St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-22
Why Did They Ignore Home
8 Machinery for That Made
AbPoad?s
? Especially When the Foreign
r Machinery Was $4,000
More.
Pertinent Queries to Which
Taxpayers Would Like an
81 Early Answer.

ask of firm before placing an order
for machinery to be used In state in
stitution; and yet this is exactly what
the prison board committee that went
East short time ago to purchase an
outfit for the manufacture of binding
twine at the Saltwater prison is accused
of having asked j. G. Todd, the machine
| man of Paterson, n. j., when the men,
bers of this committee were dickering
with him for this outfit.
II told them there was nothing in it
| for anyone" was the answer made by
| Mr.. Todd to this question, and the con-
| mittee at once proceeded to buy an out
| fit from British firm at an additional
\ expense of nearly $4,000 to rhe state.
| A letter narrating all the circum-
stances of this peculiar transaction adj
dressed to President Hall, of the Farm
| erS' Alliance, by MI. Todd was yeSter-
day made public, and should be read by
| every citizen of Minnesota. 1t demon
strates more than the alleged crooked
ness of one Or two of the states prison
| board; it shows the love entertained by
! the Republicans of Minnesota for the
| products of American inventions and
| genius to marked degree. Here is
| the letter:
New YORK. Oct 10, 1890 R. j. Hall,
| President State Farmers Alliance. Morris,
| Minn.-Dear Sir: II was my intention at the
| conclusion of negotiations with the commit
! tee from saltwater to purchase the ma
| chinery for the prison. to have written you,
| but serious accident, which laid me up for
| ten days past, prevented, and l now at this
| earliest opportunity give you the facts in re-
| garo to the negotiations as far as they &C.
Cured towards the purchase of machinery
| from me, and leave you and the public to
| draw your own conclusions. The committee
| consisted of MessrS. 'Brien and Temple, of
saltwater, and M. Q. Hail, OF Duluth, who
| arrived here about the 24th or 25th of Sep
/ TENDER, and how faithfully 1t performed its
| duty aud trust to the state may be seen later
on, though the sagacity of the appointing
| power may be seriously questioned for the
| farce OF appointing men who knew nothing
| about the machinery they were delegated to
| purchase, not even the name OF one machine
| from another, and who have stood opposed
/ to machinery from the first Men do not gen.
| orally send doctors 10 investigate and settle
| line law points, which would be Just as rea-
sonab1e as to send farmers contractors and
cashiers to investigate and settle upon intri-
| cate machinery. Said committee were, no
doubt, good judges of horsehesh, and as such
would have proved an eminent success.
/ In order to make this statement more
| clearly understood, | may here state that
received all invitation from Warden Randall
of Saltwater penitentiary, to submit my pro-
| posal for system of Irvine machinery. stipu-
lating that said bid must be in by the list Of
/ CcpttmDtT. III Tie uftdutlH6 my
shops at Paterson were all destroyed by fire,
and knowing the imposSibility of getting
+ them rebuilt so as TO get new system out i'll
/ time. made my proposal on the identical
system OF machinery which two of this same
/ committee saw in successful operation in my
| jute mill on the 18th of MAY last, which ma
/ chinery was new then and had not been run
/ more than three weeks since, and had only
| got into good smooth run ming order, and
was, to my mind, preferable TO new. / make
this statement in order TO meet the failaefous
| objection raised by MIR. Temple that my ma
! chimes were secondhand, and to show other
! inconsistencies make my proposal to War
| den Randall a part of this statement. which
J shows the difference between my system of
! machinery and that of the Irish firm of
/ Coombe Barbour d Coombe, which the COM
| mlttee ordered at a cost of some ST. 600 more
4 than my system would have cost, put Up and
| running according to proposal. A copy of
| the Irish specification and proposal, such as
| the committee accepted and gave the order
| upon, may be found attached to mine, which
/ makes rather healthy comparison, when
taken into account of the transportation and
extra Tor putting up and starting, which ac
| cording to my estimate will add at least
| $1,000 to the cost. What seems so surprising
| is the great difference in price, when it is
! well known that labor in this country is
| more than 100 per cent higher than across
| the water, and yet American machinery
| guaranteed to do as much and as good work
| should cost some $4,000 less. Heretofore
| the cost of American machinery has been
| higher than imported, on account of the
| difference in cost of labor. but III this case it
has reversed itself. but does not drive the
Irish machinery out of the market Is it not
4 surprising?
Take for instance the last item on the Irish
| proposal, which says Etc, including belt
| ing. wreuches, etc., etc., ETC.. 81, 972,' which
may go against 1913 for cans and bobbins in
| my estimate and add $50 for belts and
| wrenches, which will make total of 1888
! against the Sl,9I2. which makes q discrep-
ancy CT 81, 4o9 to be accounted for ..as lost
cfro x-a1 IL
committee were such as to make their object
| and motives apparent: In the first place they
| were invited to Paterson to see the machinery
| run and Its capacity tested, and l told them
| was prepared TO run it week. wishing TO
| give them a chance to satisfy themselves
| before placing the order; but to my surprise
| the committee arrived at the mill in Pater-
| son at l 40 a. m. and left it at 1850 o. ~.
1 making visit of seventy minutes, which did
| not give time enough to get the machines all
started Thus ended the wonderful inspec-
ton. After the visit to Paterson, Mr.. o Brien
| gave me to understand that TempIe and Hall
| were opposed to the Introduction of ma
| chinery in the penitentiary, but were forced
| to doing it under political pressure.
and, and Pred predicted the experiment Gas
| no doubt their predictions will be verified.
| Mr.. OBJ. expressed himself as being i'll favor
| of my machinery, and remarked that ne had
/ the authority to close the contract but that
| Mr. Hall wanted to know what there was in
| 1t for him, remarklng at the same time that
he (aall) was rather against me. but he
! thought ne could bring the Norwegian
| around told Mr.. O'Brien there was moth
| ing III ii for any one as had made my very
| lowest net price and could not afford any
! discount, besides, did not think that the
| state of Minnesota would send men East to
! haggle about discounts. which to my mind
meant Doodle to the committee At another
| time. was again pressed for an allowance of
l0per cent and would get the order. but l
positively refused saying Il would as leave
lose the order as go into that business-that
was my uitimatum," and the next day Mr..
| OBJ called and Informed me that they had
placed the order with the Irish firm, saying
! that Mr.. Temple objected to sec
ond-hand machinery. and subsequently
stated as further excuse that
he (Temple) had il against me for letter
published i'll the Pioneer Press. criticising
| the governors first committee, who were sent
| East to look for something they did not want
| to find and succeeded in not finding. and SO
made their report to the governor. Mr. OBJ.
said they might want TO get some of my ma
| chimes. but informed MIN very emphat-
icaily that l was playing second fiddle to no
! one
| L was so surprised to find that was beaten
| In the trade that had curiosity to see the
| offer that beat me- and asked MIR. OBJ, when
! he very kindly furnished a copy, as given
herewith. and then finding the great differ
| ehce IN price was still more surprised to
| find that the committee could justify them
| selves i'll paying much additional for a
! few more spindles than my estimate gives.
| Dut VIII turn OH no more tWlDe lfitQ INV SES-
| ter; will and / doubt if as much as mine.
| which can be run at 20 Ter cent less for
wear aud lear than the Irish machinery.
! Considerable more mag be said on this sub
| ject. but the foregoing will suffice for the
present. Yours respectfully.
JOSEPH c. ToDD.
In this connection the proposal, of
tia. American and foreign machine men
become interesting. Here they are:
Americas, Machinery.
C fl under werker Breaker
and Clearer. flax card S.,15bta
! 6 Fl. Circular FLASHER card with
two tOtfers - $500. 22.I59 GO
. Cyiinder drop gill draw frames.
> } Head i,;.>s 2nd -i,,;i ST. ei.ir-
81 giii awng fraines, q s. Id =. eao 90