Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-05-22
KEEP IT CLEAN.
IN CONSTRUCTING THE NEW CITY HALL
A Serious Mistake In Advertising
for Tenders OF Bids.

The people of Salem want city ball.
The city needs one. Public senti-
ment IL well nigh unanimous in its
favor. But the action Of the city su-
thorities, including architect, superin-
tendent, inspector, building committee
and council must be clean and free from
suspicion of iobbery and fsvoritism In
awarding contracts or the choice Of ms-
terial.
A good time to draw this line is at its
inception.
The committee composed Of Hunt.
LAHORE, Klein and Gray advertise for
city hall bids to be submitted to the
committee on June 9Th, at p. M, or
tensibly TO be opened then and there by
the committee. At the last meeting Of
the council Albert moved to have the
bids received by the council at Its reg
ular meeting June %. Adopted.
Alderman Albert's motion provided
that the bids be submitted to the coun-
Gil and hence opened by the council,
and before the open council in public
session. That would give the public
some protection against juggling the
bids.
The council is the only proper body
to receive or open the bids, and the ad-
vertisement should have been made
clear on this point. The committee Is
the creature of the council and assum-
Ing the right to have the bids submit
ted to the committee instead Of the
council is clearly mistake, and not
according to its own records. There
must be clear record kept or there
will be no city hall built. The reason
for fixing the time for submitting
as late as June Goth is very plain. 1t
was done to give the committee. APP
pointed to examine and test stone, time
to report on the quality of the material.
They were appointed to subject the
stone to crucical tests under direction
Of thorough engineer who is to accom-.
papy the committee. On Its face, al
though we may be mistaken, 1t appears
to be trick to knock out the stone
builders. Changing the time for sub
mitting the bids from June 10th to
June 9th shortens the time two weeks,
to say nothing Of giving the committee
two weeks In which to fix up the bids,
II II can be assumed that so fisgrant a
proceeding could ever occur In connec-
tlon with city hall. The council is
composed largely of business men, some
of them dealers IN materials to be used
In construction of the same. Receiv-
ing no pay for their services, It would
be unfair to rule them out on this ac-
count. But the council should use
more than ordinary diligence to pro-
tect themselves from any imputation Of
giving or taking any advantage along
this line.
A motion at the session to investigate
the Pionser stone was tabled. The
council does not seem to want to inves- |
tigate the best material. There Is not |
q man Ia that council who would 20 |
about such building for himself rs
they are going about this city hall. |
Then why do they go about 1t this
wsys The public would like to know.
II Is not to protect the taxpayer.
They would not conduct their private
business that way. Who are they
ooking out for?
Unless this mistake ut the start is
the whole enterprise cannot
'scape the suspicion of Intentional rot
enness and will defeat the possibility
" erecting a city building this year.
Strvru ArnAr (,nnnrx~r Vouiuhs |