The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-04
SERIOUS CHARGES MADE
GAMEwELL SYSTEM CONTRACT DE-
vELOPs SEVERAL STORIES.
one Agent Says "A Democratic OmciaI
Told Him 1t would Take $4,000
to Get the Work.

The award of a contract for a police pa
/ troll telegraph system to the Gamewell
| Company by the Board of Safety has de-
| veloped a condition of affairs that calls for
| prompt investigation. Very serious charges
are made by agents representing other
| companies that bid on the contract, eX-
pecting fair treatment at the hands of the
| city administration. The board let the
contract to the company which bid many
| thousands of dollars above others. An in
| teresting feature of the situation is re-
+ port made by an expert commission in chi
| cago, showing that the boxes offered by
| one of the GamewelI Company's COMPETE
| tors in Indianapolis are fully as good as
| those offered by the Gamewel Company.
Another feature is the charge made by one
| of the agents that Democratic council
man practically tried to hold up his COM
pany for 81, 900 or S., 900 to pave the way of
the contract through two municipal boards
| as well as the Council.
The representatives of the disappointed
companies claim that the Board of Safety
took snap" judgment on them. to say the
| least and did not live up TO the specifica-
tons which the board itself prepared. Be
fore the contract was let it was anticipated
that the Gamewell people would be given
| the work.
| Newspaper clippings are exhibited show
ing the experience of the company's agent
in dealing with public officials in other
| cities. In Covington, KY, he was arrested
| in connection with charges of bribery, &C
| cording TO a copy of a Covington paper.
| This paper had huge headlines on the ar
| ticle, and used the name of the GameWeu
| Company and Agent Chandee, who is rep
| resentng the company in this city, very
! freely 1t is stated that Alderman Droege
swore out a warrant for Agent Chandlees
arrest making affidavit that Chandlee paid
| him $500 in cash and promised an additional
$3.50 to use his influence with the Council
for the adoption of the Gamewell system.
A Sault Ste. Marie (Mich.) paper also con-
! tains an interesting story in connection
with the Gamewell Company's securing
| contract there, and makes broad hints as
to the methods employed
THE BOARDS ACTION.
j. W. Johnson representing the United
| States Fire and Police Telegraph Company
Of Boston, and f. V. Dodge, of Cleveland,
! representing the National Electrical Manu-
| featuring Company of Milford, Conn, be-
ieve that the Board of Safety gave little
| heed to their claims. In the first place
| they say that the time between advertis
| SHORTCUT two weeks-which made it al
most impracticable to get apparatus here
! to exhibit to the board. The Gamewell
! Company had been allowed to have its ap-
paratus on exhibition in the mayors office
| for a wear The specifications the bid
provided that bidders will be required to
show the actual workings of their Sys-
| tenn" There was no provision whatever
| that the companies should have their APP
! paratus in the city hall or in the city 1t
| was presumed that the board would wait
| few days after receiving bids and then
! have some one make an inspection Oh plants
! in actual operation by the lowest bidder.
| Mr.. Dodge says he showed Mayor Taggart
| "a telegram a day or two before bids were
opened. This telegram was from the fac
! tory and stated that part OF the apparatus
| to exhibit here had already been shipped
! and the remainder would be on It's way at
| once. Mr. Dodge says Mar TaGgart assured
| him that his company would be given an
| opportunity to show what ii could do; that
! all the city wanted was the best article
! for the least money This same telegram,
! he claims, was shown to President Ma
! guire. of the Board of Safety. 1t is further
| claimed that the Gamewell COmpany's bid
! does not include telephones, and that when
| the city comes TO pay for its new system 1t
| will find il will have 10 pay an additional
! $40 a year to the Bell telephone people for
| every telephone used in the patrol boxes.
AT the boards office it is said telephones
| can be rented for So each a year. The other
| bids, it is insisted, included telephones and
| everything complete. Under the accept
| ance by the Board of Safety of the Game
| well bid it seems that the board may do
! without a number of essential features in
! order to reduce the cost to the neighbor-
! hood of $32 600 or $33 900. The other COM
| panes say If this is done the system will
! be practically worthless for the purposes
| which the city intends it to be used, ana
| that it will practically be reduced to mes
| senger-box service. The automatic cut
Off which the board has talked about leaV-
| ing out is absolutely Indispensable, accord
! ing TO the claims OF the other agents. Mr..
! Johnson says his bid of $232l4 included
| everything and that he could make such
fNaf0 all
| company offers and reduce his bid much
lower still Mr. Dodge's bid was $25,50Q
RECEIVING BIDS.
The bids were to have been received up
| to 10 o'clock Friday morning. The disap-
pointed agents say that the bids were
showed into safe at that hour without
being inspected closely. while the board
went into the mayors office to inspect the
Gamewell system. which has been there for
a long time. The only other company eX-
hibiting apparatus. it is claimed. was one
which is practically owned by the Came
we'll Company, and which, in fact, adver-
tises itself as the Western agent of the
Gamewell Company. This company bid
about $1,000 higher than the Gamewell Com
pany and the agents say this was merely
bluff" to help out the parent company.
| Afterwards the board went back into its
Office and announced that it would consid-
| er the bids at o clock 1t Is said that at
| one Of the sessions of the board all agents
! except Chandlee, of the Gamewell Com
| pany were excluded from the room. AL
| though it took Clerk Herrick over an hour
| to skim over the bids quickly in the morn
! ing yet the board awarded the contract in
| less than two hours, when it was pre-
| sumed that the board would go carefully
over the paragraphs of each bid each bid
| being quite Voluminous. w. s McCurdy.
| representing one of the companies, says he
| went around the courthouse yard and
! looked down on the board through the win
and evidently paying little attention to the
! bids.
1t is insisted by these agents that the APP
! preparation of $4,000 was ample for a sys-
tenn of $50 boxes, and the estimates at the
| time the appropriation was made was for
$50 boxes, yet the board accepts the bid of
| the Gamewell Company for one hundred
! boxes. The advertisement, in fact, only
| called for one hundred boxes.
| I'VE supposed" said Mr.. Johnson yester-
| day that the board had sufficient inter-
| est in the matter to wait few days to see
| our apparatus The specifications did not
| say they should be brought here. The
| board did not give any bidder but Chandlee
| an opportunity 10 come before it, 1t did
| not even ask some of the bidders if they
| had apparatus in the city. One of the
reasons advanced for letting the contract to
| the Gamewell people was that the other
| companies had no apparatus here
| Mr.. Dodge says his company beat the
| GameweH Company out at Cleveland, o.,
| and Bridgeport Conn, on the merits of the
| boxes offered by his people.