Evening star., 1900-08-11
FILES HlSa OBJECTIONS
THEO. L. HoIRROOK's PROTEST
AGAINST AWARD OF CONTRACT.
President of q Leoal Brick Company
Declares l1is Bid Was
IR3Nred,

A protest against the recent award OF
contract for supplying brick for the new
government printing soffice building to the
Frederick Brick Company of Frederick,
Md, has been made to Gen. John M. VIII
son. chief of engineers, by Mr.. Theodore
l.. Holbrook, president Of the Standard
Brick Company of this city. The building
is being erected under the direction of
Lieut.. SeweN the engineer officer in
charge. and the contract just awarded is
large one. as the contractor agrees to sup
ply about five million of common brick,
several millions of selected handmade red
brick, about 100000 handmade pressed
brick and some $4,000 shaped or nodded
brick
In his protest Mr. Holbrook says that in
awarding the contract to the Maryland
company for furnishing these various
classes of brick the bid of his company
was ignored for the first three classes of
material above referred to- for which he
claims the contract as the lowest bidder
on the company's proposal to furnish said
material
1.-THE directors protest against the pro-
posed action" says Mr.. Holbrook, which
wilt cause great loss and injury to this
company. The Standard Brick Company
Is an Incorporation organized to buy and
Sell brick, etc, and 1t has bought the en-
tire product OF seven of the fourteen local
brick manufacturers, which we sell on
commission of so cents per thousand. keep
ing the accounts and guaranteeing monthly
pay ments in full for all brick delivered on
our orders to consumers Those OF the
manufacturers whose brick we have pur-
chased produce. In addition to what are
known as common building brick. press
brick, and make a specially Of brick known
as handmade selected red brick for facing
walls, and In years past produced shaped
or nodded brick, but Of late years have
ceased to manufa cture that class of build
ing material"
Submitted Samples.
Continuing, Mr.. Holbrook says:
''At the time of letting 1 submitted sam
pies of standard size brick in this market
and Of as good quality as have ever been
used in the construction of government
buildings in the District of Columbia, bid
ding for 100000 common brick 1913 per
thousand. The only other bids received
were for 100000 brick of Washington size
at 1886 per thousand, and for 100000
Maryland size inferior brick at something
over IS per thousand. In this connection l
wish to state that the standard Washington
size brick is one-seventh larger than Balti-
more. Philadelphia or New York brick.
This company was the only bidder for
select, handmade red-face brick and hand
made pressed brick, no other samples of
such brick being submitted. After bids for
brick were scheduled and considered 1 was
personally advised by Lieut.. Sewell. as 1
can prove by several witnesses, If neces-
sary, that by selecting a certain grade,
called light red BRICK. manufactured by the
Frederick company, which the advertise
ment did not specially call for, he would
get larger and. In his opinion, better
brick than the Washington brick offered,
while he would not consider the bid for
100000 inferior amall brick and the addi-
tional price asked would be cheaper for
the government than those this company
had bid to furnish at L. cents less per thou
sand: but If l would assist him to obtain a
satisfactory contract for his shaped and
nodded brick he was prepared to award the
whole contract to the Standard Brick Com-
pany. Acting in compliance with the re-
quest. succeeded in inducing a responsible
gentleman, who had gone out of the manu-
featuring of brick. to make arrangements
for resumption of operations. and a pro-
posal was made to furnish the shaped and
nodded bricks required.