The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-07
WHY DID THEY TURN
DOWN LOWEST BID?
Action of Counciimen in Reject.
ing Cheapest Lighting Pro-
posals Causes Comment.

What induced the two bodies of the
council Thursday night to throw out all
bids received for supplying the city
with its own iron lamp posts?
Was favoritism the real cause of the
rejection of all the iron-post bids, even
in the face of the fact that the lowest
bidder was over $4,000 under the next
lowest bidder?
Aid. BantZ, Huber and Elder and AS
semblymen Whitcomb, Wheeler and
others say it was because the posts of
the American Development company
were defective. Assemblyman Arnold
declares the rejection was because the
| majority could not conscientiouSly
award the contract to the Cleveland
Vapor Light company, whose bid was
$4,000 higher than that of the Ameri-
can Development company.
They preferred. he says, to throw
away $4,000 to giving the contract to
the American Development company.
This company has been in bad odor
with some of the members Of the coun-
Gil for the past two years, and one of
the members, Thursday night, went so
far as to say privately that he would
see the American Development COM
pany in h first before it would get his
VOTE
vi pOl otiOl <AllOILey MICHAEL, WueH
asked point blank by Assemblyman
Van Slyke Thursday night if the posts
that some of the members had taken SO
much pains to examine need be con-
sidered, said no" The specifications,
he declared, were the city's safeguard,
and no other posts but what it speci-
fled could be used.
Offer Was a Bargain.
II am not criticising the councils
action said City Engineer Rundlett
yesterday, when pressed for an opinion
as to the action of the members. 81
think the offer of the American Devel-
opment company was bargain. 1 do
not think any bad posts would have
got past me. Because a post looks
rusty is no argument that it is junk"
II should imagine the contractor was
glad his bid was thrown out" said
Mayor Smith yesterday. Il believe he
was. The offer was an undoubted bar
gain if the specifications were complied
with"
Robert Seeger, the manager of the
American Development company, says
his posts have been termed junk.
Il never have heard a word against
the. posts that the Cleveland Vapor
Light company wanted to palm off on
the city, said Mr.. Seeger. Il am posi-
tive they would have been taken with
out word of complaint had this COM
pany underbid me-
According to Mr.. Seeger there are
posts in the Fifth ward in use by this
company that have had the greater
portion of their bottoms knocked off in
order to save the trouble of blasting
hole in the rock which underlies that
territory for the purpose of planting
them. This was done by the Workmen
in many instances not only to save
work, but also to provide them with
the necessary coin with which to rush
the can.
Posts Were Ten Years Old.
In other sections, it is said, where
the ground is more yielding, posts
without bottoms have been made tenn
porarily serviceable by forcing a piece
of scantling into the hollow of the
posts. Instead of two years, Mr.. See
ger says many of these posts are ten
years old. A large number of them
were posts discarded by the gas COM
pany.
An automobile was used by the
Cleveland company Thursday in haul
ing the members Of the council to the
locality where posts belonging to it's
rival were located
Aid. Rohland says that he saw the
disputed posts and that a large num-
Der OIL theme were as SOUND as a dollar.
Assemblyman Van Slyke says that he
never saw the posts, but that he relied
entirely on the specifications. That
was sufficient for him.
The board of public works has been
persistent in it's declaration that there
never will be active competition for st.
Pauls street lighting until the city
owns its own posts, but the fight has
become so bitter that it is hardly likely
| another call for bids will result in any
! thing satisfactory.
Some of the members were around
| the city hall yesterday advocating
| call for proposals on new posts only.
They could not be cast for less than
| $40 each, and it is hardly likely that
the scheme will prevail. City Engineer
Rundlett says secondhand posts, if
sound, are just as good as new ones.