The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-24
CHEAP PRICE AND CHEAP HOSE
CITY DIDN'T GET ANYTHING
BETTER THAN 1T PAID FOR,

specifications We're QueeF-me" Nld'
dleman' Il Extremely Conspicuous.
Further testimony taken by the Com.
missioners Of Accounts yesterday in their
investigation Of the Fire Department tended
10 show that the hose sold 10 the city by the
Windsor Fire Appliance Company contained
short fibre cotton instead Of long fibre, rs
was provided in the specifications. II was
brought out also that Of forty specihoa-
tons drawn for the purchase Of duck hose
since 1909 between twenty-five and thirty
are drawn in such a way hat competition
was limited, II not done away with alto
gether.
Walter Gormley, the examining engineer
for the Commissioners Of Accounts, testi-
fed that this limiting Of competition was
accomplished in several ways. The speci-
f~cations would. for instance, provide that
Eureka hose or soma hose equal thereto
should be bought. Then it was a matter
Of deciding II there was any equal TO
Eureka, and II invariably happened in speci-
fcations Of that kind hat no other hose Of
proper qualifications was found.
In other specifications the process ~
manufacturing a special brand Of hose
would be set forth so clearly that all other
brands we're excluded, especially when the
process was protected by patent rights.
In at least one Of the specifications the
brand Of hose 10 be p~urohased-on compe.
titive bids, OF course is named outright
without any -or other equal thereto"
Engineer Gormley testified that the
Eureka Hose Company, the Gutta Percha
and Rubber Manufacturing Company and
the Fabric Fire Hose Company we're among
the concerns which Seem TO have been IA
vored by these limited specifications.
Mr.. Gormley said that he had made a
careful examination Of a sample Of the
duck hose supplied by the Windsor COM
pany. He had dissolved the rubber and
cement away and was satisfied that he had
determined the length Of the cotton fibre
with close accuracy The greatest length
Of the fibre in the hose was 1 inch, and the
average was Z or Z Of an inch. The fibre
Of Sea Island cotton, which the specifca-
tions called for and which costs about twice
as much as the other, is at least ~ inches
in length.
Can you state that the duck in the Wind
sor hose is not made OF Sea Island c%otton?'
he was asked.
Il can, > was the reply.
Gormley testified that in his search
through the specifications he had found
that all Of them from 1902 up to May, 1904,
contained a clause requiring a tension test
Of the duck which went into the hose. This
clause mysteriously disappeared from the
specifications in the three contracts for a
5000 feet lot to the Windsor COMPANY.
and was reinserted again only after Com
missioner Hayes had become suspicious Of
the low price quoted by the Windsor con-
Germ and had discovered the omission.
Isaac b. Marley, vice-president Of the
Eureka company, who has been in the hose
business for thirty years, testified that a
piece Of the duck which went into the Wind
sor fire hose had been sent TO a duck factory.
and he had been informed hat there was
no Sea Island cotton in the piece. He was
Of the personal opinion that the duck was
10 ounce duck while the specifications called
for a 20 ounce duck.
William A. Darling Of the Republic Hose
Company said that his concern put in q bid
at $40 for the contract which the Windsor
people got. This he considered the lowest
possible figure at which Sea Island duck
could have been made then.
1t would now be, and il was then" said
the witness, impossible TO make and sell
save at a great loss rubber hose Of the sort
demanded at the price charged by the
manufacturer to the middleman-O or rs
cents"
The middleman was, Of course, F.. VI.
Loughman, the present Deputy Water
Supply Commissioner, who was the Windsor
Hose Company. The hose was manu-
featured by the Union Globe and Rubber
Manufacturing Company Of Trenton.
John ByTnes, a former purchasing agent
for the Fire Department, said the stenog-
rapher must have misunderstood him when
he quoted him as having said at a previous
hearing that Loughman called at Fire
Headquarters frequently TO get the iniu-
ence Of officials, He never said that, he
declared.
did you ever hear any gossip that Chief
Croker was connected with the Windsor
company asked Commissioner Mitchell.
Il did. | told Mr.. Gallagher | had"
Byrnes added, however, that he didn't
take any stock in that. He couldn't re-
member whom he had heard say anything
about Il.
John Burkhard, Loughman's clerk. who
kept all the Windsor company's books, ,
was absolutely certain that no moneys we're
ever paid 70 city otnclals as commissions.
Joseph kat1enstein, who was private
secretary to Fire Commissioned John j.,
Scannell from 1898 TO 1902. testified that he
is now engaged as a commission agent with
s. F, Hayward 4 Co., 20 Warren street,
who had sold fire apparatus to the city.
G. +. ID. Trask, president Of that company,
said that Kat7enstein had no regular con-
tract with them. He had a running COM
mission account and they advanced him
money when he asked for il, a balance being
stTICk eVary few montha