The morning call., 1891-04-17
NOT UP TO SAMPLE.
A System of Defrauding the City
In Its Supplies.
Pocket Samples That Disappear With the Sue
cessful Bidder-Fourth Quality for
First Quality.
The present administration in this city

The present administration in this city
promises to be hard one on firms who have
been fattenng for years on contracts for city
supplies. Mayor Sanderson is thoroughly
practical man and knows poor butter from
good axle grease wherever he sees it, His
many years training as produce merchant
enables him to distinguish instantly the va
rious grades of all kinds of produce.
Quite recently he has put this knowledge
to excellent use and it bodies no good to the
contractor. The many com plants that came
from the City and County Hospital, Indus
trial School. House of Correction and other
county institutions of late about inferior
supplies set him to looking into the matter,
and the condition of things that he has
finally uncovered is simply amazing.
Supplies are furnished all these institu-
lions by contract, which is always awarded
to the lowest bidder. Aside from the usual
routine of advertising for bids. according to
the provisions of the ordinance. no other
precauton has ever been observed by the
Supervisors. and the consequence has been
that the system has grown more or less lax
in all departments. That advantage would
be taken of such laxity might have been ex-
pected, and the fact now appears that any
and all Of the provision contracts are de-
liciously fiat snaps
POCKET SAMPLES.
The system is simple. Merchants are in
yited to bid on supplying rice, cornmeal,
sugar, beans, salt, onions, tobacco, fish. mo-
lasses, etc, the grade and quality of each
always being specified. The bid is accom-
panied by sample of each, always of
course, in accordance with the specifications,
and after the contract Is awarded tue mer-
chant puts his sample back into his pocket
and returns to his store. When the produce
reaches the institution it has to be accepted
by the officer in charge because he does not
know whether it is the same grade con-
tracted for OF not. and has no way of telling.
Here obviously is an open door TO fraud.
Responsible merchants about tho city
have undertaken on repeated occasions TO
compete for these contracts, but invariably
have been underbid. These bids were
always based ON fair profit and an honest
deal. The fact Of having been so badly
underbd on standard staples has convinced
them that the successful bidders were not
doing square business, and Mr.. Sander
sons personal experience in this same mat
ter years ago was one OF the aids TO his late
discovery.
HONEST BIDDERS mot IN IT."
For instance, bids were invited and re-
ceived on No. 1 rice. They were SO low
that all honest bidders were mot in it."
Samples of No. l rice accompanied the bids,
and the contracts were made accordingly.
Inc samples went DacR into tue merchant
pocket, and disappeared when he did. The
contracts are on file. Mayor Sanderson
finds on examining the rice supplied that it
is No. 4. three grades lower than the con-
tract calls for, and SO much cheaper that it
gives the contractor handsome margin.
He finds also that almost the entire
schedule of supplies is manipulated in this
same manner, and even worse.
There is but one remedy for such sys-
tematc robbery, and the Mayor has set
about to put it in force. a sample of every
kind of produce furnished the city is to be
kept in sealed bottles always on hand by
the ones receiving them. II the.supplies do
not correspond with these samples, they are
to be rejected. The Mayor is now arrang-
ing a system that viii make the work safe
and easy, and be a saving of many thou
sand dollars monthly to the city, besides
giving the inmates Of the several inStitu-
lions better grade Of living.