctt acknowledged that he hid never
eeen tho Davldson ELEVATOR, and nude Id ap-
ono there in operation. NY brother, q. W.
Halo, ln"t him in Nav York, and wont with him
to the Brooklyn Euvy-Yar,l. where a Davidson
ELEVATOR WAS i'll operation. They drove
te Havvyon II darrsga a .f,ot. Ha went aDot
elevator, hasty. casual inspection. without
looking into itB real morris or do,nerits at all.
lto did however, notice tlat the water-tube was
supported BY lateral arms, md when hls atten-
tion WAS oalled to the obstruction these arms
he ut first nafd they woro unnccea. -
sary, and whom the engineer told lin tho arms
wero necessary 10 Keep tho wates-tnba from
bnck!lng Under the pressure, 1iulett got around
this by Rnytug that the arms could be made "or-
narnental." Please remember that iltB only OBJ
lection to our elevator was on account Of whut
ho called it's " obstruction of the ytewn
Reporter-MulIett was evidently projudiced
against your elevator.
Alr. Hals-From this time saw plainly that
he was aotermincd to award tho contracts to
Davidson anyhow, and then
.EaAN TO TAKE BTEps
to obtain my rights, if 1t woro posHblo should
meutlon lore TINT l Ind previously told Mn lett
TINT We Ind the contract to put III q Passenger
elevator in The now Western Union Ieiegraph
building Then in course of erection in Now York,
but the building waB not rondy, md the elevator
was not yet III operation. Tho next interview
with Mullett, after the trip to New York, was
lad BY my brother, who wont to hiB otlco In
Washington, ~ company with Con. Butler who
wont with my brother to llolp him If ho could.
Reportor-Dld tho preBenco Of the Massacllu-
sottB statesman have tho dosirel ofroct2
Mr. llale-Well, Mot exactly. No soouor was
tho subject Of elevators broachrd than Mullott
began
TInApr or ABUSE,
interspersed with oatlls. Ho said la
had boen Informed that we Ind no contract 10
put in an elevator for tho Western Union Tele-
graph building III New York, mud then he Bwors
and cursed foarfully, calling us a pack OF liars |
md scoundrols. Gen. Butler got diBguBtol and |
loft, and my brotior accomplished nothing.
HaportoE-you munt haYe thought MuLIett a |
Bcay customer by this tiulo !?
Mr. Hnle-1 made up my mind that could do |
nothing towards getting my rights nnless I was |
backed up by some INFLUENCE. Therefore
ASKED SENATOR LOGAN
Damo ACROSS MnElett in QUO OF tho corridors OF |
tue Treasury Building, and when tho senutor
aHkol hun what he proposed to do about Tue |
award Of the elevator contract, liz flew into a |
terrible rage, pouring out vol1ey Of oasla and !
abusc I1o charged agatn that VIC had lied aIout
the contract for tue Telegraph Building iu.New |
York, aal Hwore We had no nilc!. nontraos.
Rerorser-IlsB WIS growing aomowlat nonos-
nuuus, l ahulll nny.
Dir. Hg!o-I thonght it lad gone far enough.
Anticipating something Of tho sort, l had talon
Illo precautun to ny
THE IDENTICAL CONTRACT
with me. haa it III my pocket. aud told him |
80, at tue Ha1se tinso telling him I had l,carl
enough about 1t, and proposed to mako him
lake lack what lle had said about liuys mud |
scounarols. told him the matter had not beon |
to him Ut all, but, oil tho con-
Frary, the New York elevator was nearly COM
plotod. askod Inn to satisfy himself by read
ng tho contract. but this he utterly declined to
10. Ie kept OIL with lms ouralng and htB nbuAe,
lntil Senator Logan got ypry ,nucl. liaguBtod,
anl sharply demonstrated against such language,
SAYING tAat ha would not submit to 1t from any- |
1ody.
Reporter What o1ect did t4iH Aago upon tho
IGrouious aruhb boet?