The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-07-02
JUGGLfO THEIR BIDS
DRUGGISTS TRY TO WORK A TIME
WORN SCHEME q
BUT 1T WON'T GO THIS YEAR
Council on the Alert and Some One Is
Likely to Lose by the Little Game.
City Hall Notes

If any council committeeman ever did
faithful work In behalf of the city, Repre-
sentative Toll has certainly done 1t In the
last week or more, since the bids for fur
nshing city supplies were opened. Here
tofore it has only been question of who
was lowest In the aggregate for each de-
partments supplies, but the council got
cunning this year, and as a result some
body has been caught mapping. 1t is to
enable him to cause thorough awakening
that Mr.. Toll has been putting In so much
time and labor, as he is chairman of the
supply committee.
The department in which the greatest
abuse has prevailed has been In the city's
drug contracts, where the bidders would
take advantage of the city's plan of letting
the contract to the lowest aggregate bid
der, by putting in absurdly low bids on
supplies Of which only an insignificant
amount was used, and then naming good
round figure on those articles which the
city used in large quantities. 1t developed
in the past year that this plan was work.
ing a hardship on the treasury, and when
1t came to advertising for bids for furnish
ing supplies the coming fiscal year. phrase
was quietly inserted in the advertisement
that enables the council to accept a bid on
any single article in the long lists, thereby
wholly doing away with the aggregate-bid
system and making it bona fide contest
on each and every article to be furnished.
Mr.. Toll has spent hours in segregating
the bids, and some truly astonishing results
have developed since the matter has been
put in shape to make direct comparisons
at a glance. The bidders on the drug con-
q
Vaughn, and Sale & Son. The latter COM
pany has never before bid on the city con-
tract on account of the system of letting
prevailing, and were prompted to do so this
year only by discovering aggregate bids
were abolished. The other bidders have
stuck to the old plan, however, and 1t is
the differences between their bids and
those of Sale & Son which make the COM
parison so interesting and disclose the
Juggling that has been going on. AS an
instance, on 500 one-half grain cocaine tab
let's, which cost about $3.17 net, the Thomas
Drug company's bid is cents; OF & Vaughn
offer to furnish them for 10 cents, and Sale
& Sons bid is $375-over thirty-seven times
as much as one bidder and seventy-four
times that of the other. The Thomas Drug
company offers to furnish boracic acid for
cents pound. and Off & Vaughn want
cents pound for it, while Sale & Son come
in with bid of 81 cents. AS a matter of
fact, this acid costs at wholesale about 81
cents pound. The Thomas Drug company
and Off & Vaughn offer to furnish one
dozen bottles of elixir or three chlorides
for 10 cents a dozen; this commodity costs
S. so per dozen. The same companies place
their prices on condition powders at cents
a pound, whereas there is not a single con-
dition powder ingredient in the market
which can be bought at any such price.
The fact Is, that the city is not user
of any of these articles in any other than
the very smallest quantities, and some of
them will not be called for once in the whole
time covered by the contract. But on arti-
cles which are often and largely called for.
how different the comparison Take alb
sorbent cotton as an instance, this being an
article of which at least 200 pounds is used
each year in the city institutions. 1t costs
20 cents a pound, and the Thomas Drug
company wants the city to pay s. cents for
1t, while Sale & Son put it in at cost. Pill
boxes are put in by the Thomas Drug COM
pany at 81 per gross; they cost only 45 cents
There are many instances of like char
acter, and the aggregates are carefully add.
ed up by the two veteran bidders, that of
the Thomas Drug company being $4154O,
and Off & Vaughn's $4S7.72, showing that the
latter firm is not quite as good guesser
as the first. Sale & Son, who are certainly
the only bidders who fully anticipated the
councils intention, have put each article in
at very close figure, but on no article In
the list will they lose money.
The question is, what will the Thomas
Drug company and Off & Vaughn do when
they find that the contract is awarded sep
arately on each item and that they must
furnish all the stuff on which they have
quoted ridiculously low figures without be-
ing awarded the contract on the articles
listed by them at high figures and furnished
in large quantities?
1t certainly looks as though there Is some
fun coming, unless the bidders step up
quietly and take the medicine they have
themselves prepared.
Anderson & Chanslor the grocers, will
be awarded the contract for furnishing all
but one item Of the city Jail supplies. J. w.
Hellman having beaten them on the single
item, s:l soda. There were twelve or If
teen bidders in all for this contract.
The same firm also makes quite sweep
in the fire department supplies. but will
have to divide with Morris & Jones, j. w.
Hellman and ]. w. Fuller. The successful
bidders in the supplies for the fire alarm
system are the Thomas Drug company ].
A. Roebling Sons company. ]. w. Hellman
and the Western Electric company. The
whole matter will probably be disposed of
at next council meeting.