The San Francisco call., 1896-11-08
NO MORE CONVICT STONE
The Affiliated Colleges Must Be
Constructed of Other
Material.
It Will Be Necessary for the Regents
to Advertise Anew for Bids
for Masonry.

The Affiliated Colleges of the University
of California will not be constructed of
Folsom granite if Attorney General Fitz-
gerald can prevent it. He has written to
the Board OF Regents that he will not ap-
prove of the contracts made by the board
with the Rae Building and Contracting
Company for the masonry work because
that contract provides that all stone WORK
shall be of Folsom grant. AS the con-
tract cannot be carried out without the
approval of the Attorney-General, his act
will probably compel the Board of Re-
gents to proceed to readvertise, and prac-
ticaliy begin their work all over.
This is the opinion Of mem bers of the
committee on grounds and building of the
Board of Regents, and meeting of the
committee will be held next Tuesday
morning at Regent Reinstein's office to
consider what may be done in this
emergency. Attorney-General Fitz GERALD
does not confne his utterances on the
issue to his written communication to the
Board of Regents. He said yesterday
afternoon, in an interview, that he would
not approve of any contract that may be
made by the regents which involves the
use of Folsom granite, because the State
constitution provides that the labor of
convicts shall not be let out by contract to
any person, copartnership company or COR
poration.
Attorney General Fitzgerald also said
that as matter OF public policy it was
mot well, where there are so many honest
people who have families and who need
work, to permit convict labor to come into
competition with them.
mo, sir, SAID the Attorney-Genera in
answer to question; II will not approve
of any contract OF that sort, and no con-
tract is good without my approval. I do
not know what the Board of Regents will
do in the matter. / have not consulted
with the members. There were several
contracts that came to me from the board,
among them contracts for painting, car
penter work. plumbing and gas-fitting for
CONSTITUTIONAL steel and iron work, roofing,
skylights and galvanized iron work and so
on. My Communication to the Board OF
Regents refers only to the masonry work" !"
The effect of refusing to approve the
masonry work contract is necessarily 10
prevent any WORK at present. The plans
which were approved by the regents
called for the construction of the Affiliated
Colleges buildings at price which prac-
tically took all the appropriation made
for the purpose, leaving so small margin
that the fees of the architects had to be
provided for in another way.
The fact that the contract awarded to
the Rae Building and Contracting Com.
pany included the use of Folsom granite
caused much comment among the builders
and contractors of the City, and some
protests were heard. Until the letter was
sent out by Attorney General Fitzgerald
the general public supposed that the mat
ter was closed. The contracts aggre gated
$248 ,923 and were as follows:
Rae Building and Contracting Com
pany, for mason WORK, $143, 500; D. Ze-
linsky, for painting work, $3.50; Silas
Carle, for carpenter work, $67 7,219; c. c.
Sweeney, for plumbing and gas-fitting,
Sl1, 1893; Pacific Rolling Mills, for construc.
tural steel and iron work, $4925; Joseph
Z. Forderer, for roofing. skyiights and
galvanized iron work, $9976; E. ]. Lanton.
for heating and ventllating work, SSS25
Concerning the masonry WORK contract
the Attorney General wrote to the board
as follows:
The first contract mentioned, viz, that be-
tween the Regents OF the University OF Cali
fornia and the Rae Building and C0ntraetinp
Company OF San Francisco Tor masonry work
contains the following provisions:
"The contractor agrees to furnish
the necessary labor and materials re-
CURED, and to perform and complete in a
workmanllke manner all the masonry work OF
the Afiliated Colleges buildings of said Uni
yerslty OF California. All stone work to be OF
Folsom granite, ETC."
This is direct agreement between the Re.
gents OF the university and this corporation
buildings shall be of granite quarried by the
conylcts OF the Folsom State Prison
section q of Article X of our State constitu-
tion provides that 'sthe labor of conviets shall
not be let out by contract to any person, CO.
partnership, company or corporation, and the