The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-30
HRNOR pLANT BIDS
VARIETY OF PROPOSALS OPENED
BY THE SECRETARY OF THE
NAVY.
DULUTH OFFERS A FREE SITE.
CITIES IN ALL PARTS OF THE
XTRY READY TO GIVE
LAND.
Only One Proposition to Establish
Plant and Equip 1t With the
necessary Machinery.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29.-In accord
ance with the advertisement issued by
the navy department recently, pro-
pcsals were opened in the office of Sec
r tary Long today for the construction
of a government armor plant, for the
sale to the government of sites suit
able for such a plant and for the ma
chinery and buildings necessary, if the
government decides to make it's own
srmor.
There were twenty nine bids, and
they covered every phase of the adver-
tisement. Many Of the proposals were
merely offers to donate sites to the
government conditional upon the loca-
ton of the plant; number of others
were for the supply of machinery
There were only two bids to furnish d
complete plant, and only one of these
named a figure. The companies now
engaged in the manufacture of armor
for the navy did not submit proposals.
The Huntington, w. Va. chamber of
commerce offered to follow the speci-
fcations of the board and build COM
pIete plant for So, 325, 905, including site
buildings and machinery.
Another offer to supply a complete
plant came from the John P. Holland
Torpedo Boat company, of New York
but no figure was named, the COM
pany simply Offering to do this for q
sum of money and within a period
less than estimated by the armor fac
tory board in its report The bid was
accompanied by the expression of an
opinion that "armOr should be includ-
ed in the construction contracts of all
vessels, by which policy congress and
the country would understand the full
cost of ships and their protection, and
the price of armor would be reduced
and its delivery expedited.
Another proposal that commanded
some attention was that of the Rear
lex Engineering company, of Column
bus, o. This was a very complicated
proposal to supply each Of the numer-
Gus buildings, furnaces, boilers and so
forth required, as we'll as $50 acres of
land, at sums specified in each par
ticular case. A special point of inter
est about the bid was an accompany
ing offer from the chamber of COM
merce of Columbus to donate the sum
of 100000 to the government if the
plant were located in that city.
Offers of sites for a plant. gratis, or
for a nominal sum came from Muske-
gon, Mich. Youngstown, o.; Escanaba,
Mich; Duluth, Mimi. Ensley, Ala;
LCrra'n, O.; Winthrop HarbOr, and
Dock company, of Chicago; Sheffield,
Tenn; Waukegan, ILL.,; Detroit, Mich. );
Peoria, Ill; Marquette, Mich, and An
nistOn, Ala.
A Marquette. Wis. man offered to
donate a site free. if the government
would build d 100000 dock into the
lake. Offers came also from man
in Hampton, Va, to sell some land and
machinery for about 100000, and from
a Philadelphia man to supply some
land and a testing machine for LOO.
Some of the pig Western tool concerns
are forward with offers to supply ma
chinery needed for the plant In this
list were the Morgan Engineering COM
pany. of Alliance, O.. and the Niles
Tool Works. of Hamilton. o. A Marion
county, Indiana, corporation offered to
donate forty acres Of land and fifty
wells of natural gas.
1t will take some time to schedule all
of these bids, but, as soon as they can
be arranged, they will be sent to con-
gress by Secretary Long for the infor-
nation of that body in case it desires
to embark the government in the man
ufacture of armOr.