The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-28
HINTS OF A BIG COMBINE
THE REASON WHY THERE WAS
SUCH A UNANIMITY IN THE
FIGURES.
CUT IN COST OF STREET LIGHTS
Electric Company Puts I'm Re-
duced Bid-General News of
Minneapolis,

hose proposition last night, and after
turning down the unanimous report of
the committee on fire department and
several other propositions voted, with
twenty-five affirmative votes and none
in the negative, to reject all bids and
readvertise
For some time there has been gen.
eral suspicion that there was a com
bine among the fire hose mc.i. They
have been suspiciously close together
on their bids, and all sorts Of unoleas-
ant talk has accompanied the semi
annual letting of contracts for this ne
cessity of the fire department A few
days ago the committee on fire depart
ment held a meeting and attempted to
award the contracts. The committee
got together again yesterday afternoon
and after having caucused on the mat
ter for some time they met in open ses-
sion and decided to apportion the 5000
feet to be purchased between three of
the bidders, as follows: 2,250 feet Of
white Anchor" hose, to the w. S.
Mott company, at 81; 1850 feet of
Black Revere" hose, to the Revere
Rubber company, at 81; 1900 feet of
Lion Oak" brand, to the Bowers Rub
Der company, at IS cents per foot. This
report was a compromise 1t was not
satisfactory to any member of the
committee, with the possible exception
Of Aid. Nordeen, but the action of the
committee was declared by the repre-
sentatives of the rubber companies as
satisfactory to them. Mr. Brown so
expressed himself, and it looked as
though the deal would go through the
council without trouble But it did
not have the least chance of passing
from the first moment it came up for
consideration. The first shot came
Aid. Rand moved that all bids be re-
jected and the council re-advertiSe for
new bids for hose. Aid Nordeen hoped
the motion would not prevail, because
he said there was still a surplus in the
fire department fund which. If not
used, would revert back to the gen
eral fund. Rand replied that the city
council would be smart enough to get
around that difficulty.
Aid. McAllister moved to amend by
accepting the lowest bid, and when the
roll was called there were only eight
votes for his motion, as follows: Aid.
Long, OBrien, Durham, Rhode, Meal
lister, Skoog, Currier and Snyder.
There were eighteen votes against,
some were in favor of readjusting, and
others of the committees report Aid.
Fort expressed himself in favor of re-
adjusting, and Drew made a strong
speech in favor Of the committees
report. Chief Stetson was called upon
to tell some more about fire hose and
he made a speech showing that in
cities which had a first-class fire equip
ment the best hose was none too good
The strain upon hose from high build
1ngs was such that the best hose was
severely strained. He said three of
the brands of hose have a standard
reputation and are known to be good
1t developed that there was no string
ent specifications in the requirements
OF the advertisements, and Aid. Phil
npS SAID that hose costing so cents q
foot would pass all the requirements
OF the specifications The matter Of
specifications was therefore referred to
the chief of the fire department, a mo-
ton to add the committee on fire de-
paftment being voted down. In this
shape the motion passed the council
all votes cast being in the affirmative
and AID. Nordeen refusing to vote
A communication was received from
A. M. Robertson, general manager of
the Minneapolis General Electric COM
pany, submitting an offer regarding the
electric lighting for the city as follows:
relative to the matter of electric street
lighting for the year 1897, we beg to state that
while we do, and always have considered
ne clty as eQultably Qf not legally obligated
10 carry out its part of the five-year con-
tract entered into by the company in good
faith with the city, which contract required
a heaVy expenditure on the part of the COM
| pany for installation of the street lights we
desire to meet the reduced revenues of the
| city so far as possible.
| During the past two years we have at large
expense, built and equipped a new central
station, which, after one years operation
IN a measure, permits us to reduce our rates
we therefore s beg to submit the following
rates for the electric street lighting during
the coming year.
III all-night and every night lamps, $14O
per lamp per year.
57 moon schedule night lamps, $115 per
lamp per year.
The aldermen-elect were distinctly
IN evidence at the meeting of the coun-
ell occupying extra seats adiancent to
the aldermen, whom they will succeed.
Those on hand were Webster, Shepley,
Peterson, Lloyd, Dwyer, and Crosby
all except Lane, of the Second ward.