The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-10-16
CANAL TO Be BUILT
BY ONE CONTRACTOR
Engineer Shonts Asks Bids on
Percentage System.
ANY FOREIGNERS MAY COMPETE
Bidders Must Have $5,O00,o00 Avail
able Capital and Give $4,000, 900
Bond--An Eight-Hour Day win
BE Required.

Washington. b. C.-The plan to
complete the Panama Canal by con-
tract was made public by Chairman
Shonts. Each bidder must undertake
the entire construction. No bar will
be offered to corporations associatings
but they must be legally organized
INTO single body, with which the
Government can deal Bidders win
not be considered who do not have
available capital of $4,000, 00o. i
certified check for 100000 is re-
CURED with each proposal, and
bond of $3.000,000 will be required
from the successful bidde.
The bidding is not limited to Amer
lean contractors. All proposals are
to be in before noon of December ~,
when they will be opened Proposals
are to be expressed in terms of per
centage upon the estimated cost of
construction, which is to be fixed by
board of five engineers, three rep
'esenting the Government and. two
representing the contractor The
chief engineer of the Canal Commits
sion is to be chairman of the en-
cheering board.
The engineering board will also
estimate reasonable time for the
completion of the canal and will
agree upon system of premiums and
penalties to be paid to or by the con-
tractor, according as the work is COM
pleted within or beyond the estimated
cost and time.
All the Government plant for ac-
tual construction work, including the
railway is to be lacca at the dis
posa1 OF the contractor and is TO be
maintained by the Government The
CONTRACT specifies that the commission
is to retain control of all engineering
work in connection with the con-
struction Of the canal; also all munic-
ipal engineering, the police, sanitary,
hospital and commissary depart
ments mess houses, quarters, con-
struction and maintenance of build
iDgs, operation Of the Panama RAN
way, an auditing department to
which contractors accounts are to be
open, and a department OF materials
and supplies.
Sixty days after the signing of the
contract actual work is to begin on
the Isthmus, and the contractor is to
take over all employees on the Isthmus
which the commission does not wish
/. to retain. No American employee is
to work more than eight hours.
Chairman Shonts defends the per-
centage system of payment in letter
to Secretary Taft, as follows: "This
plan is being employed increasingly
by the Oldest, largest and most sue
cessful corporations in the country.
The Government will get the benefit
of the combined efforts of the best
and most experienced contractors in
the world, each in charge of de-
partment in which he is a specialist
and cooperating with other special
lists. The Government will secure
the cooperation of these powerful in
terests in keeping mechanics of all
classes.
The plans offer every incentive
for speedy and economical eonstruc-
ton by penalizing extra time and cost
and rewarding better than contract
performance as to either. BY retain-
ing control Of the work and exercis-
ing strict supervision through it's en-
cheering force the Government will
protect itself against cheap or faulty
construction
The time and cost of completing
the canal as estimated, will in all
probability be reduced by the applica-
ton of new principles which will be
discovered as the work progresses.
Finally termination of the con-
tract, should it become necessary,
would be less disastrous to the con-
tractor, while an effective resumption
of the work would be made easier
to the Government, owing to its close
relations theretO.n