The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-09

At a meeting held yesterday after
noon in the mayors office the city
purchasing committee, consisting of
the mayor, the president of the COM
mon council and city treasurer,
awarded the contract for fuel for the
public school department to the
Holmes & MacGaughey Co. as the
lowest bidders. The firm had Stipu-
lated as one of the terms of its bid
that it would not accept any divided
portion of the contract but no attempt
was made on the part of the commit
tee or others concerned to divide it,
and as the Holmes & MacGaughey
bid was as low or lower than any of.
the other competitors on nearly every
item, there was no question as to the
lowest bid.
Contract Is a Large One.
This contract will amount approx
imately to $4,000, and includes some
$3.50 tons of soft coal and $50 tons of
hard coal, besides large quantities Of
slabs, edgings and hard maple wood.
1t had already been decided by the
board of education that no Illinois
soft coal shall be used this year, and
therefore only Youghiogheny and
Hooking Valley and smokeless soft
coal are to be considered. The bids of
the various companies were printed
in T h G 10 b e of Tuesday morning.
On hard coal the Holmes & Mac
Gaughey Co. had but one competitor,
the Jones & Adams Co.. and their bids
were the same at $8.25, while on
Hooking Valley the price of the
Holmes e MacGaughey Co. was $3.50
and that of the other companies all
$3.50; on Youghiogheny, the Holmes
MacGaughey Co., $40 and the 9TH
ers all $3.50; on smokeless, the
p NTonCor~I,nxr 10
the other companies $4.75. The
Holmes &t MacGaughey Co. agreed to
furnish slabs for 50, edgings for 81 so
and maple for $3.50, and the next
lowest bidder, the Northwestern Fuel
company, slabs for SO .65, edgings for
$9.40 and maple for 1918.
Other Dealers are Surprised.
The bid of the Holmes & MacGaug-
hey Co. has been the cause Of consid-
cradle comment on the part of the
wholesale and shipping firms, who
contend that the Holmes & MacGaug-
hey Co. is a retail concern with no di-
rect connection with any source of
supply, and therefore can give no pos
tive assurance of it's ability to fulfill
the contract. This company, however,
declared to the committee that it's bid
was bona fide and in good faith and
the committee determined that the
pond required by the city charter was
sufficient guarantee to the city
Beside the contract for fuel, con-
tracts for general school supplies
amounting to $4,000 were awarded
by the COMMITTEES. The successful
bidders for various portions of this
business We're Brown, Treacy & Sper-
ry Co., Henry E. Wedelstaedt, Wright,
Barrett & Stllwell, J. F. Mcclure, Es-
tate of Adam Decker, st. Paul Book
Stationery company, f. S. Ferry
and the Pioneer Press company The
largest single item was for kindergar-
ten supplies amounting to $3G5, and it
went to Harry E. Wedelstaedt. The
contract for brooms was awarded to
J. F. Mcclure, whose price was IS IS.
1t is estimated that there will be about
forty dozen of these abreoms used in
the course of the year. The contract
for supplying the printed forms used
was divided between E. S. Ferry,
Brown, Treacy & Sperry Co. and the
Pioneer Press company and the CON
tract for desks went to e. S. Ferry