The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-03
LEWMAN & CO.. SUE
FOR HALF MILLION
Claim Against Government for
Damages on DemopoIis Locks
REPUDlATE THEIR CONTRACT
Sensational Charges Are Made Against
Nal. w. E. craiehIll, the Engineer
In Charge, Alleging Unwar.
ranted Change In Plans.
REPUDlATE THEIR CON TRACT

years In the Southern contracting field
became public here last night by the an
nouncement that NJ. T. Lewman & Co.,
had absolutely repudiated and thrown up
their contract with the United States
government for the erection of locks and
dams l. 2, and on the Warrior and
Tcmbigbee rivers at Demopolis. They
have not only given up the contract but
have entered suit in the Court of Claims
at Washington for over $4,000 on account
OF damages they nave sustained through
alleged actions of Mayor w. e. Craig
HILL of the government corps Of engin-
GERS. who was the engineer in charge
of the work.
M. F. Lewman &c Co., are from Louis
Vile and are one of the best known
contracting firms in the South. They
built the Hotel Hillman here, the Bien-
Vile and the waterworks system In Mo-
bile, the English-American building In
Atlanta. and numerous court houses and
other buildings throughout the South.
They have been uniformly successful in
their work, and their friends here think
they must have excellent grounds for
taking SO bold step.
Changed Plans on Them.
The matter has come to light In the
nature of a 54-page closely printed letter
to the Secretary of War under whose de-
psrtment the work Is being done. The
principal contention of the contractors Is
that they have been at work on the
contract for nearly two years. but not
withstanding all that length of time they
have not been able to go ahead satis-
factorily with their work because the
government has never furnished Them
with any final plans OF how 1t should be
done, yaciilating and changing from month
to month in relation to 1t. They say that
this has caused them very great out
lays not required by the contract and that
rather than continue these OUTLAWS they
give up the further prosecution of the
work, as the government seems no nearer
today of determining on the plan than
they were two years ago.
Specifications are very fully made In
this letter of the details of their COM
plant. They begin by showing that at
one of the locks the walls are now re-
quired to be built In an entirely different
manner from that contemplated by the
original plans and specifications; that the
contract called for walls Of solid con-
crete, but this was changed by Major
Craighili to hollow walls filled with
gravel. As the contractors take the risk
of the work standing until completed,
they objected to the changes Of the plans,
involving as it does, in their opinion.
grave questions as to its stability. They
say that after they had completed por-
ton of the work without complaint and
to the entire satisfaction of the engineer
officer. they were given orders to change
their plans, involving a complete reor-
ganization of their plants for doing the
concrete work.
They insist that they have been re-
quired to build cofferdams according to
wholly impracticable plans at very
great expense and in manner not at
all contemplated by their contract. They
say that the drawings furnished by the
government, showing the nature of the
grounds in which the work is to be done,
are deceptive and that they have been
at great cost by reason Of these deceptive
drawings. -
Many pages are devoted to setting forth
in detail the delays and Instructions
which they have had in completing their
work. They show that they have APP
peaIed In several instances to the chief
of engineers and in some of these in
stances he has overruled Major Craighill.
the officer in charge. Even where that
has been done Major Craighill has reluct-
antly and with great delay, they say,
carried out these orders and in other in
stances they complain that the facts have
not been correctly represented by him.
Sensational Charges.
One or two of the charges are Of rather
sensational character. It is stated that
in the lobby of the DemopoI!s Inn, Major
Craighill publicly said that ne would take
this contract away from the contractors
if they did not sign a certain supplement-
al agreement which he had prepared for
them, and which they were under no
legal obligation to sign. They also show
that when they appealed to the Secre-
tary OF War. Major Craighill told them
they were wasting valuable time in thus
calling attention of his superior officer to
what they considered his violation of their
contract, 1t is rather a striking fact that
the contractors were sustained on the
very point upon which they then ap.
pealed.
An affidavit is submitted by a member
of a well known Alabama family show
ing that at public dining table In the
presence Of a number of people, Major
Craighill stated that the contractors were
damn fools anyway They complain
that they cannot expect to have delicate
discretion exercised properly under the
contract by this officer when he uses such
language about them. This affidavit is
particularly forcible in view of the fact
that 1t also says that he would permit
a certain sub-contractor to do work in
a manner which he would not allow to
the contractors themselves.
The fact that the work on the Demop-
oils dams has stopped. is a matter to be
regretted by the entire Alabama mineral
district as without them there can be
no navigation to the gulf from Tusca-
loosa and the coal fields above that city,
to say nothing of the cement which the
Demopolis plants expected to ship by
water for use on the Panama canal.
---s----
Engineers to Have Banquet.