Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-01
SAYS OFFICIAL
ATTEMPTED CRAFT
CONTRACTOR SCORES ENGl-
NEER FOR REPORT
Colonel Fox Reads a scathIng Letter
to the Board Of Public Works.
viii Try to Defeat
Amendments

Colonel r, r. Fox, in regard TO- whom
the impression exists at the clty nan
that he is the representative OF olalls, lz,,
bury q Powell, contractors, apPeale Gu
before the board of public WORKS yes
terday morning. He desired TO iinpress
upon the members that the CITY en-
pineer was guilty of atrocious graIt,
b,,t tto sonoewhat heated utterances of
the colonel failed to produce the de-
trhe niaint of Colonel Fox was to the
affect that after the board OF public
works advertised for bids fof the con-
struction of the wet section OF the OUT
fall sewer they had no r,sn. ~ t,nG sejeGt
the bids and proceed WlIh tRo puliu-
ing themselves.
The hoard had previously been given
an oninion by the city. attorney which
greatly confiicted with the contention
of Colonel Fox, and on the basis of that
opinion the board was not disposed to
regard Colonel Fox's statement seri-
ously.
The communication read by Colonel
Fox to the board of public works was
as follows. Fox asked that the docu-
ment be filed, but the board decided not
to do so:
Says He's Not SqueaIer
"To the Board of Public Works:
mot being a squealer when fairly
beaten on a contract, 1 desire to enter
q protest against your late action In the
matter of the outfall sewer.
"I desire to call your attention to the
fact and have 1t placed on record for
future reference that the report Of your
engineer, recently submitted, was en-
tirely false and misleading. I offered
to complete the section called for for
1865, 900. 1 did not require the use of a
single foot of lumber to be paid for by
the city. Your engineers insertion of
the lumber or timber clause was in the
interest of graft, pure and simple. The
fact Is that there is no possibility of
using lumber in the tunnel under
proper or modern method of construc-
ton.
Placing the figure of $3.50 per thou
sand feet for lumber which costs at the
yard today $3.50, with SO for hauling,
is absurd on it's face. This know at a
glance to be graft, as the city has been
furnishing the lumber free to the con-
tractor and paying $3.50 for putting
it in. The contract did not, however,
say so and as I was not on the in
side I did not care to put myself in
the position to be swamped by any ad-
verse action of the engineer ordering
an unlimited quantity of timber which
1 did not require at loss of $22.50 per
thousand.
Further, the character of the report
is evidenced by the estimate of 1,3OO, 900
feet of lumber required. Stansbury &
Powell timbered some 1000 or 1000 feet
of tunnel of the same identical charac-
ter with 100 feet to the foot. AS there
are but $500 feet to cut yet, 1t would re-
quire but $780, 900 feet to complete In the
present methods instead of 100000. an
everestimate of 100 per cent, waste of
over $50,000, according to your en-
gine..''s figures, as 1 would not have
used a foot of it.
II say now, as I have said before,
that you haven't in your employ any
man, engineer or otherwise, who can
complete that section for $350,000, ce-
ment and bricks being supplied, as with
half. No competent engineer would
saw out a door opening to fit in
stovepipe hole, and that is exactly what
they are now doing.
"I am calling your attention to these
conditions now, as they will be re-
called later in responsibility for the
loss of the peoples money, and entirely
eliminating any possibility of any re-
covery from Stansbury & Powell.
"Also let me recall to your attention
the fact that I offered to accompany
you to the tunnel ON your visit which
preceded the abandonment of the work
by Stansbury e. Powell, and without
CndrRe, TO SHOW OlduSDuIy az IOWtll
how to complete the work economically,
but which involved your approval of a
suggestion to pay their labor account,
but nothing to themselves. This you de-
clined, and the day after your visit
the work on the tunnel was aban-
doned.
''This throws the responsibility for
this condition upon yourselves, not
withstanding the asinine and menda-
cious report made by your engineer.
While it is universally conceded that
all of you are strictly honest, the con-
cession goes no further, and I think
I can convince the voters that it is
the best policy to vote down the amend
ments that place it in your power to
fool away in the same manner the
thirty millions for the Owens river
work. If not, then I think that I can
help convince them to fail on thesvo
for the bond issue. e. r. FOX"