Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-22
DIVIDING THE WORK
SEPARATE CONTRACTS FOR PAT
EMIT OFFICE PRINTING.
Hearing to Be Given to Norris Peters
Company, Protesting Against the
Committees Decision.

The Secretary of the Interior Will give
hearing this Afternoon to the protestants
against the acceptance of separate bids for
the contract for the Official Gazette and the
photographic work of the patent office for
the fiscal year ending June 20, 13O6. The
Norris Peters Company of this city IS the
protestant in the premises, and a lively
hearing is expected.
The department advertised i month ago
for bids for the photo autographs work for
the next fiscal year. This work in GUIDED
four classes of work and dealt with copies
OF drawings OF the weekly issues of patents,
designs and trade marks, tor the repro
dlction of exhausted copies OF dra wings, for
the reproduction of copies of drawings on
a reduced scale for library edition OF pat
entS and for the production of the Official
Gazette. In the specifications for the bids
the commissioner of patents states that the
proposals may be accepted for the entire
work, or the Gazette and other work may
be divided and one class let to one bidder
aud the other TO another
Proposals From Four Bidders.
When the bus were opened May 1t was
found that four bidders had offered to do
the work. These were the Norris Peters
Company of this city, Andrew b. Graham
of this city. the Sackett- Wilhelms Company
of New York and the American Photo
gravure Company of New York. The bid of
the Norris Peters Company for all the work
was the lowest of the four. An examiIa-
ton of the BIDS showed, however that the
Sackett-Wilhelms figures for the Gazette
were $4,000 lower than the figures of any
other bidder for this particular work, and
TIE bid Of the American Photogcavu,e
Company for the rest of the WORK was 5,3U0
less than that OF any other bidder
The committee appointed to consider the
bids recommended that the contract be
divided and that the Sacke.t Wilhelms
Company be given the work for the Gazette
and the American Company be given the
contract for the other work. This recon-
nieHdaIon was approved by the commits
sioner OF patents and was passed on to the
Secretary of the Interior for final approval.
The Norris Peters Company Protests.
The Norris Peters Company entered a pro-
test against the acceptance of the bids of
the two out-oftown concerns or the di-
vision of the contract on the ground that
the work has never before been divided.
Another protest was also filled by the Nor
mis- Peters Company on the ground that the
bidders mentioned were not responsible and
could not do the work.
The Sackett-Wilhelms Company has been
doing all the work for the past year. and
the American Company has deposited a
check for 5000 with the Secretary of the
Interior as a guarantee of good faith, and
has offered to deposit a cash bond for
$4,000 to cover the full cost of the contract.
The committee that considered the bids
has also considered the protests, and it Is
said they have reported to the Secretary.
reiterating their recommendations for the
acceptance of the two bids, and stating
that it IS expressly provided in the specifi-
cations for bids that the work can be done
separately or as a whole. AS to the second
protest, the offer of the American Company
of cash bond is called to the attention of
the Secretary. with the statement that the
bond required by the government seems
sufficient to guarantee the faithful perform
ance of the contract.
Secretary Hitchcock is disposed always,
to let bids for department work to con-
Germs IN the cities where the work IS to be
received. and It is probable that for this
reason he has kept the case op"n ana has
granted a hearing to the prOtestants in
this Instance. For many years the Norris
Peters Company was the only bidder for
the work of the patent office Last year,
however. the bid of this concern was con-
sdered far too high and was rejected A
new set of bids called for and invita-
tons were sent TO several out-of-town COM
panies The bid Of the Norris Peters Com
pauy under the new advertisement was
material reduction of the first bid, but the
Sackett- Wihelms Company Of New York
put in still lower bid and was awarded
the contract