Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-09
HOW IT WAS DONE.
The Breaking of the Contract for
Stone Work.
Architect ID. y. Schureman's Good
WOIk..-Interesting Recital OF the
Fac Is I'm the Case.

| The ARGUS has on numerous occasions
Spoken of the successful efforts of D. s.
Schureman, the architect, of this city, in
having the contract between the govern.
ment and the Malone Stone company for
| rock for the water power dam set aside,
because of the worthless character of the
stone used by that company; in fact Mr..
s. knew by experience, and the benefit OF
which he gave Rock Island. The ARGUS
has endeavored several times within the
past three months to get Mr.. 8. to relate
how lie succeeded in his undertaking. but
he has never found time. A reporter
caught him with few moments to spare
asst evening and went for him again.
II am pretty busy this evening"" said
Mr.. Schuremsn; Il wish you could put
this off for day or two or indefinitely"
"Well, Mr. Schureman," said the re-
porter there have been a number of
| accour is aud all differ, and would like
to get it from you direct some even claim
that you are personally interested in some
stone quarry"
mo, young man, l am sorry to state
that the nearest that l ever came to hav-
ing any interest in any quarry was when
Bailey Davenport offered to lease me his
prospective quarry at Black Hawk at
more per cubic yard than l could get for
the stone after had paid for equlpping
the quarry and getting out the stone.
Well. to cut long story short, here is a
copy OF the papers that filed with Gen.
Benet. chief of ordnance at Wsshington n;
and / was led into it this way. At one of
my visits here In line of my business as
an architect. visited the Business asso-
citation meeting, and there learned that
the con tract for furnishing the stone for
the dam had been let to the Cleveland
Stone Co. for Berea stone. l thought
it was funny that we had not heard of
the matter in our part of the country, and
that it should be restricted to sandstone;
and that such vast amount should be
demanded per month; so on my return
home to Cincinnati l made inquiries of
the Hoosier Stone Co. and the Otway
Stone Co., who make headquarters in
that city, and they said it was news to
them. The Otway people said that
stone broker of Chicago had asked for an
option Of a quantity of stone that would
correspond with the description gave;
and that they had made bargain for So
per cubic yard on the cars at the quarry:
then went to the general freight agent
of the Ohio & Northwestern railroad and
asked him what the freight would be to
! the arse nal island; he said So per yard ;
! and he further said that he had been in
communication with some parties from
Chicago about the same matter. / was
back at Moline again in few days and
my opir ion was asked about the quality
of stone that the government was using
for the dam. by member of the Water
Power Co. told him l understood that
it was let to the Cleveland Co. and that
they were going to use Berea stone. II
this was the case thought it was an
error, especially for this kind of work.
He further asked me if / had any objec>
tions Of going over to the island with
other members of the company and see
what had been done in the matter; upon
our arrival, Major McGinnis kindly
| showed US the tests and prices, also sam
piles of the stone. / then found that the
Cleveland company did not have the con-
| tract, but Malone, of Cleveland; and. that
the samples they had given in for tests
did not represent their qusrries, but were
much superior to what they could pro-
duce; rold the ma jor that was familiar
with all kinds of Ohio stone and the ca
pacity o. their Qdarries, and when he
showed The price it had been let at, i'm
media,ely told him that it was at least
$50, 900 too much and that they must
have rung a pool ia on him. After
some more talk on the subject and an
avowal that could prove the facts. was
as ] had stated. the major wrote to
General Benet to delay matters until it
was further investigated. Upon my re-
turn to this side of the river. l wired the
subject matter of the letter to General
Benet and also had the Water Power
company wire to Representative Gest to
delay matters. The Water Power COM
pany also gave me letter to Mr.. Gest.
On my coming down to the hotel found
that the Malone company had got wind
| of the matter and was here. l then went
back to the island in b opes to meet them
there, but found l was too late; and the
place to settle it was at Washington, as
the papers in the case was all there.
made up my mind that it was a race to
Washinet ton to see who would get there
first. Being familiar with the routes,
took the @. around by Monmouth and
Galesburg at p. M, and they went or
the c., R. l. & P. at midnight. / had
much the shortest route and five hours
the start and beat them into Washington
about eight hours. In the meantime
had wired to the president of the two
auarries that had given me the former in