The San Francisco call., 1898-02-11
ENGINEER HOLMES ON
 THE STAND Prolonged Examina- tiOn of the w ater- Front Expert. His Experiences With Colnon on the Creo-
 sote Subject. Review of the Two Obnoxious Clauses in the Speci-
 ficatiOnS. NO PATENT NEED APPLY. Continued Hearing in the Paraff1ne Company Case Against the
 HarbOr Board.
Review of the Two Obnoxious Clauses in the Speci-
 ficatiOnS.
NO PATENT NEED APPLY.
Continued Hearing in the Paraffine Company Case Against the
 HarbOr Board.

Chief Engineer Holmes was kept on the witness stand nearly four hours yesterday in Judge Belcher's court, under a fire of questions from both sides, in the case of the Parafine Paint Company against the State Board of Harbor Commissioners. During the forenoon session his testimony was mainly responsive to questions put by Attorney Stratton in the Did you say" and Did I say' affirmative form.
 From the line of inquiry pursued the policy of the defense in the pending action was fairly well indicated. The more plainly does this seem to besthe fact, when taken into consideration with an expression previously made by MT. Stratton to a Call representative, that whatever intention the board might have had to favor the San Fran cisco Timber Preserving Company, they abandoned it when what is known as the third set of specifications were framed.
 It is this third set of specifications upon which the case of the Paraff1ne Company is claimed by the defense to be largely predicated. Two obnoxious pIODOSlllOLS were 4IySCl6O dIlSI l1lS 1S- lection of the bids under the second set of specifications, in which contest the Paraffine Company was the lowest bidder on each of the proposed pro- cesses. These bids were all rejected, on the preteXt that a protest fruitful of litigation might result from award ing the contract on a day not specified in the advertisement, consideration of them after they were opened having been deferred.
 One change, or insertion. made in the third set, when it was decided to ad- Vertise for new bids, was the addition to each one of three of the described processes for treatment of piles. of the number of the patent for material to be used. In the case of the fourth, or creosotfng, treatment, no patent num- Der was given.
 l, Respecting the creosoting treatment, which is the one used by the Dundon- Slade Company, it is not the material but the process that is patented.
 MT. Stratton set up in his examina- tion of Engineer Holmes that because of this fact, and the additional doubt as to whether the Curtis SL 1Saacs patent would hold water"-as MT. . Holmes expressed 1.-the patent num- Der was omitted from that clause of the specifications which described the creosoting treatment; and that further the words atmospheric pressure, V which called for the Curtis & Isaacs patent, were eXpunged. The reason as- signed for this ext aOrdinary precau- tiOn-eXtraOrdinary in view of the fact that Dundon had been treating piles by this process on informal bids, was to admit of competitive bidding for the creOsOting treatment
 At this point of review 1t may be well to present a few facts not in evil dence, but of themselves suggestive. Mir. StrattOn was a member of the last State Senate. He was at that time serving as special counsel for the liar bOr Commission. Governor Budd had proposed in his message a complete re- constitution of the board and the en- actment Of statutory restrictions as to it's management, particularly in the matter of contracts and expenditures. He was resisted successfully, as he avows, by Harbor Commission lobby. The Governor was also interested in an amendment to the penal code iwhich concealed in it's verbiage a provision of law worth recalling. The bill went through the ordinary course of legisla- tion, passing in a regular manner both the House and Senate. It is not to be assumed that the measure escaped the vigilance of a lobby potentially inter ested in perpetuating the existing methods and liberties of the Harbor Commission. The law is as follows:
 Approved March 27, 1S97l
 The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
 Section 3247 A new section to be added to the Political Code to read as follows:
 3247 Any person. committee, board, of fcer. or any other person charged with the purchase or permitted or authorized to purchase supplies. goods, wares, mer- chandise manufactures or. produce, for tions or offices, or for the use of any county or consolidated city and county, or city or town, shall always, price, fit ness and quality equal, prefer such sup niles. goods wares, merchandise, manu- factures or produce as has been grown, manufactured or produced in this State, and shall next prefer such as has been