The San Francisco call., 1898-06-03
THEY DESIRE
 FAIR PLAY Merchants Want Federal
 Patronage. DISCRIMINATION IS CHARGED.
A DEMAND BY ALL THE LOCAL
 COMMERCIAL BODIES, ..
Something: Queer in the Letting of a
 Big Contract for: Soldiers Shoes in the
 East.

F. There was representative gathering of
 commercial men yesterday In the rooms of the Manufacturers and Producers As sociation, the object being to consider the best ways by which the manufacturers. merchants and producers can secure as much of the Federal patronage in the way of supplying the troops now and in a the future. Representatives were pres ent from the Chamber of Commerce., Mer- chants; Association, California State Board of Trade, San Francisco Board of Trade, Pacific Coast Hardware and Metal Association, Manufa cturers' and Pro- ducers' Association, Boot and Shoe Man. ufaeturers and. California Wine-Makers' Corporal tion. ..-~ ;.%... -
 A. Sbarboro was selected as chairman and E. Scott as secretary. The chairman, in opening the meeting, said: We have demonstrated that we can furnish every : thing that the: Government requires, not only from a needle to an' anvil, but. from an anvil to the best battle-ships that have ever been constructed in the world, and therefore we feel that the Government should procure here all that they requlre' price, quality and fitness being equal.
 He called attention to considerable cor reSpondence that had taken place be- tween the commercial bodies of this city and the officials at Washington relative to letting this State get its share or the Government trade and. particularly to the following, which was later the cause of some heated discussion:
 SAN FRANCISCO May 25. 1898.
 To Eagan, Commissary General, Washington. D. C.: Unjust discrimination against Coast factories Bids for shoes in accordance. Gov eminent requirements declined. Immediate de livery demanded: Contracts awarded to East ern parties with: time to manutacture. tQur tuily equipped factories ready to compete on any sized orders in time, qualify and price.
 1Signed9 HUGH CRAIG.
 President Chamber Of Commerce.
 :..'':- A SBARBORO, President Manufacturers and Producers' .Asso-
 -ciation.
 To which the following answers were re ceived;
 UNITED STATES SENATE. WASHINGTON, May 20, tS9S-.
 Hon. 4. Sbarboro; President Manufacturers and Producers Association, San Frsnciseo Cal My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your tele- gram of May 24 relative to the purchase of supplies for the army. and would ssay that have personally visited the departments with a view of having all such supplies bought on the Pacific Coast. l am glad to state that or now in force. Everything that the. department needs, and which is on hand in San Fran cisco, will be. purchased there. NO eNceptlon 3l eases where. local stocks were *exhatsteit or the quality of the article was not standard General Eagap; Commissary-Ge of S9b- sistence to-day wrote me that not one dollar has been expended by the department outside Pacific coast except for salt meat and canned - & tsa% ardN tbfs only nfter air that was there had been first bought, cleaning up all there was in this market.
 The merchants of San Francisco, therefore, have only to place their goods on the market. Yours very truly, 'g'
 Washington, D. C.. May 2s. 1898
 The argument in question. was brought out by a statement made by A. Dernham, who said that while the, promises of the. people at Washington are all very. nice sounding, they lach sincerity m many ne- tails For example, in this city there are enough shoes to supply. several regiments. of soldiers. When one of the: purchasing agents for the Government was ap- preached in the matter of furnishing. shoes for the troops for Manila, he pro- duced sample of hand-sewed 'brogan, which he said was the standard The the equal of the one displayed, but al- though the price was only S225 per pair, the offer was refused, and even bid on the same kind as the sample was refused on the ground that there was no time for filling the order. The contract was placed with Wanamaker in the East for S2. S4 per pair, who had the order filled in Chicago. The order was for over 200 600 pairs, which were sent to this city.
 Mir. Dernham said that when the goods arrived here he examined the lot and found that the shoes were of the same pattern and make as those. he had offered to the purchasing agent here for 59 cents a pair less. This was clear profit to Wanamaker of over $70.00O on the con-
 
 of transportation. $. Nick followed by stating that all of these big contracts are let at. Washington through the influence of pull An swers to letters and dispatches are very assuring, but when 1t comes to giving out the big contracts the 'apulp gets in its work and California gets left out in the cold as usual: He asked that a resolution embodYing these facts be prepared by the assembly and sent to Washington with the request that justice be done to flaa nf tta i,, H< .R 
 This raised a heated discussion, some wanting to have the matter politely pre- sehted with a request that more ;favors be dispensed this way and that no one industry be taken lip. but that complaints be received from all branches of trade, and general complaint be sent to the officials at the heads of such matters. Still others, led by Hugh Craig and J. w Kerr, believed that the matter should not be minced, but that the injustice of the glVlng Of contracts under the present sys- tem be told in words that could not be misunderstood At last the aggressive element won and the chairman was di- iTected 10 appoint a committee whose duty IS 10 give the authorities the facts in the rough He appointed Messrs. Brown. Craig.
 The latter said that he knows of inc loss Of d $4Q,G00 order to this city, through plque, 10 get even on certain persons here. fe said; T will not hesitate to. expose eiiS pGs iltSS III lIle proper time and man. ner. This man Wanamaker has no right 70 ou; h's hand into the Treasury of tbe Onftec States and take out over 65 cents on every pair of shoes sold to the Gov ernment This system of contracts are as pad as those by which the Government was robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars during the late civil war. If is a me time now to expose the business be- lore the thing goes too far"
 MT McClosky, one of the representa tYes of the hardware industries. gave some valuable experience of his while en- deaVoring to convince the authorities at the capital that the supplies for the In- dian reservations of this coast could Ina bought as cheaply in the West as in the East. He showed that the dealers in the Eastern cities are very persistent In their efforts to deprive this coast of what lif tie patronage it has with the Cavern 1 me1rt. He read long statement showing that the articles needed by. the Govern ment can be purchased here as elsewhere c. A. Wetmore and Charles Bundschu of the wine makers body, presented a resol1I. ton adopted by the body asking the Pres ident to reconsider his action in the treaty with France, for if the agreement poes as it stands it will work a Very great injury to the wine trade of this coast The resolution was adopted and it will be sent on to Washington signed by the representatives of all the com rnercial bodies mentioned.
 SEVERAL FIREMEf- FINED.