The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-26
BOARD RENTS
PENALTY FOR DELAY
He BIames Organized Labor for
His Delay in Completing
Contract.

Controversy between the school de-
partment and the Allan Black COM
pany over the Humboldt school heat
ing plant contract was brought to
close yesterday and the company's
final estimate on the work, amounting
to $1,665, was allowed without deduc-
ton or penalty of any kind for the de-
lay. The contract called for the COM
pletion of the work Sept 1 and pro-
vided a penalty Of SIS per day for fail
ure in this requirement. The work had
not been finished even on Sept. 8, the
date set for the opening of the schools,
and for two weeks after the other
buildings had been opened there was
no school in the Humboldt.
Mr.. Black appeared before the board
at its special meeting yesterday after
noon and by argument succeeded in
convincing all Of the members, with
the exception of Inspector Fisher and
President Holman, that his company
was not to blame for the delay in the
completion of the contract, but had
done all in its power to live up to it's
agreement. In explaining the loss of
time he said that the specifications for
this job called for special boilers which
involved extra work; that the boiler
rooms were not ready when the boilers
were delivered, and that there had also
been some time lost in securing fittings
from Eastern manufacturers. But in
spite of these setbacks the company
would have been able to have COM
pleted it's contract but for it's troubles
with union labor In the first place
three weeks elapsed between the time
that the contract was awarded and the
time it was approved by the city coun-
Gil, and he was deferred from begin
ming work until the contract had been
executed in full by reason of the fact
that the unions had proclaimed his
shop to be unfair and he was afraid
the approval of the council might be
held up. Then, at the request of some
of the members of the board of educa-
ton, he had decided to put union men
on the job; and he had never been able
to get enough of them to carry on the
work properly"
Board Warned Contractor.
Did not the fault lie almost entirely
with one man who had charge of the
work for you and whom 1 advised you
to replace?" inquired George Gerlach
inspector of buildings.
yes" replied Mr.. Black, che was to
blame for a great deal of the trouble;
but he was a union man and was rec
commended to me by their secretary
"The union sent a delegation up here
to notify us that if we gave the job to
Mr.. Black it would not be done in
time" remarked Mr.. Rogers, "and my
recollection of it is that we appointed
committee to see Mr.. Black and ask
him to employ union men; anyhow, I
know l spoke to him on the subject"
yes" said Mr.. Black, "Mr. Rogers
and some of the other members spoke
to me about this and I put on union
men, but l was never able to get
enough Of them. heard something of
that warning, too, but the unions knew
nothing about 1t any more than any
body else"
'Well. if they didn't know they GER
tainly made a good guess in this in.
stance observed President Holman.
Inspector Fisher said that in his
opinion the most serious feature of
the case was the fact that the chill
dren of the Humboldt building had
been kept out Of school for two weeks
or ten days. But for that he would
not regard the delay in the completion
of the contract as very great loss;
but in view Of that he considered the
loss irreparable.
THAT is all very true" replied Mr.
Rogers, "but there is no way we would