The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-10-12
WANT BIDS TO
BUILD CANAL.
Sh0nts Asks For Proposals.
Form of Contract For Work Is Also
Announced.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9.-Invita-
tions for proposals to complete
the Panama canal were issued
today 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 letter writ
ten to the secretary of war, CIV
ing the commissions reasons for
contracting the work.
The contract pfovides that each
bidder must undertake the entire
work of construction. No bar
will be offered to corporations as
sociating in the undertaking but
they must be legally organized
into a single body with which the
government can deal. Bidders
will not be considered who do
not have available capital of $5,
600, 900. A certified check for
$500, 900 is required with each
proposal and a bond of $4,000,
900 will be required from the
successful bidder. The bidding
is not limited to American con-
tractors. All proposals are to be
in before noon of Dec. II, when
they will be opened.
Proposals are to be expressed
in terms of percentage upon the
estimate cost of construction,
which is to be fixed by a board
of five engineers.
The chief engineer of the ca
nal commission is to be chairman
of the engineering board.
The engineering board will al
so estimate a reasonable time for
the completion of the canal, and
will agree upon a system of pre-
miums and penalties to be handed
to the contractors according as
the work is completed within or
beyond the estimated cost and
time.
PERCENTAGE PAYMENT SYSTEM.
The contract specifies that the
commission is to retain control of
all engineering work in eonnec-
tion with the construction of the
canal, also municipal engineering,
the police, sanitary, hospital and
commissary departments, mess
house and quarters construction,
and maintenance of buildings, as
we'll as operation of the Panama
railway.
Sixty days after signing the
contract actual work is to begin
on the isthmus. No employe is
to work more than eight hours.
Chairman Shonts defends the
percentage system of payment
in his letter to Secretary Taft as
follows:
This plan is being employed
increasingly by the oldest, larg
est and most successful corpor-
ations in the country. The gov
ernment will benefit by the COM
bined efforts of the best and
most experienced contractors in
the world, each in charge of a
department in which he is a spe-
cialist and cooperating with
other specialists.
The officials will secure the
cooperation of these powerful
interests in keeping mechanics
of all classes.
by retaining control of the
work and exercising strict, su-
pervision through its engineering
force, the government will pro-
tect itself from cheap or faulty
construction.
SHONTS DEFENDS POSITION.
'"The contract will be more
flexible, Finally a termination
of the contract, should it become
necessary, would be less disas-
trous to the contractor, while an
active resumption of the work
would be made easier to the gov
ernment owing to it's close rela-
tions thereto.
In support of the commissions
proposition that the canal be
constructed by contract to a
greater advantage thau it can
be built by the government, Mr..
Shont's letter says that because
of unprecedented and greatly ex-
tended industrial activity of the
times, and the consequent vio-
lent competition for all classes of
superintendents, foremen, SUBJ
contractors, skilled mechanics
and even ordinary laborers. it
would take the commission years
to secure men and build up de-
partmental construction organ
izations which would equal in
efficiency those now controlled
by the leading contractors of the
United States. !"