The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-15
Contract Awarded to j. t Mar-
 ket VIII Stand
KNOWS WHAT IS REQUIRED
MT. Market Has Spent Considerable Time on the ltshmus and Has Large Experience In Feeding
 Crowds of Workmen.

oyster Bay. L. l., September H-A con- tract for the hotel and subsistence con- oession in the Panama canal zone award ed to J. D. Market of Omaha Neb., by President Shonts of the Panama Rak- road company, will stand. This in effed is the decision of President Roosevelt who today approved a report on the subi ject, made to him by Mir. Shonts. The contract amounts in the aggregate to many millions of dollars but MT. Shonts' report indicates that 1t may be abrogated at the will of the government which actually will own the permanent plant rsed by MT. Market in filling the terms of his contract.
 The President today authorized the pub lication of a report he had received from MT, Shonts as president of the Panama Railway company. regarding the protest recently received by him from Hudgins & Dumas, and H. Balfe, of New York, against the award of the contract to Mir. Market. The report which MT. Shonts ia directed by the president to make when the protest was referred to him Is a simple statement of the various steps
 
 the reasons which impelled him to grant a concession to MT. Market
 Forwarded Their Protest.
 The protest forwarded to the Presi- dent by Hudgins & Dumas and H. Balfe, alleged that they had not been accorded tar treatment by President Shonts, and that through leak in Mir. Shonts' office Mir. Market had been informed of the na- ture of their proposal and had been en- abled to thereby incorporate in his bid the menu which Hudgns & Dumas had submitted, MT. Shonts' statement clears up these allegations to the satisfaction of the President He therefore has ap- proved the report and. ns further action concerning the protest probably will be taken.
 | In his letter to the President Mir. Shonts says that on his arrival at the isthmus on July 26. he found a most pressing nec- essitS for immediate arrangements for feeding the employees, and that 1t was determined by Governor Magoon, Mr. Stevens and himself that this matter should be handled by the Panama rail- road and not by the isthmian canal com mission as the commissary department was already in charge of the railroad company, and that company was already operating one hotel at Colon. Continuing. he says:
 Market Was on lsthmus.
 q found Jacob E. Market on the isth- mus, he having gone down at the in- stance of MT. Wallace to study the situa- ton. 1t was decided while on the isth- mus the railroad company should furnish the plant. including the buildings and equipment; that 1t should maintain the building and the contractor maintain the equipment so that in the event of it's be- coming necessary for the railroad to can eel the contract, we could control the entire plant. When our general purchas- ing officer, Mir Ross, and 1 returned to the states, we immediately began the preparation of such specifications as we thought necessary to enable us properly to receive proposals for the feeding priv ilege. Before Mir. Market left the isth- mus we had told him we expected to take this step on our return and would like to have him make a proposal when we got ready to submit specifications. We later received communications from Messrs. Hudgins & Dumas and MT. Balfe asking for opportunity to make pro- posals As soon as the specifications wers made we mailed them to Mir. Market and Hudgins & Dumas and to MT. Balfe each a copy in the same form and invited proposals. We did not advertise because 1t was railroad matter, and be- cause of the urgency of the case. have had several cablegrams from MT. Stevens since my return asking me to expedite the arrangement as existing conditions were very bad"
 Permitted to Amend Bid.
 MT. Shonts said that at the suggestion of Messrs. Hudgins and Dumas the gen. eral market which had been arranged was replaced by a weekly menu and that all bidders were governed thereby The first Ic of AexfY mad many particulars so much under those of the other bidders that he wrote them giving additional information and per- hitting them to amend their bids, which they did. As amended, their proposals were considerably above those of Mir. Market.
 Continuing. MT. Shonts said:
 Tn making the award 1 took into con- sideration not only the prices but the experience of the bidders and the organ izations for the business that they now have found that Messrs. Hudgins and Dumas had had no experience in this business except a six years contract or Ellis Island. purely local proposition; that MT. Market has had three years ex- perience in this special field of operating railroad hotels and constructing camps on the Union Pacific, Illinois Central, Chicago, Burlington and Qunicy, Kansas City Southern and other railroads: that he has now large camps on two or three of these roads; that he has such a large force that he can withdraw from 1t suf- ficient help to equip promptly the hotels that we have constructed and will also be In a position eff the climate affects his staff) to keep supplying new men from his force in the United States as exi- gency demands and letting those on tho isthmus return here to recuperate, thus having a constant chain of fresh employees going to the isthmus"
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