Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-05-04
A. There could De competition.

| buC QCpdi bhhShb' eA~'N ''-~ that prevented it. :.
 0. You went there to shut It on I by getting the department to exer- ' else it's discretion? ]. 1 A. did not go there to shut on competition
 0. Conceding that you did not as a matter of fact, was there any competition in the letting of that l boat; did not the Lake company bid against the navy department singly and alone?
 A. That does not remove the fact 1 that there was opportunity for com ! petition if the navy department l wanted to exercise it. i Q. No; you had foreclosed that; l you had shut the door by your politi- cal influence. which you brought to bear in force.
 A. I do not agree to that; l do not subscribe to that. | Q. What did you do? A. Asked the secretary of the navy to give the Lake people a chance on that one boat.
 Q. We'll, why didn't they get 1 Waterbury policeman instead of a Connecticut congressman to do It? Now, why?
 A. I do not think that is a fair lquestion, MT Howard. 0. You have just stated you could not agree that any political infiu- ence you exerted had anything to do with the navy department; then, If | al nf nnlitin1l 1n- l fuence-
 A. Mr Howard, you are using words which you say that have just said I do not think you are using my language. o. I hope l am not.
 A. You are making these state ments.
 Q. am trying to get you to make some.
 A. I am not going to make your statements; I am going to make my own, and make the statement just exactly as I believe. 0. I want you to make it in ac- cordance with what you recall the facts to be.
 A. That is what I have tried time and time again. 0. You insist, in face of the facts, that the Lake boat contract was made under competition? A. I have said that there was no law at that time, that the attorney general having rendered his decision that shut out competition 10 them If they had wanted to avail them selves of it.
 0. Who?
 A. The navy department; the sec retary of the navy.
 Q. The secretary of the navy shut out competition?
 A. did not say that.
 Q.What you did say means that. A. I do not think I can repeat 1t any clearer than I did in my last answer.
 Q. Try it; I will try to give you the best attention that I can.
 A. At that time it was open to the secretary of the navy
 Q. That is a metaphor.
 A. There was nothing in the law, as understand it. after the decis- ion of the attorney general, that prevented the secretary of the navy from dealing with both companies or any third company, for that mat ter, for this odd boat.
 o. I will agree with that. Now, then, will you agree with the fur ther fact that after that law was de- cided to be such as you have stated that the secretary of the navy awarded seven boats to the Elec- tric Boat company and one boat to the Lake Boat company, and made each of those two contracts without competition, one against the other?
 A. I have said that competition was available in this last boat, if he did not exercise It.
 O. I am asking you if you will be candid enough to so state the facts to say, as a matter of fact, that com petition was not availed of?
 A. Certainly; will agree to that; I agreed to that at the start.
 O. Then, you will agree that this Lake contract was made without competition in fact; not as matter of law. but as matter of fact it was made without competition?
 A. Yes; but competition was available.
 Q. Exactly; just as the moisture is in the clouds. but there is no rain just at that moment. Now, that be- ing true, is 1t not a fact that the price the government agreed to pay for a Lake boat whatever 1t was. was free from the influence of com petition. of actual competition?.
 A. No; think they drove a very much sharper bargain with the Lake people. In other words, I believe the Lake people had to make very favorable price even to get that one boat.
 O. I thought you did not know anything about that contract?
 A. Why. we have been reading it over right here.
 Q. I thought you had not listened | to it?
 A. knew the price per ton: ! told you that al the start
 Q. How did you know they made 1 a much more favorable contract?
 A. Because the other people got i s1.5sO a ton and these people less than $500.
 Q. Their first price was over that.
 A. Probably. I don't know about 1 that.
 o. Five hundred and twenty-five 1 thousand dollars. and they dropped I down to s450.00O. and s25.000 of l that was an allowance for interest.
 Al think they could have l dropped down a good deal below that, probably.