The San Francisco call., 1896-02-05
Secretary Carlisle Sends a Mes
sage to Congress Upon
the Subject.
STIRRED UP BY MR.. PERKINS.
Preparations of Plans and the Letting
of Contracts Will BE Pro.
ceeded With.

| WASHINGTON, d. c., Feb. 4-In re-
| sponse to resolution introduced by Rep
resentative Loud and adopted by the
House the Secretary of the Treasury
to-day sent to Congress the following mes
sage:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF SECRETARY.
Sir: In response to resolution passed by
the House OF Representatives on the 2Ist inst
requesting the Secretary of the Treasury to in
form the House what progress has been made
| under the act for the erection of postoffice
building at San Francisco and the reason for
delay in the prosecution and completion of
SAID building, have the honor to state as fol-
lows:
Upon the passage of said act of March 8,
1893, fixing the limit of cost for the new post
ONCE courthouse; etc., the plans and estimates
| for said works were taken under considera-
ton by the supervising architect On June IL,
1898, however, the department received COM
mun1catlon from the chairman of the Commit
tee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the
House OF Representatives requesting that no
action be taken in regard to the erection of
said building on the site which had been se-
lected until the House of Representatives
should have an opportunity to enter an inves-
tigation in regard to the matter
In Difference to said request, the department.
| on June % directed that action relative to the
building be suspended until further orders
No further steps were taken until October 5,
1885, when, in response to resolution, the
secretary OF the Treasury transmitted to the
House of Representatives all the papers relat-
ing to the selection and purchase CT the site.
These papers were retained by the House of
Representatives until June 8, 1884, when they
were returned to the department..
| Early in the spring OF 1894 work on the
! plans for said building was renewed, sketch
plans and estimations were made and ap-
proved by the Secretary of the Treasury Secre-
tary of the Interior and Postmaster General
and Ihe preparation OF working drawings en-
/ tered on, which drawings were sufficiently
under way to admit of the invitation for pro-
| posals for the work OF excavating for founda-
tions when Congress, by. the act approved
/ March 2, 1895, directed "that before any work
| is done upon the building or contract let
therefor, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
cause to be carefully examined the nature of
/ subsoi1 and bed of foundation of the
site purchased for such building and
whether the character of the same is
proper for building, and what will be the cost
| of making foundation and whether the con-
| struction of the building shall be proceeded
with on said site; and the Secretary of War,
| upon request of the Secretary of the Treasury,
| shall detail two more engineer officers of
| the army to make such examination said
made by them, setting forth the result OF bor-
ings, ETC., furnishing drawings to show the
location, ETC., of said test pits, and concluding
| with an opinion that the foundations should
| be of concrete. and that the proposed building
| can be safely constructed on the site selected;
and further that no reason is apparent from
an engineering point of view, why erection OF
building should not be proceeded with.
The officers named estimated the total cost
1f y1na, Tnyrrnk RI
be $30,549. The prosecution of this work thus
interfered with its regular course has pro-
ceeded as rapidly as the pressure of current
/ matters would allow. The work on the pre-.
| paration OF drawings has been resumed and
| they will be completed and contracts made as
soon as possible. Respectfully yours,
| ]. G. CARLISLE, Secretary
| To the Speaker of the House of Representa-
| tives.
1t will be remembered that in response
to letter from Judge McKenna an INQUIRY
was made OF the supervising architect
concerning the plans of the new building.
This letter was taken to Supervising Arch.
itect Aiken by Senators White and Per-
kins and left with that official. After a
long talk regarding the proposed building
Aiken promised to reply, but after lapse
OF time long enough to have completed
the plans of Judge McKenna's courtroom
1t was thought the supervising architect
had forgotten his promise.
So Senator Perkins wrote to him again,
recalling the visit and the letter and stat
ing that it having been understood from
him that money was necessary to complete
plans he would be pleased to be informed
of the amount needed to supply the extra
help to perfect the plans. Still no answer
came. A messenger was sent to. Aiken 10
get from him verbally the figures needed
to insert in the bill which Senator Perkins
had prepared, designed to supply funds
which would enable the Postoffice plans to
be completed and work on the new build
ing to be commenced. Aiken promised to
reply by letter, but never did so. Other
efforts were made to secure data necessary
to enable Congress to take action, but
Aiken did not reply.
On January 80 another letter was written
! by Senator Perkins, in which he. called at
/ tention to his former com munication and
to promise that reply would be given
| TO the inquiries of Judge McKenna's let
! ter, hat an answer might be made to the
Judge. 1t was assumed that Aiken would
not be so discourteous as to refuse to reply
| to the many inquiries made and that the
| letter had gone astray. This brought forth
a reply. but not such as was expected It
| was in the form of letter from Secretary
| NEW TO-DAY.
/