Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1906-10-13
TO CUT A CONTINENT
Government Asks Bids For
Entire Panama Canal.
CONTRACTOR MUST DIG WHOLE DITCH
Chairman shonts Issues Form of
Contract and Gives Reasons For
Asking Tenders - Foreign
Firms May Make Offer.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10.--Invitations
for proposals to complete the Panama
canal have been issued 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 O letter written to
the secretary Of war giving the com
missions 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 assoelating In the IN
dertaklng, but they must be legally or
ganzed into a single body with which
the government can deal. Bidders will
not be considered who do not have
available capital Of S5,000.00o. A GER
tilted check for 100000 Is required
with each proposal, and bond of
100000 will be required from the
| successful bidder.
The bidding Is not limited to Amer
can bidders. All proposals are to be
in before noon of Dec. 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 fixed by a board Of five
engineers, three representing the gov
eminent and two representing the con
tractor. The chief engineer of the
canal commission Is to be chairman
Of the engineering board. The en-.
cheering board will estimate reason
able time for the completion of the
canal. All the government plant for
actual construction work, including the
railway, is to be placed at the disposal
OF the contractor and Is to be main
tanned by the government.
Sixty days after the signing of the
contract actual work is to beginson 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 his let
ter to Secretary Taft as follows:
This plan Is being employed in
creaslngly by the oldest, largest and
most successful 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 department
in which he Is specialist and co
operating with other specialists.
1.-THE government will secure the CO.
operation of these powerful interests
in keeping mechanics of all classes.
THE plan offers every incentive for
speedy and economical construction by
penalizing extra time and cost and re-
warding better than contract perform.
ance as to either
"By retaining control of the work
and exercising strict supervision
through its engineering force the gov
eminent will protect itself against
cheap or faulty construction"
Mr.. Shonts' letter says that because
of the unprecedented and greatly ex-
tended industrial activity of the time
and the consequent violent competi
ton for all classes of superintendent,
foremen, subcontractors. skilled me-
chanics and even ordinary laborers 1t
would take the commission years to Sc
cure men and build up departmental
construction organizations which would
equal in efficiency those now controlled
by the leading contractors of the Unit
cd States -