Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14
.SECY, ROOT TO DECIDE
Who Shall Get Contract for
Filtration Plant.
MANY COMPLICATIONS
PROTESTS MADE AGAINST PLANS
OF THE ENGINEERS.
Jewell Company Of New York and Har-
mer & Quinn of Philadelphia
Make Claims.

Acting Secretary Sanger of the War De-
partment, after three days consideration
of the matter of the award of contracts for
the construction of the District filtration
plant, has concluded to leave 1t to Secre-
tary Root for settlement. He was lnnu-
enced to that course of action on account
Of the complications of the case and the
fact that Secretary Root is expected TO
return to the city from New YORK TO-
morrow. ~za ..@ .-.=.f-
1t is agreed on all sides that prompt ac-
ton is absolutely necessary In order TO pro-
vide pure drinking water to the residents
of the District within reasonable time
as well as in order to comply with the
terms of the statute making provisions for
the plant, which requires its completion
on or before December 1, 1904 fla-
Every preparation has been made for the
immediate prosecution of the work and the
only hitch, which however is most I'M
portant one, is as to who shall do it.
Two sets of bids for the plant were SUD
rnitted to Col Miller the engineer officer
in charge of the water supply system. The
first set was rejected because the bids were
in excess Of the funds available Tor the
purpose. 49,.
the figures would be reduced to meet the
requirements The result, however, did not
Justify this expectation. The second bids
were also in excess of the appropriations,
and it then became necessary to apply TO
Congress for additional funds.
Appropriation Increased.
At its last session Congress met the Sit
uation by appropriating 100000, and in
increasing the limit of cost of the entire
plant to 3,46s, ,4O5. 1t was supposed that
this action had removed all possible cause
of trouble as up to that time the lack OF
money was the only obstacle to the imme-
diate prosecution of the work. lnasmuch
as the bids first received had been rejected,
and as none of the bidders had entered the
second competition for the entire work, the
officials of the War Department considered
only the bidders at the second competition
in awarding the contracts for the work.
The only single bid for the entire work
at the second bidding within the limit OF
available funds was that Of Harmer d
Quinn of Philadelphia, amounting to 81 ,9SI,-
1S3 There were other bidders on single
items, covering all the work and materials
needed which were lower in the aggregate
than the bid of Harmer & Quinn by $40, ZOO.
The question then arose with General Gil
lespie Colonel Mackenzie and other officers
of the corps of engineers. to whom the
bids were referred whether 1t was In the
interests of the government to accept the
bid of Harmer & Quinn, or to subdivide the
responsible bidder and in that way make
saving to the government of about $780,
600.
Under the terms of the competition the
War Department reserved to ITSELF the
right to reject any and all bids, or to ac-
cept each bid in part or In whole.
Decided to Distribute Work.
After full consideration Of the question
in all its bearings the engineers decided in
favor of a plan Of distributing the work
among the individual bidders best able to
perform the work they had bid upon, IN
preference to giving the entire job to one
firm, which 1t was believed might have to
sublet contracts to the very same con-
tractors to whom the government engineers
would have given the contracts.
In that event it was argued that the
War Department would simply be giving
Harmer & Quinn bonus of $1OOOO FOR
superyising work which the officers of the
government could do Just as well Wuhout
the additional expense.
Protests against the plans OF the eng1-
neers were made by Harmer & Quinn ana
also by Mr.. Parmalee of New York acting
on behalf of the Jewell Filtration Com
pany of New York Harmer & Quinn claim
ed the contract on the general ground that
they were the lowest bidders for the whole
work at the second competition, and also
because they were the only bidders at that
of cost.
The claim Of the Jewell Filtration Com
pany was based on the fact that they ac-
tually submitted the lowest bid received by
the government, and argued that the fact
that they had failed to renew their bid at
the second competition should not operate
against their bid. for the reason that at
that time there vas no ground to suppose
that Congress would Increase the appro-
priations for the work. ...-.z, ..
Jewell Company's Claim.
In other words, as all the bids in both
competitions were in excess Of the amount
available at the time, and before Congress
increased the working fund. their bid.
which was the lowest Of all submitted
should be accepted in preference to any of
the others especially as they claimed to be
better able to perform the particular kind
of work required than any of the others.
To further complicate the subject, it
seems that while the matter was under
consideration by the engineer officers Col.
Miller wrote to the Jewell Filtration Com
pany to inquire If that company was still
prepared to undertake the work at the fig
ures given in their original bid. in view OF
the fact that Congress had provided addi-
was. and 1t Is now contended by the repre-
sentative of the company that this corre-
spondence was equivalent to an acceptance
Of their bid.
able influence. mainly political, to bear upon
the authorities with view to a decision as
desired by each. The contest finally became
SO warm and vigorous that Gen. Gillespie.
chief Of engineers who ordinarily would
have had the final determination of the
question. concluded to submit 1t to the ap-
proval of Assistant Secretary Sanger, who
is in charge of the War Deperament in the
temporary absence Of Secretary Root.
Transferred to War Department.
The effect OF that action was simply to
transfer the contest to the War Department
proper and the people in interest thereupon
directed their energies against Assistant
Secretary Sanger.
Senator Penrose Of Pennsylvania has taken
particularly active interest in the case.
spending several hours at the War Depart
ment each day. He appears In the interest
Of Harmer & Quinn and has undertaken to
show that they alone of all the bidders are
entitled to serious consideration in the mat
ter.
1t is said that Senator Quay, the other
Pennsylvania senator, has also strongly
urged the award of the contract to Harmer
& Quinn. The senior member Of that firm
is son of the tate Representative Harmer
Of the Philadelphia district.
The bid of Harmer & Quinn Is lower on
several important items. notably concrete,