The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-10-12
ONLY AMERICANS
CAN BID ON JOB
Proposals to Complete Panama
Canal Are Issued by
Commission.
ALL TO ONE BIDDER
Contract Specifies Commission Will
Retain Control of All Engineering
Work, Police, Sanitary, Hospital
and Commissary.

tfons for proposals to complete the
Panama canal were issued yesterday
by the canal commission and the form
of contract under which the work is to
be done was made public by Chairman
Shonts, who also gave out a letter writ
ten to the secretary OF war, giving the
commissions reasons for contracting
the work.
The contract provides that each bid
der must undertake the entire work of
construction. No bar will be offered
to corporations associating in the I'M
lertaking, but they must be legally or
gained into a single body with which
the government can deal. Bidders will
not be considered h do not have
available the capital of $4,000, 600. A
certified check for $500, 900 is required
with each proposal and a bond OF
49, 900, 900 will b. required from the sue
cessful bidder.
Limited to Americans.
The bidding is limited to American
contractors. All bids are to be in be-
fore 400 December u, when they will
be opened. Proposals are to be ex-
pressed in terms of percentage upon the
estimated cost of construction which is
to be liked by a board of five engi-
neers, three representing the govern
ment and two representing the con-
tractor. The chief engineer of the canal
SOilllliiSSIOl IS W UG CiidIllIlaiIl vi lIlt
engineering board. The engineering
board will also estimate a reasonable
time for the completion of the canal
and will agree upon a system of prem
iums and penalties to be paid to the
contractor according as the work is
completed within or beyond the esti-
mated cost and time. All the governs
ment plants for actual construction
work, including the railway, are to be
placed at the disposal of the contractor
and is to be maintained by the govern
ment.
Commission to Control Part.
The contract specifies hat the COM
mission is to retain control of all en-.
gineering work in connection with the
construction of he canal, also munici-
pal engineering, the police, sanitary
hospital and commissary departments,
mess houses, quarters, construction
and maintenance of buildings, opera
ing department to which contractors
accounts are to be open and a depart
ment of materials n supplies.
Sixty days after the signing of the
contract actual work is to begin or
the isthnus and the contractor is to
which the commission does not wish to
retain. No American employee is tc
work more than eight hours.
Shonts Defends Percentage System.
Chairman Shonts defends the per-
centage system of payment in his let.
ter to Secretary Taft as follows:
This plan is being employed increasingly
by the oldest, largest and most successful
corporations in the country
The government will get the benefit o;
the combined efforts of the best and most
experienced contractors in the world. each
In charge of a department in which he is
a specialist and cooperating with other
specialists.
III ypl,z -.,,
ton of these powerful interests in keeping
mechanics of all classes.
The plan offers every incentive fol-
speedy and economical construction by
penalizing extra time and cost and reward.
ing better than contract performance as tic
either.
BY retaining contro of the work and ex.
ercising strict supervision through It's en-
gineering force the government VIII pro.
tect itself against cheap or faulty con.
struction.
The contract will be more exible The
time and cost of completing the canal as
estimated will in all probability be re
duced by the application of new principles
which VIII be discovered as the work pro
crosses. Finally a termination of the con
tract. should it become necessary, woulG
be less disastrous to the contractor, while
an effective RESUMPTION of the work woulo
be made easier to the government, owing
to It's close relations thereto.
Contractors Have the Advantage.
In support of the commissions posi-
ton that the canal can be contracted
to a greater advantage than it can bt
built by the government, Mr.. Shonts'
letter says hat because of the UNI.
~precedented and greatly extended in
dustrial activity of the time and the
consequent violent competition for all
classes of superintendent. foremen
subcontractors, skilled mechanics anG
ever ordinary laborers, it would take
the commission years to secure men
and build up departmental construc-
ton organizations which would equal
in efficiency those now controlled by
the leading contractors of the United
States.
Chairman Shonts says in his letter
that the commission carefully consid-
cred letting the work in sections to
separate contractors end decided that
complications would arise which could
not be overcome in case this plan were
adopted. The letting of the work TIC
one contractor on a basis of unit
prices was also considered. and was
believed by the commission to be a
plan which would be more expensive
than the percentage system.