St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-12

to anything. He did not remember
who had asked him to attend the meet
ing. AT the gathering were Forrestal,
Norris. Reilly aud himself He attend
ed just to get pointers. In response to
questions put by Mr.. Johnson. witness
said he did not have any talk about
prices with any Of the contractors pres
ent at the meeting. o. L. Holman,
attorney for Feyen, broke in at this
point and
Made Strong s'SPeeI'
for his client. He said the figures put
in by FeYen were lower than any sub
mitted for the last seven years. The
price was, in fact, too low if anything.
Feyen had not been in the combine, as
his bids plainly showed. He had forty
sprinklng carts, which was more than
all the other contractors combined, and
was willing to do the work at the figures
he had submitted. Questioned by Mr..
ReardOn the witness said he did not
know what the figures were that the
others agreed TO put in. in reply to queS-
ton by Mr.. Lightner the witness SAID the
meeting at Norris house was three or
four days before the bids were put in.
All those present, he admitted, were in
the sprinkling business. Norris IL
iidu put al DluS III lllG NOih. Uut
FOrreStal had not. Mr.. Van Slyke
do with the bids. Mr. Reardon an
sWered this by saying that .FOrrestal
was the prime mover and might have
had rake off on all bids.
MIR. ReardOn called for Joseph Reilly,
but, as that gentleman was not present,
Pat Norris took the stand after being
sworn. Mr.. Norris said Feyen came to
his house the Friday before the bids
were put in and asked him if it was
not possible to fix matters up so little
more could be obtained for Sprinkling.
lie told Feyen he would see him Mon
day, but to this FeYen objected, and
said that would be too late. Feyen then
asked him to 20 to Forrestars house,
about block away. He objected to
walking so far, and half an hour later
the parties, FOrreStal. Reilly and Feyen,
came to his house. They talked of diff
ferent matters regarding sprinkling but
nothing definite was agreed 10. He told
the others he wanted two districts, the
same as he had in 1892, but they would
not agree to this.
Monday morning, the day the bids
were put 10, meeting was held at a
hall on Wabasha street, which was at
IOiNCu ny eli. L OIISSlOt. Icil!y
himself. AT the meeting FOrrestal did
all the talking. Prices were fixed. on
and it was agreed that in case there was
any outside bidders the
Figures Were TO BE Changed
to suit the bidders. 1t was understood
they were to let him have the third dis
trict. ForrestaI handed one set OF bids
to Feyen. FOrreStal said at the time
fhat ha, tad a = nd e
Reilly was to have districts and 8, and
he (witness) was to have district 8. In
reply to a question by Mr.. Reardon,
witness said the figures in Feyen's bids
were not the ones agreed on. To Mr..
Van Sykes question he said all of
the bids of Feyen were lower than
the combine had agreed on. 0. E.
Holman, FeYen's attorney, asked the
witness II there had not been an outside
bidder. The witness said w. J. Preston
had put in a bid. This, Mr.. Holman
said, gave Feyen the right to change his
bid, as according to the statement of
witness IL had been agreed that if there
were an outside bidder the men could
change the bids to suit their own ideas.
In answer TO further questions of Mr..
Holman the witness said, with a deep
sigh, that the combine scheme didn't go
through, at least it didn't by the
looks of things now. The witness adj
mitted that there was not much of a
rake OFF, at the figures put in by Fey
ell. He thought, however, if there had
been no agreement there would have
been lower bids than even Feyen put
in. He had placed reliance upon the
agreement made, and fOI this reason his
bid was not as low as it might have
been. He did the sprinkling in district
3 last year for 81 cents per 100 feet.
Feyen's bid on the work this year
was 2615 cents. Mr.. Holman endea-
vored to show that Feyen knew Preston
was to put in bid. and for this reason
changed his figures, Feyen admitted
that he had 'tumbled' to the fact that
Preston was going to put in bid, and
had acted accordingly. Mr.. LightneI
said the whole thing was that an agree
ment had been made, and that one of
the parties to the agreement had taken
advantage of this, and put in a bid
| which had underbid the rest from one
to three and half cents per 100 feet.
Mr. ReardOn said one of his reasons
| for thinking
Something Was Wrong
was that his attention had been called
! to the crOOkedneSS i'll contract between
the city and Thomas Breen made in
1890. In this contract an estimate had
| been allowed and paid by which the city
| had lost 500 This,i his opinion, showed
| that it was necessary for the contracts
| with the city to all be looked after. The
other members of the committee did not
| see how this matter cut much of figure
In the sprinkling contracts, and it wa:
| laid aside for the time being. Mr.. H0l-
| man wanted to hear from the city en-
| gineer as to the ngures at which Foyer
| had agreed to do the work. The sprink
| ling, Mr.. Holman said, should COM
mence at an early date, and it would
| take at least month for the city t
advertise for new bids, and let the con-
tract over again. Feyen was ready Il
do the work, and had agreed to do il a
a fair price. His bondsmen were re
Sponsible for the faithful performance
OF the work, and it was for the bes
interests of the city that the con
tract be approved. The city ell
gineer said, Judging from the contract
4 for the past few years the figures weT
not high. The contractors, however
might be better able to say as to thi
than he was. The Sprinkling usuall
commenced about April 10. 1t wOuIt
take about three weeks to let new con
tract. Mr.. Reardon said he was in favo
of not approving the contract becauS
Feyen had come before the committe
win a lie i'll his mouth. lie was pre-
pared to show that there had beel
a combine ever since the sprinklint
of the streets had been com
menced. Lots of men, he claimed
would bid Oh contracts were it not TO
the board of public works. One of TIL
men who had bid on the sprinkling con
tract, he said, had been threatened b,
the president of the board when he wen
to the Office for information. This MI
German, who was present, denied, ant
explained just what was said to Preston
Mr.. ReardOn, however, slid GRACEFUL.
out of the position taken by saying thel
Preston had lied to him about the mat
ter.
Mr.. ReardOn having been set back b,
the explanation, fired another shot b.
saying that if the matter was investi
gated it would be found that contract
had been let where money had beel
paid for the withdrawal OF bids. Thi
Was in the street lighting contract ant
he was informed that Mr.. Bowlin ha(
been paid for Withdrawing his CONTRACT
4 uo x.,aS ,,f rho thot fbaro haf