The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-19
B|TULITH|C COMPANY ON THE GRID|RON No Direct Charges Made Be-
 fore Committee DWELL PLACED ON STAND Submits Letters From Other Paving Companies Which Claim They Are Not Getting a Square Deal
 In Birmingham.
DWELL PLACED ON STAND

In Birmingham.
 The bitulithie investigation committee held it's first meeting last night, and took up what promises to he a long and tre- some job. The feature of the session was the testimony of Alderman John W. ONeill, who is responsible for the kieH raised against the company.
 Present were Aldermen G. II. Estes, chairman, and Dan Hogan, Messrs. James Bowron, Y L. Yancey and J. A. Fitzpat- rick. Absent Alderman Copeland. John Donelson of the Bitulithic company was in the committee room, represented by Capt. Frank s. White City Attorney l.. b. Smith looked after the interests of the city
 No sooner had the committee been called to order than Chairman Estes asked for the complaints of the Nor- wood citizens Alderman ONeill stated that he believed those citizens were look ing to the committee appointed by Pres ident Parker, since Parker had been up- held by Judge Coleman, and the appoint ments of the Mayor declared illegal. Fms raised quite an interesting point for the committeeman did not know whether they were qualified or not. However, after clearing the hall and going into a secret conference Wath the city attorney and Mr. O'Nel, 1t was decided that since the committeeIwas appointed at a conference Of both factions, there would be no ob- jections to it's taking the testimony. Al- derman oNeill agreed to use his influence with the Parker committee to report to them any findings it might have.
 o'Neill Placed On Stand.
 When it was decided to proceed Alder man OsNell was placed on the stand. T am not here,' he said "to prosecute in any way the Southern Bitulithic company or ,any company that does work for tho city, but I am in favor of competitive bids In contract work. When I became member of the street committee I found that one company was getting all the work without any competition, and l ob- 1ected immediately Since that time have been engaged in correspondence and NoiiCitillB CtIidIil utld NlIlNH HlCSNlit to the committee"
 He first read a letter from the Barber Asphalt company, of which this is an eA- tract:
 E'Complying with the request of the of ficials of your city on January G. 1906, our company, in good faith. filed a bid with your proper official for the paving nf 10th macadam paving amounting to S31 64S. As bitumnous macadam construction seemed to be in especial favor at that time with the majority of your city officials, and as our bid was the lowest for such construc- tion, and as we were not awarded this work we felt satisfied that our effort to assist your city in obtaining it's street pavements at the lowest possible cost was not appreciated and that our com petition was not wanted It was for this reason that our company has made no att tempt to bid on your work since that time. However, our company would be glad to bid on your future work.
 Tt may be interesting to you to have your attention called to approximate figures showing what might have been saved by the city property owners had the last S4000 GOO worth of street improve ments been purchased under the advan- tage of the open competition. On the Sixth avenue work the Southern Bituli- thic companys bid for bituminous mac adam was $34,O77. Our bid for the same pavement for the same work was only $3O,32S. Thus an award to us would have saved in this instance 10.99 per cent. Thus open competition on the approxi- mate $400,OOO worth of Improvements con tracted for since that time would have resulted in an approximate saving of $43, 960 to the property owners and city. Bltu- lithic is not a new pavement but new name for an old pavement"
 Letter From Nashville Mayor.
 A letter from T. O. Moore, mayor of Nashville, said: Beg to say that we are using btulithlc paving and find it fairly satisfactory. This paving costs the city about $1 50 per square yard" Alderman O'Neill stated that Birmingham was pay ing $1.90, but Attorney White stated that he understood that Nashville laid the pavement with her own street force from the United States Wood Preserving company: Birmingham is a bitulthic town. Your city engineer very strongly favors that pavement and we never con sidered that we had square deal there.'
 MT. ONeill also presented pamphlets