Evening star., 1898-09-07
WILL SAVE OVER A MILLION
Bids Opened for Stamped Envelopes and
Newspaper Wrappers.
Great Reduction Under the Bid of the
Purcell Company : Accepted in
PIympton-Morgan Co.

Once again within year bids were
opened today for furnishing the govern
ment with stamped envelopes and news
paper wrappers. While there were only
four bidders, the competition was close on
several items, and incidentally the govern
ment made big saving over the bids re-
ceived in March, on which Postmaster Gen
eral Gary made an award.
1t will be recalled that the Purcell COM
pany was accepted as the lowest bidder
under the administration of General Gary,
and an award accordingly made. General
Gary retired from Office before the contract
was signed, and his successor, Mr.. Charles
Emory Smith. after an exhaustive iGvesti-
cation. decided there was sufficient doubt
as to the award ard as TO the ability of
the Purcell company to do the work and
later rejected the bids, recalled the award
and ordered a Reimbursement of the con-
tract. The case was Immediately taken
into court. and is now pending in the Court
of Claims.
The bids today were under the readver-
tisement. and while only four bidders sub
mitted proposals, there. were many inter
ested paper men present. Some surprise
was occasioned by the failure of the Pur-
cell company, the lowest bidders last time,
to submit bid. One of the company
stated after the bids had been opened that
the company already had contract for
doing the very thing for which the bids
were just opened.
The Plympton-M Morgan company, the old
rivals of the Purcell company, put in a
very low bid, and will undoubtedly ge. the
contract. The bid was S4S,357.12 lower
per year. or Sl93 42S. As lower for the four
years. than the Purcell bid which was ac-
cepted by General Gary and rejected by
General Smith.
Briefly, it may be stated that under the
present bid of the Piympton company the
government will save upward of 81 500, 600
On the price now paid under the current
contract.
Cost of stamped Envelopes.
There is an important feature of this
bidding which will be welcome news to the
public generally. There Is a proposition to
reduce the price of stamped envelopes, and
If this is done the public can purchase en-
velopes already stamped at a slight cost.
The Purcell company claims that this is
directly due to its advent as bidders Four
years ago, when that company entered the
field as bidders. the government was pay
ing S.T0 per thousand for the envelopes
most generally used. Now 1t is paying
$l.30 per thousand to the Purcell company
which In March reduced 1t further TO rs
cents per thousand. The bid Of the plymp-
ton-MorSan company today reduces it to
l3 cents per thousand There was q time
in 1874 when the government paid $2.9e per
thousand for these same envelopes.
There are really but four items of in
them practically all of the work Is done
The most important is for extra letter size
stamped envelopes, of which it is estimated
the government will require 355, ,957 600; the
commercial size, which it is estimated g.
$50 600 will be used: the legal size en-
velopes, which he department estimate;
Will require o,142 600 to satisfy the de-
mand, and ordinary newspaper wrappers,
which will require 40,T47 600 So that bid
ders confined their low prices more espe-
cial1y to these items.
Bids and the Bidders.
The bidders and the prices submitted on
the above mentioned items were as fol-
lows:
Plympton Morgan Company-Extra size
envelopes, 70 cents per 1,0OO commercial
size, 56 cents per 1000; legal size, 50 cents,
and newspaper wrappers, So cents per 1 900.
Charles Cooper, Brooklyn, N. Y.-Extra
size envelopes, 13 cents; commercial size,
u cents; legal size, 81 cents, and news
paper wrappers, 43 cents.
American Envelope Company of West
Carleton, Ohio-Extra letter size, SO cents;
commercial size, IS cents; legal size, 90
cents, and newspaper wrappers, As cents
per 900.
Connecticut River Paper Company of
Holyoke, Mass.-Extra size, 7S.5 cents;
commercial, Is cents; legal size, SO cents,
and newspaper wrappers, 4S cents.
The bids were scheduled today and will
be submitted to the Postmaster General for
examination during the week. AS the
Plympton-M Morgan Company is the lowest
bidder, the contract will doubtless be
awarded to 1t