The herald., 1897-04-28
Both Sides of the Question
Fully Ventilated
HARPER REYNOLDS CASE
MIR. DAVIS PRESENTS THE MAT
TER FROM ITS INCEPTION
nrector webb Gives His Side OF the
Controversy-The w. G. furrey
Co. Express Their Opinion

uarner & Reynolds contract MONDAY
rieht has caused much comment on the
..raa+ from those who are interested IN
supplies furnished the public scnools'
In view of the serious nature OF the
disputes which have taken place De-
tween members of the board in open ses-
s,on and the public interest aroused
.hs dieerent parties to the transaction
and the principal advocate and opponent
of the cancellation of the contract were
Yesterday interviewed with the IDEA OIL
nresenting the inside facts as gathered
from both sides of the controversy.
The first one seen yesterday was W. T.
Furrey. who is at present receiving the
natronage of the board of education in
the matter of hardware supplies.
Mr.. Furrey said: "The whole propo-
sition is the Harper & Reynolds COM
pany have had the entire patronage OIL
the board of education for the past TWO
wears. When the new board came IN II
saw fit to send us orders for goods. we
simply filled the orders to the best OF our
ability. We are here for business. We
did not question the authority of the
board for doing business as 1t saw ht.
don't know as there is any occasion LOT
trouble. The Harper & Reynolds COM
pany claim to have a contract. don't
know the right or the wrong of 1t. AS
to selling goods ct wholesale price, the
term wholesale is very ambiguous
Everything is sold by list and is priced
according to the quantity used.
"There is no standard wholesale price
unless there is a combination which is
against the interest of trade. There is
no feeling between the Harper & Rey-
nolds company and us. When they did
business we did not interfere.
1T would be foolish when business
comes to US to refuse it, We are here a ;
merchants to take business as it is Of
fered. We have, however, nothing to do
with any fights in this matter"
MIR. REYNOLDS STATEMENT
Harper & Reynolds were inclined to
he quite reticent. Mr. Reynolds said
however: I'VE did not intend to get
mixed up in this controversy at all until
these statements were made about over
charges.
In a bill of about $4,000 a mistake of
about 50 in different items was discov-
cred. This we have placed to the credit
of the board of education"
Mr.. Reynolds furnished copy of the
letter written the board of education
Monday night, which, he said, was sent
TO the board and not to the committee"
and which was withheld in the open
meeting. He also furnished the letter
from the secretary to which his was a
reply. These letters he prefaces with
the following explanations
LOS ANGELES. April 81, 1897.
Editor Los Angeles Herald-Dear Sir;
We did not intend to take any part in
the controversy in regard to the pur-
chasing of supplies by the Los Angeles
board of education until certain state
ments in regard to same were published
ir this mornings paper in which we
think wrong impression was conveyed
and in justice to ourselves we ask you tc
publish the enclosed copy of a commune
cation received from II. G. Johnson. Sec
retary of the board of education and oul
answer to same. These were the papers
referred to in their meeting yesterday
but not produced. Yours truly,
HARPER & REYNOLDS COMPANY.
LOS ANGELES CITY SCHOOLS,
Los Angeles, Cal. April 20, 1897.
Harper & Reynolds Company-Gen-
tiemen: We would ask of your firm /
at the present date or at any time sine
the 1st of January, 1897 during the pres
ent term of this board of education, yol
consider in any way that you have {
contract with this board?
We also ask information as to whether
or not you are willing to authorize th'
statement that you would have fur
nished to the board of education hard
ware that has been furnished by th'
w. C. Furrey company since Jan. l, 1897
at an average of 20 per cent less thar
the prices at which the same have beei
purchased by the board from the sai'
w. C. Furrey company? By order of thu
committee. Respectfully yours,
(Signed) II. C. JOHNSON,
Secretary.
HARPER & REYNOLDS COMPANY
Los Angeles Cal, April 90. 1897
Fl. G. Johnson, Esq, Secretary Boart
of Education Of the city of Los Angeles
Dear Sir: Your communication of Apri
goth received and contents noted, anC
IN reply we viii say that on July II, 1896
we made a contract with the board o
education for certain articles for th'
school year. commencing July 1st anC
ending June 80 1897.
Upon looking over our books for tn,
past year we find that few errors wer,
made in pricing up some of the articles
al a different price from what our con
tract called for, and also that some wer,
charged at less price. The tota
amount oVer-charge was $11.31 and th
under-charge S1.70 leaving a balanc
over-charge of 1851, which amour
stands on our books to the credit of tn
present board Of education.
The total amount charged to TIL
board of education for 1896 was $1,000
Any firm doing a large business is liabl
to have some mistakes occur, and W
think that the small amount oVer-chars
shows plainly that it was mistake An,
we feel that an injustice has been don
us from the fact that a newspaper re
ported that you did not consider tina
you have contract with us for the rea
son that we have been charging 100 pc
cent more than our contract called fol
In regard to your inquiry about tn
bills from w. c. Furrey & Co. we, a
competitors, think that 1t would not b