The San Francisco call., 1896-04-06
A WARNING TO CONTRACTORS.
Practice Marches Contemplated - No
Subsistence Depot at Los
Angeles.

urday a message was received ny wire
from Washington that the modified plans
had been approved. Bids for building the
stables will be invited without further
delay.
Contractors bidding on Government
work at the Presidio are advised that the
plans and specifications prepared at the
office of the department quartermaster in
this City, and approved by the quarter
master-general and Secretary OF War,
cannot be changed for the convenience OF
the contractor. The kind of material to
be used is clearly specified. The authori-
ties here cannot allow any deviation from
the contract or permit one kind OF ma
terial to be substituted for another. Con-
tractors who have been working for the
City and State, and who have often had
permission to make changes here and
there when specified materials were not
Immediately accessible, complain OF great
hardships imposed by the Government.
AS an example Contractor Hansen's e1-
perience in building double brick barracks
Nos. 2 and 8 at the Pres idio is cited. Col
onel KimbaIl Is of the opinion thet Hansen,
who received nearly $35 900 for one of the
double buildings and sum in excess of
$685. 900 for the other, should have cleared
$4,000 on the contract, yet it is acknowl-
edged that be lost money. The engineer,
Mr.. Hum ohreys, is blamed for exacting
too much from the contractor.
Colonel Kimball is of the opinion that
the contractor wasted time and effort to
procure materia! different from that speci-
fed. Again work was done contrary to
the specifications and had to be taken out
and done oSer again.
A short time ago Colonel Kimball found
that the contractor for supplying pipes
and extending the water mains at the Pre-
sldio delivered six or seven wagon loads
of pipe, and not half of the material had
the hub-ioints plainly required by the
specifications. Moreover the pipe was
under weight and plainly marked so. The
pipe, it is thought, was an underweight
lot made at the Oregon penitentiary.
When it was promptly rejected the con-
tractor wanted to park 1t on the reserva-
tion but was ordered to take it away and
SO he had to stand the double expense of
hauling the material to the ground and
hauling ii away.
In city and State work obliging inspec-
tors permit contractors to put in the
cheapest material and do work in the
easiest manner, but the Government In
spector has no authority to allow depar-
ture from specifications. That can only
be done by the Secretary of War.
Some queer notions of advertising for
public work have authority of law in
Washington. For example, the advertise
ment for work now authorized at the Pre-
sidio-the filling in OF marsh lands and the
building OF new stables-must be published
in one paper at Portland. Oregon.
In line with the policy recently adopted
by the Department at Washington for the
concentration of troops and the commits
sary stations, the depot for purchasing and
distributing commissary supplies at Los
Angeles for the troops in Arizona and
New Mexico will soon be abolished. The
needed supplies will hereafter be pur-
CHASED in San Francisco and st. Louis.
Major w. A. Elderkin, commissary of
subsistence at Los Angeles, has been or.
dered to report for duty at San Antonio,
Texas. 1t is estimated that the Los An
geles purchases amount to 100000 per
annum.
1t is now accepted as fact that the
First Infantry, which has been stationed
in this harbor for ten years, will be re-
lieved this summer by the Fourteenth In
fantry. A report comes from Washington
that as soon as the transportation fund for
the next fiscal year is available in July,
two artillery regiments will change sta
tions, the Third and Fifth. This is ac-
cepted as meaning that the Fifth, General
hap Al,
Third come to San Francisco. The six
batteries of the Fifth regiment now sta
toned at the Preside are occupying the
best military quarters that the officers and
enlisted men of the regiment ever saw.
Captain Frank Thorp's Light Battery D
moved into Brick Barracks No. last
Thursday. The accommodations provided
are modern and frst-class. There are
reading-rooms, offices, sleeping apart
ments, modern toilet appliances, spacious
bath-tubs, kitchen range, dining-room,
vide halls, abundant light, spacious porch
or veranda and views of sea, mountain
and forest that are unsurpassed.
Practice marches of artillery. cavalry
and infantry will be the order in this de-
partment whether troops come or go under
the transfer system. The four companies
of the Fourth Cavalry. now on duty at the
Presidio, have been ordered to the Govern
ment reservation of Sequoia and Yosemite
for patrol duty, and will march about June
l. Should the First Infantry remain,
practice march to Santa Cruz and return
will probably be ordered. Under the
present regulations infantry marches take
place in } July and August. Light artillery
marches and practice occur in June and
July.
Lieutenant McGrath, Fourth Cavalry,
and Lieutenant Brown, Fourth Infantry,
are in San Francisco to appear before the