The herald., 1893-08-13
An Opeu Letter.

PIioo VI sho1o WuO uoto buueu 10 city
| advancement.
! An Open Letter.
| To the Editor of the HERALD:
While our national congress has beer
called together to devise means to re-
lieve the country Of its financial trou
bles and give US more money, it Seems
that our local educational congress is de-
liberating how it can best get away with
1t. 1t is their action in providing for the
warming and ventilating of the high
SO hool building that seems to warrant
this conclusion. Now, this being q mat.
ter that has often come up before the
POW ers that be, ever since the inception
OF Il ie plans, l have taken more than q
common interest in it, for several rea
sons. First, because that is a matter
have devoted q good deal OF time to, both
practiG ally and theoretically. and claim
to be al well informed upon that subject
as any 1nan in this country. When the
plans We re made for this building the
system Of warming and ventilatiug
proved to be so expensive that the school
board gave instructions to the architect
to leave them out, and called On US to
furnish plans. which we did, but got
tired of trying to get action taken on
them. The want OF funds was the only
reason given. But we urged the neces-
sity OF having some system incor-
porated while the building was
going on. Mr.. Muchmore, the
superintendent, of buildings, did the
same, but there was no money in
signt and the board would not act.
After completion of the building and
its occupancy we were again solicited to
make plans and specifications, which we
did. Again, for tile same reason as
before, they could matt be adopted, and
gas stoves were substituted.
Again, now for the third time, we
have been asked for plans and speci6ca-.
tions, which we have furnished, other
firms doing the same, and alter being
duly considered ours were adopted, bu t
subsequently the vote WAS reconsidered
and laid over for one week.
Now it is to correct an impression that
was sought to be imposed on the minds
of some of the board by others of their
co-laborers that because our plans were,
cheap they must necessarily not be thu
best. This l most emphatically deny,
and assert that ours are the best plans
presented, and in view of the conditionr
will give much the best results. This l.
say from thorough knowledge of what
am talking about, and fearless of the
charge that may be made of self inter
est.
l am aware that our bid ;s an ex-
tremely low one, for our heating and
ventilsting engineer, Mr.. Hough, (than
whom there is no better) was instructed.
to figure it down to the lowest possi ole
figure and cover the actual cost, for the
following reasons:
We have business here in which
we employ from rs to $50 men, moat of
whom have families, are patrons of our
schools and taxpayers. Most OF these
are No. l men whom we are anxious to
keep employed even if to do 30 We have
to suffer a temporary loss. Good men
are not going to remain idle, and if they
can't be employed here they will go
where they can. We have never been a
firm to ask for patronage because we
were home mandatory, but rather
have always tried to make it for the in
terest of the people to give US their
trade, and we have generally been
pretty successful in doing go, where we
have had individuals or corporations to-
deal with that were handling their own
money, or that were actuated by the
same principles of good judgment anc
economy.
The times and circumstances now
seem to warrant us in deviating little
from this rule. The considerations for
doing 80 are 80 numerous and so appar-
ent to every thinking man that it ist
hardly worth while to mention them.
Here ia case where we have spent g.
good deal OF time in working up plans to
meet the exigencies of the case which
we have been conversant with from the
start, having full and complete knowl-
edge of our business, which il evinced
by our works right here at home.
Having 30 intslligently adapted sys-
tenn to meet the wants Of every case, we
have met with general success. We
have doAe good deal OF work TOR the
general government in this state and
Arizona, where we have used all three of
the systems OF steam, hot water and
furnaces.
In our own city postoffice the govern
ment furnished plans, but upon their
much better they were adopted and we
we're awarded the contract.
What think you would our Denver
man have done with his hot air furnaces
at the Soldiers home?
Go ask Colonel Brown or Governor
Treichel what they think Of our ability
in that line. Colonel Brown has charge
of the construction of all the government
homes for soldiers in the United States,
q man whom to suspect of favoritism,
much less OF taking Doodle, would be al
most a crime. In time of war it is
admirable sometimes to send out forag-
ing parties, but in times of peace it 10
hardly the fair thing to do. The col
lapse OF the silver bubble in our sister
city OF Denver has made them almost