Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-09-26
THE TROUBLE REVIVED
Bricklayers at City Post Office Again Be
fuse to Work.
NCn-Pnyment of Wages the Cause
Statement by One of the
Contractors.

The trouble with the bricklayers employ
cd by Hurdle & Mccartney on the new city
post office is revived, and the twelve men
who had been working for that firm re-
fused to resume operations this morning
The cause is repetition of that of a few
weeks ago, the non-payment of a week s
wages.
Mr.. Joseph Hurdle of the firm of Hurdle
6 Mccartney made the following statement
of the case to a Star reporter today:
Saturday last Mr.. H. B. Camp of the
II. B. Camp Company made out check
for me to meet our pay roll for last week.
and gave it to me to get cashed- 1t was
nearly II o'clock and the check was on an
outside bank and failed to get the money
on it, after arrangements had been made
with our indemnitor, giving his consent
that the amount should be paid. | gave
the check back to Mr.. Camp. asking If he
could not get it cashed. When he got the
check he refused to give it to me again.
saying he had changed his mind, and
thought he would take the work away from
us and finish it himself. giving his reason
that he didn't wish to see US lose any more
money the job, and that he could finish
the work cheaper than We could.
IF we Were allowed to finish our con-
tract" continued Mr.. Hurdle, the bulk of
it could be completed in a weeks time with
our present force. We never claimed that
We have lost money on our contract. On
the other hand there is a sufficient amount
due US now to complete the work and
leave US a margin of profit.
Regarded as Absurd.
Mr.. Camps claim that he can finish the
work cheaper than we can is simply alb
surd. He has had few men and two bosses
on the building for the last few weeks do
ing work that does not show on the plans
and finishing up some work in different
parts of the building, and / understand he
has bill against for 81 .140, or one
fifth OF our entire contract. You can hard
ly see what his men have done, while we
have almost completed our contract at a
cost Of $3.50. At the rate his men are pro-
ceeding 1t will cost more money than the
original contract to finish up the work.
Messrs. Hurdle & Mccartney today ap-
pealed to their bondsmen, the United States
Fidelity and Guaranty Company of Balti-
more. to protect them, and the courts will
probably be called upon to settle the con-
troversy
In their statement to the trust company
Hurdle & Mccartney. it is understood, de-
ciared that the action of those in authority
caused delay of about nine weeks. the re-
suit of which was great Inconvenience and
loss to that firm; also that they were re-
quired to do extra work which was not
included in their contract. For this delay
and extra work Hurdle & Mccartney in
tend, Mr.. Hurdle said, to file a claim with
the government, and they allege that If
tract they would have no redress at law
The United States Fidelity and Guarantee
Company OF Baltimore arranged today to
pay the bricklayers employed by Hurdle
q Mccartney at II o'clock tomorrow, and
will decide tomorrow what course to pur-
Hurdle & McCartney's contract by the H.
b. Camp Company.