The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-09-22


account. but Imagined that the sole clash
was over the Asphalt Company's assign
ment.
Mr.. c. S. Wright, a member of the
referred everybody to Ma.
VanDusen for Information. and would
only hazard the statement that there
were a whole Tot of time Cheeks flying
around town.
Mr.. II. G. VanDusen, clerk of the COM
mission said: "The Pacific Paving Co.
took the contract in January to build
the reservoir, tunnel and headworks, for
ga 900, The bondsmen are w. A. Scrog-
gin. John Burke, ana Police Judge Smith,
an of Portland. This whole matter will
be fixed up some way and don't want to
say anything more about 1t. These men
have given bonds for the faithful per-
Torrance of their work, and their bonds
men will carry 1t on If they don't"
Mr.. w. w. Parker, chairman of the
water commission, came into the AstO-
rlan office last night and made a state
ment which agreed substantially with
the explanation given by the city attor-
ney. He added some further and very
interesting details, however. Mr. Par
ker's remarks showed very plainly that
the action of the water commission In
SO peremptorily shutting down on the
work of the Pacific Paving Co. was not
by any means unanimous, and that he
for one had not agreed to it, believing
that the commission was perfectly pro-
tected from loss in more than one way.
He was very emphatic about this latter
subject. and evidently had given the
matter a great deal of attention.
Mr.. f. T. Hamshaw of tine Pacific
l.--N
disposed to talk about the affair, but
finally consented to make a statement
for the readers of the Astorian. He said:
1T quit work simply because there was
not money enough to pay our men ana
because the water commission refused
to give us the fun $1,000 due US on our
contract to date, offering us $1,000, ana
keeping back the balance to secure itself
against assignments of account made by
US amounting to that sum. 1 refused to
have anything to do with what l con-
slider an imposition and would not take
the $4,000 offered to us, out of the COM
MISSIONS hands. II would have been
the greatest folly in the world for me
to have appeared before my men with
only 60 per cent of their wages. Today
was pay day. l went to the boys last
night and explained my position to them
fully, telling them that it simply rested
with the water commission whether /
got my money or not. I told them that
| would like to have some of the brick
and asphalt work done on the slopes OF
the reservoir today, and that they would
help me by going ahead. All of them
did so. ONE worked on till noon, and
great many did not quit until O'clock
The teams were busy hauling material
u a. Nnd', .toI
on the ground to finish the whole con-
tract, with the exception Of few pieces
of pipe. The crushed rock, sand and ce-
ment have all been hauled to the head
of the tunnel ready to complete the con-
creting.
"It must not be forgotten that in ad-
dltion to the 5000 which we claim is being
unjustly and Illegally he'd back from us
the water commission has our own siOCJ
and another $500 besides, made up by
the accumulation of the 10 per cent in
demnity money since We started the
work. We need $1,000 to pay our men
and the commission holds altogether $10,-
0G0 in money already earned. 1t will not
cost for actual labor more than another
$4,500 to entirely compete our contract,
or more than 40 days time. If we are not
by the slow progress of the
other contractors. 1 think 1t Is ack-
by all and particularly by
the commissioners themselves that the
work of the Pacific Paving Co. Is not
only farther advanced than any other
portion of the whole ioh but that 1t is
thoroughly and well done.
Last month we assigned accounts o
$500 and $l5O5 to the Foard & Stokes
Co. and the Alcatraz Asphalt Co. re-
to
their wording were payable on the 2lsf
of october, out of September earnings.
Now the commission mad decided to pay
the p. P. Co. to da up to the 18th inst
in full. When these two Gains were
presented the commission decided that
tLey should be paid out of that money
altogether that there was an
other fifteen days of accrued earnings to
come. and furthermore that there was
over $1,000 cash security for the pay
ment of pust such debts he'd by it on
the 10 per cent indemnity proposition.
What risk was the commission taking
by allowing us our fu'l $1,000? Absolute
ly none at al. Mr.. Behm has gone to
Portland to raise the additional $1,000
needed to pay off our men. He went
against my judgment anC
believe that we should get the morey
justly uut us OlL Ol lilt COMMISSION
rather than try to borrow 1t from our
friends. l propose now to sit stlI and
await results. won't make a NOV
till the labor Is paid. We have done
more than our duty by the commission,
and if it came to a question of equity
they ought to pay us an extra $1,000 for
the manner in which we have rushed the
job through. 1t has cost US over THAI
amount simply to put the jow where II
is today We have employed more labor
than al the balance of the contractors
put together and have paid the men
right along promptly till this month
The delay over the sale of bonds ana
the sudden Fastening of matters threw
us into a position where we had to get
to work quickly and accept stiff combi- /!
nation prices for much of our material. |
Our relations with the engineering de-
partment have always been very peas
ant and we have got along we'll with |
The commission is making
a great mistake and l believe they will |
this before long"