Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-07-30
SCANDAL IN A BIG
POST0FF|CE JOB
"Platt's ssan" Alleged to Have
Sscn & warded Cleveland
Contract.
sEcy. SHAW is INVOLVED

Such Us the Ate9deIon NOuSSTuluJ
Rank Favoritism in Letting Of
Great Contract Without Any
Real Competition.
New York. July 30.-A philadelphia
special to the World says:
A formal protest has been filed WITH
the secretary of the treasury against
the proposed award Of contract for
q new postof1ice at Cleveland. o..
which involves a total Of $3.550.000. and
it is stated upon the very highest au-
thority that the president has decided
to order a searching inquiry into Tue;
past and present management of the
office of the supervising architect of
| the treasury as result Of this pro-
| test.
Senators Hanna, Plat and Penrose
are directly concerned in the matter at
issue, and in the absence of Senator
| Penrose, who is cunning in British
Columbia. his colleague. Senator Quay.
came here on Thursday to get mate
rialzfor an aggressive fight In oehair
| of the friends of Senator Penrose.
The specific charges now before Sec
rotary Shaw We're known to him un-.
| officially on July Is. when he tourneyed
| to Oyster Bay for a conference with
| the president, and 1t is understood that
this fact forced the president into &C
| ton, 1t being positively known and ad-
mitted that the Cleveland contract Was
| one of the matters discussed at Oyster
| Bay. President Roosevelt, 1t Is assert
| ed, feels that Secretary Shaw has been
| mislead by his subordfnstes, and that
he is himself more or less compro-
| missed. At all events President Roose-t
| Welt proposes to have the whole propo-
sition sifted and q clear record made
| of the case. To accomplish this all OF
tine work of the supervising architect
| of the treasury will have to be over
| hauled.
The Protest Lodged.
The protest filed in the matter Of the
/! new postoffice at Cleveland bears the
f, signature of the Charles McCaul COM
pany, of this city. This concern built
the new mint in this city, and post
office at Camden. n. j.; ana otner I'M
| portant buildings for the government.
The document sets forth that while the
specifications for the Cleveland post.
4 office call for four-story sandstone
building the working plans show q,
| four-story granite building. and that q
six-story granite structure is really 70
| be built 1t Is specifically charged
I that the contract for a sandston build
| ing was awarded with the deliberate
| intent of substituting granite eighteen
months hence, when the superstructure
| is to be built, and that William Brad
| ley & Sons, of New York, who nave Sc
\ cured the contrat for the sandstone
| structure, will be awarded the granite
| contract at the price quoted by the
4 Charles McCaul company, which was
| the lowest tender made for q graSltte
| building.
Secretary Shaw admits that his SUI
pervising architect has reserved the
l RIGHT tn substitute granite for sand
l stone, and will not deny that the re-
4 serve clause does not limit the treas
| ury department to the use of any par
| ticular kind of granite.
This procedure is declared to be
| merely a step preliminary to rider
| appropriation for $500,O00, which Is to-
| be available June /, 1904. making a to-
| tai of $SOS,00O available for non-com-
| petitive If not an absolutely private
| contract between the supervising arch
| itect of the treasury and William Brad
| ley & Sons
Hanna to Get $5oo,poo More.
The item of s30sO0O represents the
| difference between the bid of William
| Bradley & Sons for sandstone build
| ing and the Charles McCaul company
for a granite building. The total APP
| preparation now available for the build
] ing is SO, $50, 900, and 1t Is definitely un-
/ derStood that Senator Hanna has con-
| tracted to secure 100000 additional.
| The protest also sets forth the admit
| ted fact that William Bradley & Sons.
| of New York, are not the bona TIDE
| bidders for the contract. Secretary
Shaw is said 70 have admltted 10 =.
| Wesley Andrews, secretary to Senator
| Penrose, that he knew positively that
| William Bradley e Sons and Ambrose
\ b. Stannard another bidder for the
| contract, We're mere dummies for John
| Pierce, who Is known throughout the
MI, Int1
| is building the government, building IN
| Chicago, and the federal building In
| Indianapolis.
The Chicago contract had some pc
| culiar complications and 1t took all the
| power that ,Aldrich. P!att, Hanna,
\ Quay and Lodge could command to
| prevent congressional inquiry. 1t was
1 because of this complication that John
| Pierce, who has almost monopoly OF
| the big work given out by the super
| vising architect of the treasury, did not
| come out as bidder in mis- own name
| for the Cleveland contract.
| John Pierce, in the name of William
| Bradley & Sons bid 81, 359777 for the
| four-story granite building. The
| Charles McCaul company bid $1,3b7,292
on the same specifications, being lower
| by s2,4s5. Secretary Shaw, acting
upon the information and advice fur
| nished him by Supervising Architect
| James Knox Taylor. awarded the con-
tract to William Bradley & Sons for
| sandstone building at $1,049,222, re-
serving the right to substitute granite
| at any time within eighteen months
upon an agreement to pay $3oS,O00 ad-
ditional, being the exact amount of the
original bid for granite structure
4 filed by the Charles McCaul company.
| Senator Penrose was active in secur-
| ing the mint contract for the Charles
1 McCaul company, and in the matter of
the Cleveland contract made an un-
| precedented fight.
Whether Senator Platt will prove
strong enough to block the investiga
| ton threatened remains to be seen, but
| as the matter stands a national scan
dal is close at hand.
PRINTERS AT WORK.