Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-19

A suspicious Deal Ina school Desks

A Suspicious Deal Ina school Desks.
In no department Of the city govern.
ment are the people more anxious to see
economy and good business tact exer-
cised than in that which controls our
public schools They have just voted,
with great unanimity, to incur debt of
100000 for the purpose of erecting
twelve new school houses 30 as to &C.
commodate all our school children, and
to give them full instead OF half-time at
tendance. The incidental expenses OF
furnishing these new buildings with
desks and other necessary supplies will
be very great, and unless the Board OF
Education is shrewd in making its bar
gains, there will be extravaganza andwaste
of money on every hand. We adverted
yesterday to the fact that the represent
alive of one of the firms that have just
put in bids to supply the department
with desks, etc., had made statements
before the Board when questioned about
his bid that aroused suspicion. He was
asked why his bid was 80 much higher
than last year, when the contract was
awarded to his house, and he answered
that it was on account of the higher rate
Of freight. When, however, he was
confronted with the fact that the Board
had paid the freight, he was nonplussed
and tried to recover himself by alleging
that the goods he was offering
this year were superior in quality
to those sold last, and then
went on to explain that the last years
desks were going to pieces. This was a
very curious development, in view of the
fact that the firm in question was under
stood to guarantee their desks to last ten
years with good care and usage.
We have taken the pains to look pretty
closely into this subject OF bids for desks,
and we find that the Board of Education
will make very serious mistake if they
accept the report of the committee and
make the award as recommended. The
bid is az follows-and we may here say
that there was but a very slight
difference between the prices put in by
any of the bidders: For Nos. l, X, 2
and 21a desks, $3.50 each set; for 8,
81, and AZ, $500 each; for 5, SD, 6
and 6b, 1915 each. These are the bids
for the Triumph" desks delivered free on
board at the factory. The city would be
required to pay the freight besides, and
that would add 70 cents each to the $4.3O
class, or total cost to the city of $5.0e
each; to the 81 90 class, 62 cents, total
of $4.62 each; and 49, cents to the So. rs
class, total of $4.23T each.
Now, are these fair prices, or are they
not? The result of our research shows
that they are very far from it. Thsae
same desks can be bought in San Fran
cisco in lots of fifty sets as follows: Nos
1 and 2, at 1886 each; Nos. and A, at
1896 each; Nos. and 6, at So so each
and delivered here in carloads at SIS per
car carrying $4,000 pounds. 1t will here
be seen that the Board of Education
would be egregiously imposed upon and
the peoples money unnecessarily wasted
if the bid should be accepted.
The cost of No. etc. desks in Chicago,
according to the trade scale of prices, is
$l.90 each; freight added, 70 cents
total, $2.68, against $5 0S each, as per
bid. Excess per desk, $2.40. Nos.
and A, $1.75-add 62 cents for freight,
total $2.37, against $4.62 as per bid ex-
cess per desk, 1925; and Nos. 5 and 6,
$1.50-add 4S1S cents freight, total,
$685., against 1923 cost as per bid
excess per desk, 81 241s. The average OF
excess of cost as per bid over the trade
price in Chicago, with freight added, is
$22925 per desk. As the Board will
have at least eixty class rooms to fur
nish with fifty desks each, within the
year for which the bid is made, there
will be three thousand desks required
under the contract, 80 that in this one
item alone the city would be sweated out
of 1890 more than she ought to pay. This
is nice little plum of itself, and we call
the attention Of the Board of Education
to it for the purpose of showing that
body that the city will be badly feeced
if this little job is permitted to be carried
out.
The bids should be rejected.